Project Work Performance Domain
Lesson 2 of 3
Managing Issues and Impediments
Differentiate issue response from risk response and pick actions that remove blockers without breaking governance or team ownership.
Issue vs Risk in Scenario Logic
An issue is active and affecting work now. A risk is uncertain future exposure. PMP questions frequently test whether you choose immediate containment for issues while still learning and preventing recurrence. Confusing the two leads to delayed action or overreaction.
Issue Management Choices
Weak Choice
- Treats active blocker as a future watch item.
- Escalates without local diagnosis attempt.
Strong Choice
- Contains current impact quickly.
- Captures cause and applies preventive follow-through.
Impediment Removal Flow
- 1Define the blocker and affected work clearly.
- 2Assign immediate owner for containment action.
- 3Coordinate cross-team dependencies to unblock flow.
- 4Document causes and preventive updates to plans.
When Escalation Is Appropriate
- Resolution authority exceeds team or PM limits.
- Compliance or contract impact requires higher approval.
- Repeated attempts failed and delivery risk is increasing.
PMP Decode Rule
Address what is happening now, while preventing the next recurrence.
Practice this topic
Reinforce this lesson with scenario questions tagged Risk, Change Control, Team Conflict.
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