Goudie Consult

Switzerland and Australia

Issues Management

 Infrastructure Systems are:

  1. characterised by having a wide geographical coverage, real‑time operation with high capacity, high availability (24/7) and high security, multiple user terminals, etc.
  2. based on state of the art computer and network communications technology.
  3. required to comply with many technical and commercial standards and to support multiple languages.
  4. usually sold to government authorities, utilities, commissions and large companies via a 'public' tendering process.
  5. mostly supplied by globally based companies with regionally structured sales organisations.

The Issues:

  1. In most companies, which supply infrastructure systems on a global basis, there continually exists an overwhelming number of problems relating to the detailed system functionality, and to conflicting resource requirements and delivery schedules for the various projects. Most of these problems end up with the development and installation departments being overwhelmed by demands, criticism, change requests, error reports, etc.
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  2. A particular symptom is senior management showing uncertainty about schedules and quarterly financial results, but expressing confidence in the staff and the strategy, even though there are frequent changes in organisational structure and senior personnel.

The Issues Manager:

The Issues Manager must

  1. be established in a manner similar to the company auditor - i.e. reporting to the CEO or equivalent.
  2. have the authority to talk to anyone and have access to all relevant information.
  3. not necessarily direct people, have power of veto, be always consulted, etc.
  4. be seen to be part of the organisation - internal and external people must consider that the Issues Manager will be 'there next month' to follow through and continue to support the decisions.
  5. have the personality to be seen as a confidant and facilitator, to take his share of the responsibility but only a minimum share of the credit.
  6. be available whenever and wherever required to facilitate discussion between the responsible parties.
  7. always be seen to be fair and to show respect for others.
  8. accept the situation, not blame others and never say 'that is outside the scope of my responsibility'.

Activities:

  1. Basically, the Issues Manager has to discuss and investigate issues to the level of detail necessary to resolve the problem. This requires the person to have a broad outlook, a willingness to ask questions and to accept advice, and an ability to gain the confidence and respect of the concerned partners.
  2. It is more a position of listening and hard work than of issuing directives.

Costs:

  1. Salary equivalent to a top second level executive such as a Human Resources Manager, Internal Auditor, etc.
  2. Office infrastructure and significant travel.
  3. If the company runs development and projects on the basis of 'Payment for Service', then there would be an additional cost equivalent to 'one person year' at the rate for a senior project manager.

Financial Benefits:

  1. Except for those rare cases where there has been a significant misunderstanding of the requirements, Issues Management can be expected to keep costs to the original (internal) estimates. (In my experience, in most cases the costs originally estimated for a development or customer project are reasonable and can be achieved, providing problems can be efficiently resolved and the scope is not changed.)
  2. Without Issues Management, internal costs - personnel, travel, re-working, multiple installations, etc. - can typically escalate to twice the initial estimates.