If issues are not resolved, the negative consequences can come up in the form of inability to meet timelines, cost, and schedule. Moreover, it will create disputes among the coworkers. It is normal to accept a reasonable level of imperfection, based on calculations of the trade-offs between value versus cost, benefit, risk, and time. As such, the issue control process is closely related to project monitoring, evaluation and control activities, and should include establishing and tracking a plan for getting issues resolved. Bear in mind that a perfect issue management system will be expensive, if not impossible to achieve.
There are four sub-processes involved in issue management:
- Issue Identification and Tracking: It is important to identify outstanding questions, decisions, and other problems before they adversely affect the project.
- Issue Analysis: This process involves understanding the issue sufficiently and considering the future consequences of action plans designed to resolve the issue.
- Issue Communication: It is vital to communicate issues to the correct level of the organization so that issues may be resolved. Furthermore, it is important to communicate when and how issues are resolved.
- Issue Control: The project manager is responsible for establishing an environment where the project team and implementing partners can carry out actions to ensure issues are resolved in a timely and effective manner.
Having a well-documented issue management process is crucial to communicating and enforcing the process to your team. It would be highly supportive to maintain the trust level among the team members and avoid conflict.
