Did you sit down with this tech lead and talk about his behavior and the impact on the project?

@bobo2000 - I'm guessing he told his manager. Sounds like the two of you have gotten off on the wrong foot. You might want to work on that when he returns from leave. Sticking with "really shit attitude" isn't likely to help either of you.

"I had circulated an email telling the team that they would have to work overtime (not my idea, my boss's)" - be careful. Your boss might be an idiot for suggesting you to send an email rather than encouraging you to talk with the team.

If someone is a tech lead, I wonder what tasks you are giving them. Generally, the tech lead doesn't need anybody to give them tasks. They are the person deciding what the tasks are that need to be done. I'm wondering if you are a micro-manager. Micro-managers can have great success in the short-term with the right group of people. However, micro-managers kill people's spirit, initiative and enthusiasm if those people are self-motivated, go-getters with expertise and they enjoy using those qualities to make the project a success. How do you prioritize? Is EVERYTHING top priority?

bobo2000: I've watched this question mature, today, and how you've had an argumentative response to almost everyone who's honestly trying to help you, here. I think you need to step back and get some perspective. You have to lead your TEAM before you can lead your PROJECT. You may have inherited a bad situation, but from what I see: you're making it worse. You're openly creating division and strife in the ranks. You have to support your team before the team will ever support you. If you're looking at them as individuals to be played against each other, you're already toast.

Wesley, sorry if I have come across that way, and no I am not playing them against each other. It is just very hard to lead a project when people are bent on doing things their own way and not willing to compromise. If I was the rotten apple and uncompromising I would not get along with any of them. That is simply not the case.

4 weeks on the job and you're already talking about several missed deadlines?

Yes Pieter, I was thrown into the deep end right away by my manager. Normally you would shadow someone as part of settling in, not here.

At the risk of being harsh, I'm not seeing any actual managing on your part here. What performance discussions have you had with this tech lead? What conversation did you have when you found out about his leave? What conversations have you had on his failure to deliver in the timeframe he gave you? Why are you letting your boss dictacte your team's planning? In short: what have you tried so far?

What snow has recommended is what I am doing, document all risks/issues in a RAID log and escalate accordingly. I have had tried to set up meetings with tech lead but either he is on annual leave or busy making it extremely hard to manage the project. I ended up finding out about annual leave from other team members. I am going to have that conversation today about missed deadlines. He has just come back from leave. It actually got to one point where this guy was disrupting the project so much that we had to make technical decisions without him.

Also, several deadlines in 4 weeks is very odds. Even in agile you're supposed to have enough time to specify, code, tests, validate, deploy, things. Which doesn't take 3 days for a full run.

Yes I agree - that is the organisational problem, have my work cut out

As someone who has been a tech lead in the UK, if you told me I'd have to work overtime, I'd tell you to take a hike. If you want to fire me, go ahead - it won't get your project done faster. (You can ask me if I would be prepared to work overtime - but if you tell me, it isn't going to happen. Also, adding more hours can actually reduce the amount achieved.)

@MartinBonner adding more hours can actually reduce the amount achieved. +1, I wish more people understood this.

When the project was on the line, I have actually delivered many projects in my last role with devs working overtime. It should not be the norm, but does work.

In one of my previous positions, I (and others) were forced to work overtime to finish a project. We got it in on time, then over the next few months about 20% of the devs, including myself, left the company once there was time to go for interviews. In addition, you need to have a calendar on the wall showing everyone's leave. I've never worked somewhere where I've had to "inform" anyone of my leave. I did that when I booked it.

@SteveSmith as I said overtime should not be the norm but be done in exceptional circumstances, if there is regular overtime it is a sign that the delivery process is broken

"Wesley, sorry if I have come across that way, ..." I'M not the one you need to be apologizing to.

Was there a previous project manager you replaced, or was the lead handling everything? Is it possible that he feels offended because you replaced HIM?

I was recently appointed to run one software project, and had to let go of 8 out of 9 people. What's the big deal? It's software - highly fluid.

@MartinBonner so whether or not you would work on the weekend depends on how you were asked? Not sure a tech lead should be so ego-driven personally...

Please rename the question to 'manage by difficult PM'