One of the hardest things to do is to bring an issue to your manager’s attention. Even if it’s completely not your fault, it just feels like it when you are the one explaining it. Unfortunately, these situations do arise and many times the consequences of keeping the issue from your manager’s attention can be severe. On the other hand, you don’t want to be bringing every little issue to your manager’s attention. This is why it is so important that you can recognize the difference between an issue that needs to be elevated and an issue that you can handle on your own. To this effect, I’ve listed the following three tests that I use when determining if an issue needs to be brought to the next level:

1.) How long has it been an issue? - This is a large factor in my issue elevation equation. Generally speaking, the longer that an issue has been around the more likely it is that somebody else needs to be brought in to help resolve it. Easy issues or issues with a straightforward solution usually get resolved fairly quickly, even if they require some investigation. The more difficult issues may require additional assistance that you might not be able to get on your own. For example, say you are having a problem with a requirement for your project. You don’t exactly understand it and it’s holding up other parts of your project. Should you just try and interpret yourself? Absolutely not. You need to go to your client and get clarification. However, you may not be able to speak to the client directly. This is where you would elevate the problem to your manager, so they could bring it to the client for you. Does this mean all issues that linger should be elevated? No, sometimes an issue will linger simply because a fix is known but scheduled for a later implementation, or it has been pushed off to a later date. It’s the lingering issues with no solution in sight that you need to look out for.

2.) Are you having problems rounding up the right people to solve it? - We’ve all had those situations where we know who can help us with a problem, but they don’t make themselves available to us. Maybe they don’t answer your email or phone calls, or are always pushing you off with phrases like “I’ll be there in a few…”. Either way, you need to get their attention or your project will suffer. This could be a good time to bring this problem to your manager. However, you want to be careful when you do this. Make sure that you have made a solid effort to reach the person in question, and that you have proof (a barrage of sent emails is always good). You don’t want to jump the gun on something like this, as it could ruin relationships you have with these people and/or embarrass your boss at the same time. For example, trying one email is simply not enough. Also, trying a single phone call is also not enough. Two to three emails, a few phone calls, this qualifies as a solid effort in normal circumstances. If you are under a time crunch, then you may want to elevate sooner.

3.) How many areas does it affect? - This is another huge question: Is the issue holding up progress in other areas of your project? Obviously, the more areas of your project that this problem touches the larger the impact it will have on your overall problems. If a particular issue is causing setbacks in multiple other areas, it may need to be elevated immediately in order to resolve it quickly. Even if you could resolve it on your own in say one or two days, you can’t have multiple people sitting idle for this long. Determining the impact of an issue is key to figuring out whether or not you need to elevate it now.

These are just three ways that I use to identify whether or not an issue should be elevated. Definitely add the factors specific to your project when trying to make this decision.