This article contains detailed explanations of the Issues entity available in PPO:
- What is an Issue;
- Accessing the Issues entity;
- Standard Configuration;
- Calculated Fields;
- Customising the issues entity;
- Issue Reporting.
Whats is an Issue
An issue is an ad hoc activity. This is a problem that needs to be solved or monitored and often, but not always, comes about as a result of a risk that has realised.
It is assigned to an individual and there is generally a deadline by which it should be resolved although no “start date” like a task. If not resolved it could prevent a project moving forward. Issues can lead to changes in the project plan and baseline.
Accessing the Issues entity
The Issues entity can be accessed when you hover over the Projects Menu or from the Project View page. If you do not see the Issues entity, make sure that the entity has been enabled on your instance and that your user group has been granted access to the entity.
For more information about setting up user group access rights, read the following knowledge base article.
Standard Configuration
The screenshot below shows the standard configuration of the Issues entity.
The Issues entity allows users to add a title and description for the issue, placing the issue in context. The contact person is the person who raised the issue.
To classify the issue, users can specify an issue Type, issue Status and issue Priority.
The Issue Owner is the person responsible for resolving the issue. Users can also specify an action / response, which is the latest action or feedback on the issue. The action / response field is cleared with every update in order to show only the latest update / information. For full details, see the following FAQ.
The follow-up date is the date by which a new action / response should be provided.
The Issues entity also incorporates three calculated fields: Age, Create Date, Days Overdue and Overdue?. For more information, see the next section in this article.
Calculated Fields
The Issues entity offers the following calculated fields in order to assist in issue management:
- Age: The age field shows the number of days since the issue was logged / created.
- Create Date: The create date shows the date the issue was logged / created.
- Days Overdue: The days overdue field shows how many days have passed since the Follow Up date.
- Overdue?: The overdue field indicates whether the issue is overdue, due soon (next seven days), not overdue or closed. The colour coding makes it easy to identify which items require attention.
Customising the Issues entity
Should you wish to configure the Issues entity to align to your own methodology, access the following knowledge base article which will guide you through the process of adding or updating existing data fields. If you also need assistance in the process, feel free to log a support call and the PPO Support team will gladly assist you.
Issue Reporting
The Issue reports available in PPO will assist the executives and project managers to track occurrences that are being dealt with outside of the project schedule. They are:
- Issue Reports - this report shows all the current issue information (no history records are shown on this report).
- Issue detail Report – The report includes all the fields on the Issues entity for all issue records and projects. If the “Include Project Information” checkbox is selected, the report will also include all the fields on the project entity.
- Issue History Report - this shows when the issue was updated, by whom and what the recent issue action/response was. This provides a complete view of how the issue has changed over the lifespan of the project.
For more information on the report explanations access the following knowledge base article.