What is an Issue Log?
The issue log is a document which aims at capturing and documenting any issues which were brought forward during the lifecycle of the project. Managing a project is a complex process, which many liken to a tightrope act: the PM (Project Manager) must keep their balance while taking into consideration all the variables, tasks and the influence of all the team members and stakeholders.
| Issue Log Template |
At the beginning of the project the log is blank, and is usually filled in by the PM (or PMO). Once the log is filled in, it is used to communicate the issues throughout the project.
Issues Log Structure
Of course there are many different structures and applications used for capturing the issues, while most of them consist of the following –
- Issue number
- The issue itself
- Priority of the issue (high, medium or low)
- Assigned to: the owner of the issue
- Status of the issue
- Resolution: how was the issue resolved (if at all)
- Date of resolution
Issue Log Template
Project Name: PriceX Issue Log Owner: Catharine Ford Updated on: 11-Jan 2018
No. | Issue | Priority | Assigned to | Status | Resolution | Data Resolved |
1 | 03-Jan-2018: The workload on the testers is 130% on average, hence it doesn’t seem feasible to complete the testing phase on time | High | Tamara Crawford (HR lead) | In Process | 2 new testers are being recruited | Planned to be recruited by 17-Jan-2018 |
2 | 05-Jan-2018: The plotters aren’t aligned properly and prevent the Engineers from publishing their schematic plans | High | Sutton Faustino (IT helpdesk) | Resolved | A plotter 3rd party vendor was hired to print the schematics | 09-Jan-2018 |
3 | 08-Jan-2018: The flight budget has been fully used, and no more flights will be approved unless a new budget will be approved | Medium | Marion Bryant (CFO) | In Process | We are trying to allocate the organizations budget to fund flights until the end of the project (May 2018) | 19-Jan-2018 |
4 | 08-Jan-2018: The HR department can’t access the LinkedIn site due to the firewall restrictions | Low | Sutton Faustino (IT helpdesk) | Not started | The firewall parameters will be adjusted | Planned on 12-Jan-2018 |
5 | 11-Jan-2018: The lease on the storage facility has expired. This is where we keep our servers | Medium | Marion Bryant (CFO) | Not started | Extend the lease by one more year | Planned on 16-Feb-2018 |
6 | 11-Jan-2018: The water filters on the cooling machines haven’t been replaced in over 6 months. The regulations state that they must be replaced every 5 months | Medium | Harry Grant (Maintenance lead) | Not started | The company which sold us the machines has been asked to replace all of the filters | Planned by 31-Jan-2018 |
Issue vs. Risk
All issues are basically risks which weren’t mitigated and have materialized, either due to the fact that they couldn’t have been resolved or because the risk wasn’t recognized on time. A risk is a problem which hasn’t occurred yet, and has a good chance of occurring in the future. An issue is something which has occurred, and must be dealt with soon.
In other words: Risks are potential problems, while issues are current ones.
Problem Resolution Template
Resolving problems is more of an art form than exact science, but there are methodologies and processes which enable a structured approach to solving a problem in a project (or in the workplace in general). The following template can assist in doing so –
Basic Details | ||
Project Name: Data Transfer | Project Manager: Howard D. Foster | Problem raised by: Debbie Klein |
Problem raised on the 9th of January | Reference number: KFS-223-709A | Division: Infrastructure |
Problem Details | ||
On the 8th of January the DM (Data Migration) team initiated its transfer pre-check protocol as the first step of the first TL (Transfer Load), which is planned for the 5th of February. The protocol failed due to the fact that the new environment wasn’t set up by the infrastructure team. The DM team raised the problem to the project manager (Howard Foster), and requested his assistance in prioritizing this task with the infrastructure team. Ideally they would like to have the new environment up and running by the 19th of January. | ||
Resolution of the problem | ||
Step | Responsible | Due Date |
1. Put together a document which will contain the expected number of users and number of data loads, and send to the infrastructure team | DM (Data Migration) team lead: Henning Dreer | 12th of January |
2. Plan the required testing environment based on the requirements in step #1 | Infrastructure team lead: Naran Shrivastav | 16th of January |
3. Allocate the required server blades | Infrastructure DBA (Data Base Administrator): Guy Pichette | 16th of January |
4. Set up the new environment on the servers, according to the plan formulated in step #2 | Infrastructure DBA (Data Base Administrator): Toby Longmire | 18th of January |
5. Test the new environment with the data migration team | Infrastructure team lead: Naran Shrivastav | 18th of January |
6. Transfer the legacy loads to the new environment and make sure the response times are as requested | Data migration team lead: Henning Dreer | 19th of January |
Issue Log in Agile Projects
| Agile Issue Log Template |
When managing a project while using agile methodology, each issue that arises must be attached to a sprint and the feature which is affected must be detailed in the log. Besides these two columns, the log consists of more or less the same ones as a standard log.
The owner of the log is usually the sprint master, who updates it on a weekly basis and follows up during the daily meetings. The attached Excel file presents an example of such a log.
The owner of the log is usually the sprint master, who updates it on a weekly basis and follows up during the daily meetings. The attached Excel file presents an example of such a log.
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