Goal Alignment queries:

• What is the strategic goal of the organization that is being addressed by this particular activity?
• What organizational mission/vision does it relate to?
• Do we have a hypothesis as to how this initiative will eventually improve results / performance (i.e. a strategy map)?

Baseline queries:

• What is the existing level of performance? Do we know or have the capability to know (monitoring capability)?
• Are we collecting this data and storing it somewhere?
• What are the statistical parameters of this data, e.g. how much random variation does it contain? Are we measuring this?

Cost and risk queries:

• What is the existing cost of present operations?
• How much will that increase when we go ahead with the initiative?
• What is the risk that this cost will be exceeded or achieved? Have we performed a similar sensitivity analysis on this?
• Is the money being spent on this preset initiative the best use of the funds, or is there a better alternative usage?
• What is the risk that the initiative will fail? Has this assessment been included in the planning?

Customer and Stakeholder queries:

• Have you listed all the communities of interest that have a stake in this present initiative?
• Who are the kinds of customers/stakeholders who will benefit directly from this initiative? Who will benefit indirectly? What are the quantitative / qualitative benefits?
• Is the specified initiative the best way to increase satisfaction for all kinds of customers, or is there a better way?
• How will we know that the initiative benefits these customers?

Metrics related queries:

• What metrics will be used to define the benefit?
• Are these the best metrics? How do we know that?
• How many metrics need to be tracked? If this is a large number (it usually is), what kind of system are you planning to use to track them?
• Are the metrics standardized, so they can be benchmarked against performance in other organizations? What are the industry standard metrics available?

Measurement Methodology related queries:

• How will the metrics be measured? What methods will be used, and how frequently will data be collected? Are there any industry standards for this?
• Is this the best way to do the measurements? How do we know that?

Results related queries:

• How can we demonstrate that this strategic initiative, and not something else, contributed to a change in results?
• How much of the change was probably random?