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Project management is the discipline that helps organize and manage the objectives of a project in a controlled manner to produce unique outcomes. The profession of the Project Manager traces back to the early 19th Century but was not recognized as a distinct profession until the late 20th century. But in today’s market, it is recognized as one of the most reputed professions offering a lucrative salary. But grasping it is definitely not a piece of cake, where you will have to compete with others across the globe. This blog is going to help you crack all your PMP Interview Questions.
You can also check out our PMP Certification Training if you want to ensure your job as a project manager. Certifications like PMP, Prince2, etc., help beef up your resume and are preferred by employers globally.
In this Edureka video on “Project Manager Interview Questions and Answers”, you will learn around 50 questions that are very important and frequently asked which will help you ace your interview at the first attempt.
So, let’s get started.
Project | Program | Portfolio |
An endeavor undertaken to produce a unique product or solution | A group of interrelated projects that are managed together | A collection of projects and operations managed under one group to achieve a strategic goal |
Temporary in nature with defined start and end point | Temporary in nature but lasts longer than project | Permanent in nature that keeps on changing and is aligned with the strategic planning |
Follows the project-level plans with the main focus on detailed delivery | Follows the high-level plans that are backed up by detailed plans | Follows the ongoing processes that prioritize and align the portfolio to achieve strategic objectives |
Has a narrow and defined scope with no changes | Has a wide scope can change with time-based on client requirements | Has the widest scope with the strategic perspective of the whole organization |
“Six Thinking Hats” is an interesting way of understanding an issue from a variety of perspectives. You can think from six different perspectives, or you and your team members could do this. Each of the six hats represents a different point of view.
Let us talk about it one by one:
The White Hat: A person who wears the white hat will talk only about Information; you have to consider it from both within and outside the scope of the discussion.
The Yellow Hat: The yellow hat symbolizes brightness and optimism. The wearer of this hat should bring up or think of positive aspects related to the subject as much as possible and encourage the team members.
The Black Hat: A person who wears the black hat is responsible for identifying any mistakes or roadblocks. They should be judgmental. They should think about everything that could go wrong and worst-case scenarios so that others can find a solution.
The Red Hat: A person with a red hat should express his feelings. The red hat signifies emotions. You can express emotions and feelings and share likes, dislikes, loves, and hates. The objective here is to address the credibility of the emotions that are part of a certain discussion.
The Green Hat: A person wearing the green hat should generate innovative ideas and be creative. They should be aware of all the information and problems and come up with new ideas that solve them and help improve productivity. The main purpose of wearing this hat is to generate as many new ideas as possible.
The Blue Hat: The blue hat is the thinking hat(cap). It is all about thinking. It is the hat which ensures the six thinking hat guidelines are observed.
They decided the agenda and timeline, how long do the sessions take? When do you need to wear a particular hat, and for how long? So the group’s controller should wear the blue hat for the session.
Learn more about ITIL and its framework from the ITIL Foundation Certification.
As per Project Management institute, a project is a ‘temporary endeavor with a definite beginning and end’ . To explain this in simple terms, A project can be defined as a sequence or series of tasks that should be completed to obtain the end result. A project could range from simple to complex, it could be handled by one team or by many teams. Now, every project will have these listed characteristics:
Project Management is the discipline that helps in implementing various processes, methods, knowledge, skills, and experience for achieving the objectives of a unique project. Project Management is nothing like the usual management. One key factor which differentiates these two is that project management has a final deliverable and a definite timeline whereas management is an ongoing process. A project manager must always follow the 6P rule of project management which is Proper Planning Prevents Poor Project Performance.
The Project Management Life Cycle is a series of various activities/tasks that are crucial for accomplishing project objectives or targets. This helps in structuring the efforts and simplifying them into a series of logical and manageable steps. The Project Management Life Cycle consists of four simple phases which are listed below:
Next, let’s look at the techniques that you can use to collect project requirements.
Before, we talk about the techniques used to collect project requirements, let us first understand what is project requirements. Project requirements can be defined as “what stakeholders expect from a project, or from the product of the project”. So, all these requirements should be collected in the project and also managed properly. Now, some of the important techniques that you can use to collect project requirements are:
Requirements Traceability Matrix or RTM is a document that ensures that all the requirements that are defined for a particular system are linked at every point during the verification process. RTM also assures that they are tested with respect to various test parameters and protocols. The importance of maintaining the requirement traceability matrix is that:
RTM can be defined as a powerful planning tool that helps determine various factors, such as the required number of tests, the types of tests required, whether these tests can be automated or manually performed, and whether any existing tests can be reused.
Also, using the RTM results in the most effective test execution, which provides reports of the overall defect status, focusing majorly on business requirements.
Related Learning: PMP Exam Interview Questions
A project charter is a document that includes all the details of the project. It mainly includes information about the scope, objectives, and the individuals involved in the project(it also includes the roles and responsibilities of each project member). This project charter acts as a contract between the sponsors, key stakeholders, and the project team.
The most important skills that a Project manager must possess are:
When you start your job a project manager first few things that you need to take care of are:
Note: The above questions are frequently asked Project Manager Interview Questions. With that, let’s move ahead.
Prioritizing tasks in a project is very important and especially if it is an extensive one. It helps ensure the successful and timely completion of your project. In order to prioritize the tasks you should follow the below pointers:
Every project manager must possess leadership. Every leader has his own leadership style to guide his team. Leadership style refers to a leader’s characteristic behavior while directing, motivating, guiding, and managing his team to bring the best out of them. In a project, leaders hold the responsibility to motivate others for better performance, creation, and innovation.
There are basically four types of leadership styles and your leadership style should be situational, depending on the type of team you are working with and the importance of the tasks involved in the project. Below are the four leadership styles:
Before you decide on your ideal project, consider the following questions. These questions will help you narrow down your choices while maximizing your productivity.
An organizational structure determines many factors that influence resource acquisition, such as the level of project management, the organization’s environment, the communication between team members, how the project manager works with the team, and more.
Now, talking about a few points about how organizational structure influences resource acquisition:
1). Project management: During project management, your organization structure can either be tight, where all the steps are managed very closely, or loose, where there are not many rules and little liberty in performing the tasks.
2). Communication: The organizational structure greatly impacts the communication between team members to complete a project. Good communication between team members and also inter-departmental communication in an organization will create a friendly environment where people can share their ideas and suggestions, which in turn will help the project thrive.
3). Chain of Command Impact: This means the hierarchy of the organization. The organization structure should be in such a way that when higher authorities communicate their requirements, it should be well understood and followed by the project manager and the subordinates correctly. Also, The project manager should know his subordinates so that he can pick the right people for a particular task. They should be authoritative and friendly, and they should communicate and express their thoughts clearly. All the tasks given by the management should be communicated properly to the subordinates and the management should allow the project manager to perform their way of getting the work done.
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Both are equally important as both are customer-oriented. The development team develops products for customers, while the customer team helps customers with the products. A project manager should invest equal time with both teams, understanding their requirements and solving their problems to increase their productivity.
A process in the project management framework is a defined way of doing tasks that are involved in the successful completion of a project. These processes define the actions to be taken along with their sequence. There are around 49 processes in the project management framework embedded in various process groups. Process groups are a collection of processes that are applicable through various stages of a project.
There are 5 process groups in which 10 knowledge areas and 49 processes are mapped into. The five process groups are:
Note: Project Management Framework is one of the most asked and demanded Project Manager Interview Questions.
Knowledge Areas are the core technical subject matter that are vital for effective project management. All 49 processes are primarily part of these knowledge areas, and they are grouped based on their commonalities. Below, I have listed down the ten knowledge areas of project management framework:
Since stakeholders hold a high authority and are an integral part of a project, having their consent is very important. But sometimes they can be a little difficult to handle; in such cases, should:
RAID in project management stands for Risk, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies. These are very important items that a project manager must be knowledgeable about.
Every individual in a project should understand his/ her roles and responsibilities. A RACI matrix can define each team member’s role.
RACI stands for the 4 roles that stakeholders may portray in any project. It maps out who is Responsible, Accountable, who must be Consulted, and who shall stay Informed. To explain this better, a project delegation looks like a RACI.
Responsible – Defines who is completing the task.
Accountable – Defines who is making decisions and taking action on the tasks.
Consulted – Define who will be communicated with regard to decisions and tasks.
Informed – Defines who will be updated on decisions and actions taken during the project.
With the RACI matrix, there will be no role or task-related ambiguity among the team members. It defines details like what level of responsibilities each person has, who to report to, and when to ask the project manager for guidance and when to take their opinion.
The critical path method, or CPM, is a resource utilization algorithm that is used for scheduling project activities. So, this algorithm is used to create a structure in which the tasks are executed. So, to construct a CPM, you should include the following things:
Based on these criteria, you can prioritize the tasks that have to be performed on priority.
To detect whether your project is on track or falling behind the agreed timeline, you must check the below pointers:
If the answers to these pointers are true, then your project is definitely off track, and you must take immediate action to bring it back on track. A few steps that you might take are:
Effort variance, in simple terms, can be defined as the difference between the planned effort and the actual effort required to undertake the task.:
Now, to calculate the effort variance, here is the formula
Effort variance = (Actual Effort – Planned Effort)/ Planned Effort x 100.
Not a single methodology can be applied to all types of projects. The selection of project management methodology must be based on the following criteria:
A bid document is a proposal that is often made through a bidding process by a person or company and will include certain important factors like delivery schedule, product availability, pricing, and so on.
The different kinds of bid documents that can be used for procurement management are:
Majorly used tools in the industry:
Stakeholder Analysis is the technique used for identifying, analyzing and prioritizing potential stakeholders who might be associated with the project in some way or another. It can also be defined as a process that should take place before the project begins, where you identify or analyze the stakeholders and group them according to various factors like their interest in the project, their contribution to the project, and their influence on the project. This helps determine how to prioritize and communicate with different stakeholders. Now, analyzing stakeholders will give you all the necessary information about who they are, what their needs or expectations may be, what issues matter to them and many more. All of this information can be very helpful in making your projects successful.
The power-interest grid classifies the stakeholders according to their power over the project and their interest in its results; based on these two criteria, you can allocate a position for each one on the grid.
To bring the best out of your team members, you must:
Trust and agreement are key factors that facilitate proper communication and coordination in a team and bring out the best outcome. To gain agreement from your team members, you must:
A fishbone diagram is also known as a cause-and-effect diagram or Ishikawa diagram. It is a visualization tool for categorizing potential causes of a problem to identify its root causes. A Japanese quality control expert named Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa invented this fishbone diagram to help employees avoid solutions that will merely address the symptoms of a much larger problem.
Firstly, DMAIC and DMADV are methodologies designed to make a business process more effective and efficient.
DMAIC | DMADV |
1). DMAIC stands for Define—Measure—Analyze—Improve—Control | 1). DMADV stands for Define—Measure—Analyze—Design—Verify |
2). DMAIC is limited to improving existing processes; it does not address the design of new products, services, or processes. | 2). DMADV is majorly focused on the process of designing new products, services or processes. |
3). D stands for defining the problems, which all output has to be improved, customers, and the process associated with the problem | 3). D stands for Define design goals |
4). M stands for measuring the data to make a baseline for improvements. | 4). M stands for measure and identify characteristics that are critical to quality |
5). A stands for analyzing the data to find the main cause of the defect | 5). A stands for analyzing the data to find the best design |
6). I stand for improving the process by trying out different ideas and solutions. | 6) It stands for planning and designing the product, service, or process. |
7). C stands for controlling process implementation to sustain the improvements. | 7). V stands for verifying whether the designed product works well as planned under real-time and simulated conditions. |
Developmental stages of the team generally consist of the following:
There are two ways in which you can calculate the three-point estimation:
where P = pessimist, O = Optimist, M = most likely.
35. Explain the Work Breakdown Structure (WBD) and its effect on the work estimates of tasks/activities.
Work breakdown structure defines the work activities that are required for the project completion and the sub-activities of each of those work requirements. It has a hierarchical structure in which concrete/ main activities are segregated into logical sub-activities. There are two approaches:
WBS stands for Work breakdown structure, which is a very important step in preparing a good plan. As the name suggests, WBS breaks up the project work into smaller and more manageable parts, which are known as work packages. WBS helps in preparing a good plan as it is integrated with cost, scope, and schedule baselines, which ensures that the project plans are going as planned.
Instead of planning for the entire project, it would be easier and more efficient to break the project into parts and then plan for those individual parts. This would make planning easier, and even when there is a problem, it would be easier to identify and solve it. A good WBS helps to achieve optimal results and leads to the development of a robust and accurate plan.
Planned Value: Planned value is the budget authorized for an activity or work breakdown structure (WBS). This planned value can be allocated in various phases over the project’s lifetime.
To calculate Planned Value (PV) use the relation:
PV= BAC x Planned % of complete.
Earned Value: EV is a measure of work performed/ budget authorized for that work. In simple words, it’s the budget approved for completed work.
To calculate EV, you’d use the relation:
EV = Total percentage of work completed x BAC
Actual Cost: It is the cost which is incurred for the completed work on a task during a specific period. In simple words, the cost you incur while you’re completing the job for which EV is measured.
AC can be measured as it relates to PV (which is budgeted) and EV (which is measured).
Related Learning: What is Earned Value Analysis?
Issues | Risks |
Issues are more of present-focused | Risks are more of future-focused |
These always tend to be negative | They can be either positive or negative |
Issues are generally documented in the “Issue Register.” | Risks are usually documented in the “Risk Register.” |
The response to an issue will be “Issue workaround.” | The response to risk is based on “risk response planning.” |
Proactive managers have a higher chance of identifying risks and implementing solutions in order to minimize them. Being proactive lets them have more control over their project tasks and resources. They can keep better track of all tasks and issues to work towards implementing small changes and improvements for higher productivity and efficiency. Organizes frequent meetings for developers to talk about their problems, brainstorm solutions, share best practices, etc. Compares the actual costs and time spent on tasks on a weekly basis with the planned numbers.
Risk Probability is the chance that a risk will occur whereas Risk Impact is the cost when a risk does occur.
There are five important steps in risk planning:
Step 1: Identify the Risk. This step includes identifying and describing all the possible risks that might affect your project or its results. To avoid this, make a note of all the possible risks. During this step, you start to prepare a Project Risk register, which is a register that keeps the details of all the possible risks
Step 2: Analyze the risk. Once risks are identified, the next step you should take is to analyze the likelihood and consequence of each risk. This is a very important step because you will understand the nature of the risk and its effect on project goals and objectives. You should also input this information to your Project Risk Register.
Step 3: Prioritize the Risk: After analyzing all the possible risks, it is time for you to evaluate and prioritize them by determining the risk magnitude. Now, the risk magnitude can be calculated as the combination of likelihood and consequence. So, on top will be the risks that have the most chances of occurring and whose consequences are bad for the project and vice versa. You should add all these risk rankings to your Project Risk Register.
Step 4: Treat the Risk. During this step, you analyze the highest-ranked risks and plan strategies to treat or avoid these. You create risk prevention & reduction strategies and also any plans for emergencies in this step. Then, you add the risk treatment measures as the highest-ranking risks on your Project Risk Register. This is also called Risk Response Planning.
Step 5: Monitor and Review the Risk: This is the step where you review your Project Risk Register and, using it, track, Review, and monitor risks.
The PDCA cycle stands for the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle. It is a four-step problem-solving technique used to improve business processes. It was originally developed by an American physicist named Walter A. Shewhart. It is a cycle, which means it iterates or repeats these four steps.
The first step is to Plan. This step includes planning a project so that it clearly defines the project’s goal and the best ways to work towards it. It is basically setting up a framework for all the operations that should be done.
The second step is to do: This step includes executing the planned actions. This stage can be broken down into parts: the first part includes assigning tasks to individuals and training them, the second part consists of the actual process of doing the work, and the third part is noting the progress and insights for future evaluation.
The third step is check: This step is used to check if the project’s objectives are met. It also includes checking if the completed project addresses both successes and failures so that any further changes can be made.
The fourth step is acting: This step includes performing any corrective actions that were needed after the evaluation in the previous step. This cycle can be repeated until you get the optimal results.
The type of communication you use in your project will completely depend on the type of project you are working on and the type of team you have. Types of communication styles that a project manager uses:
It is a hybrid contract arrangement containing aspects of both cost-reimbursable and fixed-price contracts. Time and material contracts resemble the cost-reimbursable type arrangements where they have no definitive end. This contract is generally used in projects whose accurate project size can’t be estimated or when it is expected that the project requirements would most likely change.
To handle an unhappy customer, you must:
Pareto Analysis is a statistical technique in decision-making. It is used to select a limited number of tasks that can have a significant overall effect. This principle follows the Pareto Principle (also known as the 80/20 rule), which states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the actions. It helps prioritize work, especially in large projects with a number of small tasks.
DSS, or decision support system, is an informational application that provides users with relevant information collected from a variety of data sources. This DSS can help by providing information that leads to better decision-making.
A Decision Support System is made up of three different parts:
Knowledge base. It is a part of a database of the decision support system, and it contains all the information that is basically collected from both internal and external sources.
Software system: This is composed of model management systems. A model is basically a simulation of a real-world system, with the goal of understanding how the system works and how it can be improved.
User interface: The primary goal of the decision support system’s user interface is to make it easy for the user to change the data that is stored on it.
Triple Constraint Triangle is a combination of three key components which act as the most significant restrictions on any project. The following are the three constraints in this model:
Each of the constraints forms the vertices of the triangle, with quality as the central factor.
Majorly encountered risks in a project are:
Now, you can answer this question by saying that you are very well prepared to manage a remote team. Then, you can talk about a few points on how you will manage the remote team. Some of the pointers that will help you answer this question is:
1) Have a well-organized workspace.
2) Have clear communication with team members
3) Conduct weekly meetings to discuss project updates and address any problems regarding the project.
4) Prioritize the important tasks and work on that first.
5) Use project collaboration tools to improve the productivity of the tasks and also the team.
Now, the answer to this question will change for every individual. But, before you go to the interview, learn about the company and understand how the company carries out its work. So, according to the answer to this question. Some of the points you can use here are,
QC(Quality Control) | QA(Quality Assurance) |
QC is used to verify the quality of the output | QA is the process of managing quality |
QC is done in the end, where they check if the end products meet the expected standards. | QA is done throughout the execution and development process |
QC is a strategy for detection | QA is a strategy for prevention |
According to PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge), it is “an identified area of project management defined by its knowledge requirements and described in terms of its processes, practices, initial data, results, tools and techniques that compose them.” Now, project management is the discipline that helps organize and manage the objectives of a project in a controlled manner to produce unique outcomes. Processes in the PMBOK are divided into ten areas, which are:
Now, in this question, you will have to explain your reason for choosing PMP Certification.
Here are some pointers that might help you prepare for the answer:
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This brings us to the end of this article on the Top 50+ PMP Interview Questions. I hope it helped to expand your knowledge. If you prepare these questions, you will surely crack your PMP interview successfully. I wish you all the best for your interview. Happy learning.
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