For any of us that have spent any time as a Road Warrior, we know that travel is both a curse and a blessing. We get on a plane at the beginning of the week and another at the end. Over time, we get to know the flight attendants, ticketing agents, customs agents; and the fellow Road Warriors who take the same planes. Connections through the SouthEast during the summer can be delayed by thunderstorms. Travel in the NorthEast in the winter and the snow can tax the patience of any seasoned Road Warrior. What we save is the daily long commute typical of many cities. So what travel model should a PM initiate on a project. There is no right or wrong model to follow so I will articulate the models I have used and what in my humble opinion are the pros and cons of each.
M-F full 8 hour days, travel on Fri PM and Sun PM
This model is extremely taxing on anyone and using it for limited periods of time such as during high intensity testing periods or around production dates can be beneficial to a project. Attempting to use this model over the life of a project tends to wear out the travelers as they are away from home during the week, need to conduct any personal business on Saturday, then prepare to travel again on Sunday. There is little to no downtime and it is very restrictive on the personal lives of the travelers.
I have used this for 2-3 week periods at the maximum and try to avoid this model all together. Travelers will typically get worn out, have issues at home and in the end either get sick or lose productivity or both. Neither of those situations benefits the project.
M-Th, travel Th PM and Mon AM, 40+ hour week but off on Fri
This model is sustainable over the long term and has been effective for multiple months at a time. The main advantage is using Friday as the personal day for conduct of personal business which we all need to do. Activities for home owners like cutting the grass, trimming the hedges or taking the kids to school are all activities not achievable away from home but enhance a travelers personal life and thus make them more effective while traveling. This leaves Saturday as a full day off which is needed but most people.
A small tangent here to philsophise. With my travelers, striking a balance between their personal life and work enables the travelers to be more effective. For each individual, a personal life is important and means something different. Even on the road, working all day and all evening is not sustainable as several travelers of mine have become severely ill from overwork. Assisting the travelers in striking a good balance between their professional and personal lives is a critical component to keeping workers effective and delivering the project.
M-Th, travel Th PM and Mon AM, 40+ hour week, work on Fri
This is the model that I typically find myself in as I am a workaholic. Case in point, I am writing on a Friday morning... If the project manager can minimize the number of meetings and other demands on the travelers time, this model can be sustainable as the travelers can spend some time during the day to conduct personal business. The Saturday is left as a downtime day for soccer moms and dads or days at the beach, etc for the single crowd.
Not on-site each week, but with other model for on-site times.
This is the model which I like the best of all. In today's times of telecommuting and remote access, IT projects especially can operate effectively off-site for long periods of time. There are high touch times during a project such as requirements gathering, testing periods, or production days were being on-site is critical, but also other days of heads down development or other independent work where being isolated enables many travelers to focus and actually be more productive.
There has to be a balance here and a higher degress of productivity monitoring in these instances. Typically, I provide daily or weekly milestones for the off-site workers that align with the project plan to ensure the project stays on track. The typical concern is workers will not work which is valid so getting very measurable will mitigate this risk. When the workers do travel, they are more receptive to longer or higher intensity periods.
In all cases above or with any model, the project manager is tasked with delivering the project and this requires other people to assist. Maximizing worker productivity is a critical element to the success of the project and the travel model utilized is one component to maximizing worker productivity. Striking a balance between the needs of people to have personal lives and the work demands of the project is a sometimes overlooked responsiblity of the project manager and in my opinion one of the critical success factors to project success.
