GAFM Academy HOW TO MANAGE & CONTROL A PROJECT

© Copyright GAFM Academy® “How to Manage and Control a Project”
Module 1
Issues Management and Escalation

Summary
This module explain the processes associated with
managing project issues. Issues management
involves capturing, reporting, escalating, tracking,
and resolving problems that occur as a project
progresses.

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MANAGING & CONTROLLING PROCESSES

4
Manage Issues
MANAGING & CONTROLLING PROCESSES

Issues Management
5
Issues are
threats to
project
schedule
Issue management involves capturing, reporting,
escalating, tracking, and resolving problems that
occur as a project progresses.

How Issues will be tracked
 Issue repository must contain
 a description of the issue
 its potential impact
 date it is recorded
 anticipated closure date (due date for closure must be a specific
date (i.e., the date cannot be “ASAP”)
 Priority based on Impact to the schedule, level of effort, or cost
are usually the factors that determine the priority i.e Low.
Medium, High
 name of the person responsible for resolving or getting it
resolved. The responsible party must be a specific individual, not
a functional group
 How and when issues will be escalated for resolution, and to
whom
6

Project Issues Register
The Project Issues Register records details of all the issues identified
at the beginning and during the life of the project, the action taken to
address each issue and the subsequent results.
It includes:
 a unique number
 a description
 who raised the issue
 date reported
 the person or group who is responsible for resolution
 status, usually open, or closed;
 date resolved
 how the issue was resolved (eg. included as action in the project
work plan and budget documented in the Risk Register, or closed)
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Why would you develop a Project Issues
Register?
 To provide a useful tool for managing and addressing the issues
identified before and during the project
 To identify and document actions taken to address the identified
issues and their subsequent resolution
 To provide the Project Sponsor, Steering Committee/senior
management with a documented framework from which the
status of issues can be reported
 To ensure the communication of issues to key stakeholder
 To provide a mechanism for seeking and acting on feedback
regarding project issues to encourage the involvement of the key
stakeholders.
8

Raising action items
Action items are raised continually throughout any project.
They come up in meetings, in technical discussions, in client
reviews, in hallway conversations, over coffee, and during
private reflection.
Action items arise from:
 Assumptions
 Doubts
 Tasks
 Questions
 Requests
9

Tracking Action Items
 Meeting Minutes. Since most action items arise from meetings or
are assigned in them, they should be recorded in the minutes.
 Your Personal Calendar. Any action items that you take on
yourself must go into your personal calendar. You may also
choose to note other people’s action items so that you have a
reminder to follow up.
 The Issues Log. This is described below in the section
“Reporting Status.” The issues log is the central repository of all
issues, large and small.
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What IF .. Action items remain open long
after they should have been closed
 If action items are not completed, the project is just as
much at risk as if project activities are not done. You need
to be insistent with both.
Actions
Determine why the action item is still open.
If the problem is that the team member dismisses the action as
unimportant, make it clear that you require a resolution.
11

Solving Overrun Problems
At some point in the project, somebody will be late completing
an activity. How do you recover, and how do you ensure that
whatever caused the overrun will not recur in other activities?
 There are three ways that a project can overrun its plan.
 It can slip its schedule, it can exceed its budget, or it can
exceed its effort.
 Overruns come in two varieties: those you expected and those
you did not. They require two types of action:
 corrective, to reduce the impact of the overrun, and
 preventive, to avoid similar kinds of incidents in the future.
12

What IF … The schedule or budget slips
because assigned team members are
inexperienced
If the estimates assumed a reasonable level of experience on the
part of the project team members and they do not have the
needed background, you will not be able to meet the schedule,
and you will exceed the budget.
What will you do?
13

What IF … The schedule or budget slips
because assigned team members are
inexperienced
Actions
 Revise the estimates to account for the use of inexperienced
people. Include a block of time for training and some time and
costs for on-the-job consulting, from an external source if
necessary.
 Identify specific people from other projects who have the kind
of experience you need. If there are external consultants
capable of providing the skills, revise the project budget to
include them.
14

Issues Management
Issue Management involves the implementation of five key tasks:
1. The identification of project issues
2. The analysis of project issues
3. The evaluation and documentation of project issues
4. The determination of issue resolution actions
5. The monitoring and control of assigned issue resolution
actions
15

Issues Management Process
 An Issue Management Process should be followed to
track any issue that may impact the success of a project.
 This process entails completing a variety of review
techniques to assess the level of impact that the issue may
have on the project.
 The Project Manager shall undertake a range of actions to
resolve or reduce the issue as appropriate.

Project Manager role in managing
issues
The Project Manager receives, records,
monitors and controls the progress of all
issues within a project.
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Project Manager is responsible for
 Receiving issues that are raised from Issue Originators
 Recording and prioritizing issues deemed appropriate to
the project in the Issues Log
 Regularly reviewing all issues
 Identifying issues which require Change Requests
 Identifying issues which trigger project risks to be raised to
the Project Sponsor
 Approving issue resolution actions
 Closing issues which are no longer impacting the project.
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Possible Actions to be assigned to an
Open Issue
After investigating the issue and consulting with the appropriate staff,
the Project Manager may decide:
 To close the issue if there are no outstanding issue actions
and the issue is no longer impacting the project
 To raise a change request if the issue results in the need for a
change to the project
 To raise a project risk if the issue is likely to impact on the
project in the future
 To assign issue actions to attempt to resolve the issue.
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end of module

GAFM Academy HOW TO MANAGE & CONTROL A PROJECT

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