Project Management Tips and Techniques:
Manage Project Issues with this Simple Process
Tom Mochal

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Issues are a “formally defined” problem that will impede the progress of the project and cannot be totally resolved by the project manager and project team without outside help. The term “formally defined” means that you understand the issue well enough that it can be documented. In other words, if you do not understand the problem well enough to document it, you are not in a position to resolve it. The Issues Form and Issues Log are used to “formally define” the issue on large projects.

You can manage issues differently depending on the size of your project. The following issues management process can be used on large projects, where more project management rigor and structure are required.

1. Solicit potential issues from any project stakeholders, including the project team, clients, sponsors, etc. The issue can be surfaced through verbal or written means, but it must be formally documented using an Issues Form.
2. The project manager determines whether the problem can be resolved or whether it should be classified as an issue.
3. If it is an issue, the project manager enters the issue into the Issues Log.
4. The project manager determines who needs to be involved in resolving the issue. The sponsor may be involved, or the sponsor may not have the expertise to assist in the resolution process. For instance, the resolution may require technical or legal staff. However, at some point the alternatives will be discussed and a resolution will be made. It is important to understand up-front who needs to be involved in making this final issue resolution.
5. The project manager assigns the issue to a project team member for investigation (the project manager could assign it to himself or herself). The team member will investigate options that are available to resolve the issue. For each option, the team member should also estimate the impact to the project in terms of budget, schedule and scope.
6. The various alternatives and impact on schedule and budget are documented on the Issues Form. The project manager should take the issue, alternatives and project impact to the project sponsor and other appropriate stakeholders for discussion and resolution. The project manager may want to make a recommendation from among the alternatives as well.
7. If resolving the issue will involve changing the scope of the project, close the issue now and use the scope change management procedures instead to manage the resolution.
8. The project manager documents the resolution or course of action on the Issues Form.
9. The project manager documents the issue resolution on the Issues Form and then closes and files this document..
10. Once a resolution is agreed upon, the appropriate corrective activities are added to the work plan to ensure the issue is resolved.
11. If the resolution of an issue causes the budget, effort or duration of the project to change, the current Project Definition should be updated.

The project manager communicates issue status and resolutions to project team members and other appropriate stakeholders through the methods established in the Communication Plan, including the project Status Report.

Each month, Tom Mochal presents a set of project management tips and techniques for handling various aspects of planning and managing a project. Tom is the recent winner of the 2005 PMI Distinguished Contribution Award. His company, TenStep, Inc. develops business methodologies, including a project management process called TenStep (www.TenStep.com) and a project lifecycle process called LifecycleStep (www.LifecycleStep.com).