Risk and Issue Escalation Process

Overview:

Risks are potential threats to the project outcomes (i.e, Budget, Delivery Time, Quality or Scope).  If they are not managed effectively they may impact the outcomes.

Issues are threats to the project outcomes that have occurred. They are no longer a potential threat, they are real and are causing an impact. to the delivery of the project. 

Risks and Issues need to be managed in order to minimise the impact on the project outcomes.

Escalation is a critical tool to be used by project team members to help communicate threats to the project outcomes, to assign accountability for resolution of threats, to aid in mitigation actions for potential risks, and to resolve issues which the team themselves cannot resolve.

Detail:

The process for escalation is outlined in the Escalation Process section below, but there are a number of key principles that need to be noted about escalation as follows:

•       All project team members are empowered to escalate . Escalation is not seen as failure on the part of the escalator.  Escalation is an essential tool in ensuring issues that cannot be resolved by the individual team member, are able to be elevated to the next level of management to ensure that every effort is made to avoid slippages.
•            Escalation needs to be managed .  It is not sufficient to simply escalate an issue to your manager. Escalation of issues need to be accompanied with a suggested action plan to your manager - ie what does the escalator believe needs to happen in order to mitigate the risk. It is very important that the escalated issue is followed up with management to ensure that it is resolved.  When an issue has been escalated the escalator must continue to monitor the situation and report on the progress of the resolution.  If it is not resolved adequately then another escalation may be required. If necessary this should involve the issue being escalated to your manager's manager, and / or to the sponsor, but if this should be the case, you should always copy your manager on the escalation memo.
•             Escalation must be documented .  It is important that all project issues escalated are recorded in the Project Issues Register with the escalation action, the name of the manager, and the date and expected outcome recorded.  If critical it should be documented and formally reported to the Project Manager's line manager, Program Manager or Sponsor.   Verbal escalation always needs to followed up with written or email documentation detailing the issue, the required outcome, the critical timeframe when the resolution is required, and the consequences to the project if the issue is not resolved.
•             Escalation needs to be timely .  It is important that issues are escalated in time to affect a resolution.  The escalator should try to resolve the issue before escalation, however enough time should be available to escalate and resolve the issue.  For example if there is an issue which will impact a key project milestone in 8 days it is no good escalating the issue to your manager on day 8 to have it resolved.
•             Escalation is an issue mitigation process .  Under normal circumstances, and following the desired "No Surprises" approach to project management, you should have previously communicated to your manager that there was a risk or issue that was being managed, but which might require an escalation to resolve.  Early communication of serious risks and issues is good project management practice.

Escalation Process:

The following are the proposed steps to be followed in the escalation process -

•         Record potential risk to project in the Project Risk Log.
•         Develop and document a risk mitigation strategy for each risk in the project Risk Log.
•         If the risk is potentially serious your manager should be kept informed of developments (eg, via regular reporting or regular meetings).
•         If the mitigation actions are unsuccessful and they actually impact the project, the resulting �issue� should continue to be tracked and managed � this includes what new actions are being taken to mitigate the issue.
•         If the issue is potentially serious your manager should be informed of the possibility that the issue may need to be escalated for resolution.
•         Project Risks and Issues should be reviewed at regular project Core Team meetings.  The Core Team is a critical facility to manage risks and resolve project issues.
•         If you believe you have exhausted your options for resolving the issue then you must escalate to your immediate manager for resolution.  

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