The following is a compilation of a series of tweets I did on keeping a project moving forward during the holiday period when a lot of team members may be away.

It's Holiday time. Do you have an active project & are prepared to keep it going during the holidays? Here are some tips on keeping the project moving forward.

• The first thing to do to plan for the holidays is to get everybody's schedule. Include the project team, SMEs, sponsors, and support staff.
• The next step in planning for the holidays is to create a punch list of everything that needs to be covered or done between now and mid Jan.
• When putting together the punch list include project tsaks from the plan, issue resolution, hardware and software purchases etc.
• When putting together the punch list only include those items that must be done. Anything that can wait till after Jan 15th can be omitted.
• Now that you have everybody's schedule and the punch list you can start assigning people to cover the tasks based on availability & role.
• Some special assignments to look at are who to escalate critical issues to if the sponsor or senior management is out? Designate this role!
• If you as the PM are going to be off who is covering for you? Desiginate somebody and communicate that to everybody.
• Once the punch list and schedule are done get everybody together to review and make any changes. The more you communicate the better

Make sure to thank everybody who is covering tasks and working during this period. Let them know you appreciate their efforts!