An action item is an ad-hoc work activity that requires
follow-up execution. By their nature, action items normally cannot be planned
for in advance. They arise on an as needed basis during meetings or as a by-product
of working on something else. There is no Knowledge Area in the PMBOK Guide for
managing action items, but they can be important to the smooth running of the
project. By their nature they generally fall under time management.
1. An
action item is assigned because there is not enough knowledge, expertise or
time to resolve the item at the time it originally surfaced.
2. Action
items need to be assigned, worked on later and completed. (If they are not
going to be completed, they should not be called action items. Instead, simply
note that the item will not be completed.) Examples of action items include
forwarding specific information to someone, arranging a meeting and providing a
quick estimate on a piece of work.
3. Sometimes
an action item is established to investigate an area where there may be a
potential problem. Because of this, action items are sometimes called
"issues". However, this is not right. An issue is a problem which
will have a detrimental impact on the project if left unresolved. Issues are not
the same as action items.
4. Trivial
action items may be tracked and managed with a standalone Action Item Log. If
the action item came from a meeting, you can create a section in your meeting
minutes for action items. These trivial action items are usually less than two
hours of effort and are scheduled to be completed by the next meeting. If you
use this technique you can start each meeting with a review of the prior action
items to validate that they are completed and then cross them off the
list.
5. If
the action item is non-trivial (greater than two effort hours) you should add
them as activities in the project schedule. A resource and end-date are
assigned as well, and the activity is then managed and tracked as any normal
schedule activity. This is the better approach to follow, because it keeps the
work activities in one place and allows the project manager to enforce the
discipline of knowing ‘if it’s not on the schedule, it will not be worked
on.’ This approach also allows the project manager to see the impact of
the action items on the schedule. For instance, you may have a small action
item that is 4 hours of work. If you assign this action item to a person on the
critical path, you will see the resulting delay to your project. This may
result in you assigning the action item to someone else instead.
In many cases, action items are trivial in nature, but in
other cases they can require substantial work to complete. Projects tend to
generate lots of them and you need some method to track and close them to
ensure the project work continues to run smoothly.
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