Project Manager Interview Questions and Answers

Project Management gives us a clear picture of the targets that to be achieved in the given project, how these targets can be met and how long will it take to complete the project and meet the objectives.

Some of the qualities of the excellent manager are:-

• Flexible:- Project Manager has to be flexible so that in a breakdown he or she can rapidly adjust and start executing the project from a new direction to meet the deadline.
• Communication:- The success of any project reply on the discussion. Project Manager should be able to do effective communication with his team regarding vision, issues, performance, goals, etc.
• Excellent Negotiation skills:-Project manager has to do negotiations with the vendors, contractor, senior stakeholders.
• Decision-making Skills:-Project manager has to make some decisions for a successful project.
• Team Management:-Project manager has to manage, motivate and inspire the teams who are working on a particular project.

The 10 knowledge management areas are:-

• Project Integration Management.
• Project Scope Management.
• Project Time Management.
• Project Cost Management.
• Project Quality Management.
• Project Human Resource Management.
• Project Communications Management.
• Project Risk Management.
• Project Procurement Management.
• Project Stakeholder Management.

Point to be noted: Go through this Q&A very thoroughly as this is one of the critical Project Manager Interview Questions.

First thing I do not immediately tell anything to anyone. I take time to understand why the decision has been made and who is responsible for this decision and then I call for the group meeting or call the person and share the bad news. I always make sure that there is aways 2-way communication while sharing the news.

The actions I take to manage my team performance are:-

• Set Targets:-It is easy for my team to focus on because they know their aim in the project
• Conduct Reviews:- I conduct reviews every week rather than at the end of the project
• Provide Feedback:- I check the team member's performance and give them their feedback every week and also take their input so that I can support him or her.
• Track Performance:- I create specific measures according to which I check the performance of the project
• Celebrate Project Success:- I make sure that we celebrate after each of the milestones of the projector when the team gets appreciation from the client.
• Reward team:- I reward the team on a monthly basis

Teams play an essential part of any organization. Teams partners the company to get important work done. Motivated team when combines with the energy, skills, and knowledge can accomplish any tasks with ease and grace.

Groups can be motivated in some of the following ways:-

• I am creating a pleasant environment for team members.
• Giving opportunities to the team members to learn new skills
• Encouraging the members by valuing their suggestions
• Making sure that each of the team members is happy and working with a positive attitude
• They are encouraging the team members to try again if they have made a mistake.

I set the goals of the team in the following steps:-

• I create a specific, measurable result. I create specific and measurable goals with a deadline and small goals which is easily achievable.so that the team members remain on track. For example:- 50% project will complete in 1.5 months rather more than half project will complete in around 2 months.
• Goals of each team member must align with the project goals
• I then ask my team member to create an Action plan (establishing the milestones) so that work is done before the deadline of the purpose given
• I will track each member process.
• Will take the following on regular intervals and then reward at the end

I check whether my project is on track or not

• By taking the regular reviews from the team member
• By checking on a regular basis if there is any breakdown likely to come
• By conducting a meeting to share the status of the project and also to check whether the team members are following their milestones or not.
• At last, support them entirely if they need my support at any point in time.

This is a very critical question in project manager interview questions.

• First I will study the complete project by myself and then will share the objective and the end result of the project with the team member
• Second I will sit with my team and research on the project so that we can understand how we can reach the end result of the project
• The third will make a list of the resources that are required for the project
• At last, I will plan the actions with my team and allocate the goal to each and everyone so that they can create their milestones.

Then they will start working on the project.

The project management tools on which I have worked on are Kanban, Agile, Microsoft Project and Trello

Note:-in the above question I have mentioned the standard project management tools that most of the company uses. Share the name of the tools you know.

The essential functions of the project management tool are:-

• Project planning and scheduling
• Team collaboration
• Time tracking
• Reporting
• Project budgeting
• Billing & quotes

Project Management life cycle process includes

• Initiating the Project
• Planning the Project
• Executing the Project
• Monitoring as well as controlling the operation of the Project
• The closing of the project

This is the favorite interviewer question in project manager interview questions.

I will prioritize my tasks in the following steps:-

• I will list down the jobs given to us and the responsibilities.
• The second will Identify the urgent and important tasks
• The third will asses the value of each of the function given
• The fourth will arrange the functions in the order of the efforts required
• Fifth while scheduling will give buffer time as the client may demand some additions or changes.

RAID in project management stands for

R - Risk
A - Assumptions
I - Issue
D - Dependencies

Some of the tools listed below that are used in the industry for the process improvement-

• Hypothesis Testing
• Value-Stream Mapping
• Flow-Charting
• Cause and Affect analysis
• Comparing and Baselining a process

I will follow the 3 step approach

• IDENTIFY:- I will find out what my team member is dealing with right now.
• COACH:- I will coach him on what he is dealing with. If a personal problem then I will create something new for him and make him relax. However, if it is related to performance then will develop him by giving him training.
• SUPPORT:- I will continue to support him for a period of time until his performance is improved.

This is one of the essential questions in project manager interview questions.

A triple constraint triangle is the model of the constraints of the project.

A triple constraint triangle has three components:-

• Time: scope and Cost. One crucial factor Quality is at the center of the triangle.
• Cost:-Projects should be delivered within the value that was initially decided
• Time:-Projects should be delivered on or before time
• Scope:-Projects should meet the extent that was agreed – no more, no less
• Quality:-Projects should meet the customer’s quality requirements

The duty of the project manager is to manage these constraints throughout the project.

Debugging, in the world of computer programming, engineering, is one multistep process. Debugging includes identifying the problem, isolating its source, and then finally either correcting it or determining some way in order to work with it. The last step in this is testing the correction made or workaround plus making sure that it works.

Importance

Debugging is one important element for determining why the operating system, program or application is not behaving properly. Even if the developers practice the same standard coding, the new software application or program will surely have bugs. In several cases, this method of debugging the new software application may take even more time than creating the program did. Invariably, at first, the bugs of software components are detected and fixed as they are used the most.

Mentioned below are some of the best software development methodologies that you can use:

• Waterfall
• Agile
• Extreme Programming
• Feature-Driven Development
• Scrum
• Lean