Play Now: Need Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam training? Here is affordable PMP exam prep on your phone, tablet or PC: Beth Spriggs and Cornelius Fichtner This interview about assumptions in project management with Beth Spriggs was recorded at the 2016 PMI Global Congress in San Diego, California. We discuss her paper and presentation The Risky Business of Assumptions - Uncovering the Truth, as We Assume It to Be. Here is the abstract: We all hold assumptions, then make decisions and take actions based on those assumptions without verifying their validity. Worse is when other people hold assumptions about our work and we don’t know it. This can impact user adoption, timeline, scope, quality, and overall project success. Not to mention personal frustration, stress, and desires to pull out one’s own hair. Unchecked assumptions can be very dangerous in the workplace. We should be mindful of some common assumptions and actively work to uncover assumptions. Doing so will bolster project work and open up new paths for identifying risks. Some project assumption examples that Beth introduces us to are assuming a project or task is easier or faster than it actually is, assuming priorities are aligned and haven't changed, and assuming who owns, or is responsible for, what. Very importantly the paper and discussion also include a section about uncovering assumptions. Here, Beth offers us 5 ideas on how to develop and expand our project assumptions list. PDU Tip This interview is 23 minutes long. This means that you can "legally" only claim 0.25 PDUs for listening to it. However... if you first listen to the interview and then also read the white paper on which it is based, then you can go ahead and claim 0.50 PMP PDUs! Click to download the white paper Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner:  Welcome back everyone to the Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com . We are coming to you live from the hallways of the sunny San Diego Convention Center here in Southern California. We are at the 2016 PMI Global Congress and standing with me at the perfectly nice table today is Beth Spriggs.    Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner:   Hello, Beth. Beth Spriggs:   Hello.     Cornelius:   Good afternoon. Have you already delivered your presentation? Beth:   I have. Cornelius:   Oh! How was it? Did they kick you out? Beth:   It was great. It was great. I had a full room, lot of engagements, good conversations and I always love it when the class teaches me more than I feel like I’ve taught them. Cornelius:   That’s always the case, isn’t it? Beth:   Yeah. Cornelius:   Your topic is the risky business of Assumptions—uncovering the truth as we assume it to be. What interests you in assumptions that you decided, “Ok, I’m going to write about this and I’m going to speak about this”. Beth:   I think it’s that we don’t talk about them because they’re assumed. And by their very definition, it’s not something we talk about. I’m trying to bring it up to the forefront of our attention so that we do think about it, talk about it, discuss it and realize the implications so we can do something about it. Because most of the time it’s just in the back of our mind. We don’t even think to bring it up. Cornelius:   I don’t want to assume that everybody knows so let me ask you this: “What is an assumption?” Beth:   An assumption is a truth, a belief, it is something that we believe is true, whether it is or not, it doesn’t have to be true but in our minds, we believe it is true. It very rarely is communicated, usually we don’t t