Good project managers (and Scrum Masters) consider themselves like project “weathermen” — they report the current project conditions and forecast the future as accurately as possible.
One important aspect of a weatherman (or weatherwoman) is to escalate quickly and effectively. The project manager should have a “sixth sense” or intuition when a project is going down a bad path and this isn’t an easy skill to learn. It truly comes from experience with trial and error. The key as a Project Manager is to be bold and don’t be afraid to inquire on anything that appears to be going too slow and not clear on progress. Look at my blog on “The Importance Visibility” for a way to help quickly identify issues.
However, sometimes only through being the “Larry King” of questioners can a PM dig up all potential issues and address them before they become critical.
