4 Critical Things to Know About Assumptions

The purpose of this article is to understand key aspects of managing assumptions.  

Assumptions are project pieces covered when building the charter in Step 1, INITIATE and RATIONALIZE, but are under the LEAD domain and Motive segment in the MPM model.

Assumptions are under the LEAD domain and Motive segment in the MPM model

Assumptions are a key part of the Project Charter

The charter contains initial assumptions based on what is known at the time, and if there is a business case prepared prior to starting the project charter those assumptions can be rolled forward into the project charter.

Start with the Charter High-Level Set

Your project charter starts with a high-level set of assumptions, maybe 6 to 10.

These most likely cover assumptions about financials, deliverables, your schedule, and the expertise that is available to help you when you need it.

That may be all you need, and for many smaller projects that has sufficed for me.

However, if the solution to your project purpose needs some analysis once the project starts that could lead to a choice between several different paths, then you may need to update those assumptions after some deliverables are completed.

It’s Your Perspective at That Time

When you create the project charter, the content in each of the sections is based on your high-level knowledge at that time.  

Assumptions are based on what you know at a point in time

We get so ensconced in our own perspective that sometimes we forget that it is just that, our window into the world at that particular time.

Your assumptions when creating the charter can be based on:

• Technology that you think is available for options to achieve your project purpose
• Technical experience available to help you
• Leadership for a particular area is available, such as for a customer group, 
• Deliverables that can be created in the time and budget available
• Financials are available, either capital or operational
• You can even assume that you think the technology will work a certain way, but then add a deliverable early on to test that to ensure that it does perform as expected

You can create an Assumption Log

If your assumptions are going to be changing dramatically based on the first few deliverables in your plan, this may merit an actual spreadsheet where you log your assumptions.

As the project gets into greater detail and uncovers at a greater depth, what can and cannot be done with what is available, you can add these to the Assumptions Log.

For your Assumptions log, it can be fairly simple as in the template below.

Project Assumptions Template

• ID provides a unique sequential identifier for easy reference.  This could just be an incrementing number or you could have an alpha on the front that reflects the type as well, but that might be overkill.
• Label is several words that can be included in documents or correspondence that represent the assumption
• Description is of course a more detail definition of the Assumption
• Type can be related to the project management items such as: schedule, milestones, approach, capital expenses, operational expenses, budget, requirements, etc.

Summary

Your project charter starts with a handful of high-level assumptions.  

For many smaller projects that may be adequate, but for larger projects assumptions can change as the knowledge about the solution develops as the project proceeds.

The project assumptions could be changing dramatically based on the outcome of some initial deliverables then it may be beneficial to create an Assumptions log to capture that detail as it develops and then you can circulate this, as necessary, to key stakeholders or team members.

Action Steps / Apply This Knowledge

1. Review your current project assumptions and make sure there is at least one for each of the broader areas of your project such as financials, objectives, schedule and so on.
2. If your deliverables have affected some of the initial assumptions from when the project started, create a spreadsheet using the template above and save it as your Assumptions Log, and add the original assumptions plus the new ones.
3. If you have created an Assumptions log from when your project started or you have updated it recently, it might be worthwhile to include as an attachment on the next issue of your Status Report.
4. Prompt engineering guidance for AI GPTs such as chatGPT: “I’m a business leader launching a project whose purpose is Y, and delivering X. What are some assumptions I need to consider when writing a very brief 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

LEAD – Managing Assumptions 

© Simple PM Strategies 2024