Project Manager Interview - Planning

Software Project Management Interview Questions on Planning

Describe in detail how your organization assign roles and responsibilities for the employees?
Answer :  Having worked in different companies, I have got the opportunity to taste many different flavors. There are some companies where resources are considered just bodies and they are put into work where they have little or no experience, as also training are not provided to fit into it. As such, it hampers productivity. In others I have seen where proper weight is given to resources for some specific knowledge and care is taken so that the employees perform to their potential. Having the right resources for the tasks is very important for any project success. Without it, it will lead to disastrous results.

What are the different documents that are used in your organization to define project goals, milestones and scope?
Answer : It greatly differs from company to company. However, it mainly depends upon the nature and scope of the project. In companies that I worked for the documents followed are Project Requirements Documents or Business Requirement Documents (BRD) or Project Definition documents (PDD) or Vision Document. They are known by different names but content is almost the same detailing the business solution and process the documentation of customer needs, expectations and requirements. In most companies they are stored in a centralized location so that a unique copy is available to the people working in the project.

Tell us the ways by which we can we encourage planning in a project?
Answer : Planning right at the onset of a project is very important. I really think to encourage planning we should be influencing management so that they takes the requisite preparation not only of the various stages of the project but also the potential problems that may arise.

In your current company, how much time and effort is spent on up-front planning? How can up-front planning be encouraged?
Answer : It usually depends upon the kind of projects. Not much time is devoted to upfront planning for a project because there are too many unknowns variables and since if we do not know beforehand we cannot plan. Up-front planning should be encouraged in small and less complex projects.