Issue Management is an important part of our daily project management work. But somehow it is not treated as important as risk management. I read some articles and made a notes on this topic.
I’ll also post case study on this topic from my work practice. Stay tuned.
Definition:
Issue
A point or matter in question or in dispute, or a point or matter that is not settled and is under discussion or over which there are opposing views or disagreements
Issue Management
Issue management, therefore, is a planned process for dealing with an unexpected issue. – Project Issue Management
Difference between issue and risk
An issue is something happening currently, a risk is something that might happen in the future.
Impact of an Issue:
Deliverables
Baseline
Project Failure
Goal of Issue Management:
The goal of issue management is to provide a formal structure for identifying, recording, managing, and tracking issues through to resolution to minimize any negative impacts to the program
Who will perform the Issue Management:
For some articles said it’s the responsibility of PMO. I’d say sure it is! But I’d also emphasize that Project Manager is the primary responsibility for a project, therefore he/she is the primary responsibility for the issue management of the project.
Tools and Techniques:
Issue Log
Process:
Identify issues -> Log and assessment -> Assign respond -> Investigate -> Design solution -> Implement solution -> Resolve issue -> Close Issue
In the meantime:
Regular review
Determine if need to escalate to higher management team
Stakeholder communication
Role and Responsibility:
PMO and PM, responsible for issue management
Assignee, sole person accountable for the issue
Priority Define:
High: If the issue is business critical and is a “show stopper” (Due date must be identified and logged)
Medium: If the issue is business critical, but has a clear and timely resolution path
Low: If the issue is not business critical but needs resolution at some point
– Infosys training
Escalation level:
Level I: Issues are resolved and documented by the project team and/or work team. Decision deadline: up to one (1) week.
Level II: Issues that cannot be resolved at the project team management level are submitted to the project director for review with the project team management. Decision deadline: up to one (1) week.
Level III: Issues which cannot be resolved at the project team management level, or which are so sensitive as to require executive approval, will be submitted to the steering committee, for resolution. Decision deadline: up to 14 days.
Level IV: Issues which cannot be resolved at the steering committee level are submitted to the Project Sponsor for review with senior management. In addition, an issue can be escalated directly to Level IV based on issue criticality.
– PMO handbook (www.pmi.org)
Issue Log (Template Download):
Ref#: the sequence number of an issue
Priority: the defined priority of an issue
Submit Date: The date when log the issue
Submitted by: who identified the issue
Result Category: The impact area of an issue. Could be:
Deliverable
Schedule
Budget
Scope
Status: I often simply use: Open, Closed
Or you could use: New, Work in Progress, Closed.
Etc.
Issue Description: the description of an issue and the impact of it.
Assign To: the accountable person of this issue
Target Date: the target resolve date
Action/Resolution Taken: the log of actions which taken to resolve the issue
Communicate to stakeholder
Some articles said this part belongs to PMO regular report. What if there’s no PMO? I summarize it to general report.
– Regular project report
– Formal email to key stakeholders on issue resolution (high important issue)
In practice, there’re more details need to considerate. I’ll write some case studies for discussion.