2 Revealing Things About Assumptions for Your Project

The purpose of this blog post is to cover creating a list of assumptions to help you and your stakeholders towards a clearer view of your project. 

In the MPM model, Assumptions are covered in the LEAD domain, under the Motive segment.

Assumptions are in the LEAD domain under Motive

Assumptions Help Reveal a Clearer Path 

Listing assumptions can be very revealing about your particular bias, because for each of us, once we have our eye on a target or specific purpose, might only see our end goal and forget the conditions or boundaries that we are assuming are there to reach that goal.

We might have spent so much time thinking about the end state and all of the obstacles we have to avoid and the true directions we have to head in, that we have forgotten what we already learned and what those obstacles are.

Examples of assumptions include:

• There are no additional product licensing costs
• Project team members identify with roles are available for the time required to complete their tasks
• Business teams prioritize their time to meet the business area milestones agreed to with the project team
• The pilot team is available to implement the solution when the pilot is scheduled

Documenting assumptions can reveal our blind spots 

These are just some examples and they can be more granular and also more general.  Often the project manager has already considered these assumptions.  But they were filed away and forgotten

The important thing is to get them out of the project manager’s head and record them so they can be understood by all stakeholders.

Reveal 1:  You already thought of that

One thing about an assumption, is that once it has occurred to us as managers managing the project, we may attempt to see a way through it, satisfy ourselves that we have covered it, and then we don’t spend time thinking about it again.

Those items we forgot about, which are boundaries to a successful project, maybe are not static and might be changing and causing a risk to our project.

Assumptions may have already been considered and then forgotten

The need to understand them and keep an eye on them hasn’t changed, but if the assumption itself is changing then it needs to be reviewed and understood again to ensure a successful project.

To ensure our assumptions are kept in mind, so they do not negatively impact the project, it is important to clearly articulate those so they can be reviewed and tested by your stakeholders.

Reveal 2: Obsession with the happy path

We sometimes get blind to our assumptions because we focus on the “happy path”, or “perfect path.”  In other words, all we can see is the end goal if everything works out perfectly according to our assumptions.  

Assumptions can reveal our bias towards the happy path

However, some of those assumptions are constantly changing and we may need to re-evaluate them.  Focusing only on the happy path blinds us to issues that may be occurring and that is what your stakeholders can help with.

Creating the list of assumptions can be kind of revealing about your perspectives and biases.  

Another way to think about assumptions is your project purpose is a statement about what you expect to be true at some point in the future.  In order for that statement to be true, what events, conditions, ideas, or occurrences are you expecting to be in place for that statement to be true? Those are your assumptions.

Sometimes assumptions overlap the in-scope and out-of-scope statements, but that is acceptable.

Just ensure you take your mindset out of the happy path for a moment and identify anything that you may have thought of that could be lurking to prevent your project’s success and make them visible to your stakeholders to get others helping you review and test those assumptions. 

Summary

Assumptions are your statements about the things and conditions that need to be in place for your project to succeed.

As managers leading projects, we may have already thought about assumptions and then forgotten them, or we may be so obsessed with the happy path that we don’t remember the conditions we expect for that to occur.

Documenting and sharing the assumptions with our stakeholders can protect the project from our biases and from conditions occurring that can create obstacles to our project’s success.

Action Steps / Apply This Knowledge

1. Review your list of assumptions and add any that you may have forgotten that you already considered.
2. Think about your project from the non-happy-path or pessimistic perspective and add any assumptions that come to mind.
3. Ensure the stakeholders have reviewed and had an opportunity to comment on your assumptions, as they may have others to add that can help you with your project’s successful path.
4. Prompt engineering guidance for AI GPTs such as chatGPT: “I’m a business leader launching a project whose motivation is Y, with the intent of delivering X. What are some assumptions I should consider when writing the charter?”

Learn More to Do More

Business evolves through change initiatives otherwise known as projects. The key to managing these change initiatives so you have more time, and less stress is to use simple strategies and tools.

Check out the Learning Hub’s other Articles with Actionable Steps, organized with a busy leader in mind, by topic or main idea, and with some AI GPT (e.g. ChatGPT) prompt engineering suggestions under the Action steps: https://simplepmstrategies.com/learning-hub-index 

INITIATE – Reveals About Assumptions 

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