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Write research questions

Purpose

Research questions drive the strategy of any research project. They narrow the client's motivating challenge/fuzzy situation into 5-8 questions that are:

  • clear: providing enough specifics that one’s audience can easily understand its purpose without needing additional explanation.
  • focused: narrow enough that it can be answered thoroughly in the space the writing task allows.
  • concise: expressed in the fewest possible words.
  • complex: not answerable with a simple “yes” or “no,” but rather requires synthesis and analysis of ideas and sources 
  • arguable: its potential answers are open to debate rather than accepted facts

Responsible Party

Ops Project Lead

Interdependencies

  • An Alignment Meeting was conducted, and the data was transcribed.
  • The project has been sold, and
  • Any changes to the organization that happened between alignment and sale have been communicated to the Ops Team.
  • The research questions are reviewed with the client in early logistics planning meetings.
Directions
  1. Review the project's scoping document and project charter.
  2. Copy the known items and the questions from the Scoping Document into a new document or Mural.
  3. Organize the known and unknown information into themes. These may be the themes identified in the scoping document or you might identify new subgroups.
  4.  Craft 5-8 questions that address all of the themes and unknowns from the Alignment Meeting.

Gate: Review your research questions with another member of the Ops Team. Ask them if the questions are clear and appropriately scoped.

  1. Revise your questions as needed.
  2. Paste the final research questions into the Project Charter.
Resources

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