You are managing a critical defense infrastructure project with a fixed 18-month timeline and strict requirements documentation. Three months into execution, your technical lead, who designed the entire system architecture, submits a resignation effective in two weeks to join a competitor. This person holds critical knowledge not fully documented, and the remaining team members have varying levels of expertise. Senior management is extremely concerned about project continuity and wants to prevent knowledge loss. What should be your FIRST action as project manager?

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Accepted Answer

The correct answer is B. In predictive projects where comprehensive documentation is critical, immediate knowledge capture is the highest priority action. ECO People Task 1.13 emphasizes mentoring and knowledge transfer. With only two weeks available, you must secure the undocumented critical information first—architectural decisions, design rationale, and dependencies that would take months to reverse-engineer. While extending the notice period (option A) seems logical, it's not guaranteed the technical lead will agree, and you cannot afford to wait for negotiations while knowledge remains uncaptured. Option C (reviewing plans) is important but reactive and doesn't address the immediate crisis of knowledge walking out the door. Option D (legal escalation) is adversarial, damages relationships, likely ineffective legally, and wastes precious time. The PMBOK 7 principle of stewardship and the predictive approach's emphasis on documentation support capturing knowledge as the most critical first step to protect project continuity.

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