Project Management Templates - Issue Manager

An out of the box SharePoint template for managing projects by exception

Business Challenge

We find that many organizations do not need or are not up to deploying a large process to manage projects.  Some of these groups like to  “manage by exception” by only tracking project status and issues related to the project in hand and not details related to actions, tasks, deliverables, risks, etc. 

Yet many organizations do not have a simple or standard process, or the infrastructure to manage issues and capture project status, and are using Microsoft Outlook and Excel to do the job - products that were not purpose built for this challenge. Many feel that they do not need such a system, believing that water cooler conversations and email obviate the need for a formalized process.

However, there always is a real need for some degree of process and infrastructure for resolving issues between different offices and organizations – e.g., overseas staff, suppliers, partners and customers. These disparate groups do not always share the same water coolers or corporate cultures. Managers are not able to manage by walking about assigning issues and getting status updates as they once were. Information on issue progress and history lacks the necessary visibility.

Solution Description

The Issue Manager template in pmPoint is an out of the box enhanced SharePoint template designed to manage issues and capture project status across and between organizations. Since it is based on SharePoint it is fast to deploy and easy to customize. The Issue Manager template also includes a number of customizable and reusable tools that extend the functionality of SharePoint for web-based issue management.  Issue Manager makes successful issue management with SharePoint a relatively effortless and straightforward process.

With support from issue creation to resolution and beyond, pmPoint gives issue managers the right process environment and toolset to maximize successful issue resolution across and between organizations.

BrightWork enables managers to use SharePoint to manage issues through the creation of work items, with email notification on item assignment. A special web part allows managers to track the progress of work items, located in various webs, subwebs and lists, from one location. Team members can use the same web part to see all their work in the one location. External users can query the progress of issues by supplying an item’s unique reference number. The manner in which an issue was managed, from creation to resolution, comments that were made and changes that were made to selected fields are all available as an audit trail in indelible records.

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