Project Management Tips and Techniques - Managing Issues
Tom Mochal

Each month, Tom Mochal presents a set of project management tips and techniques for handling various aspects of planning and managing a project. Tom has over 23 years of IT experience. He has developed a comprehensive, scalable project management process called TenStep, which can be viewed at www.TenStep.com. 

An issue is a problem that will impede the progress of the project and cannot be resolved by the project manager and project team without outside help. Issues management is one of the skills that all project managers must master. Most projects of any size have to deal with issues. They cannot be ignored and they cannot be deferred to some later time. Issues must be resolved quickly and effectively.

Here are some tips and techniques to keep in mind when issues arise on your projects.

• On most occasions you can resolve issues with good general analysis skills. However, there are many formal techniques to help you classify and identify the cause of an issues. These formal techniques include cause and effect analysis, root cause analysis and Pareto analysis.
   
• Since an issue is a problem that will be detrimental to the success of the project, it is important that they be addressed quickly. The project manager should have an activity in the workplan every week to follow-up on open issues to ensure they are being diligently resolved.
   
• Make sure you solve the root cause of the issue, not just the symptom. Solving the root cause will ensure that the problem does not resurface later on in the project. The root cause can usually be found by asking a series of 'why' questions. Why did the issue arise? When the question is answered, ask yourself 'why' again, and again. When you cannot answer the 'why' question again, you are probably close to the root cause.
   
• In some cases, issues arise that are hard to resolve because there are no good alternatives, and the ultimate resolution may be one that is the least offensive. In these situations, try to get the approvers to understand that a delay in the resolution decision usually does not make the result any less palatable.
   
• Issues can come from team members, customers or any project stakeholder. It is a good practice to encourage people to help identify solutions along with the issues. This process will help build accountability among the team members, but it will also help determine possible courses of action.
   
• Issues management tends to go more smoothly when the entire project team is comfortable working through the process from the very start. If issues arise early, be sure to follow your issues management process and get the client engaged in the solution.
   
• If a large issue looks too difficult to be resolved in a timely manner, break it down into logical sub-issues. In many cases, the resolution of an initial sub-issue will drive the solution for the remainder of the issue.
   
• Sometimes issues arrive in pairs, or you may encounter a number of issues in a short timeframe. First look to see if some are related. If so, then try to resolve the issue that looks like more of a root cause. You will find that other related issues might be resolved as well.

These techniques help you understand the nature of the issue and the need to resolve them quickly. Unattended and unresolved issues will cause the project to experience difficulty, and could even result in the project stopping. You don’t want that to happen. If a problem is important enough to be classified as an issue, it needs to be resolved as effectively and as quickly as possible.