- What is a project, a program and a portfolio?
- A project is a specific, singular endeavor to deliver a tangible output. The goals of a project are well-defined. Also, it can exist without any program.
- A program is a collection of related projects, with each project having its own goal.
- The upper layer is called a portfolio, which is an organizational strategy to achieve strategic goals.
- What is your view of Project Management?
A project has a specific time period, and it needs to be completed by a specific date.
Project management involves supervising and monitoring the progress of each activity to ensure that the progress is going as scheduled. It also involves keeping the manpower requirement, procurement, and financing on track. A project manager must keep a close eye on activities which are dependent on other activities, and encourage team work and high motivation for all project personnel.
- What are the different types of activities in a project?
- Conception: It is the first phase of the project-planning process that involves development of ideas for projects based on their organizational goals.
- Planning and Design: It is the process of determining which tasks are needed for big projects. Budgeting is an important activity during this phase.
- Execution: As the name suggests, this is the phase during which the project gets underway.
- Control: This phase focuses on controlling the implementation of project tasks.
- Closing: This is an important part of project management process, and means finishing all activities across all the process groups, and signing off the project with the customer using the project closure report.
- What are the tools mostly used for improving the process activities?
- Comparing and Base-lining
- Flow-Charting
- Value-Stream Mapping
- Cause and Effect Analysis
- Hypothesis Testing
- What are the most important skills that a Project Manager should possess?
- Leadership
- Negotiation
- Cost Control
- Risk Management
- Contract Management
- Critical Thinking
- Communication
- Project Recovery
- What is a project charter?
Project charter is a statement of objectives in a project. The statement includes detailed project goals, roles and responsibilities, identifies the main stakeholders, and the level of authority of a project manager.
- What is RAID in project management?
RAID (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies) gives a broad understanding of the project and the environment to the project manager, in order to track the project.
- What is a SOW?
SOW (Statement of Work) is a formal document that defines the entire scope of the work and clarifies deliverables, costs, and timeline. It should include deliverables, due dates, individual tasks that lead to the deliverable, resources needed for the project, governance process, and costs and deadlines for payment.
- How do you define a milestone?
A milestone is a specific point in a project lifecycle that is used to measure the progress of a project towards its ultimate goal. For example, a project’s start or end date, a need for external review or input, a need for budget checks, submission of a major deliverable, and much more. They do have a fixed date but no duration.
- What are the different methods for the estimation of activity duration?
- PERT Method
- Analoguos Method
- Parametric Estimation
- Expert Judgment
- The Delphi Technique
- Work breakdown Structure
- What is Effort Variance?
- Effort Variance calculates variance of actual effort versus planned effort.
- The formula to calculate EV is: Effort variance = [(Actual effort - Planned Effort)/Planned effort] * 100.
- What is a risk register?
Risk register is a tool that is used to identify potential risks in a project, to stay on top of potential issues that can derail the outcomes.
- What is Time & Material contract?
Time & Material contract is an instrument that provides an alternative to standard, boilerplate contracts, to facilitate the variables involved in
project management.
- Why does a PM need to be proactive?
A proactive PM is able to finish tomorrow’s tasks today and achieve more with less by anticipating issues and risks and having a plan in place to solve them or avoid them will help you deliver projects successfully.
- What is the team forming process?
At this stage, the team members' roles and responsibilities aren't clear. Hence, the project manager plays an important role. This is the point where the team starts to work together, and make an effort to get to know their colleagues.
About the author: Nisha Negi is a Technical Content Writer at Multisoft Systems. She writes blog posts and articles on various technical subjects. She is an experienced IT professional, and bears immense knowledge of the latest technology. She stays current with all the ongoing and upcoming certifications. Her way of expression is contemporary and crisp.