Project issue management

In August 2009, Dominic Wells presented to Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire branch defining and explaining issue management.  Dominic is a chartered engineer with 20 years project management experience. As a member of APM he also has 10+ years experience in project risk management and the APM Risk Special Interest Group, he works for HVR Consulting Services Ltd.

Dominic began the session with a significant quote ''If there are two ways of doing something, and one of them can lead to disaster, you should assume that's the way it will be done.'' Capt. Edward A. Murphy

Issue management is discussed in detail and Dominic used the Babel Tower as a working historical example. He specifically looked at issues with IT projects and looked at risk review processes; he produced and explained how to use a risk register for future projects.

To conclude, Dominic stated that project issue management tends to be used on large IT programmes and that issues need quick action therefore the processes need to be simple and quick to operate. A consistent approach allows issues to be managed effectively across a large programme.