In the life cycle of any project, there will always be unexpected problems and issues that arise.

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When these issues arise, a project manager has to be ready to deal with them or they will potentially affect the project’s outcome.

What is Issue Management?

• Issue management is the process of identifying and resolving issues.
• Problems with staff or suppliers, technical failures, material shortages, and so on have a negative impact on your project.
• Unresolved issues can be a source of conflict that delays or prevents the project team from attaining project goals, milestones, and deliverables.
• Issue Management is designed to minimize the negative effects of issues on a project.
• Issue Management follows similar processes to risk management. As such, these two areas are usually considered in tandem.
• Issues arising should be recorded on a Project Issues Log.
• Issue Management addresses obstacles that can hinder project success.
• These obstacles can include such factors as:
  • Differences of opinion
  • Situations to be investigated
  • Unanticipated responsibilities.
• The purpose of issue management is to identify and document these issues and to resolve them by reviewing and carefully considering all relevant information.
• Project issues must be identified, managed and resolved throughout the project in order for the project to be successful.
• Issue management plays an important role in maintaining project stability and efficiency throughout the project lifecycle.
• It is the responsibility of the project manager to effectively manage and monitor issues on a regular basis, follow up with issue owners to ensure progress is being made towards resolution, and to report on the status of issues.
• Effective issue management also contributes to constructive working relationships with the project stakeholders, including the project team.
• An issue log is a key tool for the project manager for tracking and monitoring issue resolution.

What is an Issue?

• An issue is anything that may prevent the project from meeting its goals.
• An issue is a problem that will impede the progress of the project.
• An issue is a point or matter in question or dispute, or a point or matter that is not settled and is under discussion, or over which there are opposing views or disagreements.

What is a Risk?

• A risk is a potential occurrence whereas an issue is something that has actually occurred.
• A risk is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative impact on a project’s objectives.

Key Issue Management Questions

• How will a PM assign responsibility for resolving the issue?
• How will a PM know when to escalate an issue to management or the steering committee?
• What criteria will determine an issue’s priority status?
• Who will set the target resolution date?
• How will issues be communicated within the team?
• How will a PM identify different issues if several occur during one project?
• If change orders are needed, how will those be handled?
• When the resolution affects the budget or schedule, what will the update process be, and who will be responsible?

Types of Issues

• Issues can be raised by anyone associated with the project. A clear process for raising issues should be shared with the team.
• Defining issue categories helps to track issues and assign the right people to resolve them.
• Issues may arise from a wide variety of sources, for example:
  • Technical issues relating to a technological problem in the project.
  • Technical requirements have changed.
  • The project is insufficiently funded.
  • Lack of visible management sponsorship for the project.
  • Ineffective project communications.
  • Poor definition of project goals, scope, requirements, and deliverables.
  • Project management processes are not followed.
  • Business process issues arising from a project’s design.
  • Business requirements have changed.
  • Change management issues to scope and timescales that arise from an unplanned requested change to the system.
  • The project schedule is overly aggressive.
  • Equipment delays have impacted the project schedule.
  • Third party issues or “bugs” that need to be reported to an external supplier.
  • Transition activity issues.
  • Dependencies with other projects.
  • Conflict within the team.

What is a Project Issues Log?

• Issues need to be recorded when they happen. A project manager uses the Issues Log within a a RAID template for reporting and communicating what’s happening with the project
• This makes sure that issues are raised, investigated, and resolved quickly and effectively
• Without a defined process, issues may be overlooked until it’s too late to deal.

An issues log has some of the following benefits:

• Provides a useful tool for managing and addressing issues identified before and during the project.
• Identifies and documents actions taken to address the identified issues and their subsequent resolution.
• Provides senior management with a documented framework from for monitoring issues.
• Ensures the communication of issues to key stakeholders.
• Provides a mechanism for seeking and acting on feedback regarding project issues to encourage the involvement of the key stakeholders.

When to develop a Project Issues Log?

• As part of the RAID template, the Issues Log should be created at the start of the project
• The frequency of issues reporting will vary depending on the size of the project.
• With most projects, this may consist of a weekly review of any issues that could affect progress.

The Issue Log Format

• The Issues Log details issues identified at the beginning and during the life of the project, the action taken to address each issue, and the subsequent results
• This log should be maintained throughout the project and updated regularly. Existing issues are closed as a result of successful actions and new issues are added as they are identified.

The Issues Log usually includes: