As every project (IT or non-IT) has risks that need to be addressed appropriately at right time for the successful execution of the project, same goes true with regards to assumptions. Invalid assumptions can really cause project failures not only in terms of budget and schedule overruns but also negatively impact future business prospects and revenue forecast. Now, it really makes us think, whether they can really cause that amount of damage to existing project or upcoming business prospects and if that is true, is there any approach that can minimize this impact caused by baseless assumptions?

As we all know, assumptions and constraints exist in all phases of project lifecycle, right from inception to closure. Normally, they are included in scope statement with assumption analysis recommended and done especially during risk identification to keep them valid. They can be risk to the project, if found to be false. Cost is associated with each of them and can impact project outcome in tangible and intangible terms. So, it becomes imperative to have appropriate assumption management. With their validity so critical to project success, would it be worth to maintain separate assumption and constraint register, as we maintain and manage risk register for every project, so that they can be handled effectively?

Actually, it would.

One of the approaches that cross the mind would be to have separate assumptions and constraints register. Documentation reviews, lessons learnt from similar projects, stakeholder interviews and analysis can be a good starting point for gathering them for the project. They can then be segregated on project management knowledge areas with organization process assets and enterprise environmental factors taken into consideration. These are further sub-categorized as fixed and variable assumptions. This would facilitate not only their capturing, but would be handy, easy to review, maintain and update. Ranking and prioritizing them in their respective categories, would facilitate monitoring and early alerts raised for their probable conversion to risks. Risks and assumptions strongly correlated, so this register can have references to risk register, which would be beneficial from risk response strategy perspective.

Finally, assumption register to be part of project management plan, just like risk register, which has to be kept up to date and valid during entire life cycle of the project.