How to Create the Best Issue Tracker Template
For those who need a better way to manage and resolve issues in their company and business, we recommend using an "Issue Tracker Template" to plan, manage, assign, track and report the progress of multiple issues.
An issue tracker template complies with all open tasks, tracks the progress of all project issues, and can be visualized with a dashboard, kanban board, and Gantt chart views. Also, it allows you to manage those issues with your team members in real time.
Through this article, you will learn how it is done and its functionality, and we will provide you some of the best issue-tracking templates that you can use to ease the making of your own.
What is An Issue Tracker
It is a vital tool for product and project management. You will need an easy way to give enough issue details, so you can queue up issues, keep tabs, and resolve them. And the Issue tracker provides that.
Your organization would need assurance that if you log any issues thoroughly and assign them to the right people, you will resolve them within a reasonable time. And choosing and making the right template will ensure you continue delivering quality products on time and keep customers happy.
Most issue tracker templates implement these metrics:
- ID/#: The unique identifying number of the issue for future reference.
- Issue or Title: It briefly describes the issue.
- Type: It is where all the details about the issue are included. Anyone reviewing the issue can easily have a clear glance at relevant factors, and development can fix the issue.
- Priority: Set the priority of the issue.
- Opened By: Who first encountered and reported the problem.
- Opened On: It explains the issue and the date where it occurred.
- Closed On: It provides the details and the date when the issue was closed.
- Close By: Who closed the issue once it was resolved.
- Notes: You can introduce any additional highlight related to the issue.
Why Should I Make a Template to Track Issues
Project managers need to differentiate beforehand between "risks" and "issues" of the project. With risk being something that may happen in the future, an issue in a project is problems that are going to happen very soon or problems that the project is currently facing.
You will have some time to manage risk. Meanwhile, an issue needs to be addressed as soon as possible. One of the better ways to manage project issues is with an Issue Tracker, so you can see what happened and how it is being dealt with in real time.
How you address these issues is as open-ended as the number of issues that may arise in the project (which would be another reason for you to collect these ideas and better manage issues). With a good template, you will ensure that everything you do is documented and have a clear visual representation of what is happening.
Excel Templates for Issue Tracking
Issue tracking doesn't need to be done only with specialized software. You can create your own and have the same great results with a Microsoft Excel template. That's what we are going to show you now, as there are many free templates that you can use and choose one that fits your need the best.
If you need an Excel CD key, don’t worry, as you can purchase one at a low cost from the RoyalCDKeys store. It comes with the whole Office 2021 package, the latest version of the program. This also means that you will have more than just Excel, as you will get Microsoft Word, Outlook, Access, PowerPoint, and more.
Basic Issue Tracker Template
If you want something very simple to track issues in your business, you can use an Excel template and download it for free from Project Manager.
Blank Simple Issue Tracking Excel Template
This blank, fully customizable, simple template is the standard for the project team's issue-reporting process. Project managers can quickly review each issue, define the risk for the project, and work with the development department to resolve it. Like the previous one, it provides all the necessary information tabs to fill.
You can get it for free from the Smartsheet website.
Project Management Issue Tracking Template
Among the many project management templates, this goes as simple and effective as anyone you could find. It is perfect for those that want a detailed tracking system for issues.
It offers a dashboard view to keep tabs on the details, allowing you to see the big picture. You will see how the information is divided between the project name, department, and owner, detail on the issues and their priority level, and their statuses.
This template is available for Excel on the Smartsheet website.
Advanced Issue Tracker Template
Let's go the other way around. We were providing simple templates, but some of you might want a bit more. With this tracker, you have everything settled on and much more. Not only are all the tabs already written down, but also each category comes color-coded for much better readability.
You can also use it as a bug-reporting template, as you have a page dedicated to that process. It provides tabs to state how the issue was resolved, together with contact information from the opener and the resolver.
To download this template provided by YouExec.com, you can open it with Google Sheets and select under the "File" drop-down menu the "Download" tab, where you will see the Excel option.
Issue Report Template
It is a comprehensive template especially designed for all the employees to use at your organization. You can simply view issues that may affect product quality and delivery time and track them in a simple dashboard format. It also provides sections for overdue issues and unassigned issues.
You can download it as an Excel spreadsheet from the Smartsheet website.
Best Practices For An Issue Tracking Template
Once you have downloaded any excel template provided above, there are a few practices that you should follow to improve your Issue Tracker.
Define Top Issues and Prioritize
Sort issues by type. You can name it however you want, but it should clearly state what issue the project team is dealing with.
Your fields should determine the priority levels, too, together with who can open a ticket, their statuses, and the stages of your workflow. The better if you can color-code the task list for a clear visual representation.
Visualize Key Metrics
As you saw previously, you will have plenty of styles to choose from. You should create a dashboard to make the issue tracker easier to read.
Once again, color-coding each issue, plus the charts and graphs you decided to use to illustrate the issue tracker template, will also help readability. Here, your team members can track progress on their individual tasks. On this issue tracker template, they can adjust their status, and they will provide accountability for the whole team. This will state how much progress was made on active tickets in real time.
Plan It With Your Team
Everyone should be on the same page. Even if reporters can be external customers who face issues or internal reporting from team members, it should be clear that everyone knows what is happening.
Key Takeaways
You have everything you need to know about "Issue Tracking Reports." It is pretty simple and effective to use, as it will organize your business much better, knowing how to handle any problem appearing on the way.
You may also use any of the templates provided, as they are all easy and viable shortcuts for a job that could be daunting for some to start from scratch.