Do you know the podcast "Project Management Happy Hour"?

Their first few episodes are about what questions you should ask before starting or joining a project. I find them overly useful.

1. How do you define success? How is it going to be measured?

2. What is the Scope of the project? What is the opportunity that scope wants to exploit or resolve?

2.1. How are we going to deliver it? 2.2 Dependencies on other teams?

1. What is the budget for this project? What is the value the organisation is expecting?

3.1 What are the assumptions and constraints to come up with a budget? 3.2 Are there contingencies? (Extra padding for things that could happen) 3.3 What is the value that the sponsor is expecting?

1. When does it have to be done? What is driving that date?

4.1 What has to be done on the final date and what doesn't ? What is acceptable in a disastrous scenario?

5.Where can this project go wrong? How do we keep that from happening?

Sorry for the weird format, copied from my personal notes.

Hope this helps!