Curiosity is an extremely valuable trait for anyone to possess. It’s crucial to the learning process and is the driving force behind exploration and discovery. It helps us to learn and gain an understanding of the world around us. It drives us to ask questions and seek answers. It’s also a project manager’s best friend.

Being curious by way of asking questions is a large portion of a project manager’s job. As you saw in my last post, knowing the physical equipment is crucial to the implementation of a new solution. Getting clear on that part, or any part of a project, requires you to dig for information.

If you think about it, the first thing you do when you hear about a new project is to ask a question and get more details about the basics of the project. As you start prepping you should be increasing the number of questions you’re asking. It truly is the only way to get clarity in your project plan and Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

I know, you’re amazed at the epiphany: ask questions. “Wow, Ryan, you’ve found the Holy Grail of project management!” Stick with me for a couple more minutes.

It's not that people don’t inherently know to ask simple questions: It’s easier to start making assumptions about what you know than to look for holes in your plan. Either that or you feel that what you are doing is simple. Finding a missing piece in the plan is the PM’s job. From the moment you get a scope of work, start walking through each piece and ask how it’s going to happen. When you get an answer, ask other questions about that answer.

Here's a simple Q&A session that you could have with yourself or others on the team:

Q: When is the team going to be onsite to start installing equipment?

A: Saturday evening at 6PM.

Q: Where are the parts located?

A: At the client’s site.

Q: Has anyone validated these parts are actually there and taken a full inventory?

A: Yes, we’ve laid eyes on and accounted for everything.

Well, that’s a relief! You now know that when the team arrives to do the implementation using your solid plan that all the parts are there and things are ready to go. Fast forward to Saturday night, everyone shows up a little early to get situated. Immediately, you realize you didn’t ask a necessary question.

Q: Are the parts being kept in a room that we have access to, afterhours, on a Saturday.

A: Nope, that room is locked up tighter than Fort Knox and access on a Saturday is impossible.

Inevitably you will feel like someone should have said something. Clearly someone must have known about this room’s access. While both sentiments are likely true, it was the Project Manager’s job to keep digging. Project Managers should dig until there is zero chance of your project stalling due to access issues.

The only way I know how to minimize these issues is to keep asking questions, even when it “goes without saying”. Doing this will enable you to uncover those hidden "gotchas" buried deep in a project. Looking for areas to ask questions should be easy, but we often make assumptions, without realizing that we’re doing it. The result is that we blow past areas in a project plan that needed extra scrutiny.

I wish I could tell you that this becomes less of an issue as you handle more projects. That somehow the whole team will get used to your incessant question asking. That they will have everything ready when they submit their piece of the WBS for review/inclusion in the plan. It doesn’t. And while they may be used to your question asking, there will never come a time where those questions aren’t necessary. That’s not their fault or yours. It’s because walking through a plan alone or with a team or both is a great way to uncover the unknowns. It's necessary to uncover the areas where our assumptions crept in and tried to setup camp.

So, get curious & stay curious. Ask the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How for everything. It might already be in the plan, but double check. Think about the details & talk about the details, often. Happy PM’ing!