PWPM Wiki

Business Transformation Issue Log

This is a practical guide to building a issue log for a business transformation project — a register of problems that have occurred and need resolving, adapted to the realities of reshaping how a business operates end to end.

What a Issue Log is

A issue log is a register of problems that have occurred and need resolving. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Issue Log. On a business transformation project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.

Why it matters for a Business Transformation project

Business Transformation projects live or die on reshaping how a business operates end to end. A well-built issue log gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how business transformation projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.

What to include

  • Issue description
  • Priority and severity
  • Owner
  • Resolution and status

Business Transformation-specific considerations

Tailor the issue log to the risks that most often derail business transformation projects:

  • Change fatigue
  • Scope too broad to control
  • Benefits not tracked

Example

On a real business transformation project, the issue log would be shaped by reshaping how a business operates end to end. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — change fatigue, scope too broad to control, benefits not tracked — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.