These Project Management interview questions and answers are compiled to help you analyze and update your knowledge in order to demonstrate your true potential in the interview by mastering the subject.
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We have categorized Project Manager Interview Questions and Answers into 4 levels they are:
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Since the project manager enjoys coercive powers, it seems likely that he has assigned a neutral facilitator to facilitate the team meetings. Facilitation is a management skill. A good facilitator should always remain neutral in a meeting and help facilitate consensus when required.
All regulatory requirements must be met. Doing nothing or considering this a scope creep are not valid options. You would have to request additional funds, but first, you need to submit a change request for approval. A change request can be submitted as a part of the Direct and Manage Project Work process.
This organization is called a composite organization.
The decomposition technique allows the project manager to create smaller and more manageable pieces of work from the larger work packages.
The stakeholder register is developed during the Identify Stakeholders process.
The Create WBS process identifies the deliverables at the lowest level in the WBS, the work package. Project work packages are typically decomposed into smaller components called activities, which represent the work that is necessary to complete the work package.
Contingency funds are used to handle cost uncertainty due to unforeseen purchases that may be needed during a project. These funds are generally used for items that are likely to occur but are not certain to occur.
Staffing is typically highest during the execution phase of the project. The other three responses may not hold true. Projects can move forward into subsequent phases without the deliverables of the prior phase being completely approved; this is known as fast-tracking. Changes during the initial phases of the project are the least expensive. The influence of the stakeholders is highest during the start of the project and declines as the project moves to completion.
A standardized stakeholder list is not a valid organizational asset used in the Plan Human Resource Management process. The other choices are valid assets. Other assets include historical information on organizational structures that have worked in previous projects and organizational processes and policies.
All of the given choices correctly define the project stakeholders. However, the key stakeholders are the subset of the project stakeholders that are in a decision-making position.
The change request is not a valid response. The configuration management activities included in the Perform Integrated Change Control process are Configuration Identification, Configuration Status Accounting, Configuration Verification, and Auditing.
A probability and impact matrix will help filter the high-risk items and high-impact items from the others so that you can focus your attention on these riskier items.
Control Costs are the process of managing the project’s costs and the changes that threaten the bottom line.
The fixed-price contract works best with a well-defined project scope.
Resisting change is not a valid interpersonal skill. The other choices are examples of interpersonal skills.
The logical sequence of the six scope management processes is: Plan Scope Management, Collect Requirements, Define Scope, Create WBS, Validate Scope, and Control Scope.
The work package is the lowest and most detailed level of the WBS and can be scheduled, cost estimated, monitored, and controlled.
The Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS) is a hierarchical presentation of the project risks sorted by risk categories.
Expert Judgment is a tool or technique used in the Monitor and Control Project Work process.
Notifying project stakeholders and following proper procedures for dealing with budget variances is the best response. Attempting to pass off or hide an unexpected expense in another budget or in expense reports rather than following proper procedures is dishonest and unprofessional. The PMI Code of ethics requires project managers, to be honest, take responsibility for errors, and follow all organizational rules and policies.
The make-or-buy analysis is a technique used by the project manager to determine whether a particular work can be best completed by the project team or should be procured from outside sources.
Start to Finish relationships indicate that the next task cannot be completed until the one preceding it has started. This type is not commonly used.
A RACI chart outlines in matrix form, the project tasks, and for each task, who is responsible, who is accountable, whom to consult, and whom to inform.
The cost variance (CV) equals EV – AC. In this case, the CV = $5,000.
While organizational and cultural differences can cause conflict, the project manager is bound by the code of ethics to practice honesty, respect, and professionalism, and to follow policies, regulations, and laws pertaining. The best choice is to decline the gift and confer with management about gift policies.
Since this will be an official project document, it should be formal. Additionally, since you are requesting money from someone higher up in the organization, you are creating vertical communication.
The Delphi technique involves anonymous questionnaires circulated to a group of experts and provides an unbiased assessment of the risks.
A cost-reimbursable contract will allow the contract to change as the project scope changes.
This statement describes the Develop Project Management Plan process.
All of the given choices are the components of the project management plan that can be used during the Control Stakeholder Engagement process. However, the key project stakeholders are typically not interested in the minor details of the project; they are more interested in the project’s objectives, its current progress, and current risks and issues. From the given choices, “the selected project management processes for the project” is the weakest choice.
Stage Gates, Phase Gates and Kill Point all refer to a phase-end review with the objective of obtaining authorization to close the current phase and start the next one. This is a retrospective review of the current phase. Phase planning, on the other hand, is performed early during the planning phase of the project.
Attribute sampling measures the quality of items in a sample on a pass/fail basis; variable sampling measures the quality on a continuous scale.
Requirements Traceability Matrix is an output of the Collect Requirements process. It is used for tracing requirements to project scope, objectives, and test strategy. Tracing requirements to project risk is not a valid use.
The Bill of Material (BOM) is not used as an input in the Create WBS process. The other three are valid inputs.
During the procurement process, predefined criteria are used to select vendors to supply goods and services. Circumventing this process to benefit a friend is a conflict of interest and is unfair to other vendors competing in good faith. The project management code of ethics demands that practitioners adhere to their standards at all times. The best response is to notify the project stakeholders that you have a conflict of interest, and excuse yourself from the selection committee.
The Identify Risks process is an ongoing, iterative process as risks are often identified throughout the project’s life cycle.
Risk categories provide a structure that ensures a comprehensive process of systematically identifying risks and that contributes to the effectiveness and quality of the process.
Create WBS is a process in the Project Scope Management area. The other options are all Project Time Management processes.
The method used by most project management software packages to construct a project schedule network diagram is Activity-On-Node (AON). This method uses boxes or rectangles, called nodes, to represent activities. It connects the nodes with arrows showing the logical relationships among them.
[Related Project: Assistant Project Manager Job Description]
The WBS is a hierarchical decomposition of the work to be performed by the project team. It defines the total scope of the project. It represents the work specified in the currently approved project scope statement.
Creating the WBS is a very important process, but often a previous WBS can be used as a template to save time and avoid the risk of forgetting something important.
Finish-to-Start relationships indicate that the next task is not able to start until the one preceding it is completed. This is the most commonly used type of activity relationship.
Since you have little authority over the projects you manage, you are working for a weak matrix organization. In such organizations, the functional managers have more authority. To obtain the required resources from the functional managers, you need to use the “Negotiation” tool and technique from the Acquire Project Team process.
To provide the best results, a quality audit should be a structured process performed by an independent entity.
A hierarchical-type organization chart can clearly show roles and reporting relationships within a team.
A project initiator or sponsor external to the project, at a level that is appropriate to funding the project, authorizes the project charter.
The project manager needs to recognize that the stakeholders may have conflicting interests and objectives. It is the responsibility of the project manager to manage the stakeholders’ expectations successfully.
While it is not feasible to invite everyone to the risk identification meetings, everyone should be encouraged to identify risks as they encounter them.
Upper and lower control limits allow the control chart to serve its purpose of indicating when a process is in or out of control.
Rolling Wave Planning is a technique used to create a more detailed work plan while keeping the right level of detail for each activity: Activities happening sooner have more detail than those further in the future.
Resource calendars are inputs to the Develop Project Team process.
Successful conflict management results in greater productivity and positive working relationships.
The transition from one phase to another within a project’s lifecycle typically involves, and is usually defined by, some form of technology transfer or handoff. This is also called a kill point.
A project is a finite effort; the Initiating Process Group starts the cycle, and the Closing Process Group ends the cycle.
Commercial databases are considered enterprise environmental factors. The other choices are organizational process assets.
Estimate Activity Resources is the process of estimating the type and quantities of material, people, equipment, and supplies required to perform each activity.
A functional organization is a classical organizational structure.
Progressive elaboration is a characteristic of projects. It allows a project management team to manage the project to a greater level as the project evolves.
The Initiating Process group consists of the processes performed to define a new project or a new phase of an existing project by obtaining authorization to start the project or phase.
Six competing project constraints are scope, quality, schedule, budget, resources, and risk. Procurement is not a project competing for constraint.
Notifying the appropriate staff of an information security breach and providing details to assist with an investigation is the appropriate response. The project manager is responsible for maintaining an accurate project information base and protecting the intellectual property of others, in accordance with the code of ethics. Failing to notify the project or corporate staff that there has been unauthorized access to critical information violates the PMI code.
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The level of detail required in a Project Management Plan would vary by project and would include only the details necessary for the project.
A bidder conference is a good way to ensure that all bidders have the same information at the same time and to ensure fairness and equity within the bidding process.
The correct response is 28. The formula for the number of communication channels is n*(n – 1)/2, where n is the number of stakeholders. In this case, n = 8, so it works out to 8*(8 – 1)/2 = 28.
Projects have both positive and negative stakeholders. All of these stakeholders need to be managed carefully, and their details must be recorded in the project stakeholder register.
The project initiator or sponsor external to the project authorizes the project charter. However, a project manager should be involved in the process as early as possible.
Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis is quicker than Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis, which is not always required by the project.
This is known as Variance Analysis. As a project manager, you would then attempt to determine the cause of the variance relative to the scope baseline, and then decide whether corrective action is required.
The Cost Performance Index (CPI) and the Schedule Performance Index (SPI) are two efficiency indicators that reflect the cost and schedule performance of the project.
Neither the project charter nor the project management plan contains any project document templates. Templates are organizational process assets.
Crashing and fast-tracking can compress the project’s schedule when necessary, but might come at a higher cost and rework potential.
Advertising is a good way to expand existing lists of sellers. Advertisements can be placed in general circulation publications in order to achieve this.
The seven basic tools of quality are Cause and effect diagrams, control charts, flowcharting, histograms, Pareto charts, check sheets, and scatter diagrams.
[ Know More about Project Management Tools ]
A fishbone diagram, also called a cause-and-effect diagram, helps identify potential causes of an issue or problem.
All of the tasks in the choices need to be performed. However, the question is asking for the task to be performed first. The identified issue must be documented in the project’s issue log first. This should be captured and recorded during the meeting. The rest of the tasks can be performed after the meeting.
A staff release plan provides a clean breakpoint for an individual and saves the project money in the process.
Crashing is a technique that can be applied to compress the project schedule without changing the project scope. The other technique is fast-tracking.
The schedule variance is the earned value minus the planned value. At the end of the project, all of the planned values should be earned, and the differences should be zero.
Since the quantitative risk analysis is a more in-depth process, it should only be performed on prioritized risks to minimize impact to the overall project schedule.
The best choice is to notify the stakeholders that the scope has changed without authorization. Intentionally disregarding the project process and policies for any reason is unacceptable. Knowingly ignoring an error in scope, schedule, cost, or other project factors and disregarding policies represent violations of PMI’s code of ethics. Furthermore, project managers are bound by the code to report ethics violations by others to appropriate management.
The project manager is not correct. Cost Performance Index (CPI) is the ratio of EV to AC. A value greater than one represents a favorable condition for the project. The project manager has misinterpreted the situation.
Analogous, parametric, and three-point estimating techniques are all accepted practices for determining the correct amount of time required for a portion of the project. The Critical Path Analysis techniques evaluate the whole project schedule.
Analogous estimation relies on comparing a project to previous projects that were similar in nature.
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A scatter diagram plots several occurrences of two variables (one on each axis). Often a relationship between the two variables can then be determined, based on how closely they fit a geometric model.
Include the newly discovered information in your executive presence. Failure to disclose a known risk until a mitigation plan is developed is a violation of the PMI code of ethics. It mandates that project managers are to be truthful in their communications and provide accurate and timely information.
A cause-and-effect diagram helps determine the root cause behind a problem statement. The potential causes of a specific effect fall into these categories: Time, machine, method, material, energy, measurement, personnel, and environment.
The distinction between progressive elaboration and scope creep needs to be understood since the two terms are different. The changes to scope (especially in an uncontrolled manner) are called scope creep. In contrast, progressive elaboration involves building on or elaborating the output of a previous phase.
The project scope statement is the correct response. This document describes the project’s deliverables in detail and the work that is required to create those deliverables. It also forms the baseline for evaluating whether requests for changes are within or outside the project’s boundaries.
A milestone chart displays only the key deliverables and is simple and easy to understand.
Since Susan is planning to adjust her project stakeholder management plan, this implies that she is about to start the Control Stakeholder Engagement process. The stakeholder management plan and the communication management plan are the components of the project management plan; therefore, these are already included. The project charter is not an input of the Control Stakeholder Engagement process. The missing input to the process is the project documents.
All four of these are important to consider when considering someone for a position within the project team: Role, authority, responsibility, and competency.
Statistical sampling will provide sufficient inspection to ensure a high likelihood of a quality product while saving money for the project.
A qualified seller list is a list of sellers that have been pre-screened for their qualifications and experience so that procurements are directed only to likely sellers who can work on the project.
Alternatives Identification concerns itself with identifying techniques to generate different approaches to execute and perform the work of the project. Map-Out is not a valid technique; the other three (brainstorming, lateral thinking, and analysis of alternatives) are techniques used to generate ideas for different approaches.
You have a rough order of magnitude (ROM) estimate as you did not have the chance to review your estimate and make it more accurate. However, declaring a rough order of magnitude estimate as an accurate estimate is unethical. ROM estimates usually have a range of -25% to +75% and are not necessarily faulty. Denying the request is not advisable. The best option is to present the estimate to your boss first and explain the basis of the estimate. He can then decide if he wishes to present this to the steering committee or if he would like to postpone the meeting.
The Project scope statement lists and describes the specific project assumptions associated with project scope and the potential impact of those assumptions if they prove to be false. The assumptions listed in the detailed project scope statement are typically more numerous and detailed than the project assumptions listed in the project charter.
The date through which the project has provided actual status and accomplishments is called the data date (DD). It is also known as the as-of date or the status date.
Risk diagramming techniques include Cause-and-effect diagrams (also known as fishbone diagrams), flowcharts, and influence diagrams.
A colocation is a tool and technique of the Develop Project Team process. The other choices are the tools and techniques of the other three Human Resource Management processes.
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The Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS) is a hierarchical structure of resources by resource category and resource type, used in resource leveling schedules, and in developing resource-limited schedules. The RBS may also be used to identify and analyze project human resource assignments.
A project manager’s professional responsibilities are not limited to any one of the stakeholders. The other choices are correct but not complete by themselves. The expectations of every project stakeholder need to be managed.
The CPI is calculated as the earned value divided by the actual cost. An index of greater than one indicates that you have spent less than you forecasted to this point.
A portfolio refers to a collection of projects or programs that are grouped together to facilitate effective management. The projects or programs need not be directly related or interdependent.
The testing team is correct in its findings. Even though the new color scheme might be a better choice than the old one, all changes need to follow the change management process and go through the appropriate change and approval process.
While the risk identification checklist is a useful tool, it should be used in combination with the other tools, since it is impossible to cover all scenarios in one checklist.
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A project manager should always communicate an accurate statement of the project status. There could be subsequent actions to determine how the savings could be best put to use, whether there could be any cost-sharing, etc.—but these would need to be done following the appropriate procedure.
An estimate of costs will serve as a benchmark on proposed responses. Any significant differences in cost estimates can be an indication that the procurement statement of work was deficient or ambiguous, or that the prospective sellers failed to understand the work.
Bidder conferences allow prospective sellers and buyers to meet prior to the submission of a bid. This ensures that all prospective sellers have a clear and common understanding of the procurement. This usually prevents any bidders from receiving preferential treatment.
An issue log allows you to communicate, track, and resolve project issues.
These are subsidiary plans and should be included in the Project Management Plan.
No, the project team is not acquired immediately after the signing of the project charter. Acquisition of a project team starts with HR management planning in the planning process group, followed by the acquisition of the team in the execution phase. The other choices are wrong because the acquisition of the project team is mentioned in the wrong phase.
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Ravindra Savaram is a Technical Lead at Mindmajix.com. His passion lies in writing articles on the most popular IT platforms including Machine learning, DevOps, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, RPA, Deep Learning, and so on. You can stay up to date on all these technologies by following him on LinkedIn and Twitter.