The Five W’s of the Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam
Project Management can be seen as a broad range of techno-managerial activities. Due to the wide range of uses for PM, it is vital to make it inclusive. In order to improve the quality of Project Management Processes and the products/services created, utilizing these processes, one approach to achieve this is to widen its knowledge base by incorporating new tools and techniques and utilisation of quality management tools and processes, however, it does not appear to have garnered the merited attention from those working on the projects, at least in retrospect. There could be a number of causes, from a lack of tools, procedures, standards, or general awareness for individuals to utilise quality management techniques, to PMP people not knowing how to use quality management in projects, either intentionally or unintentionally (or both).
One strategy with good potential for usage in PM for resolving issues is known by the name 5Ws 1H. This technique was developed with the purpose of fostering additional thought and proposing some new tools/techniques.
5W’s Explained: 5Ws stand for What, Why, When, Where, and Who.
What: Pondering What starts the process of understanding the fundamentals of the situation, topic, or problem at hand. It involves conceptually mapping the issue, problem, or scenario’s scope.
Why: behind the problem, issue, or circumstance in question is part of the “Why” question. It seeks to pinpoint the causes and provides an explanation for why a problem or issue arises.
When: This component focuses on putting a time stamp on when an issue or problem first appeared. Knowing when something happened could make it easier to sequence the causes and effects of the problem.
Where: This element is used to identify the location or site of occurrence and may be useful in locating individuals or other objects that may have been present or existing at that location at the time of the issue or problem.
Who: The purpose of this is to identify individuals who may be directly or indirectly responsible for the issue or problem?
A scenario based on project management is used to teach the five Ws.
We analyse a situation when a software development team discovers that, contrary to what was initially believed, the technology they are using is not fully compatible with the client’s existing systems. In order to comprehend the issue and the scope of its effects, the project team may want to use 5Ws.
- What: In order to understand the core issue and its breadth, the team can ask the following questions.
- What kind of technologies do we employ when developing software?
- What technologies were taken into account at the beginning of this development project?
- What was known about the client’s installed system(s)?
- What checks and verifications were made to ensure that the technology being developed was compatible with existing client systems and that the deployment of new technology was acceptable?
- Why: To gain a more detailed knowledge of the issue and to identify potential causes or drivers, the project team may use “Why” questions. Some of the possible inquiries include:
- Why wasn’t this issue discovered earlier or at the beginning of the project?
- Why can’t technologies be made to work together?
- Why couldn’t the issue be found by quality assurance procedures?
- Why couldn’t the project team or the professionals working on it identify the issue?
- When: Project Team Members can date events and understand the connections between different events that may have caused the creation of an incompatibility issue by using “When” queries.
- When was the issue originally discovered?
- When was the information and architecture of the client system(s) evaluated?
- When was the mapping and discussion of compatibility issues?
- When were compatibility testing conducted and found to be acceptable?
- When was an impact analysis of incompatibility performed?
- When was the client informed or the issue was brought up?
- Where: The project team can better understand the problem’s root cause(s) by asking “Where” questions. Some possible questions are as follows:
- Which client system(s) are present where?
- What cities do development teams work in?
- Where do quality control and testers work?
- Where is the system compatibility documentation stored?
- Who: The project team might conduct interviews to determine who is responsible for the problem. Some inquiries that might be made are:
- Who is in charge of making sure the project team is technologically compatible?
- Who is in charge of the project team’s data collection and client system mapping?
- Who is in charge of approving design and change management?
- Who is in charge of giving the project team information on the customer system(s) and technical specifics?
Conclusion:
To address the rise in project management processes, integrating new tools and approaches should be a continuous process. Techniques regarding problem-solving approach and quality management in particular could enhance the general efficacy of project delivery. The 5Ws technique is straightforward, makes sense, and may be applied with little expense to the project. A regular application could encourage project teams to develop a natural tendency toward a problem-solving approach. It’s crucial to remember that the list of questions provided above is merely meant to serve as an example and is in no way exhaustive or complete.
