Succession Planning Of Long Duration Projects

Project Management / By

Succession planning in a project context depends on the nature of the project; its goals, objectives, and planned duration will determine the necessity of the ‘succession-focused’ objective. If you’re a contractor or consultant you begin “succession planning the instant you start the project, no matter how long it is one month or 5 years. If you are an employee of the company, you start succession planning as soon as your part of the plan begins.

Considerable effort should be expended on this. Some reasons why team members may leave a long term project:

  • They get bored with it – especially if it is the rinse and repeat type of roll-out
  • Project managers may want to expose more of their staff to the technology or product and so will rotate staff in and out. Although you may have staff, the experience has been lost.
  • If you are using contractors, some companies have a policy to not renew a contract after a period of time (may be an year and out, you can come back after 3 months)
  • Like any other project – the team member may get fed up with poor management or other relations and quit
  • Finally, they may just win the lottery and decide to retire.

“Succession planning” is a survival technique for anyone smart enough to realize that jobs can be terminated anytime your worth to the company is less than your salary.

Basic Principles of succession planning

  • Succession planning is not only the responsibility of an employee, it is a responsibility of entire organization and/or management.
  • Do not focus on people or personalities, try to focus on policies, procedures and practices instead. Don’t compare an individual with his or her predecessor, every employee is unique and different.
  • The hiring of new employees must be in accordance with up-to-date personnel policies to ensure transparent and legally compliant employment practices.
  • Maintain quality in managing new employees, as careful and succession planning will get quality resources who successfully fills the position for the long-term.

As a project manager, you can start “succession planning” from the very moment the project is assigned to you. You must keep his eye on the next job down the line. Try to do every project to the best of your ability, and always remember that there is no guarantee for the next one.

As a contractor or employee you always need to be ready to start looking for your next job. You can’t trust companies for any long term commitments like you used to be able to. Look at succession planning as a leader of a project trying to ensure that they have the right team available in the event that some team member left. Does it mean a team member planning on their next role after the current project?

What does succession means, is it what happens after this project or think of “succession” as what I have to do when this job is done. Whether it’s extending the project to new phases of design and development, or moving on to other projects and jobs.

About Aditi Malhotra

Aditi Malhotra is the Content Marketing Manager at Whizlabs. Having a Master in Journalism and Mass Communication, she helps businesses stop playing around with Content Marketing and start seeing tangible ROI. A writer by day and a reader by night, she is a fine blend of both reality and fantasy. Apart from her professional commitments, she is also endearing to publish a book authored by her very soon.

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