Recent questions tagged product-manager-interview

Description : Explain the team forming process?

Last Answer : 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 ... . It is only after everybody has settled into their new roles that the team starts performing.

Description : Do you think professionalism and integrity are essential qualities of a PM?

Last Answer : PM is charged with managing all aspects of the project. Unless he is a professional and has integrity there are many things that can go wrong. Not so truthful progress reporting will easily boomerang on the PM but the organization will have a delayed or a failed project.

Description : .Forming a team, developing the team and improving knowledge are direct responsibilities of the project manager, do you agree?

Last Answer : It is the team that executes the project. Thus ensuring you has right people is essential. Developing the team is important as whatever gaps are there need to be bridged. Improving self ... equivalent to the continuous improvement of A process and should impact the quality of the project outcome.

Description : Why does a PM need to be very proactive?

Last Answer : A PM needs to be able to see any signs of a deviation in time and/or cost to project progress as early as possible. This gives the team as much reaction time as possible to correct the situation or to minimize the impact.

Description : What does procurement administrator involve?

Last Answer : To keep monitoring and ensure that all open procurement contracts are progressing as expected.

Description : What is the primary purpose of procurement management plan?

Last Answer : To determine what exactly is to be procured, ensure they are procured at the best price and is made available to the project team at the right time.

Description : What are time & material contracts?

Last Answer : In this type of contracts the contractor gets paid for time used on the project and expenses for material used and other agreed upon expenses.

Description : What are fixed type contracts in procurement processes?

Last Answer : The seller must supply the contracted items at a fixed price determined at the time of contract.

Description : What do you understand of Pareto (80/20) principle/analysis?

Last Answer : This is a statistical analysis method that helps decide priorities between several actions to be taken. The basis is that there are about 20% action which when executed gets you 80% of the results. In QA this is used to identify the 20% of causes that create 80% of the problems.

Description : What is risk impact and probability?

Last Answer : When assessing risks the project team also tries to determine the probability of the risk actually happening and the impact it will have on the project when it does.

Description : Are there any positive aspects of the risk identification process?

Last Answer : The risk identification process may be able to come up with some opportunities too

Description : What is a risk register?

Last Answer : This is a register/document that contains all the identified risks of a project. List of actions of potential actions are also included.

Description : What are the types of risks you may encounter in a project?

Last Answer : These could be categorized as technical, external, internal/organizational, etc. Depending on the type of projects other categories may have to be considered.

Description : How do you determine the communication needs of stakeholders?

Last Answer : The communication needs of stakeholders depend on their position in the power/influence grid, power/interest grid as also impact/influence grid. Salience modeling is another technique to determine ... assessment and will determine the kind and details of communications they need on the project.

Description : Why is the performance management process in the HR management plan important?

Last Answer : People like to be recognized for their contributions. The project management team needs to recognize talent and reward and recognize the performers. The assessment should not only be fair but seen to be fair.

Description : What are the important aspects of a HR plan for the project team?

Last Answer : Acquiring the team, forming the team, assigning roles & responsibilities, appraisal policies, rewards & recognition are the areas where clear cut policies should exist and be well known to team members.

Description : What is the tool used for arriving at improvements in processes?

Last Answer : GM, or the goals, questions and metrics is the method used. Goals are set, questions are asked about what improvements can be made and metrics (measurements that tell us something about the process) are carried out

Description : What’s the need for process improvement plans?

Last Answer : A cornerstone of A is that processes are continuously improved. Process improvements help mistakes in processes and thus help improve quality.

Description : What is quality control?

Last Answer : QC procedures include inspections to ensure quality requirements are being met

Description : What does A processes ensure?

Last Answer : According to a dictionary, A is a way of systematic monitoring and evaluation of aspects of a project, service or facility to ensure that standards of quality are met . Thus, whatever ensures ... that goes into making a product and that no mistakes are made while making it ensures quality.

Description : What is EVM, earned value management?

Last Answer : At every monitoring point the planned value (PV), earned value (EV) and actual cost (AC) are monitored. PMB, performance measurement baseline is the aggregation of all planned values. Variances from ... with budget at completion. In case there is a slip, the cost consequences will be known.

Description : What is effort variance?

Last Answer : It is the difference in estimated effort and the effort actually needed. Work performance is monitored periodically to find if there is any variance in efforts so that corrective actions could be taken.

Description : What are the ways a project time schedule can be compressed?

Last Answer : Crashing and fast tracking are two methods of accelerating a project time schedule. Crashing method tries to optimize the schedule making use of the time floats available while keeping costs under control. ... . It may mean paying team members overtime, paying for the time of a consultant, etc.

Description : What is a critical path in schedule network diagram?

Last Answer : When activity scheduling is done there will be activities whose start time and/or end times are not critical. It may be possible, due to dependencies, to start a task later than the date on the ... time. This chain of activities or the path from start to finish is known as the critical path.

Description : How in the project time schedule represented most often?

Last Answer : Activity scheduling network diagram is the most common form of representation for the project time schedule. This is often accompanied by milestone chart, and bar charts.

Description : How do you estimate in the three point estimating method?

Last Answer : One optimistic estimate, a pessimistic estimate and one “most likey” estimate is considered for an activity. (Op estimate+6 X most likely+ pess. Estimate) is calculated and divided by 6. This result then may be further iterated. This is the estimate to be used.

Description : How is the “activity time” estimates done?

Last Answer : Parametric estimates, three point estimates and analogous estimates are the techniques used for estimating activity time estimates.

Description : How do project scheduling help achieve project execution?

Last Answer : When the activity effort and resource estimates are known getting the work done depends on how the tasks are sequenced. Dependencies with other activities have to be clearly known. The basic ... no constraints there. Scheduling is done from activities list prepared after WBS has been finalized.

Description : What are some techniques used for defining scope?

Last Answer : Product breakdown, requirements analysis, systems engineering, systems analysis, value engineering, value analysis and alternatives analysis. Alternatives analysis can be helped by brain storming, lateral thinking and pair-wise comparisons, etc.

Description : How do you define a milestone?

Last Answer : Milestone is a point in project schedule when some objective, a part of a result or a part of the planned services planned are achieved.

Description : What is Work Breakdown Structure (WBD) and how does it affect the work estimates of tasks/activities?

Last Answer : Work breakdown structure defines the work activities required for the project and the sub activities of each of the work requirement. The breakdown goes down to levels where all the work required ... and effort estimates can be accurate when everything about the work and dependencies are known.

Description : How should changes controlled?

Last Answer : Through the integrated change control process. Requested changes will have to be reviewed by a change control board. Only the approved changes shall be included in the document changes guiding project execution.

Description : What does Scope management involve?

Last Answer : Typically, this process involves collecting requirements, defining scope, creating WBS, verifying scope and controlling the scope. The project scope statement, WBS and WBS dictionary defines the scope baseline. Controlling the scope process must minimize scope creep.

Description : What is a SOW?

Last Answer : SOW or the statement of work is a detailed description of the outcomes of the project in terms of what products, services or results are expected from the project. Most detailed SOW are usually given by the customer if he is the one requesting the project.

Description : What are the important processes for project integration management?

Last Answer : It starts with a project charter development. Project management plan development is another important activity. Direct and manage project execution and monitor and control are plans that ... unavoidable an integrated change management plan must be developed to guide all changes systematically.

Description : What is RAID as it related to project management?

Last Answer : RAID stand for risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies. These are vital items that a PM should always be aware of. There are always risks about actions and a PM must take least risk actions ... are clear, these can go wrong. Issues and dependencies also limit the choices of actions often.

Description : What are the knowledge areas relevant to doing a project?

Last Answer : Scope management, time and cost management knowledge areas are quite obvious. Same goes for quality management too. To complete a project in all its aspects one needs to be aware of the ... support areas. Since people get things done Human resources management is also an equally important area.

Description : What are processes and process groups?

Last Answer : A process is a defined way of doing things. Not only does the process define the actions to be taken but also in what sequence they are to be carried out. Process groups are a set of processes ... set of inputs and produce defined outputs by applying a set of tools and techniques on the input.

Description : What qualifications are required to be an effective project manager?

Last Answer : Besides being a good professional manager, the PM needs to have additional personal skills for being effective. It is not only essential for him to have project management skills but be ... Team management and leadership skills that help the team reach common objectives and goals are required.

Description : What do you understand by plan baselines?

Last Answer : Baselines are the final version of all plans before the project execution starts. Project baselines are the starting versions of all related plans of a project, be it the time schedule, ... communication plan or whatever. This acts as the reference against which project performance is measured.

Description : What to you understand by a project charter?

Last Answer : This is a document where it all begins. Project authorization is done on this document and a project would be initiated with the top level requirements listed in this document. Initial requirements as seen by stakeholders and the outcomes of the project also are listed in it.

Description : Can you explain project life cycle?

Last Answer : A project has distinct phases when the range of activities required to carry out the project work differ. There is a distinct start phase, followed by an organizing and preparing phase. Carrying ... decided at these stages based on the performance or if the need of the project has disappeared.

Description : What are organizational influences?

Last Answer : Every organization has a certain way of doing things, collective wisdom about how things can best be done, etc. and these influences the planning and execution processes. These ... planning for activities related to projects. These are often mentioned as organizational environmental factors.

Description : Who is a stakeholder?

Last Answer : Any person, organization or an entity whose interest is affected, positively or negatively, because of the project. The influence of stakeholders is an important issue to take into account in any planning and subsequently during execution of it as well.

Description : What do you think is the difference between projects, programs and a portfolio?

Last Answer : Projects are undertaken for a specific or a set of related purposes. A program is a set of projects managed in a coordinated manner to achieve different parts of an overall goal. For ... programs and even other portfolios that help an organization achieve some common high level business purpose.

Description : Are there distinct kinds of activities in a project?

Last Answer : Most often any project goes through some easily identifiable set of activities during its lifetime. Some typical activities can be identified as related initiating a project. Planning set of ... of estimates of similar projects etc. are often referred to as Organizational process assets.

Description : What is your view of Project Management?

Last Answer : Project management involves applying the knowledge & skills of the project team members including the project manager, application of tools and techniques available to ensure the defined tasks are ... means balancing of the constraints of scope, budget, schedule, quality, risks and resources.

Description : Provide some examples

Last Answer : A project for a product will result in a complete product or part of a product. An example would be the creation of the Microsoft Surprise tablet that used a liquid magnesium deposition process ... a road or a bridge (infrastructure in general), developing a computer/information system, etc.

Description : How will you define a project?

Last Answer : A project is a set of task/activities undertaken to create a product, services or results. These are temporary, in the sense that they are not routine work like production activity but most often one time set of activities undertaken.