Problem Management
1. The Questions

No significant project or policy decision should proceed without objective and substantive answers to the following questions.

These questions should normally be answered in the following order, but for learning purposes we will discuss them in reverse order (as numbered).

Fully understanding the answers to those questions provides several benefits.

Difficulty fully answering and understanding these questions for a specific project could indicate many things, including:

Whatever the reason, if you can't confidently answer all of those questions, there's a good chance that something is wrong with your proposal, something that will only get worse.


Historical note: after giving a public presentation of his plan for reorganizing his department, a new director was taken unawares and was totally unprepared to answer a combination of the first two questions: What problems were perceived in the current situation, and how does the proposed solution alleviate those problems? This double question is known as the Sellens Question, in honour of his now-former employee that dared to ask it.