Don’t ASS U ME or you’ll make an ASS of U and ME !

Projects are about managing unknowns.

Indeed, if everything is known from day 1, then it’s not a project, it’s some kind of operational activity… that’s the first thing you learn in any basic project management course.

… and how do we deal with those unknows?

By building a proper project plan of course!?

… and how do we build this project plan?

By making estimations for scope, timelines, budget, resources and so on… but as we’ve not done it exactly the same before, we need to make assumptions.

And assumptions are hard to make as, as human beings, we don’t like to deal with uncertainty. So, we must force ourselves a bit, and we are usually not very good at formalizing those assumptions properly nor at validating them. This often leads to misalignments, misunderstandings… and ultimately drama in a number of cases.

Obviously, assumptions are not meant to be 100% accurate, but the closer they are to reality, the higher chance of project success. And in order to improve their accuracy, we need to be brave and sometimes admit that we don’t know… but the good news is that someone around us probably have the answer.

So, when in doubt, do not assume but dare to ask questions.

Do you agree?