Issue Resolution

Quick reference

• 00:04 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
• 00:05 I'd like to talk now about another aspect of project control and
• 00:09 that's issue resolution.
• 00:11 The Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBOK Guide defines an issue as
• 00:16 a current condition or situation that may have an impact on the project objectives.
• 00:22 Sometimes things don't go as expected on a project.
• 00:25 Issues come up.
• 00:26 These create headaches and irritation for the project team, but
• 00:30 they can't be ignored.
• 00:31 Issues that need resolution are often caused by unplanned work.
• 00:35 There's now a need to do something or
• 00:37 redo something that wasn't in the original plan.
• 00:40 Let's be clear, this is not scope creep.
• 00:43 There is no change to the project goals, objectives, or deliverables.
• 00:46 If there was a change in those we wouldn't be talking issue resolution.
• 00:49 We would be talking project change management.
• 00:52 Issues are often raised by stakeholder questions.
• 00:55 The stakeholders ask about something the project team has not considered.
• 00:59 The stakeholders want information about an aspect of the project.
• 01:03 Work must be done to obtain that information,
• 01:06 answering them is an issue that must be resolved.
• 01:09 Many issues are caused by miscommunication problems,
• 01:12 an extended team member does not complete the task on a desired manner because of
• 01:17 a misunderstanding of the task requirements.
• 01:19 So portion of the tasks has to be redone or due to a break in communication,
• 01:23 a task or activity is not started on time.
• 01:26 The delay in that activity cascades into multiple other delays.
• 01:30 There is now an issue to restore the schedule.
• 01:33 Regardless of the source of these issues,
• 01:35 we need to work around to keep the project on track.
• 01:38 Someone must do something differently than what was in the original project plan.
• 01:43 So let's discuss these workarounds and what must be done to resolve the issues.
• 01:48 Workarounds are not the same as project changes.
• 01:51 I'll talk more about project change management in another lesson.
• 01:54 However workarounds are a minor re-plan of the day to day activities.
• 01:58 It's not new scope or new deliverables for
• 02:00 the project, rather it's meeting the project requires in a different manner
• 02:04 than what was originally planned for in the project.
• 02:07 When an issue arises, the core team should be in charge of resolving the issue.
• 02:12 The core team plans and tracks the day to day activities.
• 02:15 As such, they will normally be the ones to identify issues, and
• 02:18 they are in the best place to plan how to respond to those issues.
• 02:21 The core team develops a workaround plan.
• 02:24 Core team then integrates the workaround plan with the rest of the project plan.
• 02:28 Since this is not a project change I normally do not issue an entirely
• 02:32 new project plan.
• 02:33 Instead I redline or
• 02:34 mark up existing project plan with the other core team members.
• 02:38 And then we all set about implementing the marked up plans.
• 02:41 How is this different from change management?
• 02:44 Well, normally change management gets involved when we have a change to
• 02:47 the goals, objectives or boundary conditions of the project.
• 02:50 In this case, there is no change to any of those.
• 02:53 So we dont need to go through the change management process.
• 02:57 Each core team member is responsible for
• 02:59 keeping their extended team members informed of any workarounds and
• 03:02 the impact that they could have on the extended team member.
• 03:06 Meanwhile, I usually look to the project leader to inform appropriate stakeholders
• 03:11 on the issue and the work around being used to address that issue.
• 03:14 If this issue is in an area where the stakeholder was closely interested,
• 03:17 be sure to keep them informed.
• 03:20 Just because issues and workarounds are not part of a formal change
• 03:22 management system, does not mean that they shouldn't still be tracked.
• 03:26 Issues and workarounds are usually tracked on an issue log or action item log.
• 03:30 The project leader normally maintains his log and
• 03:33 the project core team members work together to resolve the issues.
• 03:36 The log normally tracks who's assigned to leave the workaround in the current
• 03:39 status.
• 03:41 An issue log creates focus on issue resolution.
• 03:44 The issue log is often reviewed at each project team policy meeting.
• 03:48 Progress is tracked once your workaround has been implemented, and
• 03:51 that it resolved the issue.
• 03:52 The project leader may also use the issue log
• 03:55 to communicate with stakeholders an aspect of the project status.
• 03:59 Some of the stakeholders will be concern about some of the issues.
• 04:02 The log is the source of information for them.
• 04:05 Also, have a workaround is ineffective if the issues is not resolved,
• 04:09 it may grow to the status of risk requiring a more
• 04:12 significant risk response resulting in a need for project change.
• 04:16 Issues occur frequently on most projects.
• 04:19 Project teams should be expecting them, and therefore they should proactively
• 04:22 manage them with workarounds and track the resolutions on an issue log.

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