* Ultimately, what exactly are you trying to solve?
* What is the benefit of solving the problem? Is it worthwhile?
* What would realistically happen if your solution did not get put in place?
Does it make it worthwhile to pursue this project?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A blind man, visiting a friend one night, was offered a lantern to carry home
with him.
"I do not need a lantern," he said. "Darkness or light is all the same to me."
"I know you do not need a lantern to find your way," his friend replied, "but
if you don't have one, someone else may run into you. So you must take it."
The blind man started off with the lantern and before he had walked very far
someone ran squarely into him.
"Look out where you are going!" he exclaimed to the stranger. "Can't you see
this lantern?"
"Your candle has burnt out, brother," replied the stranger.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* What are the critical components that you aren't considering?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is too clear and so it is hard to see.
A dunce once searched for fire with a lighted lantern.
Had he known what fire was,
he could have cooked his rice much sooner.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* What past baggage (cultural, personal, &c) are you bringing into this project?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road.
A heavy rain was still falling.
Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl
in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection.
"Come on, girl!" said Tanzan at once.
Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.
Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple.
Then he no longer could restrain himself.
"We monks don't go near females," he told Tazan,
"especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous.
Why did you do that?"
"I left the girl there," said Tanzan, "are you still carrying her?"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Are demands from your stakeholders clouding your judgement?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Think of pouring tea into a cup.
Every single one of the potential people on the project get a chance
to pour tea into the cup.
How long would it take before the cup overflowed?
Sometimes projects become overflowed with ideas or methodologies
such that there is no room left to consider what might have
drained out of the cup.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* What is the bare minimum that you need to be successful? Why?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In spring, hundreds of flowers; in autumn, a harvest moon.
In the summer, a refreshing breeze; in winter snow will accompany you.
If useless things do not hang in your mind;
any season is a good season for you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Is there someone or something else that can solve the problem?
How do you know for sure?
* Where will this project lead you?
Is this an endpoint or a chapter along the road?
