Project Issues are an important part of PRINCE2 which is covered in all PRINCE2 courses.
A Project Issue is anything which could have either a positive or negative effect on the project. Some examples of Project Issues are:
- The customer changes their mind about the requirements of the project – this is known as a Request for Change
- The project environment changes in some way e.g. a legislation change, the project gets a new supplier, the customer organisation reorganises, the competitive marketplace changes – this is also known as a Request for Change
- A problem is found in a product that has been completed – this is known as an Off-Specification
- A problem is forecast in a product to be delivered completed – this is also known as an Off-Specification
- A new risk is identified
- An anticipated but unavoidable risk occurs – this is known as a general issue
- A query about any aspect of the project e.g. a point of clarification from programme management – this is a general issue
PRINCE2 recommends that a consistent approach is taken for dealing with all of these kinds of Project Issues. This approach should involve firstly logging the Project Issue in the Issue Log which is used to store all Project Issues. Then the type of Project Issue is identified (a new risk, a general issue, a Request for Change or an Off-Specification). An assessment is then made about what actions to perform to deal with the issue and these are documented in the Issue Log and monitored until completion.
PRINCE2 suggests that the way in which Project Issues are logged and tracked should be integrated into Configuration Management because Project Issues more often than not result in changes to products.
This article was taken from the booklet Concise PRINCE2™ (PRINCE2 ™ is a Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce) which was offered to students as part of the PRINCE2 training course (version 2005) by Knowledge Train. This booklet has been based on OGC (PRINCE2™) material. Reproduced under licence from OGC.
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