Risks, Issues, Change Requests, and Action Items › Manage Project Risks › Create an Issue and Close the Risk

Create an Issue and Close the Risk

An issue is an event that has affected the project. When the risk mitigation plan fails, you can escalate the risk to an issue. Create an issue from the existing risk and then close the risk. The new issue inherits the risk name, description, and some of its values, such as Status ("Open") and Date Created (current calendar date). You can always link back to the originating risk. Creating an issue from a risk brings awareness, actions, and tasks around an issue for the conclusion by the project team. Additionally, it allows the team to keep a record of issues and their outcome for analysis at project closure and future project planning.

You can also connect other risks or issues that are related to this issue. Connecting all related issues and risks helps you trace dependencies and recognize trends in future analysis and audits.

In this scenario, as part of the mitigation plan, external contractors are hired to complete the project. However the contractors hired do not have the required level of experience which is impacting the progress of the project delivery. The risk now becomes an issue and the project manager then creates an issue from this risk and closes the risk.

Follow these steps:

1. Open the project and click Risk/Issues/Changes.
2. Open the risk.
3. Click Create Issue.
4. Complete the fields in the General section. The following fields require explanation:

   Category

   Defines the category to which the issue belongs.

   Values:

   • Flexibility - The project is not adaptable.
   • Funding - The project funding is not allocated or is available with constraints.
   • Human Interface - The user interface (UI) is poorly defined.
   • Implementation - Uncertainties exist in the implementation effort and user acceptance
   • Interdependencies - The project is dependent on other projects.
   • Objectives - The requirements, objectives, scope, and benefits are unreasonable, unclear, not measurable, and not verifiable.
   • Organizational Culture - The project requires changes to the organization culture, business processes, procedures, or policies.
   • Resource Availability - The internal resource availability is uncertain and external resources are required.
   • Sponsorship - The sponsorship is not clearly identified and committed.
   • Supportability - It is not easy to support the project in the future and requires major updating.
   • Technical - The project technology is unproven and new internal or external expertise is required.

   Owner

   Defines the name of the resource who is managing the issue. This resource is responsible for verifying that the issue is managed and tracked appropriately through its life cycle.

   Default: The resource currently logged in.

5. Complete the fields in the Details section.
6. Attach a document which provides valuable background on the issue, its resolution or effect on the project, if any in the Attachments section.
7. Complete the Resolution section after the issue is resolved.
8. Click Save and Return to go to the Risk Properties page to close the risk.
9. Change the Status to Closed.
10. Save your changes.