Scheduling Tasks on Global Projects without
Stealing the Christmas Tree…
SECOND EDITION
By Stephen Fierbaugh
North Texas, USA
Abstract
Choosing key milestone dates for global projects is difficult because of resource availability scheduling around many different cultural holidays. There is no month of the year without a major holiday somewhere in the world. Vacation laws and norms differ widely from country to country. Scheduling tasks around key resources’ Out of Office (OOO) time can be difficult for projects spread over multiple continents and with a variety of cultural heritages.
A global list of holidays for various countries is presented. Some holidays from different heritages are briefly explored. Differences in vacation time for specific countries are also discussed. These will be illustrated with a variety of short anecdotes around cross-cultural OOO scheduling.
Holidays and vacations are not unexpected emergency occurrences. The project manager can plan for these in the schedule and resource management. Features in some popular project management tools are examined which can assist the PM.
Learning Objectives
At the completion of this session, participants will be able to:
- Explain the differences between holiday and vacation OOO as it impacts schedules.
- List differences between countries relative to OOO planning.
- Understand the importance of active OOO schedule management by the project manager.
- Identify features of popular project management tools which can assist in complex OOO scheduling.
- Appreciate the richness of holidays from cultural heritages around the world.
Introduction
As a project manager, have you ever felt like the Grinch, sneaking into a house to steal the family’s Christmas Tree by making one of their loved ones work a major holiday? Scheduling a major “Go live!” for December is problematic because of Christmas holidays.
But this problem happens with any other month, too. In August, many Europeans are taking extended vacations. February is out because of Chinese New Year. The Chinese also have significant holidays in May and October. The beginning of May is Labour Day in most of the world but in the United States Memorial Day kicks off the summer while Labor Day is celebrated at the end of the summer.
One of the key responsibilities of project management is resource scheduling and yet often the project manager has little control over major milestone dates. When we do have a modicum of input into dates, we want to respect our people’s cultural heritages and Out of Office (OOO) expectations.
Choosing key milestone dates for global projects is difficult, though, because there is no month of the year without a major holiday somewhere in the world. Equally challenging, vacation laws and norms differ widely from country to country. Scheduling tasks around key resources’ OOO time can be difficult for projects spread over multiple continents and with a variety of cultural heritages.
More…
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Editor’s note: Second Editions are previously published papers that have continued relevance in today’s project management world, or which were originally published in conference proceedings or in a language other than English. Original publication acknowledged; authors retain copyright. This paper was originally presented at the 16th UT Dallas PM Symposium in May 2024. It is republished here with the permission of the author and conference organizers.
How to cite this paper: Fierbaugh, S. (2024). How the Grinch Stole the Schedule: Scheduling Tasks on Global Projects without Stealing the Christmas Tree…, presented at the 16th University of Texas at Dallas Project Management Symposium in Richardson, TX, USA in May 2024; republished in the PM World Journal, Vol. XIII, Issue XI, December. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/pmwj147-Dec2024-Fierbaugh-How-the-Grinch-Stole-the-Schedule-2.pdf
About the Author
Stephen Fierbaugh
Texas, USA
Stephen Fierbaugh, PMP, is North American Project Portfolio Manager for Epiroc, a large multinational manufacturing firm, and leads project teams scattered across Europe, China, Africa, Canada, and the United States. He has a Master of Arts in Intercultural Studies and many years of experience in global project management. Stephen lives in multicultural Richardson, TX, where his son’s elementary school has students with 14 heart languages.
He can be contacted at stephen.fierbaugh@epiroc.com
