Quality and issues

What to do first

Raise the issue where it happened. A fault on one task or milestone is raised from that task's or milestone's panel, where it can block the work. Anything about a whole project, an engagement, a client or a supplier can be raised from here with Raise an issue.

The page

Four figures sit across the top:

• Open. Issues not yet resolved.
• Breached. Open issues whose clock has run out.
• Mean time to resolve. Over the resolved issues.
• Repeat rate. Issues of the same kind on the same record within 90 days, as a share of those raised.

Show the issues as a Board, with a column for each state (New, In progress, Waiting, Resolved), or as a List, and narrow them by kind. Each issue shows its reference (such as ISS-0042), what it is about, its severity, its owner and its clock.

Managers (level 3) and above see Response times, which opens the rules the clocks come from.

Anyone can raise an issue. Delivery issues are read under Projects, and the Service desk under Client relationships, so the issues you see follow the modules you can open. You can always see the issues you raised or own.

Raising an issue

Raise an issue first asks what it is about: a project, an engagement, a client, or a supplier or contractor. The issue lands on that record's page. Then it asks for:

• Kind: Blocker, Defect, Incident, Risk, Change request, Complaint or Service request.
• Severity: Critical, High, Medium or Low.
• What went wrong, in a line somebody can act on, and the Detail.
• Who deals with it. Left blank, it is you, or whoever looks after the client for a client's issue.

The sheet says What this will start before you save: a response due within so many hours and a fix within so many more.

Raised from a task's panel, the sheet also offers It stops this task. Tick it and the task goes to Blocked, naming the issue, and comes back to In progress when the issue is resolved, unless another open issue still blocks it.

The owner is told. Complaints and service requests show on Clients › Service; the other kinds show here.

Issues where the work is

Every record that can go wrong has an Issues section with Raise an issue:

• a task's side panel;
• a milestone's side panel;
• a project's Issues tab, which also lists everything raised on its milestones and tasks (see Projects);
• an engagement's page;
• a client account's page, where the section is called Service.

An issue raised there is about that record. An account's open issues count against its health until they are resolved.

The clocks

An issue has two deadlines, set when it is raised from its kind and severity:

• a response clock, which stops when somebody first acts on it;
• a resolution clock, which stops when it is resolved.

Each clock reads On time, Due soon (a quarter of its time left), Breached or Met, with a sentence such as "Respond in 3h 12m" or "Resolution 2h late".

The default times, in hours:

A client's complaint or service request is answered in half the time, never faster than an hour, because somebody is waiting.

Setting the times under Rules

A workspace sets its own times under Organisation › Rules & automation › Issue response times: hours to respond and to resolve for each severity, and whether to Count business hours only (Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00). With business hours on, a clock started on Friday evening runs from Monday morning.

Changing the times applies to new issues. An issue already raised keeps the deadlines it was promised, and changing an issue's severity later does not move them either. Senior managers can read the rules; executives (level 4) change them.

A breached clock raises an alert to the issue's owner, and escalates to their manager if nobody acknowledges it.

Working an issue

Opening an issue shows its panel: what it is about, what it blocks, its owner, when it was raised, and when it must be answered and resolved.

• Pick it up (or Respond, on a client's issue) moves it to In progress and stops the response clock.
• Waiting (or Waiting on client) marks it as waiting on somebody else, and Back in progress returns it.
• Change the owner from the panel, or Edit its title, detail and severity.
• Corrective actions: + Add an action adds a task linked to the issue, in its owner's My work. On an issue about a project or milestone, it also shows on the project's board. A high or critical issue makes a high or critical task. Adding the first action also counts as a response.

The issue's owner, whoever raised it, and anybody at team leads (level 2) and above can change or resolve it. Anybody who can open it can add a corrective action.

Resolving and the lesson

Resolve and close out asks:

• What caused it, and What fixed it.
• Is there a lesson? If there is, write it in a line, and choose where it goes:
• Update a procedure: the procedure's owner is asked to change it, and the lesson waits in the Procedures until they do.
• Add to somebody's development plan: it becomes an objective on their plan, and they are told.
• Suggest a measure for next cycle: kept in words for the next round of goals.

The sheet says What this will create before you press Resolve it. Lessons are kept under Work › Knowledge › Lessons (see Knowledge).

Reopen — the fix did not hold moves a resolved issue back. It keeps the clock it already had, and a blocking issue blocks its task again.

Evidence on milestones

A milestone can ask for evidence before it is complete: a number of items, and an approval if needed. Evidence is a file on the milestone's page or a task's page, a document attached to one of its tasks, or a record already in the workspace linked as proof, such as the post that went out or the event that was held.

Completing a milestone without it is refused with a sentence saying what is missing, such as "Needs 1 more evidence item and an approval first." The project's lead or a senior manager approves the evidence. Reopening a milestone clears its approval, because what was approved was the old work. A project's Evidence tab shows every milestone's evidence in one place. A milestone's page opens only for people who can open Projects.

How it connects

• Issues you own appear under Issues & SLA in My work, and show as overdue once breached.
• A project's page counts its open and serious issues, and a client account's health reads its open issues.
• Corrective actions are tasks, in Work › Tasks and My work (see Tasks, meetings and to-dos).
• Lessons land in Knowledge, in a procedure's owner's queue, or on somebody's development plan (see Development).

Common questions

Can I raise an issue on a project I cannot edit? Yes. Anybody in the workspace can raise an issue: the person who sees a fault is usually the one on site.

Why did my task go to Blocked? Somebody raised an issue that stops it. The task comes back when the issue is resolved.

We changed our response times. Why has an old issue not moved? An issue keeps the deadlines it was promised when it was raised. New issues get the new times.

Where are client complaints? On Clients › Service, which reads the same issues with the client's words: Respond, Waiting on client, Resolved.