The project needs a replacement resource immediately. How do we choose safely?
Urgent staffing substitutionConfirm the required capability and authority before substituting a person. Account for onboarding, access, and verification rather than treating any available replacement as equivalent.
What to do now
- Define the essential responsibilities
- Identify qualified available candidates
- Arrange access and focused handover
- Reforecast based on realistic readiness
When to escalate
Escalate when
No qualified replacement exists for critical specialist work.
Who decides
The resource owner and project manager
Example
A replacement release lead completes a supervised readiness check before taking responsibility.
Mistake to avoid
Assigning a person without the competence or permission the role requires.
Prevent a repeat
Review overload and bottlenecks at the person or skill level before adding more commitments.
Suggested ApprovedFlow setup
- Resources
- Tasks
- Timesheets
Compare available capacity, assigned task work and actual recorded effort using the enabled resource and timesheet views. See the platform
Related cases
- How can we forecast staffing before every task is known?Early capacity uncertainty
- How do we build backup coverage without doubling staffing?Proportionate resilience planning
- The supplier changes its team after contract award. What should we check?Supplier capability substitution
- An urgent issue has no clear owner. What do we do now?Unowned urgent issue