I've been writing about "dumb" questions. While compiling the list of 45 reader questions I got thinking, why would someone not ask a question? Engaged people, in whatever they are doing, tend to be curious. Does it follow that people not asking questions, dumb or not-so-dumb, are just not engaged?

Have you voted on the Top 42 Not-So-Dumb Project Questions? Please do so now.

Get everyone involved in satisfying the needs of the customer

On further reflection I remembered a very short article in Industry Week (IW) by Ralph Keller. Ralph is the President of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME). He has a monthly column he calls Continuous Improvement. In December 2008 he wrote Engaging the Hearts and Minds of Your Employees. Ralph makes a very familiar case:

Failure to win over the hearts and minds of all of your people will result in less-than-desired results, and will not achieve the sustainable continuous improvement efforts that conditions today demand in order for companies to succeed.

He describes a few of the successful approaches.

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Time to help me select the top 42 not-so-dumb project management questions. I created a Squidoo lens that has a great vote up, vote down tool that will let the readers arrange the list in their order. You don't need to be a Squidoo member to vote. You can even add to the list. So, go to Not-So-Dumb Project Management Questions to vote.

I'm not planning to keep it up very long, so get over there now! …please

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My last post created some interest and a little controversy. I don't think there are any dumb questions among team members. As the cliche goes, only the un-asked questions are dumb. Projects go much better when there is a free exchange among the participants. We all know this. Yet, for whatever reasons, usually having to do with fear, people often fail to ask when something looks unusual. Enron, Madoff, AIG…these tragedies in some way all involve people failing to ask questions.

Help generate a list of great dumb project management questions

I proposed 10 questions that are worth asking on our projects. The list was my list. Not scientific. No survey. Just based on my experience working on projects. A number of people left comments proposing other questions. Some sent me emails. So, let's try something together. I'm getting a book ready based on my project e-tips. It's in editing. I'm not sure when it will be published, although I have it on the front burner. What if we make my list of 10 dumb project management questions your list, but bigger? Let's see if we can generate a list of 42 really good dumb PM questions. (I'll tell you later why 42.) I'm looking for at least another 32 good dumb questions. Once I have a bunch, then I'll create a survey where you can vote up or down the questions. The top 42 will get published.

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Cliches become cliches because there's so much truth in them that they are spoken so frequently. We've all heard, "The only dumb question is the one you didn't ask." But, do you? Ask, that is? Or like most of us at some time or another, are you as afraid as me to look stupid in front of others? Thought so.

Dumb questions are good project controls.

Seth Freeman, writing in USA Today, 1-13-2009, says Ask the 'dumb' questions.

"Danger," he says, "lies in the fear of asking questions. That fear is helping to ruin people and destroy our economy."

Wow. He blames investors (and the SEC?) for Bernie Madoff's long-running Ponzi scheme. One question is all anyone need ask, "What were the trades that allowed you to make money regardless of how the market moved?" Any large fund exercising due diligence and prudence on behalf of its members should have asked that question and deserved an answer. Even the SEC could have asked that question and got an answer. But no one risked asking that dumb question? So what does this have to do with projects? Dumb questions are good project controls. So, let's look at some of the dumb questions we need to ask.

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In the spring of 2003 I started some serious thinking about project (management) controls. Greg Howell had done some writing about it indicating that the usual practices he observed created a pressurized situation for the project participants. Since the PMI has updated the PMBoK® 3 times and they still separate planning, execution and control. So I'm going to do a little more writing on project controls. But first, I'll take you back to one of my first posts on the subject. The following post was titled "The Future of Project Controls", appearing April 29, 2003. I made some small updates. Enjoy.

I'm somewhat hesitant to write about (project controls). This morning I received an email newsletter that included advice on How to give negative feedback properly. I can't say that John Reh's ten recommendations are either good or bad advice. Take a look…decide for yourself. It got me thinking about project controls.

When we announce we have negative feedback we create a break in the conversation and the relationship.

Let's look more closely at what is meant by "negative feedback". When we say, "I have negative feedback," what does that mean? It might mean, "I don't like you and I'm gonna tell you why." It could mean, "I have seen negative consequences and I attribute them to your actions." This might be getting closer. At the heart of it negative feedback is about failing to meet a standard of performance. That standard could be stated or only implied. When we announce we have negative feedback we create a break in the conversation and the relationship. It's an unusual or extraordinary event.

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Claude Emonde writes the weblog Surviving the Project Age at Project Times. He recently finished a four-part series on the Rules of Lean Project Management. Overall, he did a good job. Those of us who developed and teach the lean project approach don't refer to these ideas as rules. For us, we tend to think about principles. But, Claude has done a good job.

Make your choices and commitments at the last responsible moment.

Let's take a look at Claude's four rules.

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Hard to imagine in the world of projects that anyone would ask the question "Why do deadlines matter?" However, in the world of politics and world conflicts the argument is front and center. We learned this week, President Bush just won his battle with the Democrats in Congress. There will be no deadlines in the funding bill for the war in Iraq. To my surprise, I opened the June issue of Business 2.0 turning to Jeffrey Pfeffer, Professor, Stanford University, to see his essay Why Deadlines Matter.(...)
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One of the reasons for trouble on projects is that people say Yes when asked to take on a task when they really should be saying No. This results in others who depend on the completion of that task to start their task failing to do so. Like dominoes toppling, the project schedule falls apart.

The Power of a Positive No, by William Ury is a primer in how to have a positive conversation where the result is No. In Ury's essay How I Got to No, he recounts his insight after meeting with Warren Buffett. The Oracle of Omaha said he says NO to a thousand investment opportunities before finding just the right one to say Yes to.(...)
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Article Series - Using Gantt Charts

1. Gantt, Earned Value, Critical Path, or Project Jazz?
2. What Has the Gantt Chart Done for You Lately?
3. How Are You Using Gantt Charts to Brief Project Teams?
4. Don’t Give Up on Gantt Charts Yet
5. Use a Gantt Chart as a Conversation Starter
6. Visiting Gantt Again with Apologies to Glen

Project constituents always have two big questions:

1. How is the project going?
2. When will we finish?

While the Gantt chart doesn't answer those two questions, it is a great conversation starter. The Gantt chart sets the context for engaging others to shape assessments about the project. A Gantt view quickly conveys a whole perspective — high level — of the work required and the work accomplished. Speaking with a Gantt helps you collect the attention of the people in the room. It is a prop for bringing focus to the project while aiding the participants to put aside their coming-in concerns. By the way, people expect to see a Gantt chart. Starting a project review or planning update without one might distract your participants.

The purpose of planning is getting that work done that should be done.

But you'll need more than the conversation starter if you intend to answer the two big questions. You'll also want to know how good your planning is. There are three easy-to-calculate measures of planning effectiveness (reliability). They are

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Article Series - Using Gantt Charts

1. Gantt, Earned Value, Critical Path, or Project Jazz?
2. What Has the Gantt Chart Done for You Lately?
3. How Are You Using Gantt Charts to Brief Project Teams?
4. Don’t Give Up on Gantt Charts Yet
5. Use a Gantt Chart as a Conversation Starter
6. Visiting Gantt Again with Apologies to Glen

Almost every project has a Gantt chart, but what is it doing for you? I ask the question with a sincere interest in how projects are better managed with Gantt charts. Is it a visual thing? Does it help you to steer the project? How does it aid you to stay in control? Alternatively, are their other tools that you rely on to manage your projects? Please leave your comments.

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Is project management even possible? David Schmaltz thinks not. He writes Why Project Managers Can't Manage Projects. Just read it…please…for your sake. It's Pure Schmaltz!

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The manufacturing world is quite familiar with the term "hidden factory"¹. It points to the extra resources — people, material, energy, tooling, etc. — that are required to rework and repair the variances coming from the production process.

Projects have plenty of variance. Much of it requires rework. Some work is inevitably scrapped. One source of rework results from work that gets out of sequence. One work step proceeds without the appropriate precedent tasks being completed. When the intended precedent task does complete the other task(s) must be reworked. Or, there's no budget available for rework, so someone on the team decides to make do. Or, there's no time available for rework, so someone decides to make do.

iSixSigma ran a cartoon today, Hidden Factory, that got me thinking about what we can do about the hidden project factory. I've been Unsettled About Variation before. While I ponder in my unsettlement, I want to get you thinking with me.

What do you systematically do on your projects to minimize the wastes associated with poor quality?

Please leave a comment. I'll write more about this throughout November.

1. Armand Feigenbaum introduced the idea that there is the equivalent of an additional factory hidden within a factory to handle the defects of production. Later, Jeffrey G. Miller and Thomas E. Vollmann popularized the idea in their paper for HBR. [ ⇑ back ]

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