Comment by rajeshamara

1) Ask the other team members can they function without the lead engineer 2) Ask the other team members to do all the work for 2 weeks without the lead engineer 3) Ask the lead engineer to start documenting 4) You always need to have a backup plan (what if a member gets killed by a bus or quits after winning lottery) 5) I doubt that other engineers would be lost without the lead engineer. In general no one is valuable 6) Put a plan in place thinking that lead engineer will quit and he has given 2 weeks notice