When You Assume …
What you don’t know can hurt you.
What you think you know can hurt you too.
I once heard an experienced project manager assert that a project could have infinite resources. Why did he think that? He’d taken a training course where the instructor said it was so. When it comes to project management, we should examine our assumptions periodically to decide if they are building blocks or mental blocks.
The 10 assumptions are:
1.People will know how to find your website
2.People know what you sell
3.Everything will go as planned
4.People know where to click
5.People know how to get home
6.People know where they are
7.People know how to buy
8.People will volunteer loads of personal information
9.People will contact customer service if they have a question or problem
10.People will come back
The key takeaway from the article is: never assume. In other words, you should not design your website based on assumptions. Just because you behave in a certain way, it does not imply that other people will do so, too. This is an interesting topic and I will be covering it soon in a more in-depth post. Stay tuned!
Context is king. The correct answer to pretty much every question in project management is: “It depends.” A more precise answer needs context. For example, I have heard many people assert that “no activity should require more than 40 hours of effort” without noting that this guidance is intended for activities performed by professional staff working at least half-time on a project that is reporting status weekly.
Change requests should be cause for celebration. When your customer or client asks for something new or different, it means that they are actually involved in the project. It means that they care about the project, that they are still interested in it, and that they are still planning on using the product of the project.
Variances from plan should be greeted with pleasure and joy. When there are variances, you know that there’s a good chance people are telling you the truth. Since we know that no non-trivial project ever goes exactly according to plan, variances mean that we are living in the real world rather than building castles in the sky. I was once called upon to provide expert project management testimony in a lawsuit, and I reviewed a plan that had over 600 activities that had been completed with zero variance. Yet this same project was more than 4,000 hours over budget because of “unplanned work.” A few pointed questions revealed that the bulk of the overrun was not unplanned work in the sense of omitted activities, but rather 600 rather small budget overruns.
The team should develop the plan. Many project managers disappear into their cubicle and emerge with the plan held high like Moses descending from the Mount. Not a good idea. Involving the team — and the customer, sponsor, or user when possible — in the development of the project plan will not only produce a better plan, it will also help to ensure understanding of and commitment to that plan.
