When Risks become Issues

I've had the pleasure over the past year to brush-off my risk management skills as part of my new life as a consultant and help a client streamline their project risk management system. This involved both traditional risk management activities focused on identifying risks, causes, impacts, and controls, along with quantitative Cost and Schedule Risk Analysis (CSRA).

All of the Risk Management and quantitative analysis was well received by the client, but as the project started to progress through the Execution Phase, certain risks were realized, additional problems were identified, and it became apparent that the project needed an "Issues Management Process" to deal with these situations.

As with most projects staffed by highly intelligent engineering types, a lively debate ensued on what exactly an issue is, but I think we landed on a solid, yet simple definition:

"Issues emerge when the limits of an existing control system are exceeded"

This can be anything from Risk which are realized to Quality non-conformances to Interface clashes amongst contractors. Fundamentally, when the existing control system cannot adequately address all of the impacts associated with the problem, then it becomes an "Issue" which requires special attention.

As part of the Issue Management System, an Issue Action Plan template was developed. Along with providing tracking and general documentation, the template was designed to:

• Identify both an Optimal outcome, and a minimal acceptable outcome to "bookend the issue"
• Identify all affected parties and determine if any specific influencing strategies are required obtain the desired outcome.

The following slides provide a bit more context on the system. I hope you find this helpful.