What is problem management?
Problem management is the process of helping others become aware of the problem and then solving it as quickly as possible.
To understand this, do the following exercise
There are some typical issues in the project
Strategy
- The project is out of budget
- Lack of support management for the project
- Project communication is not effective
- Project management process is not standard
Definition – Definition
- Wrong project goal
- The project scope is not determined exactly
- Project requirements are not clear
Human Resources
- The project team lacks the skills to complete the project
- The project team is too large or too small and therefore difficult to manage
- The project team is poorly organized. They do not want to work in groups
- Lack of skilled members due to quitting or resigning.
Schedule – Progress
- The project progress is too fast. You do not have enough manpower to meet deadlines.
- The project needs some inputs such as test equipment, software tools, etc., but there is a delay in delivery.
Why do the problems occur?
There are dozens of reasons for the problem. Most of the reasons stem from the mistakes of the performers. The Test Manager, the project leader must take full responsibility for the failure of that project.
Here are some common errors that cause problems 
Combining resources with the wrong project
Guru99 Bank is a big and complex project. You need a lot of personnel with testing skills. But you have chosen the main resources who have the development skills. What will be the problem?
The following issues may occur
- A lot of time will be wasted because developers do not have test training & will need to learn testing. Deadline may be missed.
- Test quality may be affected.
The appropriateness of resources with projects is the most important element in project management and is considered an important stage of project success. Combining resources with the project will ensure that the skills of the resources can meet the project’s expectations.
Project manager lacks management skills
You are appointed as the Test Manager of the Guru99 Bank project. That’s good news, but you’ve never managed a project before. You do not have any experience in managing a project, it can cause big problems.
Project control was difficult and even more difficult if the project manager did not have any experience to manage the project well. Experience in running project meetings, project status, risk management, and dealing with project stakeholders is critical to project development and success.
Project progress
A tight or loose schedule is one of the reasons why the project schedule is delayed or overloaded. This situation may arise if the project manager schedules an unrealistic time for project tasks.
Underestimate
Know who is who and what you can do. The big mistake that a test manager makes is that he thinks completing any project is easy. You need to be realistic in thinking and make sure you don’t underestimate your work from the start.
Ignore the little problems
Some current minor issues may get worse in the future. See the following example:
Ignoring the problems only makes the problems worse, so pay attention to these problems and look for a practical solution, even for those supposedly small problems.
Not following the process
Test management is a big process that Managers need to strictly follow. Not following the process means you break the rule.
Having a process that will give you structure and organization helps reduce the risk of projects at risk.
Do not listen to the opinions of others
You are the Test Manager of the project; You have the highest position in the project team. But you cannot do anything by yourself; You need your project team.
Team members are most aware of the challenges or problems that are about to happen to a project through their daily work. If the Manager does not listen to the member’s advice and discourages his project team from making proposals, he may end up with a failed project.
Method of problem management
Let’s start the topic with the following scenario
In the Guru99 Bank project, to create a Test Plan, you must analyze and clarify customer requirements. This is a script 
In this case, a problem has occurred. It comes from the customer. In five days, they changed the request 3 times. The fickle customer can be a big problem because they don’t know what they want until a certain stage is completed.
This topic will show you step by step to solve the problem. 
Record
At some point in the project, the risks that you identified during the planning step will come true and you have a problem. You must document any events or issues that happened and threaten the success of your project
In many projects, problems are likely to arise at the start of the project. Therefore, discussing problems during the project start-up is a smart way to detect problems.
Once a problem is identified, you should take the following actions: 
Record the project’s problems
One of the best tools for documenting project problems is a problem diary. The problem log will help you focus on finding a solution to a problem. 
You can create the problem log yourself or use the diary template in this article as a reference.
Set priority
Do not forget the priority of the problem, you need to specify the priority of an issue. There are three commonly used priority levels 
Which priority would you set for the problem covered in the above topics? 
Assign owners for issues
Assign a project problem to the person best suited to solve it. That person is a person on or off the project team. However, if you assign someone outside the group, make sure they know what they are participating in!
For our above request to change customers, you can choose a person with the best communication skills to solve the problem. He will work as a bridge engineer to negotiate with the customer, ask them to fix the request, to proceed with the project.
Tracking problem status
After assigning the owner to an issue, you must check the issue log and update the issue status regularly. The following figures represent the type of risk 
Report
Documentation of important project issues should be included in your regular progress (markup) reports and transfer high priority issues to the project board. Communication is the key.
Project management professionals depend heavily on reporting the problem status of a project, especially if a project is large and has many stakeholders.
To help you create your own report, you can use the Project Issue Report form in this article.
Control project issues
The project manager is responsible for controlling the project’s problems and should carefully consider the following activities
- Recognize people who can have problem-solving effects.
- Stop all activities around the issues before the problem is resolved. You are the project manager and control of the situation, do not rush unless you have solved the problem.
- Now think carefully about the following questions for each issue in the log
- Create a list of possible actions or options that can bring the breakthrough you are looking for. Then narrow your list and choose the options that are most likely to solve the problem.
In the interactive element above, you can use any action to solve a problem like A, B or C. But in some cases, using just one option may not be enough to solve. solve the problem completely. The best way is to combine all the options.
For example, if you select option A “Please hold a meeting with customers to clarify and make a request as soon as possible” . What would you do if you and your client were unable to make a final request after such a meeting? You need to get more support from higher levels to negotiate with customers (Option B). If the customer is not a professional, they don’t even know their exact requirements. In such cases, you should propose new ideas to customers about product requirements .
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