Project Management
As a project manager you daily user Project Management Tool or any project management software? What are functions of that tool?
Following are some functions of Project Management tool
* Task management
* File storage
* Reporting functions
* Commenting and message boards
* Client access
* Subcontractor task assignment
* Time tracking
As a project manager which project management tool or project management software you prefer to perform common project management tasks like set milestone, set tasks, add new discussion and upload new documents etc.
Yes This is a common Project management interview Question asked to every project manager.
Generally project manager use Basecamp http://www.basecamphq.com/. Another software is http://www.activecollab.com/. This is can be installed on your own server.
These tools provide ability to set up unlimited numbers of projects, assign members to the projects, set tasks, set milestones, add pages, add tickets, upload documents to the project, have discussions within the project and set numerous access levels for management, staff and clients.
How to be a successful project manager and how to deliver successful products . This is not only a project management interview question but a great skill too. Please answer.
Feel the real need of customers. Don’t act as a sales person. Work as consultant. Which can add much more value to them and hence people will trust you and that trust will help you to grow your business.
Prepare a presentation of their relevance in simple way and with few words. Provide the satisfied references.
Another concern: As a project manager How to justify the time & human resource cost to other persons with different skills like Sales Manager? So Idea is divide all tasks in micro tasks and try to explain all these in detail. Try that he becomes a part of the team and able to realize the facts.
Dropping price doesn’t make any sense. Because if you do it, you have to do it again & again to sell your product. Instead of that increase your product quality.
As a project manager how you can deliver the product in less time means as soon as possible?
Keywords: Agile Project Management, Project Management Interview, Project Manager skill, Project Manager Interview
Customers need working product not documentation. Project managers need to relieve the project team from as much compliance work as possible, even if that means taking on the tasks themselves. So that the development team can concentrate on the real work.
Agile frameworks do need minimal documentation and a mechanism to convey knowledge about project success and failure to others in the organization. The answer isn't eliminating either documentation or process, but approaching both from a simplified, lean, barely sufficient, just-enough perspective.
motivate your team members this is the right oppurtunity show organization about their value to organization.Introduce the challenge on daily basis with reasonable gaps - work breakdown in different way.mistake occuring oppurtunity should be reduced with our project evaluation skill definetly make product out with our effort done on timely basis
a. Add more resource as long does not adversely impact on project cost (or the cost increase is under acceptable limits).
b. Rework the schedule and task dependencies/relations to explore possibilities of shrink project duration.
c. Explore possibility of scope reduction (like mentioned documentation like work) by eliminating some tasks all-together or by deferring such tasks to subsequent projects or to post project exercise.
There is a concept of customer-developer partnership in Agile Project Management. What is it? and why we need it?
The success of any product involves meeting expectations—those of the ultimate customer, those of management stakeholders, and those of the project team itself. While delivering something useful to the customer remains paramount, keeping all the participants informed and involved is critical to success.
If we want products that deliver outstanding customer value, then we must have a customer-developer partnership, one with responsibilities and accountability on both sides (and similar relationships with key suppliers). Agile teams constantly seek customer involvement and are always asking the question, "Is what we are doing useful to you in meeting your business goals?"
What is Project Planning? As a Project Manager how do you pan the project? What activities are performed in project planning phase?
Project Planning defines in detail the project activities and the product that will be produced, and describes how the project activities will be accomplished. Project Planning defines all major tasks, estimates the time and resources necessary to complete them, and provides a framework for management review and control.
Project Planning activities include defining and documenting the following:
• Work to be performed,
• Project goals,
• Estimates for planning, tracking, executing, and controlling the project,
• Commitments of the affected groups, and
• Project alternatives, assumptions, and constraints
Planning is a process that includes activities to estimate the size of the project, the scope of the effort, and the resources required to complete the project, as well as steps to produce a project schedule, identify, assess and manage risks, and negotiate commitments. Several iterations of the planning process may be performed before the
Project Plan is completed.
The planning process consists of the following basic steps:
1. Define the process for specifying, documenting, and controlling project requirements,
2. Define the technical approach used to solve the problem,
3. Identify all deliverables associated with the project,
4. Define and sequence all tasks to be performed,
5. Define the dependencies between tasks,
6. Estimate the resources required to perform each task,
7. Schedule all tasks,
8. Establish a budget for performing the tasks,
9. Define organizational structure (e.g., roles and responsibilities),
10. Identify and assess initial risks to successful project completion,
11. Define the process that will be used ensure product quality (e.g., reviews, walk-throughs, inspections, or independent Verification and Validation).
Generally Quality assurance or software testing is done after whole development. But is it important from its first day? What are the drawbacks if we start testing after development team finished its work?
Projects that don't set up processes to eliminate defects in early stages fall into extended test-debug-re-implement test cycles that seem interminable. So many defects are reported by testing that by the end of the project, the "change control board" or "feature team" may be meeting as often as every day to prioritize defect corrections. Because of the vast number of defects, the software has to be released with many known (albeit low priority) defects. In the worst case, the software might never reach a level of quality high enough for it to be released. That’s why software testing is important from day one.
Quality should not be targeted through corrective actions at the project end ….. as this can be very costly and time taking. Instead the quality should be built in as much as possible by preventing defects to occur. Quality assurance and software testing in early stages of project helps in taking such preventive measures in timely manner.
Client is owner of the project. In software development life cycle what is the role of client. What rights he has through out the project?
Keywords: Project Management interview Question, IT Project Management, Customer Rights
In Project/Software life cycle client has the rights:
To set objectives for the project and have them followed
To know how long the software project will take and how much it will cost
To decide which features are in and which are out of the software
To make reasonable changes to requirements throughout the course of the project and to know the costs of making those changes
To know the project's status clearly and confidently
To be apprised regularly of risks that could affect cost, schedule, or quality, and to be provided with options for addressing potential problems
To have ready access to project deliverables throughout the project
As a Project Manager How would you say that Your Project is Successful?
If you have provided the project on time; is it successful? Please provide the definition of successful project?
First of all it should satisfy all the repurpose of itself and requirements of client. A successful project should be one that meets its cost, schedule and quality goals within engineering tolerances and without padding its schedule or budget. Project Manager should balance between all objectives so that a high-quality product can be delivered according to an efficient schedule at moderate cost.
After finishing it should be easy to operate, maintain & expand.
In project Management sometime you meet with the non productive team. As a project manager how do you get the task done from this type of team. Means how do you handle non-productive team members?
It is the responsibility of the project manager to ensure that the team's output meets the performance requirements stated in the project definition and delivers the goals of the project.
Why a team member would be a non productive? Either he is not up to that level of his work means his skill set is weak. So the answer is coaching/mentoring. Ask Tech Lead to communicate with him frequently & face to face. Don’t wait for the task to complete go to his seat, talk friendly, ask indirectly what he is doing and give your suggestions. Don’t point him forward some good article to whole team. Give your feedback early to the member. Indirectly share your experience about the problems he is facing. Realize him that he the important valuable member of the project team and you have lot of expectations from him.
Second thing is , some team members are careless or your environment is not productive. The solution is, explain clearly what is expected from the team. Don’t wait for status report, communicate frequently with team and remind their goals step by step goals.
Appreciate the members who are doing good work. Involvement is the key to handle non productive members. Don’t assign them work through mail. First meet with team, explain the goals, divide the goals into parts & Let the team members pick tasks of their own choice. That will make them more responsible for their task. I think in this way you can change their professional attitude.
First of all I want to say that I am customer care excutive in Back-office and My point of veiw that
first of all you check yourself where are you wrong or
right if you don't have any feedback than sortout the problem because of your team is non-productive where is your chain is week sortout and do work on that first mantra that is you behave to yr member whichtypes behave like you make behavier they feavor of you sometimes be strik and all the time
very good with them. Secondthings want to say most of the members do politics becasue of that they don't be productive so break them always be successful.
As per my point of view the person who is not performing well than you should know his or her problem directly or indirectly. After knowing his or her problem you should meet him personally and give him motivation. Find some plus point in him and appreciate on his plus point and make him habitual to listen this so he will 100% try to give his best where he is lacking.
Customer or Development Team. Which one is important for a project manager?
How can you balance between two?
You’ve to accept that the customer comes first. The customer is always right. You can't take care of the customer if you first aren't taking care of your project team. It's a challenge. While there are some things you can do for the whole team, it comes down to taking care of each team member as the individual that he or she is. And to make it more difficult, then you must bring their various interests into coherence.
What is Gant chart, What is its importance for project Magaers? How to make Gant Chart with Excel? Please Explain Gant Chart structure?
Gant chart is a project planning tool. A gant chart is a schedule which plots the tasks, people responsible for these tasks, and a timeline. Gant charts are useful as they allow the team to look at the architecture (structure) of the project and easily identify responsibilities. The gant chart can serve as a document that people use in their planning as a visualization tool to see how tasks depend on each other. The basic format of a gant chart consists of a listing of tasks on the left hand side, followed by the start date, number of days to complete, and a finish date. Each task should be assigned one or more owners.
What are the most important things to focus on when leading a team?
what are the handful of issues/areas I should pay attention to if I want to be successful project manager?
Pay attention to the task you pursue and how to get there getting the most (and best) out of your teammates.
Good Communication - informal ranks off meetings where people can communicate easily so that helps with issues.
Productivity and efficiency. The best tip I can give you is to make sure that everyone knows exactly what they should be doing, what their goals are.
you need learn to listen. The people in your team have great ideas! Not all of them will be great, but some of them will. There is little chance to get them to respect you if you don't respect them.
They should feel like they are responsible for everything, that they have power over all the things and they make it happen, not you.
Positive encouragement is always appreciated
Check in often to avoid a conflict of your expectations and what is actually happening.
What is Fish Bone Diagram? Or Explain Ishikawa Diagram.
It helps in identifying the potential causes of problems and finally the root cause which make a difference on the performance of the project. This helps in finding the solutions to the problems which have affected the performance of the last project.
Fish bone diagrams are the diagrams that show the causes of a certain events. In designing products, to identify the potential reasons / factors that cause overall effect, the fishbone diagrams are used.
What is Six Sigma?
It is a methodology and set of tools for the measurement of process quality. It demonstrates that the business process is well controlled. Six Sigma level can be achieved when the accuracy of your process gets only 3.4 defects per million opportunities.
Here’s the list of acceptable number of defects per million to correspond to each Sigma level:
Sigma level Defects per million opportunities
1 690,000
2 308,537
3 66,807
4 6,210
5 233
6 3.4
Who forms the part of Six Sigma implementation team?
Attaining Six Sigma is a team effort. An organization who wants to attain Six Sigma needs a lot of restructuring and change in attitude. It includes building up the following roles to take up the required responsibilities:
1. Executive Leadership-Includes CEO and other top management team members. They set up the vision of Six Sigma and empower their team mates with the freedom and resources required for the improvements in the process.
2. Champions- Responsible for the implementation of the process in an integrated manner through out the organization. They come from Top management.
3. Master Black Belts-Act as in-house expert coach for the organization. They assist Champions and train Black Belts and Green Belts.
4. Black Belts-Apply Six Sigma methodology to specific projects. Their focus is on execution of activities for Six Sigma.
5. Green Belts-These are like the soldiers on the war front who actually implement the planned action.
Project Management - What is SIX sigma?
What is SIX sigma? SIX sigma is one of the business management strategies. Six Sigma is used to improve quality of process outputs which identifies and removes the causes of defects and variations in manufacturing and business processes. It implements a set of management methods and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization who are the experts in these methods. A well defined sequence of steps is followed by each six sigma project and has quantified financial targets.
What are function points?
FPA is a process to break system into discrete pieces and analyze them. Software application is a combination of elementary process. FPA is the way to identify elementary processes and analyze them.
There are two types of elementary process – dynamic and static elementary process.
What are function points?
In order to express the amount of business functionality of an information system, a function point is used as a unit of measurement.
There is International Function Point Users Group in US based organization of users of the software metric Function Point Analysis
Every function point is a unit of measure used by IFPUG functional size measurement method.
The IFPUG FSM is one of the currently recognized standards of ISO for functionally sizing software.
What are the different elements in Functions points? The elements in functions points are:
What is DAR (Decision Analysis and Resolution)?
To analyze possible decisions by using a formal evaluation process which identifies the alternatives against established criteria is done by the DAR. For example a project is to use a third party tools and will not depend on only one tool but evaluate by using three to four tools. In this process certain alternatives are available in case of problems.
What is CAR (Causal Analysis and Resolution)? Casual Analysis and Resolution is the process of analyzing
- defects, problems and good practices/positive triggers in a project.
- Root cause of the same
- Identity the respective corrective and preventive actions
- Tracking these tasks to closure.
The identification of the root causes scientifically and carrying out their corrective and preventive actions is the advantage of CAR. At the initial stage, all phase and at the end stage of the project, the CAR is needed to be performed on a monthly basis. CAR can be done by using ‘fishbone’ diagram.
What is pareto principle? Pareto Principle is also known as 80/20 principle. It is a management tool to track problem tracking effectively. This principle says that 20% of the problems lead to 80% of other problems. Hence, in order to concentrating on solving 80% of the problems rather, one can concentrate to solve 20 % of the problems which saves lot of troubles. The analysis and concentration is done for only 20% of the vital problems. In a project the vital problems are the first 10% and the last 10% .
1. Tell me about yourself:
Statement:
I’m an experienced Project Manager with a record of successful project delivery. I’m efficient and highly organised. This enables me to be as productive as possible on the job.
Example:
At my last company X, I was involved in the development of a new online insurance product. As a Project Manager I was responsible and accountable for a budget of $1m, my project team was 20 members strong. The project needed to be delivered on a tight timeline due to legislative changes.
Benefits:
I’ve delivered this project within the 10-month deadline and under budget. The company sold 2000 products within the first 2 month. I’d like to discuss how I might be able to do something similar for your company.
2.Why do you want to work for our company?
Statement:
I’m really interested in working for your company.
Example:
I‘m familiar with some of the people who work for you; or I have conducted web research and found / believe that the products / services are impressive and very interesting. Your company is leading the market and was ranked highly at the “Choice of Employee of the year”. From my understanding this company has a very dynamic, very competitive, and fast business culture. And your company has the reputation for hiring top talents.
Benefits:
I do believe my skill set would fit very well with your job requirements and I’m sure I can help you to be more productive and efficient in your project delivery.
3.Why do you want to leave your company? / Why have you left your company?
Example for career growth:
Statement:
I had a fabulous time at company X.
Example:
I started out in the Project Manager area. I have been promoted several times, developed new skills and formalised my Project Management skills. After 6 years, I feel that it is time to look for a new challenge and I’m using this as an opportunity to grow and learn. I’m very selective where I go with my next move because it is important move where I can grow as a professional and enhance my skills.
Benefit:
I’m looking for an opportunity to take all the skills and experiences that I have learned at (company X) and apply this in a new environment where I can make a real difference to the particular organisation.
Example for company restructure:
Statement:
I was made redundant due to a company restructure in May. After some consideration I decided to turn this situation into an opportunity for my personal and professional growth.
Example:
I fulfilled my childhood dream traveling through Europe and to experience and learn about foreign cultures. Since I’m back, I’ve completed several Project Manager educational courses online in the area of financial management in order to brush up my skills and joined the “Professional Project Management Group” here in Brisbane to grow my business network.
Benefits:
I’m looking forward to use my experience in a new environment where I can make a real difference.
4.Tell me about your strength?
Statement:
My key strengths are: great communicator, good team leader, hardworking and motivated to achieve my goals. In addition, I have a strong knowledge of IT systems and have managed projects for over 6 years.
Example:
All those strength have been developed over the last years. I started at company X with small projects in the area of XX. Not all projects were easy to manage, and I did make mistakes in the beginning – especially when it came to managing staff. But I learned quickly and improved my project management skills over the last couple of years. Now, I’m at the point where I manage large and complex projects, with development sites in India and China.
Benefit:
This enabled my last company to simplify their environment and saved $400.000 in the first 8 months.
5.Tell me what motivates you?
Statement 1:
I like to be involved in constant changes and like to be involved in ‘new things’ like new process developments, new product development, further improvements to processes and methodologies. [Change is the only constant, and I have the urge to be involved].
Example 1:
As a Project Manager I’m heavily involved in implementing new ideas and projects and see them deployed and realized. I want to use my Project Manager skills and talent in order to work on exciting and challenging projects in order to realise the companies goals.
Benefit 1:
I am motivated by the challenge of implementing projects ahead of schedule and by managing teams that achieved their goals.
Statement 2:
My career is important to me. I’m really into developing myself. I want to get into senior management level and I want to take on more responsibilities.
Example 2:
I’m taking on an “Executive Leadership course for Project Managers” to work at a more strategic and senior level; that’s what motivates me.
Benefit 2:
This will help me grow and achieve my personal goals and help the company to reach their targets.
6.Can you please tell me why we should hire you?
Statement:
Based on my past projects and experiences I do believe that I can add and bring value to your company.
Example:
In the job description you highlighted that you are looking for someone with the following skills: list now three of the requirements in the job description and provide examples to each, to show that you have this experience they are looking for.
You mentioned that you are looking for someone with “Excellent Stakeholder Management” skills, “Experiences in Agile” and “has a record of successful project delivery”.
At my previous company, agile was the project management standard. I was responsible for a $2m projects – delivering a new online banking product by the end of the year. I had to deal with various stakeholder. We were running in a major problem as the product, we just developed, didn’t comply to regulatory standards. It was a very challenging situation. Further describe a situation….
Benefit:
I do believe that my skills and experience will meet your expectations and will complement your team to deliver the required results.
7.Can you please tell me how you will contribute to this company?
Statement:
I’m an experienced Project Manager who worked for X number of years in the industry. I’m familiar with different project management methodologies and processes.
Example:
I’ve delivered many successful projects in the past like Project X, Project Y– which were very complex in nature and provided the expected benefits to companies I’ve worked for. I’ve also trained and mentored others in the Project Manager discipline up-grading their capability.
Benefit:
I do believe that my knowledge and skills will greatly improve the quality and the delivery of your projects.
8.Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Example for becoming an expert:
In 5 years’ time, I see myself progressing in the Project Management area. Taking on larger and more complex projects and learning new skills to the benefit of (the company). I find this advertised Project Management job extremely interesting and motivating.
Benefit of becoming an expert:
I am willing to invest my next 5 years gaining further experience on the job and towards professional advancement. To sum it up – I want to be an expert in project management
Statement for moving:
In five years’ time I see myself in a senior management position.
Example for moving:
Having more responsibilities, coaching other employees and managing teams. I am interested in pursuing my career based on (this company’s) goals.
Benefit for moving:
I’m planning to acquire further qualification in my field (e.g. MBA), which will assist me in this endeavor.
9.Describe a time when your workload was heavy and how you dealt with it?
Statement:
For Project Manager’s it is quite common to work under heavy workload – especially when it comes to the delivery of the project.
Example:
When I was working on the Project X, one of my key staff members fell ill for some time. I had to distribute his workload within the team. We worked hard for long hours, in order to cover for this person. We caught up every morning for short meetings– to discuss and to re-prioritise the upcoming work for the day.
Benefit:
Despite having one resource less on the project, we implemented the project successfully. This was mainly due to the teams’ contribution in taking over extra work, re-prioritisation and team updates each morning.
10.How do you manage difficult people or a problem with an employee reporting to you?
Statement:
When dealing with difficult people it is important to document everything to establish facts. In a few cases the only option is to terminate their employment, but it may not be necessary; instead in most cases I try to provide a plan for improvement.
Example:
On one of the larger programs, I was dealing with a Project Financial Analyst who didn’t communicate well with Project Managers. Her communication style was very direct – forcefully instructing them on how to provide the requested financial data. This didn’t go down well and complaints arose. In order to have a fact based conversation with the Analyst; I started documenting each issue related to the situation. Rather than criticising her forceful attitude, I provided examples on how to communicate her requests in a milder manner, while still getting the required results. We worked out a plan, which included mentoring and training in order to overcome these issues. The plan was monitored on a regular basis.
Benefit:
The Financial Analyst started to change her communication style to a more consultative approach. She started listening to the Project Managers first and assisted them with their financial problems – instead of telling them what to do. The entire change and performance management process took several months, and required a lot of energy from my side, but in the end we accomplished a good working relationship.
11.Can you describe a situation where you had a conflict in your team? How did you handle it?
Statement:
When addressing conflict situations I have found that open collaboration is the most effective form of addressing it.
12.You’ve been appointed as a Project Manager to a project where the team morale is low. What do you do to uplift it?
Statement:
Sometimes project teams can be affected from poor team morale due to causes which are outside a Project Managers control.
Example:
Once, I was working on a project where team morale was very low due to the restructuring of the organisation, which included several redundancies of staff members. Though I was not able to do anything about the restructure, I encouraged the team to be open with their communication and listened to their concerns. I praised people wherever I could and made sure that people didn’t work long hours over extended periods. I organised lunch and learn sessions on Fridays where we exchanged experiences and promoted things that worked well.
Benefit:
We established team camaraderie, which uplifted the mood and helped us to focus on our project and on our people rather than on the environment, which we were not able to influence or control.
13.How do you handle pressure and stress?
Statement:
As a Project Manager you experience many stressful situations, some of them you can influence where as others are beyond your control.
Example:
When I notice that a stressful situation starts impacting my performance, I close my eyes, take a couple of deep breaths to detach myself from the situation. I then review the activities that need to be done and possibly re-prioritise or re-scope them. When I work long hours, I make sure that I have regular breaks, get up from my desk and walk around to get a new perspective.
Benefit:
In general I try to go to the gym on a regular basis in order to be fit in life and at work.
14.Can you tell me what do you do when project priorities constantly change?
Statement:
Re-prioritising scope of a project has always an impact on time and / or cost. Therefore, it is essential to analyse the change and it’s impact beforehand.
Example:
At project x we had one stakeholder who consistently changed his mind on how we should develop the new online-shopping application. First he wanted to include videos and forums where customers could exchange ideas. Later on, he changed his mind including a delivery service. Each of the changes we analysed and provided an impact analysis on cost and time and its benefits to the stakeholders. Some changes were adapted where as others were rejected.
Benefit:
The project got delivered to the new scope at a higher cost. Though the additional business benefits of providing the delivery service capability have outweigh the additional costs.
15.What have you learned from your mistakes?
Statement:
I have made mistakes in the past and I believe the key to it is to admit them and to learn from them
Example:
A few years ago I was leading a project where I had to make a decision terminating the contract of one of the project team members. I was not aware that this person had a very close relationship to our CEO. This person was taken off the project but was offered a very senior position in the company instead. It did cause a lot of distraction and trust issues in the project team and with the stakeholder. I shouldn’t have reacted so quickly, trying to get this person away from my project – instead I should have given this person some tasks where she would have little stakeholder contact and impact on the project.
Benefits:
My lesson learned from this is: Don’t make quick decisions on the spot without evaluating the impact.
16.How do you set and manage expectations (with customers, your managers and your team)?
Statement:
I believe that good expectation management is a key to a project success.
Example:
When starting out with my projects I make sure to have informal meetings with my customer / manager and team members to understand their expectations. This helps me to better understand on how to deliver the project. On one project, I had a customer who didn’t get involved into the project – he just wanted me “to do it” as quickly as possible – on a different occasion I had a customer who wanted to have daily updates and wanted to be included in every decision. From the outside, both projects would have looked the same but different treatments were required in order to complete them successfully and to make the end customer happy.
Benefits:
Sometimes it’s not the end goal on what you’ve delivered, but more the journey on how you delivered it and how you engaged your stakeholders and managed expectations.
17.Describe the four phases of team building and how do you use it as an advantage on your project?
Statement:
The four stages of team development are: Forming, storming, Norming, performing – with a fifth stage called adjourning where the team will be released.
Examples:
When I’m leading a project I’m using the above framework in order to develop a high performing team. In the forming stage, I try to have a project kick off meeting which is not only work related. It will be a small celebration, where socialisation will happen and where people will get to know each other. In the storming phase, people might have some anxiety about the project goals and possible it’s realisation. Some team members start questioning roles and responsibility. In this phase I‘m supporting team members and share my vision and goals of the project. If conflicts arise I make sure that they are fact based and solution oriented. In the norming stage, the team slowly comes together and my leadership will change to a more to participant’s style. The fourth stage is the performing stage where the team performs well together. In this stage I normally have some breathing space and can delegate more activities and focus for example on future work or on some analysis work. The last stage – which sometime is mentioned, is called adjourning where the project will be closed and released into a BAU state. Generally we have a closing event like a dinner where we acknowledge team performance and say good-bye to the team members.
Benefits:
I found that this framework provides guidance in developing a high performing project team, which will work well and achieve the project goals.
18.Can you please describe with which methodologies (or process) you are familiar with?
Statement:
Over the last couple of years I’ve worked with different methodologies.
Example:
The company X I’m currently working for has a customised version of agile. The project lifecycle is split in phases and approval – including funding – that will be released once the required activities and mandatory artefacts have been completed in the current phase. Earlier I was working on a Government project, which used PRINCE 2 for project delivery.
Benefits:
Regardless which project methodology the company has, I’m quite flexible in terms of methodology and approach. I’m good at organising and believe I have good communication skills, which can be applied to any methodology.
19.What project management software have you used? Can you describe your experience?
Statement:
The software tools I’m familiar with are MS Project, Excel and Jira.
Example:
I used MS Projects mainly on projects following a waterfall or PRINCE 2 methodology as these tools are well aligned for these processes. I’ve planned and executed my projects, which included activities, dependencies, resources and budget information. The tool was very strong in areas of monitoring and executing tasks from a project management perspective. In projects, which are more aligned to the agile methodology, I’ve used Greenhopper and Jira. Both of these tools support collaboration and can be used to monitor team performance and project progress.
Benefit:
I believe that I’m tool savvy and that I can learn any tool quickly. Do you mind me asking which tool you are using? Do you have any preferences?
20.Describe the most complex project you have managed from start to finish?
Statement:
One of the more complex assignments I was involved with was a new software implementation project where I had the role as Project Manager.
Example:
The insurance Company X bought automated testing tool software in order to improve the quality of their software releases. My role was to implement this tool in the IT department. At that time, testing of software was done manually with little or no documentation. The developed software suffered from quality issues with several defects, resulting in many customer complaints. The project scope was to install and configure the tool for 20 testers and developers
· provide training on the tool
· facilitate workshop on new usage models
· develop new procedures and process around test management
· provide ongoing consulting and support to manage the change
I had some challenges to overcome, for example the automated software couldn’t recognize some of the objects we used in our programming language and some change management challenges with the teams. Some of the “older” people in the team did not want to learn or touch an automated testing tool. We agreed that those testers would focus on the management and planning of the tests – rather than on the test script development and execution. The project itself took 6 months to implement and had a budget of $300K.
Benefits:
Once we had implemented our project we were able to see the dramatic benefits. With the new testing software we were able to run tests overnight, saving time and improving the quality of the software. The team could test more and better in the available time, with a positive impact on customer satisfaction.
Following are some functions of Project Management tool
* Task management
* File storage
* Reporting functions
* Commenting and message boards
* Client access
* Subcontractor task assignment
* Time tracking
As a project manager which project management tool or project management software you prefer to perform common project management tasks like set milestone, set tasks, add new discussion and upload new documents etc.
Yes This is a common Project management interview Question asked to every project manager.
Generally project manager use Basecamp http://www.basecamphq.com/. Another software is http://www.activecollab.com/. This is can be installed on your own server.
These tools provide ability to set up unlimited numbers of projects, assign members to the projects, set tasks, set milestones, add pages, add tickets, upload documents to the project, have discussions within the project and set numerous access levels for management, staff and clients.
How to be a successful project manager and how to deliver successful products . This is not only a project management interview question but a great skill too. Please answer.
Feel the real need of customers. Don’t act as a sales person. Work as consultant. Which can add much more value to them and hence people will trust you and that trust will help you to grow your business.
Prepare a presentation of their relevance in simple way and with few words. Provide the satisfied references.
Another concern: As a project manager How to justify the time & human resource cost to other persons with different skills like Sales Manager? So Idea is divide all tasks in micro tasks and try to explain all these in detail. Try that he becomes a part of the team and able to realize the facts.
Dropping price doesn’t make any sense. Because if you do it, you have to do it again & again to sell your product. Instead of that increase your product quality.
As a project manager how you can deliver the product in less time means as soon as possible?
Keywords: Agile Project Management, Project Management Interview, Project Manager skill, Project Manager Interview
Customers need working product not documentation. Project managers need to relieve the project team from as much compliance work as possible, even if that means taking on the tasks themselves. So that the development team can concentrate on the real work.
Agile frameworks do need minimal documentation and a mechanism to convey knowledge about project success and failure to others in the organization. The answer isn't eliminating either documentation or process, but approaching both from a simplified, lean, barely sufficient, just-enough perspective.
motivate your team members this is the right oppurtunity show organization about their value to organization.Introduce the challenge on daily basis with reasonable gaps - work breakdown in different way.mistake occuring oppurtunity should be reduced with our project evaluation skill definetly make product out with our effort done on timely basis
a. Add more resource as long does not adversely impact on project cost (or the cost increase is under acceptable limits).
b. Rework the schedule and task dependencies/relations to explore possibilities of shrink project duration.
c. Explore possibility of scope reduction (like mentioned documentation like work) by eliminating some tasks all-together or by deferring such tasks to subsequent projects or to post project exercise.
There is a concept of customer-developer partnership in Agile Project Management. What is it? and why we need it?
The success of any product involves meeting expectations—those of the ultimate customer, those of management stakeholders, and those of the project team itself. While delivering something useful to the customer remains paramount, keeping all the participants informed and involved is critical to success.
If we want products that deliver outstanding customer value, then we must have a customer-developer partnership, one with responsibilities and accountability on both sides (and similar relationships with key suppliers). Agile teams constantly seek customer involvement and are always asking the question, "Is what we are doing useful to you in meeting your business goals?"
What is Project Planning? As a Project Manager how do you pan the project? What activities are performed in project planning phase?
Project Planning defines in detail the project activities and the product that will be produced, and describes how the project activities will be accomplished. Project Planning defines all major tasks, estimates the time and resources necessary to complete them, and provides a framework for management review and control.
Project Planning activities include defining and documenting the following:
• Work to be performed,
• Project goals,
• Estimates for planning, tracking, executing, and controlling the project,
• Commitments of the affected groups, and
• Project alternatives, assumptions, and constraints
Planning is a process that includes activities to estimate the size of the project, the scope of the effort, and the resources required to complete the project, as well as steps to produce a project schedule, identify, assess and manage risks, and negotiate commitments. Several iterations of the planning process may be performed before the
Project Plan is completed.
The planning process consists of the following basic steps:
1. Define the process for specifying, documenting, and controlling project requirements,
2. Define the technical approach used to solve the problem,
3. Identify all deliverables associated with the project,
4. Define and sequence all tasks to be performed,
5. Define the dependencies between tasks,
6. Estimate the resources required to perform each task,
7. Schedule all tasks,
8. Establish a budget for performing the tasks,
9. Define organizational structure (e.g., roles and responsibilities),
10. Identify and assess initial risks to successful project completion,
11. Define the process that will be used ensure product quality (e.g., reviews, walk-throughs, inspections, or independent Verification and Validation).
Generally Quality assurance or software testing is done after whole development. But is it important from its first day? What are the drawbacks if we start testing after development team finished its work?
Projects that don't set up processes to eliminate defects in early stages fall into extended test-debug-re-implement test cycles that seem interminable. So many defects are reported by testing that by the end of the project, the "change control board" or "feature team" may be meeting as often as every day to prioritize defect corrections. Because of the vast number of defects, the software has to be released with many known (albeit low priority) defects. In the worst case, the software might never reach a level of quality high enough for it to be released. That’s why software testing is important from day one.
Quality should not be targeted through corrective actions at the project end ….. as this can be very costly and time taking. Instead the quality should be built in as much as possible by preventing defects to occur. Quality assurance and software testing in early stages of project helps in taking such preventive measures in timely manner.
Client is owner of the project. In software development life cycle what is the role of client. What rights he has through out the project?
Keywords: Project Management interview Question, IT Project Management, Customer Rights
In Project/Software life cycle client has the rights:
To set objectives for the project and have them followed
To know how long the software project will take and how much it will cost
To decide which features are in and which are out of the software
To make reasonable changes to requirements throughout the course of the project and to know the costs of making those changes
To know the project's status clearly and confidently
To be apprised regularly of risks that could affect cost, schedule, or quality, and to be provided with options for addressing potential problems
To have ready access to project deliverables throughout the project
As a Project Manager How would you say that Your Project is Successful?
If you have provided the project on time; is it successful? Please provide the definition of successful project?
First of all it should satisfy all the repurpose of itself and requirements of client. A successful project should be one that meets its cost, schedule and quality goals within engineering tolerances and without padding its schedule or budget. Project Manager should balance between all objectives so that a high-quality product can be delivered according to an efficient schedule at moderate cost.
After finishing it should be easy to operate, maintain & expand.
In project Management sometime you meet with the non productive team. As a project manager how do you get the task done from this type of team. Means how do you handle non-productive team members?
It is the responsibility of the project manager to ensure that the team's output meets the performance requirements stated in the project definition and delivers the goals of the project.
Why a team member would be a non productive? Either he is not up to that level of his work means his skill set is weak. So the answer is coaching/mentoring. Ask Tech Lead to communicate with him frequently & face to face. Don’t wait for the task to complete go to his seat, talk friendly, ask indirectly what he is doing and give your suggestions. Don’t point him forward some good article to whole team. Give your feedback early to the member. Indirectly share your experience about the problems he is facing. Realize him that he the important valuable member of the project team and you have lot of expectations from him.
Second thing is , some team members are careless or your environment is not productive. The solution is, explain clearly what is expected from the team. Don’t wait for status report, communicate frequently with team and remind their goals step by step goals.
Appreciate the members who are doing good work. Involvement is the key to handle non productive members. Don’t assign them work through mail. First meet with team, explain the goals, divide the goals into parts & Let the team members pick tasks of their own choice. That will make them more responsible for their task. I think in this way you can change their professional attitude.
First of all I want to say that I am customer care excutive in Back-office and My point of veiw that
first of all you check yourself where are you wrong or
right if you don't have any feedback than sortout the problem because of your team is non-productive where is your chain is week sortout and do work on that first mantra that is you behave to yr member whichtypes behave like you make behavier they feavor of you sometimes be strik and all the time
very good with them. Secondthings want to say most of the members do politics becasue of that they don't be productive so break them always be successful.
As per my point of view the person who is not performing well than you should know his or her problem directly or indirectly. After knowing his or her problem you should meet him personally and give him motivation. Find some plus point in him and appreciate on his plus point and make him habitual to listen this so he will 100% try to give his best where he is lacking.
Customer or Development Team. Which one is important for a project manager?
How can you balance between two?
You’ve to accept that the customer comes first. The customer is always right. You can't take care of the customer if you first aren't taking care of your project team. It's a challenge. While there are some things you can do for the whole team, it comes down to taking care of each team member as the individual that he or she is. And to make it more difficult, then you must bring their various interests into coherence.
What is Gant chart, What is its importance for project Magaers? How to make Gant Chart with Excel? Please Explain Gant Chart structure?
Gant chart is a project planning tool. A gant chart is a schedule which plots the tasks, people responsible for these tasks, and a timeline. Gant charts are useful as they allow the team to look at the architecture (structure) of the project and easily identify responsibilities. The gant chart can serve as a document that people use in their planning as a visualization tool to see how tasks depend on each other. The basic format of a gant chart consists of a listing of tasks on the left hand side, followed by the start date, number of days to complete, and a finish date. Each task should be assigned one or more owners.
What are the most important things to focus on when leading a team?
what are the handful of issues/areas I should pay attention to if I want to be successful project manager?
Pay attention to the task you pursue and how to get there getting the most (and best) out of your teammates.
Good Communication - informal ranks off meetings where people can communicate easily so that helps with issues.
Productivity and efficiency. The best tip I can give you is to make sure that everyone knows exactly what they should be doing, what their goals are.
you need learn to listen. The people in your team have great ideas! Not all of them will be great, but some of them will. There is little chance to get them to respect you if you don't respect them.
They should feel like they are responsible for everything, that they have power over all the things and they make it happen, not you.
Positive encouragement is always appreciated
Check in often to avoid a conflict of your expectations and what is actually happening.
What is Fish Bone Diagram? Or Explain Ishikawa Diagram.
It helps in identifying the potential causes of problems and finally the root cause which make a difference on the performance of the project. This helps in finding the solutions to the problems which have affected the performance of the last project.
Fish bone diagrams are the diagrams that show the causes of a certain events. In designing products, to identify the potential reasons / factors that cause overall effect, the fishbone diagrams are used.
What is Six Sigma?
It is a methodology and set of tools for the measurement of process quality. It demonstrates that the business process is well controlled. Six Sigma level can be achieved when the accuracy of your process gets only 3.4 defects per million opportunities.
Here’s the list of acceptable number of defects per million to correspond to each Sigma level:
Sigma level Defects per million opportunities
1 690,000
2 308,537
3 66,807
4 6,210
5 233
6 3.4
Who forms the part of Six Sigma implementation team?
Attaining Six Sigma is a team effort. An organization who wants to attain Six Sigma needs a lot of restructuring and change in attitude. It includes building up the following roles to take up the required responsibilities:
1. Executive Leadership-Includes CEO and other top management team members. They set up the vision of Six Sigma and empower their team mates with the freedom and resources required for the improvements in the process.
2. Champions- Responsible for the implementation of the process in an integrated manner through out the organization. They come from Top management.
3. Master Black Belts-Act as in-house expert coach for the organization. They assist Champions and train Black Belts and Green Belts.
4. Black Belts-Apply Six Sigma methodology to specific projects. Their focus is on execution of activities for Six Sigma.
5. Green Belts-These are like the soldiers on the war front who actually implement the planned action.
Project Management - What is SIX sigma?
What is SIX sigma? SIX sigma is one of the business management strategies. Six Sigma is used to improve quality of process outputs which identifies and removes the causes of defects and variations in manufacturing and business processes. It implements a set of management methods and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization who are the experts in these methods. A well defined sequence of steps is followed by each six sigma project and has quantified financial targets.
What are function points?
FPA is a process to break system into discrete pieces and analyze them. Software application is a combination of elementary process. FPA is the way to identify elementary processes and analyze them.
There are two types of elementary process – dynamic and static elementary process.
What are function points?
In order to express the amount of business functionality of an information system, a function point is used as a unit of measurement.
There is International Function Point Users Group in US based organization of users of the software metric Function Point Analysis
Every function point is a unit of measure used by IFPUG functional size measurement method.
The IFPUG FSM is one of the currently recognized standards of ISO for functionally sizing software.
What are the different elements in Functions points? The elements in functions points are:
- External Inputs: It is an elementary process which allows the data to cross the boundary from outside to inside.
- External Outputs: A elementary process which allows the data passes across the boundary from inside to outside
- External Inquiry: It is an elementary process which has both input and output components which results data retrieval from one or more internal logical files and external interface files.
- Internal Logical Files: An identifiable group of logically related data that resides entirely within the applications boundary and is maintained through external inputs.
- External Interface Files: An identifiable group of logically related data that is used only for reference purpose. The data is completely persisted outside the application and is maintained by another application.
What is DAR (Decision Analysis and Resolution)?
To analyze possible decisions by using a formal evaluation process which identifies the alternatives against established criteria is done by the DAR. For example a project is to use a third party tools and will not depend on only one tool but evaluate by using three to four tools. In this process certain alternatives are available in case of problems.
What is CAR (Causal Analysis and Resolution)? Casual Analysis and Resolution is the process of analyzing
- defects, problems and good practices/positive triggers in a project.
- Root cause of the same
- Identity the respective corrective and preventive actions
- Tracking these tasks to closure.
The identification of the root causes scientifically and carrying out their corrective and preventive actions is the advantage of CAR. At the initial stage, all phase and at the end stage of the project, the CAR is needed to be performed on a monthly basis. CAR can be done by using ‘fishbone’ diagram.
What is pareto principle? Pareto Principle is also known as 80/20 principle. It is a management tool to track problem tracking effectively. This principle says that 20% of the problems lead to 80% of other problems. Hence, in order to concentrating on solving 80% of the problems rather, one can concentrate to solve 20 % of the problems which saves lot of troubles. The analysis and concentration is done for only 20% of the vital problems. In a project the vital problems are the first 10% and the last 10% .
1. Tell me about yourself:
Statement:
I’m an experienced Project Manager with a record of successful project delivery. I’m efficient and highly organised. This enables me to be as productive as possible on the job.
Example:
At my last company X, I was involved in the development of a new online insurance product. As a Project Manager I was responsible and accountable for a budget of $1m, my project team was 20 members strong. The project needed to be delivered on a tight timeline due to legislative changes.
Benefits:
I’ve delivered this project within the 10-month deadline and under budget. The company sold 2000 products within the first 2 month. I’d like to discuss how I might be able to do something similar for your company.
2.Why do you want to work for our company?
Statement:
I’m really interested in working for your company.
Example:
I‘m familiar with some of the people who work for you; or I have conducted web research and found / believe that the products / services are impressive and very interesting. Your company is leading the market and was ranked highly at the “Choice of Employee of the year”. From my understanding this company has a very dynamic, very competitive, and fast business culture. And your company has the reputation for hiring top talents.
Benefits:
I do believe my skill set would fit very well with your job requirements and I’m sure I can help you to be more productive and efficient in your project delivery.
3.Why do you want to leave your company? / Why have you left your company?
Example for career growth:
Statement:
I had a fabulous time at company X.
Example:
I started out in the Project Manager area. I have been promoted several times, developed new skills and formalised my Project Management skills. After 6 years, I feel that it is time to look for a new challenge and I’m using this as an opportunity to grow and learn. I’m very selective where I go with my next move because it is important move where I can grow as a professional and enhance my skills.
Benefit:
I’m looking for an opportunity to take all the skills and experiences that I have learned at (company X) and apply this in a new environment where I can make a real difference to the particular organisation.
Example for company restructure:
Statement:
I was made redundant due to a company restructure in May. After some consideration I decided to turn this situation into an opportunity for my personal and professional growth.
Example:
I fulfilled my childhood dream traveling through Europe and to experience and learn about foreign cultures. Since I’m back, I’ve completed several Project Manager educational courses online in the area of financial management in order to brush up my skills and joined the “Professional Project Management Group” here in Brisbane to grow my business network.
Benefits:
I’m looking forward to use my experience in a new environment where I can make a real difference.
4.Tell me about your strength?
Statement:
My key strengths are: great communicator, good team leader, hardworking and motivated to achieve my goals. In addition, I have a strong knowledge of IT systems and have managed projects for over 6 years.
Example:
All those strength have been developed over the last years. I started at company X with small projects in the area of XX. Not all projects were easy to manage, and I did make mistakes in the beginning – especially when it came to managing staff. But I learned quickly and improved my project management skills over the last couple of years. Now, I’m at the point where I manage large and complex projects, with development sites in India and China.
Benefit:
This enabled my last company to simplify their environment and saved $400.000 in the first 8 months.
5.Tell me what motivates you?
Statement 1:
I like to be involved in constant changes and like to be involved in ‘new things’ like new process developments, new product development, further improvements to processes and methodologies. [Change is the only constant, and I have the urge to be involved].
Example 1:
As a Project Manager I’m heavily involved in implementing new ideas and projects and see them deployed and realized. I want to use my Project Manager skills and talent in order to work on exciting and challenging projects in order to realise the companies goals.
Benefit 1:
I am motivated by the challenge of implementing projects ahead of schedule and by managing teams that achieved their goals.
Statement 2:
My career is important to me. I’m really into developing myself. I want to get into senior management level and I want to take on more responsibilities.
Example 2:
I’m taking on an “Executive Leadership course for Project Managers” to work at a more strategic and senior level; that’s what motivates me.
Benefit 2:
This will help me grow and achieve my personal goals and help the company to reach their targets.
6.Can you please tell me why we should hire you?
Statement:
Based on my past projects and experiences I do believe that I can add and bring value to your company.
Example:
In the job description you highlighted that you are looking for someone with the following skills: list now three of the requirements in the job description and provide examples to each, to show that you have this experience they are looking for.
You mentioned that you are looking for someone with “Excellent Stakeholder Management” skills, “Experiences in Agile” and “has a record of successful project delivery”.
At my previous company, agile was the project management standard. I was responsible for a $2m projects – delivering a new online banking product by the end of the year. I had to deal with various stakeholder. We were running in a major problem as the product, we just developed, didn’t comply to regulatory standards. It was a very challenging situation. Further describe a situation….
Benefit:
I do believe that my skills and experience will meet your expectations and will complement your team to deliver the required results.
7.Can you please tell me how you will contribute to this company?
Statement:
I’m an experienced Project Manager who worked for X number of years in the industry. I’m familiar with different project management methodologies and processes.
Example:
I’ve delivered many successful projects in the past like Project X, Project Y– which were very complex in nature and provided the expected benefits to companies I’ve worked for. I’ve also trained and mentored others in the Project Manager discipline up-grading their capability.
Benefit:
I do believe that my knowledge and skills will greatly improve the quality and the delivery of your projects.
8.Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Example for becoming an expert:
In 5 years’ time, I see myself progressing in the Project Management area. Taking on larger and more complex projects and learning new skills to the benefit of (the company). I find this advertised Project Management job extremely interesting and motivating.
Benefit of becoming an expert:
I am willing to invest my next 5 years gaining further experience on the job and towards professional advancement. To sum it up – I want to be an expert in project management
Statement for moving:
In five years’ time I see myself in a senior management position.
Example for moving:
Having more responsibilities, coaching other employees and managing teams. I am interested in pursuing my career based on (this company’s) goals.
Benefit for moving:
I’m planning to acquire further qualification in my field (e.g. MBA), which will assist me in this endeavor.
9.Describe a time when your workload was heavy and how you dealt with it?
Statement:
For Project Manager’s it is quite common to work under heavy workload – especially when it comes to the delivery of the project.
Example:
When I was working on the Project X, one of my key staff members fell ill for some time. I had to distribute his workload within the team. We worked hard for long hours, in order to cover for this person. We caught up every morning for short meetings– to discuss and to re-prioritise the upcoming work for the day.
Benefit:
Despite having one resource less on the project, we implemented the project successfully. This was mainly due to the teams’ contribution in taking over extra work, re-prioritisation and team updates each morning.
10.How do you manage difficult people or a problem with an employee reporting to you?
Statement:
When dealing with difficult people it is important to document everything to establish facts. In a few cases the only option is to terminate their employment, but it may not be necessary; instead in most cases I try to provide a plan for improvement.
Example:
On one of the larger programs, I was dealing with a Project Financial Analyst who didn’t communicate well with Project Managers. Her communication style was very direct – forcefully instructing them on how to provide the requested financial data. This didn’t go down well and complaints arose. In order to have a fact based conversation with the Analyst; I started documenting each issue related to the situation. Rather than criticising her forceful attitude, I provided examples on how to communicate her requests in a milder manner, while still getting the required results. We worked out a plan, which included mentoring and training in order to overcome these issues. The plan was monitored on a regular basis.
Benefit:
The Financial Analyst started to change her communication style to a more consultative approach. She started listening to the Project Managers first and assisted them with their financial problems – instead of telling them what to do. The entire change and performance management process took several months, and required a lot of energy from my side, but in the end we accomplished a good working relationship.
11.Can you describe a situation where you had a conflict in your team? How did you handle it?
Statement:
When addressing conflict situations I have found that open collaboration is the most effective form of addressing it.
12.You’ve been appointed as a Project Manager to a project where the team morale is low. What do you do to uplift it?
Statement:
Sometimes project teams can be affected from poor team morale due to causes which are outside a Project Managers control.
Example:
Once, I was working on a project where team morale was very low due to the restructuring of the organisation, which included several redundancies of staff members. Though I was not able to do anything about the restructure, I encouraged the team to be open with their communication and listened to their concerns. I praised people wherever I could and made sure that people didn’t work long hours over extended periods. I organised lunch and learn sessions on Fridays where we exchanged experiences and promoted things that worked well.
Benefit:
We established team camaraderie, which uplifted the mood and helped us to focus on our project and on our people rather than on the environment, which we were not able to influence or control.
13.How do you handle pressure and stress?
Statement:
As a Project Manager you experience many stressful situations, some of them you can influence where as others are beyond your control.
Example:
When I notice that a stressful situation starts impacting my performance, I close my eyes, take a couple of deep breaths to detach myself from the situation. I then review the activities that need to be done and possibly re-prioritise or re-scope them. When I work long hours, I make sure that I have regular breaks, get up from my desk and walk around to get a new perspective.
Benefit:
In general I try to go to the gym on a regular basis in order to be fit in life and at work.
14.Can you tell me what do you do when project priorities constantly change?
Statement:
Re-prioritising scope of a project has always an impact on time and / or cost. Therefore, it is essential to analyse the change and it’s impact beforehand.
Example:
At project x we had one stakeholder who consistently changed his mind on how we should develop the new online-shopping application. First he wanted to include videos and forums where customers could exchange ideas. Later on, he changed his mind including a delivery service. Each of the changes we analysed and provided an impact analysis on cost and time and its benefits to the stakeholders. Some changes were adapted where as others were rejected.
Benefit:
The project got delivered to the new scope at a higher cost. Though the additional business benefits of providing the delivery service capability have outweigh the additional costs.
15.What have you learned from your mistakes?
Statement:
I have made mistakes in the past and I believe the key to it is to admit them and to learn from them
Example:
A few years ago I was leading a project where I had to make a decision terminating the contract of one of the project team members. I was not aware that this person had a very close relationship to our CEO. This person was taken off the project but was offered a very senior position in the company instead. It did cause a lot of distraction and trust issues in the project team and with the stakeholder. I shouldn’t have reacted so quickly, trying to get this person away from my project – instead I should have given this person some tasks where she would have little stakeholder contact and impact on the project.
Benefits:
My lesson learned from this is: Don’t make quick decisions on the spot without evaluating the impact.
16.How do you set and manage expectations (with customers, your managers and your team)?
Statement:
I believe that good expectation management is a key to a project success.
Example:
When starting out with my projects I make sure to have informal meetings with my customer / manager and team members to understand their expectations. This helps me to better understand on how to deliver the project. On one project, I had a customer who didn’t get involved into the project – he just wanted me “to do it” as quickly as possible – on a different occasion I had a customer who wanted to have daily updates and wanted to be included in every decision. From the outside, both projects would have looked the same but different treatments were required in order to complete them successfully and to make the end customer happy.
Benefits:
Sometimes it’s not the end goal on what you’ve delivered, but more the journey on how you delivered it and how you engaged your stakeholders and managed expectations.
17.Describe the four phases of team building and how do you use it as an advantage on your project?
Statement:
The four stages of team development are: Forming, storming, Norming, performing – with a fifth stage called adjourning where the team will be released.
Examples:
When I’m leading a project I’m using the above framework in order to develop a high performing team. In the forming stage, I try to have a project kick off meeting which is not only work related. It will be a small celebration, where socialisation will happen and where people will get to know each other. In the storming phase, people might have some anxiety about the project goals and possible it’s realisation. Some team members start questioning roles and responsibility. In this phase I‘m supporting team members and share my vision and goals of the project. If conflicts arise I make sure that they are fact based and solution oriented. In the norming stage, the team slowly comes together and my leadership will change to a more to participant’s style. The fourth stage is the performing stage where the team performs well together. In this stage I normally have some breathing space and can delegate more activities and focus for example on future work or on some analysis work. The last stage – which sometime is mentioned, is called adjourning where the project will be closed and released into a BAU state. Generally we have a closing event like a dinner where we acknowledge team performance and say good-bye to the team members.
Benefits:
I found that this framework provides guidance in developing a high performing project team, which will work well and achieve the project goals.
18.Can you please describe with which methodologies (or process) you are familiar with?
Statement:
Over the last couple of years I’ve worked with different methodologies.
Example:
The company X I’m currently working for has a customised version of agile. The project lifecycle is split in phases and approval – including funding – that will be released once the required activities and mandatory artefacts have been completed in the current phase. Earlier I was working on a Government project, which used PRINCE 2 for project delivery.
Benefits:
Regardless which project methodology the company has, I’m quite flexible in terms of methodology and approach. I’m good at organising and believe I have good communication skills, which can be applied to any methodology.
19.What project management software have you used? Can you describe your experience?
Statement:
The software tools I’m familiar with are MS Project, Excel and Jira.
Example:
I used MS Projects mainly on projects following a waterfall or PRINCE 2 methodology as these tools are well aligned for these processes. I’ve planned and executed my projects, which included activities, dependencies, resources and budget information. The tool was very strong in areas of monitoring and executing tasks from a project management perspective. In projects, which are more aligned to the agile methodology, I’ve used Greenhopper and Jira. Both of these tools support collaboration and can be used to monitor team performance and project progress.
Benefit:
I believe that I’m tool savvy and that I can learn any tool quickly. Do you mind me asking which tool you are using? Do you have any preferences?
20.Describe the most complex project you have managed from start to finish?
Statement:
One of the more complex assignments I was involved with was a new software implementation project where I had the role as Project Manager.
Example:
The insurance Company X bought automated testing tool software in order to improve the quality of their software releases. My role was to implement this tool in the IT department. At that time, testing of software was done manually with little or no documentation. The developed software suffered from quality issues with several defects, resulting in many customer complaints. The project scope was to install and configure the tool for 20 testers and developers
· provide training on the tool
· facilitate workshop on new usage models
· develop new procedures and process around test management
· provide ongoing consulting and support to manage the change
I had some challenges to overcome, for example the automated software couldn’t recognize some of the objects we used in our programming language and some change management challenges with the teams. Some of the “older” people in the team did not want to learn or touch an automated testing tool. We agreed that those testers would focus on the management and planning of the tests – rather than on the test script development and execution. The project itself took 6 months to implement and had a budget of $300K.
Benefits:
Once we had implemented our project we were able to see the dramatic benefits. With the new testing software we were able to run tests overnight, saving time and improving the quality of the software. The team could test more and better in the available time, with a positive impact on customer satisfaction.