Best practices in issue management
We all faced issues in system deployments. It is a fact of every project. You end up creating, tracking, and closing hundreds of them. They touch multiple project members. Timely updating of issues can be an overwhelming task. Establishing a good issue management practice upfront can save you a lot of headaches later in the project.
Let’s start with defining what an issue is. Most confuse issues with to-dos. They are two different things. Issues arise when what you got does not match what you expect. These can be software bugs, data migration problems, enhancement requests, etc. They should be actionable items. To-dos are tasks that need to be completed to achieve a goal. They can be configuration tasks, integration jobs, change management work, etc. With issue management, we are focused on how to handle problems rather than keeping track of tasks.
Two things need to come together to manage issues effectively. First is the tools. The second is the process. Since projects have hundreds of issues, you need a tool to manage them. Most projects start with a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Some use shared lists in other software packages such as Microsoft SharePoint. The key is to have easy access to this list. All project team members including internal and external resources need quick, frictionless, and intuitive tools to maintain the issues. The tool should be able to aggregate the issues for a high-level summary. It should also allow recoding of the problems with their full details.
Once the tool is in place, the process becomes important. The creation, maintenance, and closure of issues need to be recorded in a timely manner. You must actively manage this issue list. You need to make sure only valid problems are being recorded. You must ensure issues are not duplicated. You need to highlight the interdependencies of issues. The team members need to maintain the issue statuses frequently. Upon resolution, they must be closed. Only with a good process, you will have one version of the truth. This is important to establish trust in your issues list.
Projects generally start with managing to-do tasks and then switch to issue tracking towards the end. Issue management becomes a key activity with Conference Room Pilots (please refer to this blog). Issues need to be reviewed at least once a week. They need to be categorized, summarized, tracked continuously. You need to watch the trends. You should expect a rise of issues with the first CRPs and have sufficient time to close them prior to the next CRP. It is not a bad thing to have many issues. It actually shows that business is testing the system thoroughly. The key is to keep the speed of closing issues faster than the speed of creating issues.
As you approach go-live, you may still have open issues. You should focus on go-live critical ones. If there are no show stoppers, you can pull the trigger. Note that you are going to create more issues even after go-live. It is impossible to test every scenario upfront. You will continue to manage your issues in the same manner until things stabilize. (Please refer to this blog).
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My name is Cem and this has been another gem.
