PRINCE2 Issue Definition – Part 4 – Reporting Issues
The Issue Report
This is the main tool for reporting issues, and 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.
Issue Analysis
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?
Issue Reporting
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 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 PRINCE2 Controlling a Stage” process contains the activity “Report Highlights” for the precise purpose of reporting – and reporting issues is central to this.
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 including reporting issues, 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 report key issues within the Highlight Report of significant Issues only, not a mass of routine detail.
The Checkpoint Report
More than 80% of your project budget will be spent in the PRINCE2 “Executing a Work Package” activity, and it is the Checkpoint Report that tells the Project Manager how this is all going. It may be a report, or it may be a meeting. As you would expect the Checkpoint Report structure contains a section called “issues and risks”. This is the Team Managers responsibility for reporting issues, and includes issues plus their status that needs to be brought to the Project Manager’s attention.
It is worth mentioning that the Work Package that is being reported upon, also contains guidance and direction the managing issues under the section “problem handling and escalation” which lays down the procedure for handling and managing issues.
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