Facing insurmountable troubles, some people turn to faking their own death to escape legal issues and even the Marines. Here are a few examples:
■ Marcus Schrenker, a Wall Street investor whose company was under investigation for fraud, disappeared while flying his plane over Alabama. Schrenker’s plane was found in a swamp, and the last anyone heard from Schrenker was a distressed radio call—until he was discovered in a campground a few weeks later
■ A Colorado man returning from a hike reported that his friend, Lance Hering, had been injured on the hike, and rescue teams were dispatched to find the hiker. All the rescuers found were blood, a water bottle, and Hering’s shoes. Two years later, Hering was arrested with his father at an airport in Washington State. Hering, a Marine, claimed he faked his death to avoid returning to Iraq, where he feared other soldiers would kill him because of something incriminating he had witnessed.
■ One Florida woman, Alison Matera, informed her friends, family, and church choir that she was entering hospice because she was dying of cancer. Matera’s plan unraveled when she appeared at her own funeral service, claiming to be her own long-lost identical twin sister. Police were called, and Matera admitted faking both her cancer and death.
Unexpected situations happen all the time, and the more you plan for them the better prepared you’ll be when developing software. Hopefully, your employees are not faking their own deaths, but they will get into accidents, have babies, contract viruses and diseases, and face other life issues. All of these scenarios lead to unplanned absenteeism, which can throw your project plan into a tailspin. What can happen to a project when a key employee suddenly quits or is forced to go on short-term disability? When reviewing all of the different SDLC methodologies, which one offers the greatest flexibility for unplanned employee downtime? If you could choose when your employee was absent, during which phase in the SDLC would it be the safest if your project were to still continue and achieve success? What can you do to ensure you are preparing for unplanned absenteeism on your project plan?
