Effectively Handling Project Issues, Risks, and Actions

The  effective handling of all project issues, risks, and actions by a project manager and/or project management office (PMO) is one of the more important daily responsibilities. Good performance in this regard is a critical PMO success factor. It is imperative for a PMO to do a thorough job throughout the entire life cycle of a project by helping all of the members of the project team identify, track, and properly dispense with all these pertinent matters. Because of this, I want to propose some “best practices” regarding what I believe is the proper handling of all project issues, risks, and actions. It may seem quite clear and obvious what needs to be done, but I have seen project teams do a very good, to quite poor, job of handling their issues, risks, and actions. It is for this reason I share this important and rather relevant information.

To begin with, clear definitions are in order. A project issue is defined in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)—Fourth Edition (Project Management Institute, 2008) as “a point or matter in question or in dispute, or a point or matter that is not settled and is under discussion or over which there are opposing views or disagreements.” Thus, an issue can impact a project’s schedule, scope, budget, or its resource allocations and for which project …