I know all the teams that I’ve been on in the past, if a team member had to go out and was absent because of a vacation, it was usually a planned event. When that occurred the project manager usually made it a point to stagger the vacations in order to avoid missing or lapses in coverage. Let’s think about project management in the era of Covid and how disruptions should be built into the process given any team member at any given point in time could be out sick due to contracting the coronavirus. And that’s a realistic thing. That personal problem is something that is completely understandable given the millions of people who are being affected across the country. Unexplained absences should not be tolerated, however, and corrective action needs to be put into place to mitigate those discrepancies but not everybody’s situation will be the same so these "outings" need to be examined on an individual basis.
After the development of team how do the execution process works or what does it do during the absence or vacation of an employee or with an personal problem?
I think that after a team is fully developed the first part of the executing process is to begin doing the individual tasks assigned in the project plan. Following the plan should lead to a successful product however depending on whether or not precautions were set in place for possible time delays by vacation or absences. If planned for the process should continue without delays. Possible delays can occur with out proper planning.
Team development is one of the hardest process in the whole project. Picking the right people with the right skill set and the commitment which is needed for the completion of the task. based on the previous comment which have come up it is very difficult a person in the team has some other commitments or is on a vacation which might end up affecting the timeline of the project completion. The project manager plays a very crucial role in this as he or she is the person who is generally in charge of the team building process and has to look if the task are well divided and the people are not getting over stressed with the work loads. Planning prior to the start of the project is required and having a definite task assigned to people is very important for all the members which are involved in the project. The team needs to have a well balanced chemistry among themselves such that the project is finished at its definite timepoints and the development of the team happens nicely.
Scheduling a project is a difficult task, especially when coordinating the availability of resources and team members. As discussed in the lectures, planned absences or vacations should be notified to the project manager well in advance such that this can be accounted for within the schedule. Ideally, a great planning phase would account for expected absences of team members, and potentially even account for unexpected absences. However, if it was not notified ahead of time, the team member taking the planned absence should plan to either have another member from the department step in or meet with the project manager to see if an absence is allowable within the schedule. Regardless, there will also be times in which emergencies arise or team members may not be available for a variety of reasons with little to no notice. In this case, hopefully another member from the department or with similar skills can step in and assist in the meantime. If this is not a possibility, it may be required that the rest of the project team assist to do the work to ensure the timely completion of tasks and the smooth progression of the project according to the schedule. In the worst case, the unplanned absence of a team member could potentially delay the entire project. In this case, if proper planning in the beginning of the project was conducted, this delay could have been somewhat mitigated and accounted for within the schedule itself.
I agree that team development is not easy because it affects the whole project, so the team members selection process must be done on the special criteria to turn a group of individual contributing employees into a cohesive team. Also, the vacation schedules of the team members help to avoid having more than one absentee in the same department. However, the unexpected emergency reasons such as personal or family matter and medical leave may be happened, so the team leader must have a contingency plan by assigning a replacement employee who takes over the absentee tasks.
The completion of any project relies on the full cooperation of everyone on the team. With that being said, when planning for the project and selecting members of the project team, it is important that each member disclose any other commitments or changes in schedule. Absences due to personal reasons or emergencies cannot be planned for ahead of time but should such events occur, it is important to maintain constant communication throughout the project and communicate issues to the other members of the team and the project manager. If the team members are always communicating then it would be easier for the absentee's tasks to be delegated to another member of the team while they are unavailable. On the other hand, vacations are planned in advance and so team members, having made the commitment to be a part of the project, must take into consideration how their absence will affect the project. This means to make sure that there aren't multiple people taking vacations at the same time or making sure that you aren't scheduling vacations during important deadlines. In preparation, you should also communicate all necessary information to other members of the team and to whoever will take over the your tasks.
Execution for the project is usually laid to minute tasks but project manager. If an employee goes on vacation or has a personal leave, in most cases it accounted for as slack days. So at the end the project is completed within the set time frame. If the team member is out due to emergency, in most that I have been part there is next man up mentality. Meaning each tasks has two responsible team members assigned and if one is out the next man up in responsible to finish the task or the team can tackle the problem as a unit as well.
As mentioned in prior posts, the occurrence of absences or vacations should be considered while developing a project schedule. Therefore, team members should take the initiative to express future requests for vacation time in advance. Correspondingly, project managers should take into consideration these planned absences to properly outline the schedule for a project. Despite this, there is always the probability of unexpected absences of members on a project team occurring during the execution phase. To account for these absences, slack should be added in the duration time for parts of a project to be completed during the planning phase. Furthermore, a record of the number of absences that occurred throughout various projects can be used to develop future projects with a slack that reflects this trend. Other methods to prevent a project being delayed due to an absence of a team member include ensuring that another team member possesses the technical skills to pick up from where one may have left off. For example, a project could be negatively affected if the only person that knew how to complete a task had to take an unexpected leave. With the experience gained from multiple projects, a project manager can over time better account for such occurrences during the development of a project schedule.
I would assume in the absence of an employee everyone else would try their best to make progress in the respected field that won't be affected by the absentee. I would hope when execution starts that everyone begins to coordinate according to the guidelines.
Once the execution process begins there is no stopping it without delays. If personnel is unavailable to work on their section of the project, then work must continue by way of spreading it out to other personnel. In the case of work that must be completed by a specific individual then delays are inevitable. There is also the possibility of working on other work in the that needs to/can be completed simultaneously.
The timeline of the project and its major deadlines are discussed with every team member of the project and they have plan their schedule accordingly. If there is an absence due to emergency reasons the work should be distributed to the other employees of the particular department and is sometimes advised to hire a temporary employee. This should be decided by the project manager. The project cannot be delayed due to employee absence.
I think this kind of problems must discuss with all team members and find a way to get the project done by the deadline, but we should consider that at the end it's the project manager who decides about this kind of stuff and he/she can make a decision to replace the employee or if it's acceptable absence like family emergency distribute the work between other team members.
@nicoleb you make a good point. A big part of planning is understanding the possibility of absence, as well as timeline flexibility. There should be a fair way to incorporate vacation/absence in a manner that wouldn't set back the project. There are of course situations that cant be planned like severe accidents and natural disasters. I believe that being able to communicate is important because you have to keep the project manger in the loop if there is time that you will be needing in the future, so that it doesn't create any confusion and cause any missed deadlines.
The execution portion of a project should have days planned into the schedule to consider the vacation time of the team members. The project schedule can use some of this "cushion" of time in conjunction with project lag time just if some tasks are stalled. When it comes to unexpected emergencies from the team members or even the PM, there should be a solid SOP or WBS in place so that the project can continue to run smoothly. The team member will need to be replaced, and communication should be efficient enough to catch them up to speed, but policies should be in place to ensure the project stays on schedule.
A common misconception in project preparation is to presume that all team members will be available at all times. To satisfy deadlines, management has the authority to rearrange staff holiday schedules. The project does not suffer because of the absence of a team member, so the PM should review the schedule with team members ahead of time to prevent disagreements and uncertainty during the absence. The backups for the missing team member should be informed of the deliverable dates, main contracts, work in progress overview, primary tasks, and access to relevant files and records. If required, the vacationing employee should remind his team member about the best way to contract while on vacation. In the event of an absence, remind the employee to respond to workplace emails and voicemail. When assistance is needed, PM should have a part-time employee on hand. He may also give the employee the opportunity to work at home and receive holiday pay. Vacation schedules need not be kept secret so that team members will coordinate vacations for the schedules of their colleagues.
