Issue Management: Resolving What Blocks Progress Now
What this domain tests
Issue Management tests whether you can separate a live problem from a future uncertainty, and whether you can run an issue from detection to closure with an owner, a decision and a deadline. Items often present a situation and ask for the correct next action.
Core rules
- An issue is a problem or question that has already occurred and requires action now; it threatens the current plan. A risk is uncertain and lies in the future. Moving an event from risk log to issue log happens when it materialises.
- Every issue gets a description, an owner, a priority, a required decision or action, and a target date. An issue without an owner is a wish.
- Keep issues visible to the level that can decide them. Operational issues are solved by the project manager; issues beyond his mandate, or with business consequences, are escalated with options and a recommendation.
- Distinguish an issue from a change request: a change request alters the agreed scope or result and follows the change route; an issue is a disruption that must be resolved to continue.
- Close issues formally - record what was decided and verify the effect. Do not leave resolved items open in the log.
Worked example
A supplier confirms it will deliver hardware three weeks late, which threatens the testing phase. Reasoning: uncertainty has become fact, so it moves from the risk log to the issue log with the supplier account manager as owner. The project manager does not simply accept the delay. He prepares options - test on borrowed equipment, re-sequence testing after training, or accept a later go-live - and escalates at the next steering group, because the go-live date is a business decision beyond his mandate. Once decided, the issue is closed with the decision recorded.
Traps that cost marks
- Filing known problems as risks to avoid escalation.
- Escalating an issue with no options, no recommendation and no owner.
- Treating a change request as an issue, so scope changes bypass the change procedure.
- Issues that stay open indefinitely because no one checks the closure.