Recording issues

Record issues, control gaps or exceptions you have identified in a project.

Tip

If you need to add large numbers of issues to Projects, you can bulk upload issues. For more information, see Bulk importing issues.

How it works

You can add issues, and the context for why they were captured, in a project.

Adding an issue involves recording basic information about the issue and assigning the issue to an owner. Once you assign the issue to an owner, the owner receives an email notification with a link to the issue, and is able to update the issue.

Note

If an issue is assigned and then published, those with a Professional or Oversight role will get duplicate notifications: one when the issue is assigned to them, and another when the issue is published. Those with a Contributor role are only notified once the issue has been published.

Example

Recording an issue

Scenario

You need to capture an issue as a result of identifying that disaster recovery protocols are not coordinated within an organization.

Process

You open your Cybersecurity Review project, click the Issues tab, and click Add Issue to capture the issue.

Result

You record the issue as follows:

  • Title/Headline Disaster recovery protocols not coordinated
  • Description There is no coordinated ITDR documentation for effective response to major incidents, such as large scale damage to the infrastructure hosted within the server room (known internally as G1). We would typically expect a recovery sequence to be in place defining a logical technical recovery order of IT systems in priority order taking account of dependencies with other systems. This may include interfaces to other applications and IT infrastructure services such as active directory.
  • Owner IT Director
  • Issue Type Management Recommendation
  • Date Identified February 10, 2020
  • Severity Medium
  • Published Published
  • Recommendation Develop a recovery sequence for a major incident occurring at either of the main server rooms to coordinate recovery of IT systems against worst case scenarios.

Permissions

Professional Managers and Professional Users can create, update, and delete any issues in a project.

Oversight Executives, Oversight Reviewers, and Contributor Managers have read access to published issues.

Contributor Testers can create issues and have read access to published issues they have been assigned. Contributor Users only have read access to published issues they have been assigned.

Navigate to the issues area

There are several ways to add and update issues. How you reach the appropriate area depends on what you want to do.

Notes

  • Interface terms are customizable, and fields and tabs are configurable. In your instance of Diligent One, some terms, fields, and tabs may be different.
  • If a required field is left blank, you will see a warning message: This field is required. Some custom fields may have default values.

If a project involves fieldwork, this is usually the best option.

By associating issues with an aspect of your fieldwork (an objective, narrative, risk control matrix, risk, control, walkthrough, test plan, or testing round), those issues are displayed elsewhere in Diligent One. For example, when you create issues in an objective, those issues are aggregated as part of assurance in Strategy and assurance in Projects. When you create issues on controls, those issues appear in Control X-Ray and help auditors familiarize themselves with a control based on previous testing failures.

  1. Open the Projects app.

    The Projects homepage opens.

  2. Open a project.

    The project dashboard opens.

  3. Click the Fieldwork tab, navigate to the page where you want to associate the issue, and clickIssues in the Utility Toolbar.
  4. After the Issues side panel opens, click the + Add Issue button.
  5. Continue to Enter basic issue information.

If a project does not involve fieldwork, this might be the best option. However, these issues do not display as part of assurance in Strategy and assurance in Projects, and do not appear in Control X-Ray or Procedure X-Ray.

  1. Open the Projects app.

    The Projects homepage opens.

  2. Open a project.

    The project dashboard opens.

  3. Click the Issues tab and click Add Issue.
  4. Continue to Enter basic issue information.

  1. Open the Projects app.

    The Projects homepage opens.

  2. Open a project.

    The project dashboard opens.

  3. Click the Fieldwork tab, navigate to the page where the issue was created, and click Issues in the Utility Toolbar.
  4. After the Issues side panel opens, click Edit in the Issues side panel.
  5. Continue to Enter basic issue information.
Tip

You can also update issues by opening the Issue Tracker app, applying any filters to locate the issue, and clicking Details next to the issue you want to update.

  1. Open the Projects app.

    The Projects homepage opens.

  2. Open a project.

    The project dashboard opens.

  3. Click the Issues tab and click the issue name.
  4. Continue to Enter basic issue information.
Tip

You can also update issues by opening the Issue Tracker app, applying any filters to locate the issue, and clicking Details next to the issue you want to update.

Enter basic issue information

Complete the following fields and save the information. The order of fields may differ based on where in the Projects app you are working with the issue.

Note

Rich text fields cannot exceed 524,288 characters.

Tip

To enable spell check on rich text fields, do one of the following:

  • Chrome, Firefox, or Safari CTRL + right-click within the field on Windows or Command + right-click on Mac
  • Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge open your browser settings and turn on spell check / highlighting of misspelled words
Field Description

Title/Headline

optional

 the title of the issue

The maximum length is 255 characters.
Description

a detailed description of the issue
Owner

specifies the person responsible for the issue

  • If you specify a user that has been added to the Diligent One instance, the person receives an email notifying them that they have been assigned the issue if the issue is published. If the issue is not published, the person receives this email when the issue is published.
    Note

    When you bulk upload issues and specify a Diligent One user's email in the Owner field, the person is also automatically assigned the issue in the Projects app. However, the person does not receive an email notification about the issue assignment.

  • If you specify a name or email of a person that has not been added to the Diligent One instance, the person's name or email displays in the field, but the person is not automatically assigned the issue and notified via email.
Issue Type

specifies the classification of the issue, such as "Deficiency", "Significant Deficiency", "Material Weakness", or "Management Recommendation"

Date Identified

specifies the date when the issue was identified

Severity

optional

specifies the intensity of the issue, such as "High", "Medium", or "Low"

Published

optional

specifies whether the issue is visible to all users (Published), or hidden from users assigned the Contributor Tester, Contributor User, Oversight Executive, and Oversight Reviewer roles (Not Published). Issues must be published before Diligent One notifies the owner.

Issues must be published to appear in Strategy when risks are linked to objectives. For more information, see Defining risk treatment.

Recommendation

optional

the recommended actions to be taken based on the issue

Custom Issue attributes

optional

a maximum of 10 custom attribute fields associated with the issue

Project Admins and Project Type Admins can define custom attributes for issues under Manage project types.

Enter detailed issue information

If you have the Add Issue or Edit Issue side panel open, click Show More to enter information in the following fields and save the information, or simply fill in the fields if you are on the Issue Details page.

The order of fields may differ based on where in the Projects app you are working with the issue.

Field Description

Issue ID

optional

the numeric, alphabetic, or alpha-numeric identifier for the issue

The maximum length is 255 characters.

Executive Owner

optional

specifies the executive owner of the issue

  • If you specify a user that has been added to the Diligent One instance, the person receives an email notifying them that they have been assigned the issue.
    Note

    When you bulk upload issues and specify a Diligent One user's email in the Executive Owner field, the person is also automatically assigned the issue in the Projects app. However, the person does not receive an email notification about the issue assignment.

  • If you specify a name or email of a person that has not been added to the Diligent One instance, the person's name or email displays in the field, but the person is not automatically assigned the issue and notified via email.

Project Owner

optional

specifies the project owner of the issue

  • If you specify a user that has been added to the Diligent One instance, the person receives an email notifying them that they have been assigned the issue.
    Note

    When you bulk upload issues and specify a Diligent One user's email in the Project Owner field, the person is also automatically assigned the issue in the Projects app. However, the person does not receive an email notification about the issue assignment.

  • If you specify a name or email of a person that has not been added to the Diligent One instance, the person's name or email displays in the field, but the person is not automatically assigned the issue and notified via email.

Risk / Impact

optional

the description of the risk or the impact the issue will have

Scope

optional

the extent to which the issue affects the organization, such as "Local" or "Global"

Escalation Level

optional

the person, department, or organizational body that this issue should be brought to, such as "Owner", "Executive", or "Board"

Cause

optional

what caused the issue to occur

Effect

optional

the effect the issue will have on the organization

Executive Summary

optional

a high level overview of the issue that typically summarizes information from other related fields, such as risk/impact, cause, and effect

Cost Impact

optional

the estimate or actual monetary cost associated with the issue

Save an issue or add another issue

If you are... Do this:
adding an issue from the Add Issue side panel
  • To save the issue and close the form, click Save and Close.
  • To save the issue and add another issue, click Save and Add Another.
updating an issue from the Edit Issue side panel
  • To save the issue and close the form, click Save and Close.
  • To go to the Issue Details page, click More Information.
updating an issue from the Issue Details page

Changes are saved automatically. You can click the Issues tab and click Add Issue to create another issue.

Optional. Tag an issue to entities or view history

From the Issue Details page, do the following:

  • Entity Coverage Tag an issue to one or more entities for reporting purposes.

    Note

    Only Professional Managers and Professional Users can tag an issue with an entity by clicking Show content and selecting each entity to associate with the issue. Changes are automatically saved.

  • History View a complete history of field-level changes that have been made to the issue.

Add multiple issues

For information about adding multiple issues at once, see Bulk importing issues.

Delete an issue

Caution

Deleting an issue permanently removes the issue and any associated actions from the project. Once deleted, you cannot access or restore the issue or actions.

  1. Do one of the following:

    Delete an issue from a single project

    1. Open the Projects app.

    2. Open the project that contains the issue.
    3. Click the Issues tab, and click the issue name.

    Delete issues from different projects

    1. Open the Issue Tracker app.
    2. Click Details next to the issue.
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Delete Issue.
  3. Click OK in the confirmation dialog box.

    Result The issue and any associated actions are permanently deleted.