What role does the team member play on the project? Besides the obvious, what are the other reasons (s)he is rejecting the schedule? As a PM, I would listen to what this team member has to say as there is likely a degree of legitimacy in his/her concern. If convincing, I would try to put a change through.

I would reserve the, 'get on the train or get out of the way,' as my last intervention. But I would not hesitate in using this if my schedule is fixed due to other reasons. Sometimes that is our reality.

listen. learn. recalculate.

that's much cheaper than failure.

You must put yourself in both shoes -- yours and theirs. You must understand why they are protesting your schedule. They might be right and you will save yourself an embarrassment. Or a negotiation might be at hand.

If they are simply being stubborn or they are testing my authority, I accept their position and document it. The truth is I have very little role power over project team members. But I do have more project expertise and relationship power with the sponsor. If I truly believe I'm right I include these facts in the initial report to the sponsor and he can call the team member's manager to ask "Why is your direct refusing to accept this schedule?"

That usually gets things moving... or sometimes reveals things I was not aware of.

Ian

I have seen many a PM try to shove an unrealistic schedule down their teams' throats. This usually happens when the team members aren't consulted on estimates. I literally watched a PM say recently, "well I'll budget an hour for the graphic designer to rework that brochure that's going to 4-colour print. How long can it take, really?"

When the PM consults the team member, asking "how long is task x", the team member says "3 days" and the PM allows 3 days, the team member has no cause to gripe about the schedule. If the PM instead allows 1 day, the team member has reason to be concerned.

If the deadline is fixed, and the work won't possibly fit into the time available, then it's a question of ripping scope out. Asking the team member, "what do we have to remove for us to be able to make this date" is a good start. That gets the team members to buy in.

If the PM has created the schedule based on a lick and a prayer rather than estimates taken from the people who will be doing the work, there are bigger risks to the project than just one team member.

If each team member has been consulted, and one member still won't buy in, then it's a simple matter of using logic to bring that person back in line.

What happens if a team member does not accept the proposed schedule? Great question, the answer depends on PM. A reasonable PM would try collecting as much information as possible first before entering into any negotiations. But gathering information is part of any negotiation anyway:

• What is the team member’s greatest concern about the schedule?
• Does the team member have the same understanding of scope as PM?
• Do both agree on expected quality?
• Is the work allocation and resource availability clear?
• Did either PM or the team member have previous experience delivering similar projects or working in the same domain?
• Did either of them mistake targets for estimates?
• Are there any external dependencies either of them is unaware of?
• Which specific parts of the schedule do they disagree with?

Moreover, a savvy project manager would involve the team members from very early stages of the schedule formation just to make sure that they don't find themselves in the discomforting position of having to re-negotiate a schedule that has already been sold to project sponsor due to unexpected feedback from the project team or else jeopardise the project.

Just asking the right questions would initiate a negotiation process and help explore the difference in views. The schedule might be adjusted then or PM might be able to set the correct expectations about scope and quality. Sometimes the team member might be worried not about the schedule per se, but lack of contingency planning and a joint review of the risk management plan might get you the schedule buy-in and a committed supporter.

The classic mistake would be to disregard the early warning signs and move on, either ignoring the disagreement or using PM authority to enforce the opinion without properly addressing concerns. After all, a schedule is a matter of opinion and judgement, and projects being as they are a learning endeavour, schedules do change. Without the full backing of the team it will be very difficult to renegotiate the schedule later down the road or get much commitment from people involved. It’s just doesn’t make any sense to breed opposition within the project team.

If the team member is responsible for the given tasks in question, how was the time line created without their input? In other words - the team member needs to provide the time line/effort for the given task. If its more than the sponsor is willing to spend than there needs to be a discussion between the two (and any Sr Developers or Managers who understand the request) to determine if it is clearly understood by all, if there are any work arounds to shorten the delivery effort, a reduction of scope OR acceptance of what it will take.

The cynical answer to your question "What happens if a team member does not accept the proposed schedule?" is "that team member misses the delivery date and the project is delivered late".

What should a PM do in a project saddled with a fixed delivery date and a dissenting team member?:

• take the team member seriously, make sure everyone knows there's an issue
• find out how much more time the team member needs and see if there is slack in the schedule to accommodate
• look for opportunities for collaboration. That team members' deliverable will most likely be used by one or more other resources; is there any way they can all collaborate and save time integrating down the road?
• determine why the team member disagrees; maybe its a lack of experience and a more senior colleague will be able to demonstrate some shortcuts; maybe it's conflicting projects which you can attempt to re-prioritize

In the end, a task takes as long as it takes. The PM can't change it and usually the PM does not have the knowledge to dispute the estimate. However, it does fall on the PM's shoulders to justify the schedule, both to the team doing the work and to the sponsor. So, your task amounts to gathering enough information to make yourself comfortable with "why".

A good project manager should get the buy-in from all the stakeholders including team members, senior management, sponsor and customer before baselining any of the project schedule. Once this exercise is done, there is no way that this situation araise.

Even after doing whole exercise, some one from the team opposes the schedule, then there is definitely some problem with that team member.

Changing schedule of the project is not easiest of the tasks as there might be lot of repurcussions on SLA's in the contract.