Project Management Questions: 10 Questions to Get You Thinking

Since we're called PMThink, I thought I'd pose ten questions to ponder. These aren't proposals but simply questions to get you thinking.

Whether you are for, against, or indifferent to these issues, I encourage you to take the questions literally and think through them. You never know what ideas they may spur on...

1. What if there were no project managers, and instead teams had to figure out how to achieve the objectives and please the customer? What impact would that have on accountability?
   
2. What if we didn’t track cost at all and just focused on milestones, issues, and communication? What would be be the pros and cons? Does it depend on the size and nature of the project?
   
3. What is the cost of tracking cost? Can it be “guesstimated” at a “good enough “level? Are there cases where it can and cases where it can’t?
   
4. What if we didn’t track schedule, except from a high level, and again, just focused on milestones, issues, and communication? What would be the pros and cons? Does it depend on the size and nature of the project?
   
5. If we didn’t create a full schedule, what would be a good way to ensure that future scope and needs are considered during current planning and design? Are there easy ways to do that? Would checklists help?
   
6. What if we only created a full schedule for complex projects that needed it?
   
7. What if we projectized all planned work, no matter how small, so that everything was, or was part of, a project or program? Is there an advantage to that? Is there a downside?
   
8. What if project managers had to design and agree upon their own process and tools, and on how to meet the reporting needs of management? Would it resemble what is currently in place in most organizations? What if team members had to design and agree upon it instead?
   
9. Is a project manager’s PRIMARY role planning, customer care, or facilitating? Does it vary throughout the project lifecycle? Can they do all three on large projects or does it diminish their effectiveness?
   
10. What if the only project management tools we had were a Mindmapping tool and a Blackberry? What if we only had a Blackberry (or equivalent PDA)?

Talk amongst yourselves...