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Issue:
Category 3
A technical or business situation that is out of your control and negatively affecting a project.
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Common Confusions
Tasks versus issues
Confusing tasks and issues is a common mistake. Tasks have these common characteristics:
They can be and should be planned (whereas issues are unplanned).
You mostly know how to complete tasks (issues may have unknown solutions).
They are in your control to complete (issues may be out of your control).
For example, an overdue task is not an issue per se, but rather a symptom of an issue. The real issue might be that resources were diverted from your project to a higher-priority one (something out of your control), or you encountered an unexpected obstacle for which there is no obvious way to circumvent (an unknown solution). Project managers should be on the lookout for symptoms, but they need to dig down and identify the root issue.
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Risks versus issues
Risks are forward looking, whereas issues are real-time. A risk may, and often does, turn into an issue; however, project managers should strive to not let this happen. By definition, a risk is an unplanned future event that either positively or negatively affects your project. While the risk event is not officially planned (as part of your WBS and Gantt chart), it has been identified (how else would you know about it?). Once a risk is identified, project managers should create contingency plans for the risk. Then, if and when the risk event does happen, it does not turn into an issue but rather triggers the contingency plan, which should neutralize the unplanned risk event. See the Risk Management Workflow in Chapter 8 for further details on risks.
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Why We Track Issues
Issues need visibility until they are resolved
One of the most valuable contributions that a project manager can make is simply to keep all key project indicators visible. Once projects leave the planning phase and enter the execution phase, things can start to get very chaotic. Priorities can change rapidly and issues that are receiving appropriate attention one minute are shuffled below others the next. This does not necessarily mean that an issue is no longer important, just that it’s become old news. The project manager must give attention and visibility to even aging issues until they are fully resolved.
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Issues are often interrelated
Issues tend to lead to more issues. As complications increase, it is important that the project manager be able to rise above the dust and understand how the many issues and plans are interrelated. If issues are simply handed out to various individuals to handle, they may never see how what they are working on affects what someone else is working on until it is too late.
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Issues are a leading reason why projects fall behind schedule
It’s no surprise that issues are a leading reason that schedules are not met. Ideally, better upstream planning will minimize downstream issues; however, some issues will always persist. To keep your project on track, you need to systematically track and resolve issues.
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Integration
Status reporting
A summary of the issues captured in this process should be integrated into the project’s periodic status reports.
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Action items
An issue is not a task or an action item. However, as part of your issue resolution plan, one or more action items may be assigned. These should be added to the action item list, while the core issue should remain on the issues list.
See the Action Item Tracking Process in Appendix C for details.
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Using the Issue Tracking Template
Done
Put a checkmark in the Done column and gray-out the row when an issue has been resolved. Move the whole row to the bottom of the table to keep only open issues visible at the top.
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Issues
Provide a name and short description of the issue.
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Priority
Assign a priority to the issue, such as High, Medium, or Low. This will enable the reader to quickly identify the high-priority issues. If needed, you can sort the entire list of issues by priority.
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Owner
Assign ownership for resolving the issue to an individual.
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Date logged
Enter the date that the issue was added to the issue list. If needed, you can sort the entire list by the date on which issues were logged.
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Date due
Assign a target date for resolution of the issue.
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Notes
Enter any comments or plans for resolution of the issue, such as the general approach and specific action items that have been assigned.
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[Project Name] Issues
Done
Issues
Priority (H-M-L)
Owner
Date Logged
Date Due
Notes
Issue # 2
M
Wilson
May 3
June 5
Enter comments here
Issue # 5
M
Price
May 15
June 10
Enter comments here
Closed issues:
√
Issue # 1
M
Chin
May 3
May 30
Enter comments here
√
Issue # 3
L
Smith
May 5
May 22
Enter comments here
√
Issue # 4
M
Smith
May 12
June 20
Enter comments here
Appendix C: Action Item Tracking Process
Systematically identifying, tracking, and completing action items is critical to advancing any project. Action items are the second-class citizens of project management that often get relegated to scribbles in the margin of your pad or on Post-it notes. This process describes a method for efficiently tracking action items by integrating their management with that of the (more prominent) tasks that appear on the project Gantt chart. An electronic copy of this process and template can be downloaded from http://www.xocp.com.
Definitions
Overview
There are many nuances in the way project managers define and treat action items and tasks. A strict definition may make action items and tasks synonymous; however, for the purposes of agile PM and this workflow, we will adopt the following definitions:
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Task
A task is an undertaking assigned during the planning stage of the project and appears as a line item on the Gantt chart. An undertaking that is assigned during the execution stage is an action item until it is added to the Gantt chart, at which time it becomes a task.
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Action item
An action item is an undertaking that gets assigned during the project execution phase (versus the planning stage) and is generally too small to warrant being added to the formal project Gantt chart, yet still needs to get done in order for the project to advance. If an action item is eventually added to the Gantt chart, it can be removed from the action item list.
Action items often get assigned at meetings where issues are being discussed. Spontaneous brainstorming on issue resolution often happens so fast that formal planning is unnecessary or would be unproductive. In these cases, the issue resolution is accomplished by an organized sequence of action items.
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Why We Track Action Items
Maintain visibility
One of the most valuable contributions that a project manager can make is simply to keep all key project indicators visible. Once projects leave the planning phase and enter the execution phase, things can start to get very chaotic. Providing and maintaining a single action item list for the team can be invaluable.
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Organization
Action items are usually critical to moving the project forward, even though they do not appear on the formal project plan. Organized tracking of action items is necessary to keep this key element of project management under control.
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Integration
Action items and tasks
As mentioned previously, action items and tasks are very similar. As such, it is efficient to have an integrated system to track them together, instead of maintaining two separate systems or lists. Developing simple systems to integrate these administrative duties will free up valuable time for more pressing responsibilities.
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Organization of Template (three alternatives)
Action items and tasks are fully integrated
Ideally, both action items and tasks should be managed together in a single document. This allows for better sorting capabilities and efficiency. For instance, sorting information according to a particular time period would yield a sequential list of all action items and tasks due in that period. This is an excellent way to track project details. Updates to this document should be linked to updates in the Gantt chart. A fully integrated document can be cumbersome to manage manually, but it can be easily accomplished using specialized project management software.
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Action items and tasks are partially integrated
Alternatively, the template can be divided into two sections: one for action items and the other for tasks. The columns are the same for both sections, so it is easy to correlate the data. Having one document with two distinct sections (as illustrated in the example template) makes this process easier to manage manually, but you will still have to reference the two different sections of the report. I find that this is the best solution for organizations without specialized PM software.