I was on a project once where the sponsor said "we don't have any risks, but we have a lot of issues". Hmmmm.....before those issues became issues, there must have been a RISK that they could occur.
The Practical Project Manager establishes tools, communication, and responsibilities for managing risks and issues. Start by determining if the company has a project risk and issue management process in place. If so, follow that process and be sure the following features are in place at the project level.
All projects automatically come with several risks and issues even before they start!
You may want to consider the major areas a project covers. For example its requirements, timeline, budget all have inherent risks. How this project interacts with other areas and initiatives, your resources and team, quality assurance, how teams and people communicate with one another, and how you are going to acquire resources to get the work done all come with inherent risks. Even managing risks and issues has its risk!
If you follow the PMBOK® Knowledge Areas, you may want to consider aligning your risks and issues with their knowledge areas. Please note: PMBOK® is a registered trademark of the Project Management Institute and is referenced here in the spirit of education and open content.
Something that will impact overall success of the project.
Risks need to be weighted for their impact and probability, managed at the steering committee level, and have a clear escalation plan for resolution.
The Practical Project Manager establishes tools, communication, and responsibilities for managing risks and issues. Start by determining if the company has a project risk and issue management process in place. If so, follow that process and be sure the following features are in place at the project level.
All projects automatically come with several risks and issues even before they start!
You may want to consider the major areas a project covers. For example its requirements, timeline, budget all have inherent risks. How this project interacts with other areas and initiatives, your resources and team, quality assurance, how teams and people communicate with one another, and how you are going to acquire resources to get the work done all come with inherent risks. Even managing risks and issues has its risk!
If you follow the PMBOK® Knowledge Areas, you may want to consider aligning your risks and issues with their knowledge areas. Please note: PMBOK® is a registered trademark of the Project Management Institute and is referenced here in the spirit of education and open content.
- Integration
- Scope
- Time
- Cost
- Quality
- Human Resources
- Communication
- Risks and Issues
- Procurement
Risks
What is a Risk? "Could my project fail?"Something that will impact overall success of the project.
Risks need to be weighted for their impact and probability, managed at the steering committee level, and have a clear escalation plan for resolution.
Each risk is documented as follows. A simple spreadsheet is all that is needed to document risks. List each risk in the left margin, add the following column headings, and sort the log by SCORE as described below. Work on the largest risks first.
- Description - a risk area may have more than one risk, for example there may be three integration risks
- Probability - the chance this risk will actually occur (on a scale of 1-5, where 1 is not likely, and 5 is imminent)
- Impact - the effect on your project (on a scale of 1-5, where 1 is very low, and 5 is catastrophic)
- Score - determines the size of the risk and which risks require the most attention. Multiply Probability X Impact. An imminent, catastrophic risk has a score of 25.
- Mitigation Plan - A description of what is now being done to avoid this risk from impacting your project
- Contingency Plan - A description of what will be done if this risk actually causes an issue or potential project failure
- Responsibility - Who is responsible for actively working the mitigation of this risk?
- Next Step - What is the next activity for mitigating this risk?
- Next Step Due Date - When is this person's next mitigation action due?
The Practical Project Manager maintains the PROJECT RISK LOG, reviews it with the Project Steering Team at least monthly, and gets status updates on next steps from responsible team members on a weekly basis.
What is an Issue? "Do I need a course correction?"
Something that could slip a critical path in the project, but not yet likely to impact its overall success.
Issues are managed by the project manager at the team level and are prioritized with accountability and due dates.
All projects have issues, the larger the project, the larger the issues. Issues tend to take on a life-form of their own, so keep a historical record of activity associated with an issue, especially decisions made along the way to resolve the issue. As a reminder an issue is only an issue if it could slip a critical path in the project. A difficult action or work activity is not necessarily an issue.
If you have access to a tool such as SharePoint or Google Apps, build collaborative ISSUE LOG that has the following features and includes email alerts to the responsible person, attachments, and a historical archive:
- Description - a issue area may have more than one issue, for example there may be three quality issues
- Work Stream - your project is probably organized into various work streams such as business requirements, technical design, user interface, etc.
- Status - Open, In Progress, Resolved, Canceled, Transfered to Training Log
- Urgency - how quickly does this issue need to be resolved? 1) must do now 2) can wait
- Priority - what is the impact to your project's critical path? 1) High 2) Medium 3) Low
- Resolution Plan - A description of what is now being done to solve the issue
- Responsibility - Who is responsible for actively working the issue?
- Created Date - Date issue was opened
- Next Step - What is the next activity for working the issue?
- Next Step Due Date - When is this person's next action due?
- Expected Resolution Date - When will this issue be solved?
- Resolution - A description of what was done to actually resolve the issue once it is closed
- Resolution Date - Date issue was closed
The Practical Project Manager maintains the ISSUE LOG and builds an interactive tool so issue status can be maintained by those responsible for resolution. However creation and setting the urgency and priority of an issue is the project manager's responsibility.
Summarize issues with the Project Steering Team at least monthly and review issues with team leads on a weekly basis. Build a summary report that includes the following:
Summarize issues with the Project Steering Team at least monthly and review issues with team leads on a weekly basis. Build a summary report that includes the following:
- Number of issues by work stream, urgency, and priority
- Number of issues by person responsible
- Average number of days to close an issue
- Trend or graph issue management over time. This is an excellent metric to tell a story such as "We had 25 issues last month with an average days open of 10. However this month we have 35 issues and our average days open has increased to 15."
Remember that an Action is not an Issue or Risk, but rather a task that needs to be worked. Actions have resources, due dates, durations, and dependencies.
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