Questions, Questions and More Questions

Must read

MS
MShttps://dittodigital.co.uk
The author spent the first part of her career working in IT and IT Project Management in the oil industry and investment banking on complex global projects involving the management of outsourced project teams. She now runs a digital marketing company with particular expertise in technical SEO and Content Marketing.

I have previously written an article about the importance of a project manager asking in-depth questions at the outset of a project and how knowing which questions to ask and, more importantly, how to elicit clear, detailed answers is critical to the success of a project. The article lists 20 questions all project manager should ask but recognises that this is just a starting point and a project manager should aim to get into the habit of asking searching questions about every aspect of a project from initiation right through to the final delivery stage.

But, of course, asking searching questions of often easier said than done – it takes a certain amount of tact and diplomacy to approach senior executives with a list of questions and project managers can often feel that continued, detailed questioning reflects less a desire for the project to be a success than of the project manager’s own lack of understanding. There will certainly be some senior managers who see it this way but if you explain the importance of the questioning, hopefully, the response will be different.

But a project manager should also recognise, with tact, that elusive answers are often the result of a lack of full understanding on the part of the people expected to know the answers. There may not be enough detail in the answers simply because nobody understands the area well enough but no-one will admit it!

It could also be that people do not know exactly what is expected of them so supplying examples about the type of answer expected may help to define your expectations as the project manager.

One of the areas that most commonly cause problems in projects because of a lack of documented detail is the assumptions that have been made. By their very nature they are difficult to elicit from people because of the very fact that they are rarely considered or thought about. And whether assumptions are made about areas of responsibility, business knowledge or what the business objectives and expected benefits of a project are, all assumptions are likely to create real problems within a project as it progresses.

So developing a questioning nature is a very useful project management skill and if you make an effort to explain the importance of a seeming barrage of questions and tactfully assist people to provide detailed answers it is likely to lead to more consistently successful project delivery, which is bound to have a positive effect on your career.

- Advertisement -spot_img

More articles

- Advertisement -spot_img

Project management has developed into a fully-fledged chartered profession since the granting of the Royal Charter in the UK to The Association for Project Management (APM) in 2017. Training courses for project managers were already available and highly popular to help people gain professional project management accreditation, but with this wider recognition of the profession it is now seen as a desirable career path for many. Whilst the APM has the coveted Royal Charter and continues to develop its APM PMQ (formerly the APMP) programmes, there are also other internationally recognised qualifications that continue to be highly regarded such as PMP and PRINCE2.

Organisations have become increasingly project-focused in this era of rapidly emerging new technologies and they value the expertise that comes with experienced and fully qualified project teams and managers. By investing in their project management capability businesses can be confident of delivering their new projects in time and on budget more often and more successfully. Many major corporation are now training their people to have the right project management qualifications as well as relevant experience, through internal Learning & Development (L&D) programmes; or by using external project management training providers.

Latest articles