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PRINCE2 Issue Management Demystified
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PRINCE2 Issue Management Demystified
www.prince2primer.com
Dave Litten
PRINCE2 Practitioner and Certified Trainer
PRINCE2 Issue Management Demystified
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Contents Setting up the Issue Register ......................................................................................... 3
Defining a project issue ................................................................................................. 3
The three issue categories ............................................................................................. 3
Request For Change (RFC) ............................................................................................. 4
Off Specification (Off-Spec) ........................................................................................... 4
Dealing with a Concession ............................................................................................. 5
Accept it now – Fix it later ............................................................................................. 5
The steps to managing an issue ..................................................................................... 5
Step One – Capturing the issue ...................................................................................... 5
The Issue Register ......................................................................................................... 7
Step Two - Examining the issue ..................................................................................... 7
Step Three – proposing action ....................................................................................... 8
Step Four – deciding the actions .................................................................................... 8
Step Five – implementing the work ............................................................................... 9
Dealing with issues ..................................................................................................... 10
The Issue Report ......................................................................................................... 10
The Highlight Report ................................................................................................... 12
When an issue needs stage correction ......................................................................... 12
The relationship between issues and risks ................................................................... 13
The Business Case ....................................................................................................... 13
Reporting an exception ............................................................................................... 13
The Lessons Report ..................................................................................................... 14
The Issue Register and follow on action recommendations .......................................... 15
Video Modules – PowerPoint slide Graphics ................................................................... 16
Check out my other Project Management Primers: ...................................................... 33
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Setting up the Issue Register
First up, an issue is a communication from anyone with an interest in the project straight to
the project manager at any time and about anything.
The subject matter of the issue may be to request that something be changed, or it may be
to report a problem, perhaps it is to put forward a good idea.
Once the project manager receives an issue, they must make a decision about whether or not
to deal with it formally or informally.
If the project manager’s decision is to deal with it informally, they simply record this in the
Daily Log, which could be seen as a project diary.
However, if the issue needs to be managed more formally, then the project manager records
the details on an Issue Report and then keeps track of the issue progress with entries in the
Issue Register.
Defining a project issue
A project issue is a communication from anyone in the project or anyone with an interest in
the project and it is sent directly to the project manager.
An issue can be sent to any time during the project and it can be about anything, in particular
it does not have to relate to change.
As soon as the issue is received it is logged in the Issue Register so that it can be tracked or,
if the project manager makes a decision that the issue should be handled informally, it is
entered into the Daily Log.
If It is entered into the Issue Register, the project manager first records the full detail of the
issue on an Issue Report.
The word of caution here. There may be those within your organisation who want to try to
influence everything and the project manager may get bombarded with lots of issues. One
way to resolve this and avoid overloading the project manager, is to agree that anyone
outside of the project raise such issues to the senior user and only then if it is agreed that It
is entered as a formal issue.
The three issue categories
PRINCE2 Has three categories of issue even though you would want to process them in exactly
the same way, and by this I mean record them and track their progress until they are resolved.
Let me deal with each issue category in turn:
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A general issue or “Problem /concern/opportunity “
The use of the term “Problem/Concern” can mislead some folks because of the negative
connotation the word concern gives as being bad. However, an issue can be about anything
at all, not just bad situations. Issues can also be a good ideas or questions.
Request For Change (RFC)
An RFC is a type of project issue where someone wants a change to a product that is already
under change control since it has been baselined. The term baseline Is a configuration
management term and means that the product has been quality checked and signed off.
An RFC can be submitted for a specialist product that a team has built, or a management
product, for example the Business Case that you use to help manage the project.
Once a product has been baseline and, any change must go through the formal change control
procedure. This is obvious really because there is no point in quality control staff carefully
checking a product against its quality criteria and then signing it off if someone else and then
complete the change it a few minutes later.
After a product is quality checked and signed off, nobody is allowed to touch it except under
change control. This is equally true even if someone has a good idea for improvement and it
may not take long to do.
Off Specification (Off-Spec)
The term off specification means that the product has failed to meet its quality criteria during
testing and that you cannot easily correct the problem. An off specification could be raised
even before the product is tested in a situation where the team can see that the product is
never going to meet its quality criteria.
You may be thinking that if a product does not meet its criteria and it fails its test, the all you
need to do is to take it away on work on it until it does meet the standard and passes the test.
Although a reasonable thing to do, it may not always be that easy.
It may be that the correction is going to take some time and that time tolerance would be
exceeded, or perhaps the resources are no longer available, or that obtaining resources is
difficult, for example some components used within the product are no longer available.
So the usual case is that an off specification is for a product that has not met its quality criteria,
but sometimes it can be because a product exceeds its specification which may also cause a
problem.
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Dealing with a Concession
On occasion, it may be the right thing to do to accept an off specification rather than try to
correct, or redesign the product in some way. Just accepting the product as it is may be the
best option for many reasons including time or cost. Such a situation within a PRINCE2 project
is called a Concession.
Most of the time, it will only be the Project Board who can sign off a Concession. But what
about highly technical projects where the Project Board’s experience may not be sufficient to
make an informed choice?
In such a situation it may make sense to delegate Concession decision-making to the team
manager or possibly even a team specialist. If this were to be the case, the Project Board
would merely be “Rubber stamping “such an evaluation.
Accept it now – Fix it later
This is often a decision that needs to be made in the real world. The way to approach this is
to combine a Concession with a follow on action – Which in turn allows the situation to be
managed as a temporary Concession.
This would be a smart move particularly if you don’t have time to correct it without missing a
key delivery milestone. You would make a Concession and accept the product knowing that
it is only a temporary fix.
You would need the supplier or technical team to provide a new reworked product that does
meet its quality criteria and come back after some time, maybe even after the project has
finished, and get it accepted.
You would pass the follow on action to a manager in the organization who would then take
responsibility for it after the project, and is committed to ensuring that the supplier provides
be improved product.
The steps to managing an issue
Step One – Capturing the issue
The first decision the project manager must make is whether the issue should be handled
formally and tracked, or informally by making a note of it within the Daily Log.
If the issue is to be handled formally, then the full detail will need to be recorded in the Issue
Report and then recording the tracking information of who sent its, its current status, etc.
within the Issue Register.
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It is important that you see the Issue Register as a control document. It provides an overview
of all the current issues shown when each was received, what action is being taken on each,
and whether or not it has been resolved.
The Issue Report records to full detail of each single issue. For experienced PRINCE2 team
managers, you could ask them to submit any issues in the Issue Report format by completing
as many sections That they can. Whether this information is then copied on to the Issue
Register or the Daily Log does not matter.
A summary of the control information within the Issue Report is copied into the Issue Register.
Here is an overview of the sections contained within an Issue Report:
Issue identifier. This is a unique reference, sometimes just a number other times
alphanumeric.
Issue type. Here you state whether it is an RFC, An off spec or A problem/Concern.
Date raised. This is obvious I hope!
Raised by. This is normally the name of an individual although it could be a team or group
Issue Report author. This is normally the project manager but could be a team manager or
an individual
Issue description. Here you detail the issue including the cause of the problem along with
the Issue impact using one or more of the six PRINCE2Control areas of cost, time, quality,
scope, risk and benefits
Recommendation. This will be a scale as laid down during initiation and recorded in the
configuration management strategy document. It could be as simple as high, medium, or low
or to use A phrase such as “Essential “Through to a “Nice to have “
Severity. Once more, this will use a scale as identified within the configuration management
strategy, in addition the severity could indicate who is authorized to make a decision on the
issue.
Decision. This refers to the outcome, which may be to reject a Request For Change, or to
make a Concession on an off specification.
Approved by. This gives information on who made a decision which could be the project
manager, the Project Board, or even the Change Authority if you have one.
Decision date. Obvious I hope!
Closure date. It may be that an issue situation where no action has been taken in which case
the closure date will be the same as the decision date. But where action was needed, it will
occur at some point After that.
The Issue Report covers all of the information on a single issue and that includes the action
taken on it. A summary of the control information is also dedicated in the Issue Register but
slightly modified as I will describe shortly.
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The Issue Register
This is a control document that gives an overview of all issues and will repeat much of the
information as described within the Issue Report:
Issue identifier
Issue type
Date raised
Raised by
Issue Report author
Issue description
Priority
Severity
Status. This was not included on the Issue Report although it could be if you wish
Closure date
A point to consider here is that the severity and priority ratings may not be known at this
point until the next step when the issue is examined. In such a case simply make your best
estimate at this point in time and be prepared to come back and modify it after further
examination.
It is often the case that the person who raised the issue will be emotionally motivated and
overate its true status.
Step Two - Examining the issue
This should involve all appropriate individuals not just the project manager. These individuals
could include team managers, team members, specialist contributors, Or even external third
parties such as suppliers.
Be careful about involving Project Assurance here as that may detract from the impartiality.
Remember that Project Assurance provides an audit function independent of the project
manager.
There are several impact areas that should be considered, and the following list give you some
ideas for those that should be included when examining the issue:
Costs
Risk
Quality
Business benefits and project justification
Time scales for the stage and project Including any knock on effects to future stages
Any impacts on a program or other related projects
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Staffing levels and staff availability
A point worth considering here when planning the project with in the initiation stage, is
whether you predict and expect many changes to occur. In such a case it would be smart to
include resources and time in your plans for issue impact analysis.
Step Three – proposing action
There are three levels of decision-making authority here, the project manager, a Change
Authority if you have one, and the Project Board. Such actions if beyond the project
managers delegated authority needs to be proposed to ever is authorized to do so.
Exactly who that authority should be, falls to the Project Board. During initiation, the Project
Board must decide how much authority, and what type they are prepared to delegate to the
project manager, and this includes a clear definition of the point where the project manager
must come back to them for a decision.
Very often this decision point is cost or budget. The way to do this is to set a band of cost
where if any issue action occurs within it, then the project manager can make the decision.
Any point above that and it will need to go before the Project Board.
But there is another dimension to this, as some decisions although falling within the authority
banned described above, may have operational consequences that the Project Board need to
be involved in.
Step Four – deciding the actions
Such actions would be entered into the Issue Register and all the relevant Issue Report. If the
issue has been escalated to either the Project Board or a Change Authority in the decision will
be taken at that level.
The decision could be a simple as a “yes or no “, but it may be an agreement to defer a decision
until they obtain more information. In such a situation the project manager will collect the
information and return for a decision.
Such a deferment could be to review it later in the current stage, or if nearing the end of the
project, there is sufficient funds left in the Change Budget, or it could be done in a later stage,
or even to be done in a future project.
If the latter action is decided, then the follow on action would be used and passed to a
responsible role to carry that through after the project has finished.
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Step Five – implementing the work
If a decision is made to proceed within the project, then the project manager needs to manage
this.
It is often the case that some form of re-planning is needed within the Stage Plan or a Work
Package. Once the work is complete, the issue can be closed down within the Issue Register
and the Issue Report, or if it was being managed informally, within the Daily Log.
I have mentioned a Change Budget, and it is worth mentioning how that is set up.
It can be set up an authorized on a stage by stage basis, or for the project as a whole.
A Change Budget is a good idea as it will allow the project manager to accommodate any
unforeseen changes without having to constantly go back to the Project Board to approve
every single change no matter how small it is. Such a point should be made clear to the Project
Board if they are hesitant about approving a separate Change Budget.
Another option the Project Board has during the initiation, is to appoint a Change Authority
who would act on their behalf to manage and deal with any changes. This would free up the
Project Board to direct more appropriate areas rather than tie them down to long and
detailed meetings concerning the approval or otherwise of changes.
Whenever any form of delegation regarding changes is agreed, it is important that the “rules
of engagement “are made clear to all those involved.
I want to make one other point here, and it could be a better approach rather than just
implementing issue resolution actions.
This is particularly useful for complex issue resolution actions. The option I’m talking about is
to create an Exception Plan that replaces the rest of the current stage plan. The project
manager would produce a new plan showing all the work necessary to implement the change
and then presented to the Project Board for approval.
In summary then, the Issue Register is ready to use to record the existence, the progress and
the outcome of issues that are being handled formally within the project. The Issue Register
is maintained and used throughout the whole of the project and is Included within the last
delivery stage of the project.
Indeed, the end project report contains in the ongoing issues that need to be passed on to
operational management rather than be dealt with during the project before closure. These
are called follow on actions. The lessons learned report which forms part of the end project
report, will include any lessons learned from specific issues or their management throughout
the project.
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The contents of an Issue Register are fairly logical. You would need to record who sent the
issue, when it was cent, a brief description of what the issue is about, the current status for
example under review, and finally when it is closed. This last point is important as it advises
you which issues have been resolved and which ones are still being worked on.
The Issue Register is set up in the initiation stage, ready for use in the delivery stages. Indeed,
there really is no problem in setting the Issue Register up at the very start of the initiation
stage as there may be several issues raised during that time which require formal resolution.
As you can see, when handling issues, it is not always just about problems, but also good ideas
as well. The exact procedure that you use for formal issue management should be laid out
clearly within the configuration management strategy created during the initiation stage.
Dealing with issues
As the project manager you can expect to receive project issues – often many of them.
Although within PRINCE2, Issues are covered under change control, it is important that you
understand and issue needn’t be anything to do with a change. For example, perhaps a
member of the team is passing on a good idea.
Remember that an issue can come from anyone within the project or anyone with an interest
in it. It can be sent in are any time and can be about anything that is relevant to the project.
As a project manager, when you first received an issue, you need to make a decision about
whether to deal with it formally or informally. If the latter, then you can simply note it within
the Daily Log.
It may be that It is an issue that needs to be dealt with formerly and therefore needs formal
tracking. In this case the Issue Register is used. Your first action having entered it into the
Issue Register is to then transfer the details of the issue into an Issue Report.
The Issue Report
This is a formal record of an issue that is normally created by the project manager upon
receipt of an issue. But be aware That it may have come from someone within the project
and that they have already written an Issue Report and use that form to submit the issue in
the first place.
Once you have recorded the issue, your next task is to see what action if any you need to take.
This is sometimes called impact analysis.
In my past, I have often run software development projects, and writing software is
something that I have not really done. If it is the case that you are not a subject expert of an
issue that has been raised, then go ahead and get advice and guidance from the people who
do know – Possibly those who make up the specialist team within the project.
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Indeed, I would often run a risk analysis workshop or meeting with one or more individuals
who can help determine the exact nature of the issue.
While carrying out issue analysis, there are a number of aspects that need to be answered
and the following are examples of who you may wish to help with this:
Specialists within the team
Team managers
The organisations that are supplying products or services to the project
Members of the Project Board – This is particularly useful when dealing with resource
requirements and here the senior supplier role would be your best source.
Don’t forget Project Assurance who can be very helpful in Giving support and guidance
to issue impact analysis.
Don’t forget project managers of other projects or even Programme managers if your
project is part of a programme
Okay, so what some questions would you need answering at an issue analysis workshop or
meeting?
First, check whether it is an issue rather than a risk. The difference is fairly straightforward.
Put simply, an issue is an unexpected event that has just occurred, whereas a risk is something
which may or may not happen at some point in the future.
Determine whether the issue affects costs, timescales, the Business Case, or the timings or
level of expected benefits
Does the issue affect the nature of a product or several of the products?
Another useful question to ask is whether the impact of the issue that has arisen within the
present stage, does it affect this stage only or other stages during the project?
Going further, does this issue Have the potential to affect other projects, programmes, or on-
going operational management?
You will want to determine what action you need to take to address the issue, and then to
determine whether that action can be undertaken within your level of authority, or whether
you have to escalate it to the Project Board.
To help determine whether it needs to be escalated depends on the tolerance that you have
been given for the stage (Or if the impact is outside of that or the project).
There are two useful activities within the Controlling a Stage process. The first covers the
steps you would take If the project manager can resolve the issue within their own authority
and it is called “Take corrective action “.
If the project manager determines that the issue needs to be escalated, then the activity
called “Escalate issues and risks “would be used to escalate it to the Project Board.
Don’t forget, that even though the project manager feels confident that they can deal with
the issue within their own authority, it may be good common sense to talk it through with the
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Project Board member informally. At the very least it will set the project manager’s mind at
rest, with an added potential benefits of gaining a new insight or another idea about how to
manage the issue.
The Highlight Report
The Highlight Report is not supposed to be a huge complex report. Rather, it should be
straightforward and at the right level of detail suitable for the Project Board to absorb quickly.
The Highlight Report is an important progress reports that the Project Board will find vitally
important during the stage as they are managing by exception. I make the point again that
the Highlight Report should be simple and take not much more than an hour of the project
manager’s time to create.
You will be aware of the social change that has occurred due to the proliferation of faster
Internet connections and smart phones. We have all become skimmers rather than readers.
We want to view information that is relevant and concise. The Project Board are no different.
So do not create complicated and time-consuming reports because the Project Board may
never read because of their complexity. They will not thank you for booking the hours that
you rack up while creating long and complex reports either.
One particular section of the Highlight Report is called “Key issues and risks “.
Be careful not to go into too much detail here, the Project Board do not need to know that
you are capable of dealing with the issue, only that you are bringing it to their attention and
that you are currently managing it.
As an example, going into glorious detail about the technical matter that is being resolved
within the specialist team may not be appropriate here.
Never forget that the Project Board are using the PRINCE2 principle of management by
exception.
This means that they assume the project manager has everything in hand unless it is escalated
formally or informally to them. In this way, their regular Highlight Report should be for
information only, and not alerting them to some crisis that they are not yet aware of.
The message here is to include key issues within the Highlight Report of significant Issues only,
not a mass of routine detail.
When an issue needs stage correction
If the stage is going off track, then the project manager needs to react with actions that bring
it back on track.
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The project manager will first learn of such a deviation from the plan when checking the status
of the stage. It is important to check with regard to issues, where you are in order to see if
you have the capacity to absorb the issue impact of any action, or whether you need to
escalate the matter to the Project Board.
The activity you would use there is called “Review the stage status “and it is used to carry out
a thorough check on the progress of the whole stage, including any forecasts, to see whether
or not you are still likely to finish the stage within its tolerance limits.
The stage tolerances were set down by the Project Board at the beginning of the stage.
Just for completeness, do remember there is another activity within the Controlling a Stage
process called “Review work package status “. Although this too provides a progress check,
but it is only done for each work package, and don’t forget you may have several work
packages to completed during a stage, and often to or more of them may be executed in
parallel.
The relationship between issues and risks
I have already given you a simple definition of an issue and of a risk, and they are clearly
different. But did you know that one can cause the other?
If someone raises an issue, as part of carrying out issue analysis you may determine that this
particular issue has an impact on one or more risks. The issue could make a risk more likely
or less likely, the impact greater or less, or the impact areas may now be different.
It works that way when managing the risk too. When carrying out risk analysis a new or
modified issue may be discovered. Also, as part of resolving a risk, you may only be able to
minimize its impact rather than remove it completely. This remaining impact that for now,
you can do nothing about, In and of itself could give rise to a new issue.
The Business Case
When managing the details within a stage, it is easy to forget that any issue that is being
analysed may have an impact on the Business Case. I’m not just talking about benefits here,
but also other aspects of the Business Case such as risks, constraints, timescales and cost.
Reporting an exception
Any given issue may cause stage or project tolerances to be forecast to be exceeded. As the
project manager, if you have determined that no matter what action you take within your
authority, you cannot adjust the running of the stage to finish within the limits of the
tolerance, you must report this to the Project Board immediately.
The stage is now “in exception “.
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The only action you should now be taking is to investigate the size of the problem and the
scope of the actions and produce an exception report. The structure of the exception report
was laid down within the communications management strategy document.
It is important to realise that the exception report is not necessarily a document that may be
a meeting, a phone call or an e-mail. Whichever makes most sense.
It is also worthwhile mentioning common sense. If the forecast deviation the tolerance is
relatively small, then I would recommend immediately contacting the Project Board and
discuss this with them verbally. Of course, first you would want to think through what actions
you would take and at that swift meeting get their buy-in to proceed.
It may be that the actions that you can take to bring the stage back within tolerance may have
other impacts such as Business Case impact.
So, whenever an exception occurs, the project manager recommends how it should be dealt
with, but it is the Project Board that must decide how it will be dealt with.
With regard to issues, and as part of assembling an Exception report, you would want to check
out the Issue Register to determine the latest progress of this or any other issues being
currently managed under formal control, and if it has already been created, the formal Issue
Report itself.
The Lessons Report
It is worth spending a moment considering the Lessons Report, which after all should be
created at the end of each stage and at the end of the project. However, this is the minimum,
and frankly a Lessons Report can be created at any point during the project.
With regard to issues and their inclusion within a Lessons Report, you should consider any
statistics such as trends. The statistics may be helpful with resourcing similar future projects
or future stages.
When detailing an issue within the Lessons Report, the following areas should be considered:
What specific event lead to the lesson – Or perhaps it was a constraint
Did the issue lead to a good or bad impact? Do not forget that an issue may be a good idea
rather than a problem or concern
Lay down exactly what triggered the event that lead to the issue and the lesson that was
learned
Were there any early warning indicators or signs that this issue was about to emerge
What actions taken to resolve or minimize the issue and what might be recommended if this
occurred again.
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I mentioned earlier that issues and risks were related, and it is here whether you should
mention whether the trigger event had been previously identified as a risk – either as a threat
or an opportunity.
The Issue Register and follow on action recommendations
I do want to briefly mention that as the project comes to a close, you will be using the Closing
a Project process. As part of that, you will want to close down the Issue Register.
Follow on action recommendations are what the Project Board recommended for the
organization to do after the project has finished.
But you may carry some entries forward into follow on action recommendations, an example
here is a good idea That you would recommend the organization to do after the end of the
project.
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Video Modules – PowerPoint slide Graphics
Issues
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Welcome To Dave Litten’s PRINCE2 Issue Management
Demystified
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PART ONE
Issues PRINCE2 Issue Management DemystifiedAn issue can be:
A request for a changeAn off-specification (product error/omission)A problemA concernA good idea that has yet to be implemented
An Issue is any relevant event that has happened,
was not planned, and requires management action
So what is a risk?“A risk is an uncertain event or set of
events that, should it occur, will have an effect on the achievement of objectives”
A risk and an issue are NOT the same – but one
can cause the other!
The aim of issue and change control is not to prevent changes, but to ensure
they are first agreed by the appropriate authority before they are implemented
Since issues and changes are inevitable, you need a
systematic approach to identify, assess and control them
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Issues Change Responsibility Road-MapProject Assurance
Advise on examining and
resolving issues
Executive
• Set Change Authority & change budget• Set scale for priority/severity• Decide escalated issues (BC focus)
Senior User
Safeguard benefits from
escalated issues
Senior Supplier
Safeguard solution
integrity from escalated issues
Team Manager
Implement corrective
actions
Project Support
Administer CM andissue/change controlMaintain CIRProduce PSA (Report)
Project Manager
Create and Manage: Configuration ManagementIssue and change control Implement corrective actions
Issue Register
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Issues Issue Report – 1
Typically numeric or alpha-numeric, as shown in the Issue RegisterIssue Identifier
Request for ChangeOff-specificationProblem/concern/opportunity
Issue Type
Issue Report Author The person who created the Issue Report
Date raised Date issue was originally raised, and who raised it
Raised by
Issue description A description of the issue, its cause and impact
Priority and severity
Priority. Use chosen categories for priority. Should be re-evaluated after impact analysisSeverity. Use the project’s chosen scale. Will indicate what management level will be required to make the decision
An Issue Report contains the description, impact assessment and recommendations for any
of the specific issues types, and is only created for issues that
are to be handled formally
Informal issues are managed in
the Daily Log
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Issues Issue RegisterTypically numeric or alpha-numeric, as shown in the Issue RegisterIssue Identifier
Request for ChangeOff-specificationProblem/concern
Issue Type
Issue Report Author The person who created the Issue Report
Date raised Date issue was originally raised, and who raised it
Raised by
Issue description A description of the issue, its cause and impact
Priority and severity
Priority. Use chosen categories for priority. Should be re-evaluated after issue impact analysisSeverity. Use the project’s chosen scale. Will indicate what management level will be required to make the decision on each issue
Status and Closure Date
Status. Current status of the issue and date of last update.Closure Date. The date the issuewas closed
Issues
Reporting Report composition and format (Issue Report, Product Status Account), their purpose, timing, and recipients, including reviewing the performance of the procedures
Timing of configuration management and issue change control activities
When formal activities are to be undertaken, for example, configuration audits
Roles and responsibilities
Who will be responsible for which aspects of what procedures.Also describes whether a Change Authority/Change Budget will be set up, under development, in review, approved, operational, etc
Scales for priority and severity
For prioritizing requests for change/off-specifications and the management levels needed for decision-making on various levels of severity
Configuration Management StrategyCapturingExaminingProposingdeciding and implementing
Issue and change control procedure
Description of or reference to procedures to be used. Should cover:
Defines the composition and format of the Issue Register
and Configuration Item Records
HOW we are going to apply
CM to this project
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PRINCE2 Issue Management Demystified
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Issues Daily Log
Results
Target Date
Person responsible
Problem, action, event or comment
Date of entry
The Daily Log is used as a “catch-all” for any information, to record informal issues,
required actions or significant events not caught by other PRINCE2 registers or logs
It acts as a diary, actions checklist for
the Project Manager
Created during the Starting Up a Project
process
Used to capture ANY issues and risks during Starting Up a Project process, and
any informal issues, actions and risks once the project has formally started
Daily Log
It´s really a powerful action list…
Could be a spreadsheet
for data/action filtering and prioritization
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Issues Initiating a Project - 1
How progress, issues, risks, and changes will be assessed,
monitored and controlled
When you fail to plan, you
plan to fail
Prepare the Configuration Management
Strategy
Project Kick-off
CMS
Issue Register
CIRCIR
CIR
Prepare the Configuration Management Strategy
IssueRegister
Prepared and set up by Project Support
CapturingExaminingProposingdeciding and implementing
Issue and change control procedure
Description of, or reference to the procedures to be used. Should cover:
ReportingReport composition and format (Issue Report, Product Status Account), their purpose, timing, and recipients, including reviewing the performance of the procedures
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PRINCE2 Issue Management Demystified
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Issues Reports AND The Business Case
A summary of the current set
Issues and risks
The Project Manager’s forecast for both the next stage and for the project against planned targets such as time, cost, quality, scope, benefits and risk. Include reference to tolerances
Forecast
End Stage Report
What went well and what went badlyLessons Review
Errors foundRisk and issue statistics
A review of useful measurementsLessons Review
Lessons Report
Business Case
Issue or Risk Impact
Assessment
Business Case impact?
Project Manager
Issue/risk impacts on Business Case
Reviewing The Business Case
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Issues
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Issue and Change Control Actions
1
Capture
2
Examine (Impact Analysis)
Include customer, business and supplier
RiskRegister
• Severity• Priority
3
Propose
Benefits Impact
< cost< time> quality<> scope> benefits< risks
< cost< time> quality<> scope> benefits< risks
Alternative options
Implement
Update or issue new:
Exception Plan
5
Work Package
4
Decide
PM can resolve?
Exception Report?
Issue Report
Issue Register
update
Project Manager
Issue Register
Creates an entry in the Issue Register
Capture and examine issues and risks
• Severity• Priority
Issue Report
CT
SQ
B
Rimpact Involve
specialistsother
projects
Capture and examine issues and risks
Issue Report
Issue Register
Propose authority
Project Board
Change AuthorityTake corrective action.
Escalate issues and risks.
Issue Report
Issue Register
Issue Report
update
Review the stage status
Authorize Work Package
Managing a stage
boundary
Stage Plan
Business Case
Project Plan
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Issues
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Authorize a Work Package
Authorize a Work Package
Issue Register
Authorize an unplanned Work Package in response
to an issue?
Risk Register
Review Work Package status
Issue Register
Update as needed
Review the stage status
Update Issue
Register
Issue Register
Issue Report
Check for issue impacts
Issue Register
Stage Plan
Business Case
Project Plan
Report highlights
Issue Register
Highlight Report (current period)
Key issues and risks
Summary of actual or potential problems
Issues
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Issue process in detail
Raised issue
Project Manager
either…
Issue register
Daily Log
Project Manager creates an accompanying
Issue Report
Carried out in the “capture and examine
issues and risks” activity
Issue description Priority Severity Status Closuredate
App not compatible with Windows 10
High Medium Examinestep
Issue Register
IssueID
IssueType
Date Raised by:
Issue Report author
14 RFC 10 Dec 2016
Nick Nathan
John Doe
Issue ID Issue Type Issue Report author
14 RFC John Doe
Date raised Raised by
10 Dec 2016 Nick Nathan
Issue Description: App not compatible with Windows 10Impact Analysis: This has been carried out and App owner will fix the bug free of charge. It will take 4 business days duration to resolve
Recommendation
There is sufficient stage time tolerance to absorb the fix, and the project manager has authorized to proceed with the bug fix
Priority Severity Decision Date
High Low
Approved by: Closure Date:
Decision:
Issue Report
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Issues
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Take Corrective Action Sequence
Collect deviation information
1
Configuration Item Records
Issue Register
Risk Register
Issue Report
Daily Log
Exception ReportAdvice
Stage Plan
Update
update Configuration Item Records
updateIssue Report
update Issue Register
Daily LogRisk
Register
4
Update as required
3
Implement corrective action
Identify actions to resolve problem
2
Choose most appropriate
action
Issues
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Capture and examine issues and risks
Capture and examine issues
and risks
Before deciding on courses of action, each issue or risk
should be registered and then assessed
for its impactExamine impacts
and update
Issue Register
New issue Issue Report
If an issue can be dealt with informally, then make a note in
the Daily Log
Daily Log
Take corrective action
Update as a result of an issue
Issue Register
Issue Report
Corrective
action
Issue Register
Issue Report
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Issues
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Escalate issues and risks
Escalate issues and risks
Create and update
Issue Register
Tolerance threat
Exception raised
Issue Report
Issue Register
Escalating issues and risks is good practice and should
not be seen as failure
Escalate issues and risks
Continued Business Justification
Focus On Products
Manage By
Exception
Capture and examine issues and risks
Continued Business Justification
Focus On Products
Controlling a Stage
Principles
Issues
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Escalate Issues and Risks Sequence
Stage Plan
Project Plan
1
Define extent/impact
Business Case
Determine options for recovery
2
Request more information
Change Request
Approve, reject, defer
Off Spec:Approve, reject, defer
Off Spec:CONCESSION
Increase Tolerance
produce Exception Plan
Premature close
Courses of action
3
Stage Plan
Assess impact of options
Skills/experience
4
Exception Report
Create Exception Report
...reviewed by the Project Board and Project Assurance –
approved by the Executive...
PRINCE2 principle- continued business
justification
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Issues
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Managing Product DeliveryExecute a
Work Package
Create or update
Should the Work Package be forecast to exceed tolerances,
the Team Manager should raise an issue to the Project Manager, who will decide what to do next
New Issue raise
Check Work Package
Risk Register
IssueRegister
Monitor and control
Issue If tolerance is exceeded
Review and report work status to Project Manager
Issuesand risks
Update on all associated issues and risks
Problem handling and escalation
The procedures for raising issues and risks
Checkpoint Report
Execute a Work Package
Risk Register
Issue Register
Notify the Project Manager of any new issues, risks or lessons
The Team Manager does NOT raise an Exception Report –
just an Issue
Work Package
Issues
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Closing a Project – Overview
Issue Register
Lessons Log
Risk Register
Daily Log
Recommend project closure
Directing a
Project
Closure recommendation
Premature close
Directing a
Project
Review project against baselinesAssess realized benefits and update Benefits Review PlanAddress all unfinished business
Issue Register
Additional work estimates
Prepare premature closure
update
Hand over products
Issue Register
Evaluate the project
Issue Register
Uncompleted issues
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Issues
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Closing a Project – Actions and Reports
Review of useful measurements:
Errors foundRisk and issue statistics
Lessons Report
Lessons Report
Current Issues and Risks
Project Manager forecast
Off-specifications - Actual and missing products that did not meet the original requirements including any granted concessions
Summary of follow-on recommendations for the project board (e.g. uncompleted issues)
Review of products
End Project Report
Project Manager updates
Prepare premature closure
Issue Register
Project Manager closes
Recommend project closure
Issue Register
Issues
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