Outsourcing Issue Log
This is a practical guide to building a issue log for an outsourcing project — a register of problems that have occurred and need resolving, adapted to the realities of outsourcing a function to an external provider.
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 an outsourcing project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.
Why it matters for an Outsourcing project
Outsourcing projects live or die on outsourcing a function to an external provider. 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 outsourcing projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.
What to include
- Issue description
- Priority and severity
- Owner
- Resolution and status
Outsourcing-specific considerations
Tailor the issue log to the risks that most often derail outsourcing projects:
- Knowledge transfer
- Service-level definition
- People impact
Example
On a real outsourcing project, the issue log would be shaped by outsourcing a function to an external provider. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — knowledge transfer, service-level definition, people impact — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.