Formulate it. one-sided And that’s a good thing, because a well-formulated question is half the answer.

For example, you found:

  • Project/part of a project that the team is not well-versed in

  • Good reception and want to make it a general agreement

  • Business-critical knowledge (access, contacts, agreements, etc.) that is not fixed or reserved

  • So outdated that it has become harmful.

  • A problem that has been repeated more than 3 times and “eats” a lot of time each time

  • Group of tasks that "hang" when leaving on vacation a unique expert

Formulating problems as they are understood and understood to be serious is one of the tasks of knowledge management.

How to distinguish a well-articulated question?

There’s no universal way to find and formulate problems, and when you talk about problems, you might find a variety of forms of resistance, like:

  • This is not important, there are more important things.

  • This problem is not at all.

  • We need economic or other justifications (which are not always possible and not always necessary).

The root of the objections is often quite different, for example:

  • Your colleague doesn’t understand the possible solutions to the problem, so he denies the problem itself.Some people have this kind of defense mechanism.)

  • Your colleague doesn’t want to waste energy on delving into it, but he doesn’t trust you either, so he tells you more important tasks.In this way, you will be devalued by your problem.)

  • Your colleague is convinced that solving problems like the one you are voicing won’t benefit him.because of your ideas of life and values other than yours)

And many, many others.

If you were rejected, it doesn’t mean you’re wrong. To be more confident, you need to figure it out on your own.

Let’s say you say: “Only Vasya understands the module name payment module – this is a disaster!”What would be a good idea to figure out to formulate the problem?

  • Find it. proof-of-concept: specific conversations, links, chats, facts logged in the trackers. In the case of modulename, you can interview the entire team and make sure that no one really understands this module, or find a list of people who performed module tasks in the Task tracker, or look at the commit history in the version control system.

  • To figure it out, How the problem affects businessIn the case of modulename, the payment module can be the only source of profit (if it is an online cash desk), or an additional feature that is not particularly used by customers.

  • Suppose, What will be better when the problem is solved? This question is key and it can be difficult to answer it, but somehow try to formulate it.

  • At least assume and clearly formulate Why hasn’t the problem been solved yet?A startup, for example, may ignore many business-critical issues because management fears some other, more significant, problems.

and other