Unlike project risk which is the possibility of a problem that has not occurred yet, and if it occurs it could hurt a project budget, schedule, and scope, a project issue is a problem that is currently occurring. An issue must be resolved as soon as possible, otherwise, it will have detrimental effects on the project budget, schedule, and scope.
To have successful management, monitoring, and reporting of raised issues and the resolution of those issues, we need to have a real-time web-enabled solution that enables those involved in managing the capital project delivery to raise those issues as soon as they occur as well as ensure that they are resolved without affecting the project’s objectives.
Using a Project Management Information System (PMIS) like PMWeb, a new process for managing, monitoring, and reporting project issues will be created. PMWeb custom form builder allows the organization to create the “Issue Resolution” form in the desired form and format to capture all needed details. Those could be the issue type, category, criticality, issue description, the issue raised by an issue owner, the needed issue resolution date, and which project schedule activity it first impact. The issue form will also include the fields for issue impact and severity which will automatically calculate issue severity. The form will also include fields for issue resolution actions and a description of the attached documents. In general, the form should be detailed to the level that eliminates ambiguities and miscommunication of the reported project issue.
The attachment tab will be used to attach all issue’s related documents which are usually uploaded into the PMWeb document management repository into a folder that could be labeled as issues. In addition, links to other related PMWeb records and imported MS Outlook emails will also be part of the attachment.
A workflow will be designed for the issue resolution form to capture the different review and approval steps needed to resolve the issue. The workflow could include conditions to involve the right project team members depending on the issue category or other fields.
The issues log will be used to provide the real-time status of all project issues captured in the issue form. The log which can be designed in any desired form and format could also include visuals to summarize issues by status, type, and issue owner among others. The tabular section of the report will include the complete details of those issues which can be grouped and filtered in any desired format. Usually, the Issue Report will be needed by senior organization executives as well as the project team members.
About the Author
Bassam Samman, PMP, PSP, EVP, GPM is a Senior Project Management Consultant with more than 35-year service record providing project management and controls services to over 100 projects with a total value of over US $5 Billion. Those projects included Commercial, Residential, Education and Healthcare Buildings and Infrastructure, Entertainment and Shopping Malls, Oil and Gas Plants and Refineries, and Telecommunication and Information Technology projects. He is thoroughly experienced in complete project management including project management control systems, computerized project control software, claims analysis/prevention, risk analysis/management (contingency planning), design, supervision, training, and business development.
Bassam is a frequent speaker on topics relating to Project Management, Strategic Project Management, and Project Management Personal Skills. Over the past 35 years, he has lectured at more than 350 events and courses at different locations in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and South America. He has written more than 250 articles on project management and project management information systems that were featured in international and regional magazines and newspapers. He is a co-founder of the Project Management Institute- Arabian Gulf Chapter (PMI-AGC) and has served on its board of directors for more than 6 years. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI), a certified Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP), and Earned Value Professional (EVP) from the American Association of Cost Engineers (AACE) and Green Project Management (GPM).
Bassam holds a Masters in Engineering Administration (Construction Management) with Faculty Commendation, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA, Bachelor in Civil Engineering – Kuwait University, Kuwait and has attended many executive management programs at Harvard Business School, Boston, USA and London Business School, London, UK.