Knowledge Area:Resource Management

There will be situations; the PM may find some of the team member’s performance is not up-to expectation and not meeting the expected performance needed for project SUCCESS. The PM has to keep a very close OBSERVATION about the performance of each team member. The moment the PM finds any kind of underperformance, the PM needs to immediately have some conversation with the team member. 

The PM needs to be careful and use empathy to understand the REASON of underperformance. The PM should first try to provide all kinds of meaningful help, training and encouragement to the team member to improve his/her performance. The PM should also explore the possibility of changing the role of the team member within the project team based on his/her capability to see if that helps the member as well as the project. INITIAL discussion should be done somewhat informally. 

The PM should be judging the performance of the person, not the person itself. But if the underperformance still persists,  then the project manager may have to have some formal discussion and try to see if the resource can be changed with some other resource and the resource under consideration may be deployed into a more suitable role where his/her capabilities will fit the best. The PM must keep in mind that ultimately project is most important. Hence a DELICATE balance between ensuring project success and helping the underperforming team member to improve performance has to be done by the PM.