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
- Review the project's scoping document and project charter.
- Copy the known items and the questions from the Scoping Document into a new document or Mural.
- Organize the known and unknown information into themes. These may be the themes identified in the scoping document or you might identify new subgroups.
- 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.
- Revise your questions as needed.
- Paste the final research questions into the Project Charter.