I think another reallly important reason why this happens is that team members just don’t see the problem as critical. This can either be because they are not up-to-date on project progress, critical paths, priorities etc, or because they don’t interpret the problem correct.

So it’s key to keep your team informed (with information they need) and to have correct people for the job.

Great post! After experiencing “Critical Members Leaving the Team” myself on a couple of projects, (and it doesn’t feel good BTW), I think it should be assessed as a risk at the start of every project.

I think that a general mitigation strategy up front can save a lot of guess work down the road.

-chris