Project Management Interview Questions – Set 01

How easily do you delegate responsibility?

Easily delegating responsibility is an essential quality of any project manager. Be sure to discuss a relevant example that assures the interviewer that delegating responsibility comes naturally to you.

Explain the team forming process?

After the members are collected as a project team there is a turmoil before everything settles down. This is known as the forming-storming-norming-performing process. The team people go through a storming of relationships when before settling to the role assignment. Over time they then get used to the structure of the relationship, that is the norming phase. It is only after everybody has settled into their new roles that the team starts performing.

Define the Triple Constraint Triangle in project management?

Triple constraint triangle or project management triangle is a constraint model where scope, schedule and cost are constraints forming the sides of a triangle, with quality as the central theme.

What is RAID in Project Management?

RAID in project management stands for Risk, Assumptions, Issue, and Dependencies. These are very important items that a project manager must have knowledge about.

  • Risks are the potential problems that can have either a positive or negative impact on the project resulting in a deviation of the final result from the original plan.
  • Actions are the task that you perform throughout the project.
  • Issues are the hurdles that you might face in the course of the project which must be successfully resolved or it might derail the project or cause the project to fail.
  • Decisions are your choice of actions/tasks in the project.

What’s your communication style?

This is another classic question that directly stems from asking about managing projects and leadership. A project manager is nothing if not an effective communicator. They need to be able to speak to team members, stakeholders, vendors, etc. Each group will need a slightly different approach. Stakeholders want the broad strokes, while teams will need more detail. If a project manager can’t clearly communicate, the project is doomed before it has begun.

What is your strategy for prioritizing the tasks?

Regardless of its size and scope, prioritization is a critical concept that determines the success of the project and the timely completion of it. If your interviewer asks questions on prioritization, your answer should include how you distinguish between urgency and importance. You can say how you determine what is crucial and leave behind what is unnecessary. This project management interview question is also to test how flexible and adaptable you are while managing a project. Your answer should describe that you know when to say no during the project.

How do you monitor and review the delegated responsibilities?

As a project manager, it’s important to routinely stay on top of your team members’ tasks and responsibilities. Discuss how you do this with specific examples—whether it’s by scheduling brief meetings, using project management software, and so on.

Goal Focus
Being focused on goals is essential for project managers. You need a clear focus to succeed. It is important for candidates to demonstrate the ability to align resources to achieve key objectives, to plan and identify ways to improve and achieve greater efficiency and to monitor and fine-tune execution with agility, hard work, perseverance, and good judgment. Key questions asked in this area are:

What are the most important skills that a Project Manager should possess?

Most important skills that a Project manager must possess are:

  1. Communication
  2. Leadership
  3. Team Management
  4. Negotiation Power
  5. Personal Organization
  6. Risk Management

What is the Pareto principle analysis?

Pareto Analysis is a statistical technique in decision-making. It is basically used for the selection of a limited number of tasks which can bring a significant overall effect. This principle follows the Pareto Principle (also known as the 80/20 rule) and states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the actions. It helps in prioritizing the work especially in large projects with a number of small tasks

When you consider that your project is off track and what will be your steps to ensure that it finishes within the given timeline?

To detect whether your project is on track or falling behind the agreed timeline, you must check the below pointers:

  • Budget is under control or not
  • Is it consuming too much time
  • Does the project scope keeps changing
  • Original goals are still present or not
    If the answers to these pointers are true then, your project is definitely off the track and you must take immediate action to bring it back on track. Few steps that you might take are:
  • Discover the root cause
  • Put in more time and efforts to catch up
  • Try to follow the original goal or vision
  • Re-adjust resource management (resource, finance, human etc.)
  • Keep open communication with client and stakeholders