I agree that questioning as much as you can in the initiation phase is a good practice. Although, I do not have any project management experience within industry, within my college experience, I had completed a senior capstone class in which project management was key. At first, my group came up with an idea fairly quickly, without asking too many questions. Then, due to our professor’s suggestion, we asked ourselves various questions about the project. It helped us realize that what we had initially planned could not be possible with the resources and time frame we had. I remember thinking at that time that with each question, we had to think about our idea a little differently and plan out aspects of it ahead of time. This made us more prepared for when we moved forward with our final idea.

Apart from this, I also learned that regardless of how much you question and plan for dilemmas, there will always be an issue. My professor’s favorite phrase from my senior capstone class was, “The devil’s in the details”. This idea was mentioned a few times in the lecture as well where regardless of how much you plan, there will always be some kind of hindrance. However, with proper due diligence, some of these hindrances can be suppressed or even accounted for ahead of time.

One question that I would ask myself is: what are the risks that are associated with my project from phase A-Z? knowing your risks is crucial especially if the investments you've made are not enough to cover for plans B, C etc. The risks aren't always monetary. Understanding whether a project is worth consuming the time and energy can save failure risks at the end. Every project has risks associated with it, but that shouldn't necessarily a reason to not continue with the project. Some risks can be avoided early if this question is answered at first. Some risks are worst than others and can cause greater damage. So understanding the types of risks associated with the project or business can save time, resources, money, etc.

During this stage, I would ask, "What is the projected revenue, and is it worth the time and resources?" This is important to make sure that you are going to make enough profit in sales for stakeholders and make a decent profit. If you would possibly fall short of the critical revenue, the project wouldn't be worth it, especially if there is a chance that you will lose money.
Another question that would be critical during this stage is, "Who are the individuals that need to be on the team?" This is important to ensure that you have every role field with the best possible candidate to have a functional and successful team.

During the initiation stage, one question I would ask myself is if there are potential ethical and social issues in regards to the product. And if so, how does the team plan to address them if possible? For example, a potential medical device is planned to have access to private patient data. What steps would be taken by the team to ensure patient confidentiality? What information will be provided to patients to ensure they are able to give informed consent for their data to be used? How and where would this data be stored? Who has access to this data? These questions are intended to focus on customer protection to any potentially harmful risks posed by the device. These questions factor into the overall question of the device development’s complexity. My senior capstone group had to consider similar questions in regards to future versions of our software product. Such questions force people to acknowledge the reality of the product, rather than seeing it as a perfect golden product. It is better to keep a product grounded in reality to ensure realistic expectations are set while not disregarding customer safety and privacy.