In the project planning phase, risk analysis is performed to identify all challenges that might come across in the project life cycle.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!It is important to conduct a brainstorming session to collect ideas from all team members on what might go wrong in the progression of the project which can later be filtered. Filtered ideas are classified as potential risks which are later categorized based on their likelihood of occurrence and severity of impact.
That’s why a contingency plan is prepared to handle any situation for a project because actual project plans are created in ideal conditions but when we apply these plans in real-time scenarios, the result may differ from expected outcomes or we may face problems to complete them in time.
Root Cause analysis also helps to identify basic problems and project tracking issues.
What does Project Issue Tracker Do?
Mitigation strategies are made in the project planning stage to reduce their likelihood of occurrence. Still, if the risk occurs strategies are made to minimize its impact on the timeline, performance, and budget of the project.
Despite all the above efforts at the planning stage, still, risks can become realities at any phase during the project life cycle. When risk becomes reality, it is known as an issue.
The project manager’s skill is to minimize the likelihood of risk becoming an issue and in case it happens there must be some action plan to minimize its impact on the project.
After the eruption of issues, the most important thing is to monitor it properly to nullify or minimize its impact on the project for which issue tracking templates are made.
However, sometimes the damaging consequences of an issue alarm about the presence. Thus, the project team has to ensure the earliest possible resolution. So, project issue management and tracking templates are helpful in that scenario.
How To Make Project Issue Tracker In Excel?
There are numerous project management tools available in the market for tracking issues. Issue logbooks are commonly used for tracking the status of customer complaints at product service centers.
In project management issue tracking template includes all necessary information about any issue that occurs at any time during the project life cycle for its monitoring and resolution.
A good tracking represents the following information,
- Issue ID
- Issue Detailed Description
- Department or Category
- Priority
- The initiator or Responsible Person
- Mitigation Action Plans or Possible Solutions
- Current Status of Issue
- Open on or Issue Occurrence Date
- Expected Resolution Date
- Close on or Issue actual resolution date
- Final Notes or Impact Summary
Significances of PROJECT Issue Tracking Templates
At the project planning stage, potential risks are identified, categorized, and prioritized and mitigation action plans are made to minimize their impact on the project.
Still, project managers face a lot of challenges/issues during the project life cycle which needs to be addressed effectively to minimize their possible impact on the project life cycle.
Following elements of the project can greatly be affected by issues if not tracked or monitored properly,
- Project Completion Time (Timeline)
- Allocated Budget
- Performance
- Human Resources
- Other resources
The tracking template provides all necessary information for effective monitoring of issue, setting resolution priorities (Low, Medium, High) based on the severity of impact it may cause, allocating resources for resolution, tracking issue status at any time, defining mitigation action plans, keeping a record of its occurrence and resolution date with remarks about possible causes of their occurrence.
Types of Issue Management Templates
There are several types of issue management templates for a project. These templates include different sorts of information as per the choice of the project manager. However, a simple project issue management template serves the purpose to check the status of the issue and the responsible person.
Further, sometimes the project managers want to see daily issue report. It helps to check the frequency of issues. So, the project managers can review the risk management plan in case of any suspicious frequency pattern.
Thus, the risk management plan, risk analysis result, mitigation strategy, and contingency plan information can also be included in the first reporting of the issue. It helps the project manager to understand the issue history and assign the best resources for the earliest resolution.
Impact of Issue Tracker Excel
The issue tracking template eliminates the chances of any issue being ignored due to its possibility of causing low impact.
It keeps on the tracking of all issues regardless of their priority levels and forces project managers to resolve issues before they become a threat to the timeline, performance, or budget of a project.
How to Use Project Issue Tracking Template
Enlist Issue and Potential Impact: In this 1st step, we enlist all issues and their possible impact on our project. If there is more than one issue then we put numbers against them that are based on priorities. Make it brief and understandable.
Priority, Date, and Setting RACI: It is important t set priorities for each issue from low, medium, and critical. This technique helps to understand which issue to deal with first according to its severity and impact on the project. Then, we set a time frame and assign this to the suitable team member.
Team, Status & Notes: Here we mention the team or person who is dealing with the issue. In the issue status section we put the latest update regarding issue status (pending or eliminated).
The note section is designed to provide guidelines on how to handle and eliminate problems. That includes strategies, planning, resource details, etc.
