Early in the initiation or planning phases of a project, the project manager should document all project assumptions. Frequently, the project assumptions are documented in the Charter or Statement of Work.
Before we discuss documenting assumptions, however, we should be sure that we understand what they are.
The American Heritage dictionary defines the word assumption to be:
Something taken for granted or accepted as true without proof; a supposition; a presumption.
Experienced project managers define assumptions in stronger language based on the root word assume, “Ass – u – me”, or assumptions will make an ass out of you and me.”
So, an assumption is something accepted as true without proof and has the potential of causing a great deal of embarrassment.
In practice, assumptions are bits of information that we assume to be true and upon which we build our project plans. Assumptions are frequently made on budgets, schedules, resources, clients and expectations without firsthand knowledge or confirmation. If we build our project plans on unconfirmed assumptions, we are placing our projects and our reputations at great risk.
That’s why we document all assumptions early in the project.
Assumptions are typically documented in one or more places. You can usually find project assumptions in the Project Charter, the Project Management Plan, or the project Statement of Work. You could also find the project assumptions documented in the project scope statement or even in a standalone document.
Your project methodology and/or personal preferences will provide guidance on the best place to document your assumptions.
Here are a few sample assumptions:
- John will be available to architect the solution
- The project team will have access to the building after normal working hours and weekends
- The client agreed to the schedule
- The contract included an escalation clause
- We are proceeding without a signed charter or contract