Missing Information? Here's How to Move Forward.

As project managers, we’re constantly in scenarios where we don’t have all the information we need. Sometimes this is just because we’re in the initial process of gathering it—in this case, keep asking questions and collecting requirements.

But what about when information isn’t forthcoming? What if it’s playing hard-to-get? And what if this lack of information is keeping your project stuck despite pressure to keep it moving forward? That’s really the type of scenario we’re talking about today.

For example, I worked on a mailing campaign project a few weeks ago that involved a vendor. My coworker in charge of the campaign expected us to send mailing addresses to the vendor first, and then the vendor would quote the project. But my coworker from the data team felt that quoting and project acceptance should happen first, before we share people’s names and addresses with the vendor. And so, without clear information on the “correct” process, the project sat at this standstill for several weeks.

It's also common that missing project information is not just a point to be clarified or negotiated like in the above scenario, but a true unknown. Maybe you need information from an event that hasn’t happened yet. Maybe outside help is needed to collect the information…and nobody knows quite what type of help to hire.

Regardless, if your project is expected to be moving but a lack of information is preventing progress, you are not powerless. Here are the steps to take to proactively address your information gap. They will either get you the information you need or, failing that, they will ensure the correct people understand the gap, so that other types of project changes can be made to accommodate the situation.

1. Clarify for yourself what you do know.

The first step is to clarify everything you do know about the project, with an emphasis on information relevant to the gap. If you’re unsure what is actually already known, your project will almost certainly remain stalled in the confusion. This part is very much in your power to fix.

For a very simple project you could think through this information in your head, but it’s usually best to write it all down. Doing so will:

• Force you to organize what you know, which will check your thinking.
• Get it out of your brain, freeing you up to recall more details.
• Prepare you to communicate it to others, which will almost certainly be necessary.

Aim for a short summary—a few paragraphs at most, breaking it up with bullet points when possible. For my scenario above, I might say:

We’re working on a mailing campaign project. We will be writing and doing layout for all the pieces of the mailing internally, and we’ve decided PrintCraft Solutions will print, assemble, and mail everything for us. So far, everything is written, and we have a designer ready to start on layout.

Marcus, the project lead, is waiting for us to send names and addresses to PrintCraft so they’ll know how many mailers they need to create and send, and then he plans to work with them on the quote. But Sophia, head of data management, is waiting for us to have an approved quote with the vendor before she sends them any names and addresses.

2. Clarify what you need to know in the form of questions.

Once you’ve clarified what you know, then you’ll want to clarify what you need to know. The better, clearer, more articulate questions you ask, the better chance you stand of getting the answers you need. Your focused summary of the project background and the situation at hand is a huge asset to you here, because people who read the summary will be able to understand more detailed, specific, or nuanced questions than they could without it.

For my situation above, I might phrase the questions in this way:

While there are advantages to doing the steps in either order, which order is more appropriate for our organization or for this project—and importantly, who is the correct person to make this decision?

Notice the nuances I’ve laid out in this compound question:

• The decision might need to be made at the organization level (we always handle it this way) or at the project level (given this specific set of circumstances, this is best).
• A decision from just anyone won’t do, otherwise the real person with the authority to decide might come out of the woodwork later with a different decision, forcing costly rework and late delivery.

If I hadn’t taken the time to articulate what we specifically need to know, I very likely would have started looking for the wrong answers in the wrong places. I may be overplaying the importance of some of these details in my relatively simple example, but in other situations nuances like these can make a big difference in how smooth or rocky, fast or slow, and cheap or costly your journey is to get your project moving again.

3. Determine how you’ll get the questions answered.

Great, now you have a very clear sense of the information you need, backed up by appropriate context. The last step is to decide what to do with it.

What You’ll Do Next

You have 3 basic courses of action available to you:

Option 1: Choose who to ask [first].

If you decide to be proactive with your questions, and your questions are of a nature that people will be able to make decisions or take other steps to answer them, then this is what you’ll want to do. Who is the best person to take your questions to first?

Analyze whether your questions have dependencies among them (the answer to one question will reshape or provide important context to another question), then identify the best person to answer the question at the beginning of the dependency cascade. Or if you aren’t sure who this person is, you may need to add a preliminary question to clarify the correct person to answer.

In my example, because the authority to decide which process is best is unclear, I would likely go to the COO, who also happens to be my boss, as she’s a great partner in sorting out authority ambiguities. She’ll likely be able to tell me whether Marcus gets to decide as project owner, or Sophia gets to decide as the keeper of all our data, or someone else needs to be brought in.

If you can think of multiple people you’ll need to ask, you can write them all down in a tentative order. But you can also just start with the first person and go from there, as that person may give you information that shifts your plan.

Option 2: Choose who to inform [first].

This option will work similarly to the first option, but it applies in cases where the information is unobtainable or very hard to get. If you expect the solution will be working around the information gap rather than closing it, then you’re essentially figuring out and going to the person who has the authority to decide how the project will be changed to accommodate the issue. This might be a single person or it might be a change control board, depending on the complexity of your project ecosystem.

As with the previous option, you’ll want to check for any dependencies between your questions, get clear on who you’ll start with, and get preliminary help identifying lines of authority if needed.

Option 3: Wait for the information to find you.

This may sound like a lazy option—you’ve done all this prep work, and now you just sit on it? But it can be a very strategic choice. The prep work was critical so you’d know exactly what answers to watch for. But waiting for answers to find you is appropriate if:

• Saving staff hours spent on the project is more important than meeting a deadline (if, say, decisions and progress will come more quickly and easily after the information appears).
• This project is not a high company priority, or not high enough on your own priority list.
• There is no action you can take to acquire the information faster (for example, I can’t get attendee feedback on an event until after the event happens).

When You’ll Do It

Regardless of which course of action you choose, you’ll also want to define a timing component.

If you pick option 1 or 2, are there any established cycles in the project or your company that already provide a good time to share the information, such as a regular project or department check-in meeting? If not, what timing of an email or a call best balances the needs of the project with the other demands facing the person you need help from?

If you pick option 3, even though you’re just waiting, I recommend you pick a time in the future when you’ll reassess if waiting is still the best approach. Whether it’s in a few days or a few months, make sure you create a reminder for yourself to determine if things have evolved and there’s now a better way to get the project unstuck. Hopefully the information will find you before the time you’ve put on your reminder! But if not, you have a backup plan.

The bottom line to everything above is this: When you’re missing information, going through a process to organize what you know and articulate clear questions about what you still need to know is worthwhile. It prepares you to either proactively close your information gaps or be prepared to seize the needed information when it finds you. You’ll miss 100% of the answers to questions you don’t realize you need to be asking.