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Rolling off Projects - After the Lord Mayor's Show

Near the end of your Project (and potentially at various stages before that) you may need to "roll-off" team members. This post considers the planning and execution of this including consideration of a potential anti-climax for the team members concerned - as we British call it "After the Lord Mayor's Show"


After the Lord Mayor's Show?

"After the Lord Mayor's Show" is a British proverb for anti-climax. The Lord Mayor's Show is a colourful and historic parade to welcome in a new (city of London) Lord Mayor each year. There is a long precession of marching bands and floats which travel through the streets of the city of London each November. After the parade has passed, bringing up the rear are cleaning vehicles to remove the horse manure. So in the Project context the proverb is saying "after working on a Project with excitement, pressure and achievement what an individual may face may be considered boring"

Consider impact on individual being rolled-off

I have observed several times when team mates have been rolled off near the end of a major Project a feeling of anti-climax of going back to a Business as Usual (BAU) role. It can stimulate thoughts of
  • "Let me take the experience of the Project and move onto another organisation"
  • "I don't feel motivated by going back to my old job"
While this isn't strictly in the Project Management remit, I like to brief the line management of what I consider are BAU Risks for them to own and as I always say, Attack the Risks before the Risks attack you. So proactive action may stop the loss / de-motivation of staff moving back into a post Project BAU world.

Planning considerations

As part of your ongoing Project monitoring and control you should be assessing if and when resources should be rolled off the Project. Projects differ in their funding arrangements with the most stringent (in terms of the focus for a Project Manager) being where all resources are funded by the Project budget. If you are in this stringent environment you should take a look at my post on Cost tracking

So at least once a month, look and plan ahead for resource release dates and / or resource extensions should a previous arrangement / booking no longer be correct. And for those of you running IT Projects, don't forget the vital non human resource of Environments which are known to kill Projects! So, for example, do you need to extend an environment booking because testing is not due to complete on time?

You need to consider local processes for rolling off people which may range from a quick email to invoking a termination clause in a contract. So work backwards so that you can establish the time to press the Go button to achieve a release date in line with the plan execution. Don't forget the human side, so have a discussion with the individual concerned about leaving the Project. You never know, they may give you a very good reason why you should delay the roll-off process!

Conclusion

As part of your monthly monitoring and control activities on your Project you need to consider whether to initiate processes to roll people off at some point in the near future. Please consider the human side by having a good exit discussion and brief line management about the risks that come "After the Lord Mayor's Show" 

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