| Introduction | The Issue Report |
| Creating a New Issue | The Header |
| The Related Tasks Tab | Deleting an Issue |
| Processing an Issue | Defining an Issue Workflow |
| How Issue Status influences Project Status |
Introduction
Geniusproject’s [Issue Management] module provides users with the ability to track unexpected obstacles and issues, such as budget, delay or quality that may impact the progress of their projects.
To manage issues, it is important to identify:
- Their cause and origin.
- Their impact and consequences.
- The actions and decisions necessary to fix them.
It is also important to be able to escalate issues to management for resolution.
Nothing makes a project easier to manage than having a simple and clear Issue Management Process. This process allows project team members to raise issues to the project leader which will then be monitored and controlled in a clear and efficient manner. A default workflow is supplied with Geniusproject for Issue report documents, but can be changed to better comply with an organization’s processes.
To standardize the issuance of project issues, a well-structured issue form is needed. This form is used by employees to describe the issue, its current impact on the project and the recommendations for immediate or quick resolution.
The Issue Report
The "Issue report" is the form project participants will use to report any issues they encounter throughout the lifecycle of their projects i.e. any event that can impact deadlines, workload or project quality, such as:
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A change in requirements.
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A change in the project environment.
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An unexpected problem occurring that was not anticipated during risk analysis.
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The occurrence of an anticipated and unavoidable risk.
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A problem or error that occurred with work already completed or work currently under way.
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etc.
The author of the report will formally log the issue which will then be sent to the project leader for approval, as per the standard workflow applied to the Issue report. The project leader will be able to access the issue report using the different views included with Geniusproject, and then assess the issue to decide on its type, the impact on cost, workload or deadline and what actions are required.
Once actions for resolution have been created, such as tasks or "To Do's" in Geniusproject, the issue report is closed and the project leader will follow-up on the related actions.
The issue report is a powerful tool to assisting project leaders in identifying recurring problems.
Creating a New issue
To create a new Issue report:
- Navigate to the Issues & change requests tab.
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Click "New issue" in the left hand contextual navigation menu.
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The "Document Creation" dialog box will be displayed where you can select the Project and Phase the new issue applies to.
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Click OK to validate the selections and the Issue report form will open.
The Header
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Issue report |
The title of the issue. |
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Project |
The project that the issue applies to. |
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Phase |
The phase of the project that the issue applies to. |
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Project leader |
The main project leader (not the project leader substitute). |
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Status |
The current status of the document. The issue report always follows a workflow. The status value is a link that opens a dialog box displaying the details of the workflow. When the user is allowed to change the status, the field itself is a shortcut that brings the dialog box to change the status. The status also impacts the "Project overview" document calculation. |
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Action |
Indicates the action to take according to the applied workflow. By clicking the button, the Issue will enter into the next step in the workflow. |
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Deadline |
Visual indicators: •Red, deadline passed •Orange •Green, OK |
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Version |
Version number of the document. |
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Modified on |
Date and time of the last modifications. By clicking on the date you can access the history of the modifications. |
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Last comment & New discussion |
Displays the last comments made on the task. You can reply directly to the comments by clicking on "Reply" and you can create a new discussion by clicking on "New discussion". See "Collaborate with Genius Live!" for more information. |
The Description Tab
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Issue type |
It indicates if the issue is related to an internal or external event. It is possible to use this field in a wide range of meanings, such as "Internal" if the issue is related to an event inside the scope of the project, otherwise "External". Mandatory. |
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Priority |
The priority of the issue report (urgent, low, etc.). The list of choices comes from the "Keywords & Labels" setup document. |
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Origin of issue |
The origin of the issue. The list of choices comes from the Keywords & Labels setup document. Single selection field. |
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Wished |
The date when the issue should be solved. This is only indicative. |
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Details |
A detailed description of the issue. This field should be used as a repository of the most important information related to the issue, to allow other resources accessing the issue report to get a complete understanding of the issue. Rich text field. For attachments, it is strongly recommend using the Attachments section that provides better functionalities. |
The Related tasks tab is used to specify any and all tasks related to the issue. They can either be impacted by the issue or the actual cause of the issue.
To select the tasks, navigate to the Related tasks tab:
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Click the Add button.
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A dialog box will open listing all of the project’s tasks and phases.
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Double click on a related task or deliverable to add it to the bottom section of the dialog box or select the items to be added and use the arrows provided to add them.
When planning a project, it is always possible to identify and log potential risks in advance, in order to be better prepared should they occur. Issues reported throughout the course of a project that are related to any of the forecasted risks, can have a direct link made to the risk from the Related risks tab.
From the Related risk tab:
- Click the Add button.
- A dialog box will be displayed listing all of the forecasted project risks.
- Double click on a related risk to add it to the bottom section of the dialog box or select the risk(s) to be added and use the arrows provided to add them.
The fields on the Impact tab are for information purposes only and may be used later on to analyze the impact of the issues on the project, or to manage the risks on another project of the same type.
The values on this tab will most likely be completed by the project leader, or by the person processing the issue after an update of the project plan.
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On the workload |
The estimated additional work caused by the issue, in the workload unit defined in the General setup document. |
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On the deadline |
Allows indicating what delay the issue will cause. The number of days is informative and has no impact on the project plan. |
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On the cost |
The estimated additional cost caused by the issue in the project currency. If the project currency is different from the reference currency defined in the "General" setup document, the second row displays the values computed in the reference currency. See the Costs and budget tracking document for more information. This field is displayed in either of those cases: •the user belongs to the project team and is allowed to see financial information. •the user has the "View Costs" role. •the user is the project leader or one of the project leader substitutes. •the user is an application manager (i.e. has the "COP_MANAGERS" role). |
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Consequences |
Detailed description of the consequences of this issue for the progress of the project. |
Deleting an Issue
To delete an issue:
- Navigate to the Issues & change requests tab.
- Select Issues from the contextual navigation menu on the left.
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All of your projects will be loaded in the content window; find the one with the issue to be deleted and select the issue by placing a check in the box next to the title.
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Click Delete on the action menu bar.
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Click Yes to confirm the action in the dialog box that opens and the Issue will be removed.
Processing an Issue
By default the Issue form has a generic workflow associated to it, however it can be refined if it does not match an organization’s existing issue management process.
The purpose of the workflow is to automatically circulate an issue from its author to designated resources for revision and approval.
To submit an issue for approval once it has been completed, the author simply must:
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Click the Submit button
in the header. -
A dialog box will open asking for confirmation of the action. A field is available to include comments if desired.
•The issue will be updated with its new status displayed in the header, and the name of the person who is now responsible for it.
Once the responsible resource has reviewed the issue and added any necessary information to the form, they can either approve or reject it.
Defining an Issue Workflow
A generic revision and approval workflow is applied by default to the Issue form. The cycle of the workflow is indicated in the diagram below.
In the event that the workflow does not match an organization’s existing processes, it can be changed in the "Workflow" section of the Setup for the [Projects] module.
To learn more about defining workflows see admin manual.
How Issue Status Influences Project Status
Issues can be followed from the "Issues" view on the Issues & change requests tab. They also appear in the Project overview documents until they are marked as "Processed".
To access Project Overviews:
- Navigate to the Projects tab.
- Select "Progress status" from the contextual navigation menu and click Overview by month.
The project overview highlights will appear in the content window indicating the status of various metrics, including Issues.
To access more detailed information simply click the Project name to open the overview, and scroll down to the issues section.
Open issue reports: Displays the number of Issue report documents that are still open.
: Good. By default, no reported issue remains open, i.e. the "Issue report" are all in a completed status.
: Medium. By default, at most three issues remain open.
: Bad. More than three issues that are still not closed, i.e. the "Issue report" documents are still in an open status.
The default thresholds can be changed in the "General" setup document.
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