Sample interview questions

1. What do you understand by WBS?

a "deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project
team."
The process of breaking down the scope into a WBS should continue until the entire
project scope is decomposed in adequate details matching the level of control that the
project team wants to exercise.
WBS breaks down the entire project scope into meaningful components. WBS is a key
project artifact that provides a basis for project planning, performance measurement,
and project control. It also creates common language among the project team
members and stakeholders to ensure everyone is using the same terms in referring to
specific parts of the project scope.
Two Types: WBSs be produced to define a project scope: a deliverable-oriented WBS
and a process-oriented WBS
https://www.adroitprojectconsultants.com/2017/04/22/two-main-type-project-work-
breakdown-structures-wbs/
2. What is a float and explain the types?

float or slack is the amount of time that a task in a project network can be delayed without causing a
delay to:

 subsequent tasks ("free float")

 project completion date ("total float").

https://primaned.be/en/two-two-types-of-float/

Total Float (TF):

The amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed or extended from its early start
date without delaying the project finish date or violating a schedule constraint.

Mathematically: Late Finish – Early Finish = Total Float

Free Float (FF):

The amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed without delaying the early start
date of any successor or violating a schedule constraint.

Mathematically: Earliest Successors’ Early Start – Activity’s Early Finish = Free Float
Interfering Float (INTF):
The amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed or extended from its early start
date without delaying the project finish date, but delaying an activity into interfering float will
delay the start of one or more following non-critical activities. If an activity is delayed for the
amount of the Free and Interfering Float, its successor activities are critical.

Mathematically: Total Float – Free Float = Interfering Float

Independent Float (INDF):

The maximum amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start of
the succeeding activities and without being affected by the allowable delay of any
predecessor activity.

Mathematically: Earliest Successors’ Early Start – Earliest Predecessors’ Late Finish –

Activity’s duration = Independent Float
remark: when the result is a negative value, we set the value to zero.

The figure below schematically explains the difference between the four types of Float.

Negative float

Negative float, also known as negative slack, is the amount of time beyond a
project’s scheduled completion that a task within the project requires.

Total float is the amount of time a task within a project can be delayed without
endangering the project deadline. Float is often represented as a positive or
negative number representing the number of days of delay.

Essentially, negative float is the amount of time that must be saved to bring
the project to completion on time. Negative slack can also indicate a
scheduling problem when, for example, a task’s start date is set earlier than
the end date for a preceding task in the critical path. Because each task in the
 critical path must be completed before the next can be started, if there is
negative float, it may be necessary to find unused float elsewhere in the
project plan.

In summary, you learned three main reasons why negative floats exist in a schedule and
strategies to remove them:

 Negative Float because of Imposed Constraint on the Project Finish Date

Solution: Remove any finish date constraints and compress the schedule by Fast Tracking or Crashing methods

 Negative Float because of Imposed Constraint on an Activity or Milestone

Solution: Evaluate and modify the conflicts between constraint and relationships. Remove or change any “Hard
constraints” that prevent the logical float calculation from flowing.

 Negative Float on Summary Activities

Solution: Check the schedule options and to compute “Total Float” as “Finish Float=Late Finish-Early Finish”

3. What is your greatest achievement and what did you learn from it?

4. How would you fit into a team?

5. How would you plan a project in Primavera?

Steps To Create A Project In Oracle Primavera P6

This post assumes you have the rights to create a project in P6 database you are
attached to. Also, that you are doing all this to learn how to use P6 for the first time.

1. Go to the Projects layout. I’m using Oracle Primavera P6 Professional Client v15.1 so
if the Projects layout is not on my screen, I have to click on the projects icon on the left-
hand side. Believe it or not, there is no menu option to get there.
2. Select the EPS Node where the project is to be created.

All projects in P6 must belong to an EPS Node, which is a hierarchy intended to arrange
projects in the way that makes the most sense for the organisation owning them. If this
is your own database then your project can be created under any EPS Node you want.
If you have been given access to someone else’s database then you will need to ask
them where to create your project.

Once you know which EPS Node to create the project, scroll down the list of EPS
Node’s and Projects until you find it.

Click on the EPS Node in the Projects Layout to select it.

3. Create the new project by holding down the Control key and pressing the N key.
The Create a New Project dialogue may be displayed. If it is, click on the Finish button
to exit the dialogue.

Take a look at
your screen and you will see the highlighted project with a Project Id similar
to NEWPROJ-1. The number at the end may be different.

4. The bottom half of the screen should contain a set of tabs. Select the General tab
and complete it as follows:
  Change the Project ID to identify the project using a maximum of 20 characters. I would
keep it to 8 capital characters or less. Many organizations will tell you exactly what
the Project Id will be. I have set the Project ID to NEWBIE in this example.
 Change the Project Name to describe what the project does. I have set the Project
Name to Newbie Project for UsingP6.com which describes exactly what it is.
 Click on the Status and set it to Planned.

The other settings can stay as they are.

5. Select the Defaults tab and complete it as follows:

  Verify the Duration Type is set to Fixed Duration & Units, and change it if it isn’t.
 Change the Percent Complete Type is to Physical as it is most probably set to Duration.
 Verify the Activity Type is set to Task Dependent, and change it if it isn’t.
 I’m going to assume the Calendar is set to something sensible.

The other settings can stay as they are.

6. Select the Settings tab and complete it as follows:

 Change the Summarize to WBS Level to 4. You may have to change this again later,
but 4 is usually a better starting point than the default of 2.
 Verify the Baseline for earned value calculations is set to Project Baseline
 Verify the Total Float is less than or equal to is selected and the associated value is set
to 0.0h

The other settings can stay as they are.

7. Select the Calculations tab and complete it as follows:

  Verify the Default Price / Unit for activities without resource or role Price / Unit is set
to 0.00.
 Select the Activity percent complete based on activity steps option. It is not selected by
default.
 Verify the Link Planned and At Complete for not started activities option is selected.
 Select the Reset Planned Duration and Units to Remaining option is selected. It is not
selected by default.
 Select the Add Actual to remaining option for When updating Actual Units and Costs. It is
not selected by default.
 Remove selection of Recalculate Actual Units and Cost when duration complete
changes. It is selected by default.
 Verify Update units when costs change on resource assignments is not selected.
 Verify Link actual to date and actual this period units and costs is selected.

8. Select the Resources tab and complete it as follows:

  Verify the Drive activity dates by default option is selected. This is the default.
 Verify the Resources can be assigned to the same activity more than once option is
selected.

9. Finally, select the Dates tab and complete it as follows:

 Set the Project Planned Start to the date when the work will start on the project.
 Verify the Data Date is set to the same date as the Project Planned Start and change it to
match if it isn’t.
6. Explain the type of communication you use and how you get information from your project team?

PROJECT COMMUNICATIONS: HOW TO KEEP

YOUR TEAM ENGAGED AND INFORMED
~ By Dave Nielsen

Communications are a critical deliverable of every successful project and a key

project management soft-skill. You may not have thought of communications as
an actual project deliverable, but it is. It may not be the one your client or
customer places the most emphasis on, but that's because every client and
customer will take good communications for granted.

Project communications is one deliverable that you are personally responsible

for and it's one that has a large influence over your project's success or failure. I
say this because personal experience has taught me that the best managed
projects, delivering on all their promises, on time, and on budget can still get a
bad reputation and be perceived as failures. The reason: the project manager did
not do an adequate job of communicating project success to their stakeholders.

We hope that the information and template in this section will help guide you to
choose the right information, schedule, and communication vehicles for your
project.

The Major Elements of Project

Communications
Who to communicate to…
You could just say that it's important to communicate with all the project's
stakeholders and leave it at that, but this approach would guarantee failure. Each
individual stakeholder has a different set of requirements for project
information, and prefers different ways of receiving their communications. It
will not be possible to define a unique set of communications and
communication vehicles for each stakeholder in most projects, so the best you
can do is identify the different category of stakeholder and define the required
information and communication methods that best suits the group.

Executive Sponsor/Business Sponsor

Probably the most important customer(s) of your project communications. It's
going to be worth your while to define a custom set of communications for each
person in this category. Generally speaking, these are busy people who don't
have a lot of time to read a lot of detail. Charts and graphs that tell the viewer a
lot about the project at a glance will probably work best for them.

Take the time to interview them about their preferences: what they need to
know, how they want to be communicated with, and how often. Keeping them
informed about project performance is critical because they sign the cheque for
the project (including your salary). They also need information so they can keep
their peers appraised of the project's performance. Remember, they are your
project champions so the better armed with information they are, the better job
they can do promoting your project.

Tip: don't report a problem to them without suggesting a solution. For example,
if you're reporting an SPI of less than 1.0 for the 2nd week in a row, you need to
include a corrective action with the report.

Project Team Members

This is the single most populous group in your list of stakeholders. You may
want to subdivide the group into sub-groups based on their roles. For example
you may want to have a different set of communications for the Business
Analysts and Software Developers, or for the Electricians and Plumbers on your
project. This group has a different perspective on project performance than
sponsors: the sponsor views the project as work being done for them. The team
member views the project as work being done by them and therefore reports on
project performance are a reflection on them. A good report pleases everyone -
project sponsors and team members. A bad report will cause the sponsor to
worry, but may negatively impact team morale.
Customers/Clients
These can be internal to your organisation, or external to it. These people may
profess no particular interest in project communications until the final product
or service is delivered. You need to overcome this disinterest and pique their
interest in project progress. The more informed they are on the project as it
progresses through its lifecycle, the more likely they are to accept the resulting
products or services.

Partners
These are people who are doing work that is in some way affected by the work
of your project. You may both be working on projects that are part of a
programme, or your projects may simply affect one another without further
integration. For example, you may be managing a software project that requires
a corresponding database project - the database project team is your partner. Or,
you may be working on a new software system that will utilise an existing web
portal for customer access - the portal team is your partner despite the fact they
aren't performing a project.

Community Stakeholders
These are an increasingly important category of stakeholder. As more emphasis
is being placed on organisations ethical behaviour and social responsibility,
there is an increasing demand for projects to be performed ethically. One of the
ways this is done is by treating those who don't belong to the performing
organisation, or to the customer/client organisation, as project stakeholders.
Consideration of these stakeholders must go beyond communications, but
project communications constitute an important part of your ethical dealings
with them.

Project Manager
Don't forget to include yourself as a stakeholder. Your need for project
information is perhaps the most important for the project. If you aren't receiving
the information you need to run the project, you won't be able to share it with
other stakeholders. Your needs will stem from the need to be updated on the
progress of the individual tasks of the project so that you can keep the project
plans up to date and identify preventive or corrective actions.

Project Management Office (PMO)

Your PMO may have requirements for project information that will enable it to
identify opportunities for process improvement. While these needs are very
much like the needs of sponsors, customers, and clients to know how the project
is progressing, its focus is on the project processes, tools, techniques, and best
practices it supports. Your PMO may also be tasked with reporting on project
progress to the organisation. Reports which the PMO is responsible for should
provide very specific requirements for information.

What to Communicate
What project information to communicate to a stakeholder group is inextricably
tied to the information that is available for communication. After all, you can't
communicate what you don't know. On the other hand, if the need for the
information is real and gathering the information is feasible, you should make
every effort to make it available. The choice of the information to be
communicated cannot be made without considering the project's tools and
techniques for gathering the information and vice versa.

Project communications is not a key deliverable of the project, but it should be

treated as a project deliverable. Start with your Project Charter: does the charter
contain any requirements for information? If it does, the information and its
target audience ought to be included in your Communications Management
Plan. Your Scope Statement may also include requirements for project
communications. The Statement of Work (SOW) may also have captured
requirements for project communications. When you are performing a project
for an external customer or client the SOW is your bible and any project
communications that are part of the legal contract should be specified there.

After identifying all the needs already expressed in the project documentation to
date, you need to solicit requirements from the various groups of stakeholders.
This solicitation should be done in the context of what is feasible for the project
to deliver. Be prepared to meet with your sponsor to identify their requirements.
Be specific as to presentation: should the SPI (Schedule Performance Index) be
shown as a bar graph with a rolling 6 week tally? Should it be shown as a line
graph with the benchmark line of 1.0 and a rolling 6 month tally? You may even
want to mock up some sample reports to let them choose the format.

A project dashboard is a popular instrument for communicating project progress

to sponsors and other senior executives. The dashboard is meant to show the
status of your project at a glance and may consist of the project's SPI, CPI (Cost
Performance Index), SV (Schedule Variance), CV (Cost Variance), PV (Planned
Value), AC (Actual Cost), and EV (Earned Value). As a rule, you shouldn't mix
schedule indicators with cost indicators, but you can show schedule and cost
indicators in any combination your sponsor would like. You may also want to
include such things as the top 5 risks, top 5 outstanding issues, metrics on
change (number of change requests, number accepted, number of rejected, total
costs, etc.), and quality (number of tests, number passed, number failed,
outstanding bug reports, etc.). You should try to keep your dashboard to a
handful of slides and provide supporting detail in text, or Excel format as
backup.

You should repeat the requirements gathering exercise with each group of
stakeholders, weighing their need for information with the project's ability to
gather and communicate it. Tip: share as much of the information reported to
the other groups with the project team (the people actually doing the work of the
project) as is possible. Your organisation may have policies or guidelines
around what can and cannot be shared outside executive offices; share as much
information with the team as possible without violating these policies. You'll
find sharing positive reports will boost morale, while sharing negative reports
will stop the rumours that will further erode morale.

Be prepared to capture and report information by stakeholder group,

department, or sub-project. The individual groups on your team will want the
ability to view their progress in isolation from the rest of the team. Tip: make
sure that you break the work down so that tasks performed by individual groups
or departments are identifiable. This will enable you to report performance
group by group or department by department and still roll totals up to report for
the entire project.

The information you plan to communicate will drive your activities throughout
the project. Your plans should include the metrics that must be gathered in order
to support the information you plan to communicate. You will need to identify
who is responsible for providing the information and where the information is to
be stored and reported from. There are two questions you need to ask yourself
before you commit to providing a report:

1. How do I get this information? (i.e. what metrics do I need to capture and
where will they come from)
2. Where will I store the metrics?

A failure to answer both questions will mean that either you have to alter your
plan to task someone to gather the metrics, identify a tool to capture and retrieve
the metrics, or drop the requirement.

Finally, don't forget individual accomplishments and rewards when reporting

project progress. There's nothing like a good news story to keep team morale
high and the celebration of a team member's accomplishment is something most
sponsors enjoy hearing about.

How to Communicate
There are many different means of communication available to you - face to
face, email, Intranet, Internet, regular mail, phone, video conferences, etc., etc.
These can be grouped into 2 groups: ";push"; communications and ";pull";
communications. Push communications requires you to push the information
onto the recipient as the name would suggest, while pull communications
requires the recipient to actively retrieve the information from a central source.
Websites and centralised repositories are examples of pull communications,
while email and meetings are examples of push communications.

Preference for either push or pull communications is typically a personal

preference. Some people deal with information best when it's presented to them
and some prefer to retrieve it at their own convenience. Be prepared for
conflicting requirements from individuals in your stakeholder groups. You may
have to make the final decision on which method to use if there are conflicting
requests. Alternatively, you may be able to identify a spokesperson for the
group who will be empowered to identify the group's requirements. The
exception to this rule is your project's sponsor. Because there is only one or two
of these people, you need to ensure that your communication methods suit their
requirements.
Tip: if you determine that the project must have a new tool, such as a website,
to satisfy a stakeholder requirement, you'll need to justify the cost with a
business case. State the benefits to the project in business terms that justify the
costs. You can also include benefits that supersede your project. For example a
website or tool such as Lotus Notes could benefit all projects your organisation
performs, and may even provide a benefit to operations. You may also want to
explore having the PMO, or Operations bear the cost of the new tool.

When to Communicate
Your communication schedule will be driven by the needs of your audience and
the availability of the information to be communicated. For example, if you had
the bandwidth, you could report on any metrics managed by your MS Project
file daily. On the other hand, you can't report on the results of your Gate
Meeting until the Gate Meeting has actually been held. There is also no reason
that a report communicated to one stakeholder group bi-weekly, can't be
communicated to another group every week.

You need to use common sense in addition to capturing your stakeholders'

requirements. If you choose to use a ";town hall"; to communicate to all
stakeholders, don't schedule the meeting to occur weekly. Tip: when planning a
meeting that involves you (or another team member) communicating
information to an audience, count the audience, multiply that number by the
number of hours the meeting lasts and multiply that number by the loaded
labour rate for that group. Avoid spending large amounts on frequent
communications.

Other meetings, such as status review meetings with project teams must be done
more often to avoid the project going off the rails. I find that when the project is
on track, weekly status review meetings are sufficient. When your project
encounters problems, you might want to increase the frequency to better control
the work. In extreme cases such as a project rescue, you may need to hold them
daily. Tip: when the project is running smoothly and you have an alternate
means of identifying completed tasks, don't be afraid to cancel a status review
meeting and give the team an hour off!

Remember that communications is part of the project work. You should manage
that work in your MS Project file like other project tasks, but be sensible - don't
overload yourself by tracking every meeting in MS Project. You should be
using the ";walk around"; style of management if your team is collocated, you
needn't track each informal meeting you have with individual team members.
Use MS Project to help you control the project, not overload yourself with
work.

Tools and Techniques

Tools and techniques include tools you'll use to convey the information, tools
you'll use to gather the information, and tools you'll use to store and retrieve the
information. Conveyance tools will include email, websites, webcasts,
conference calls, video conferencing, public directories, town hall meetings, and
graphical tools such as Excel. What you're communicating, how you need to
communicate it, and your communication budget will determine which of these
tools you'll use.

There is one tool that you'll rely on more than any other to manage information
about your project: MS Project (or Primavera, if that's the tool your company
has selected for use). These tools are referred to as Project Management
Information Systems (PMIS) by most PMP Exam preparation courses and in the
PMBOK. These tools are capable of capturing, manipulating, and reporting
most of your project's relevant information so you need to be very familiar with
their use. There are many excellent courses available that will ground you in the
fundamentals of their use.

Your organisation may employ a time tracking system in which case you have
an additional source of information. Your time tracking tool should allow you to
report on labour costs for your project (i.e. support the charging of time to your
project code). It should also support the reporting of these costs by group and by
type of work. For example it should tell you how much time was spent last week
on analysis of your software project. You should reconcile the metrics from the
time tracking system with your MS Project file to ensure they tally. Tip: if your
time tracking system is used to generate the pay cheque for your team, make it
your bible. A discrepancy means your MS Project file may be inaccurate.

MS Project comes complete with a selection of ";canned"; reports ready for

your use. I have found that it's most useful feature for reporting project progress
is its ability to export data to an Excel spreadsheet. Because Excel has been
around so long it's feature rich and supports just about any type of graph or chart
you can imagine. The trick here is to export the information you need to base
your report on, then edit it in Excel. MS Project contains ample help facilities on
how to export data.

I mentioned the 2 different categories for distributing information: push and

pull. Many of your project's communications will lend themselves equally well
to both methods. For example, if you communicate you can review your
dashboard report with the project executive steering committee during a
meeting, push it to the project team via an email broadcast, and archive it on a
public directory or the project's website.

Lastly, remember that the accuracy of the information you communicate about
the project will have a profound affect, either good or bad, on your reputation.
You need to do your utmost to ensure the information you communicate is
accurate. Measures such as the reconciliation between timesheets and your MS
Project file can save you from making claims about project progress that aren't
supported by the facts. Even with that degree of scrutiny your information can
still be misleading or out of date. Be open and honest with your
communications: tell your audience where the information comes from, how it
was compiled, and how old it is. Be forthcoming with any information that
could impact on the accuracy of your reports and let your audience form their
own opinions of the accuracy and value of your communications.

7. When have you improved a process and it was taken by management?

8. Why do you want to work for us?

9. Why should we hire you? Further questions will be asked in line with your answers

10. How have you improved project controls processes at your previous company?

11. What are the difference between free float, total float and what is different between Float and Slack

12. How can you define the Critical Path in primavera?

The critical path in Primavera P6 is at the heart and center of the Gantt chart and
scheduling software. Here we examine ways to display the critical path in Primavera P6
Professional. The critical path is an important concept in scheduling. It tells you how
long your project will take. It directs you to the activities to shorten or adjust for schedule
optimization efforts, i.e. schedule compression efforts.

There is also more than one way to define a critical activity in Primavera P6. Primavera
P6 defines critical activities either by their total float value or by longest path inclusion.
Critical activities are displayed in red on the Gantt chart. But you will also want to further
distinguish if these red Gantt chart bar activities are critical by total float value or longest
path association.

This article demonstrates different ways to display the critical path in Primavera P6
Professional to provide more insight into your schedule situation.

Critical & Longest Path on Gantt chart

We have in Figure 1 our demonstration project.
 Figure 1

This schedule has two float paths: one for experimental motor testing and another for
analytical motor modeling. Critical activities are displayed in red and non-critical in
green. If, however, your schedule looks similar to Figure 2, where all activities are green
you may need to adjust your definition of critical activities.
 Figure 2

By default critical activities in P6 are defined by total float value. Activities that have total
float values equal to or less than zero are by definition critical. As displayed in the
Figure 2 Total Float column all activities have total float greater than zero, so they are
all non-critical.

The cause of this schedule situation is a must finish by project deadline. The schedule
has a must finish by deadline, Figure 3, of 03-July-2018, but the natural network logic
finish date, Figure 2, is 29-June-2018, earlier than the deadline.
 Figure 3
The good news is you are ahead of schedule. The problem is every activity is green
(non-critical), so we do not know which path to optimize for schedule compression.
What then can or should we do?

Our schedule optimization effort problem is solved by adjusting the definition of critical
activities. In scheduling options set “define critical activities as” to longest path, Figure 4.
 Figure 4
Now when we recalculate the schedule our project, including deadline, has one
continuous critical path on the Gantt chart, Figure 5.
 Figure 5
This tells us it is important to note the definition of critical activities; it is not enough to
simply view the Gantt chart for red activities.

If the “define critical activities as” setting is toggled to total float value (zero or less) we
may have critical activities that are not necessarily along the longest path. Activities may
also be critical due to a constraint. In Figure 6 a Finish On or Before (FOOB) constraint
is assigned to the Motor Model Material Properties activity.
 Figure 6
Activities upstream of this constraint are displayed in red on the Gantt chart. The red
bars indicate that upstream activities cannot be delayed without missing the constraint
date. So on the Gantt chart we can display activities in danger of delaying a constraint
date and/or the project end date.

We also, as demonstrated above may display all activities along the longest path.
Looking at the Gantt chart it may not be readily apparent whether the red activities are
critical from a total float value definition or a longest path definition.

Critical & Longest Path Columns

A good way to distinguish zero total float critical activities from longest path critical
activities is to display critical and longest path columns in the activities table, Figure 7.
 Figure 7
Regardless, of your critical activity definition P6 lists all activities that are along the
longest path. The critical column lists all activities that cannot be delayed without
delaying either a constraint date or the end date of the project. Using these columns
and the total float value critical activity definition provides the best of both worlds: all
zero total float valued activities are listed and displayed on the Gantt chart, and all
longest path activities are listed in the activities table.
You now know activities in danger of delaying either a constraint or the project
completion date, and you also know which activities to shorten or adjust for
compression of the longest path.

Critical & Longest Path Filters

A common request of upper management is a critical activity report displaying only
critical activities. This report is easily generated by implementing the critical filter (one of
several default filters that comes standard in P6), which supports schedule activity
monitoring, Figure 8.

Figure 8
There is also a longest path filter to capture all and only activities along the longest path
to support schedule optimization efforts.

Summary

The Primavera P6 Gantt chart is a valuable scheduling tool that highlights all critical
activities. The question then is are these activities critical by total float value or longest
path association? Insight into this question comes from noting the definition of critical
activities in scheduling options or from listing critical and longest path columns in the
activities table.

So, the combination of the Gantt chart and critical & longest path columns in the
activities table provides the critical path insight to truly understand the schedule
situation. Filters also support generation of total float value and/or longest path critical
activity reports. The schedule log file, additionally, lists all activities that are critical in the
schedule.

13. How do u measure and compare progress using primavera?

Measuring Project Progress : 6 Methods

You Should Know
MARCH 28, 2015 BY RESHMA SADHU 8 COMMENTS

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Accurately measuring the progress of a project is always a challenge. There are many
factors to account for in a progress update – type of measurement, accuracy of the
data, and the system of record are all important factor in accurate progress
measurements.

Software packages like Primavera P6 don’t always help us out. Sure there a 3 choices
for Percent Complete Types, but how to we decide which one works best and under
which conditions?
Inaccurate progress will foil your ability to spot early warning signs of trouble ahead.
So to avoid that, here are 6 common methods for measuring project progress that will
help you best measure performance and work completion. The methods below are
summarized from the “Project Control: Integrating Cost and Schedule in
Construction,” textbook by Wayne Del Pico.

6 Ways to Measure Project Progress

1. Units Completed
The Units Completed lends itself well to tracking tasks that are done repeatedly,
where each iteration can easily be measured. Usually a task that is done repeatedly
tends to take about the same amount of time, resources and effort, so tracking the
units completed works well here. A simple example could be installing standard light
fixtures. Each fixture takes roughly the same amount of time. If we had 100 fixtures to
install then we can simply count the units installed. In this case, there are no
subjective experience-based judgement involved.

2. Incremental Milestones
Also known as the ‘steps’ method, the incremental milestones method is
predominantly used for cost accounts that involve subtasks that need to be completed
in an orderly fashion. An example of this technique is the forming and placing of a
concrete foundation wall – laying the foundation wall on footings, erecting inside wall
panels and brace, setting horizontal and vertical rebar in formwork and so forth needs
to be done in sequence to complete the task appropriately.

So how do you calculate this data? The calculation is built on each single step and the
budgeted amount of time (labour hours) that is needed to complete the task by the
construction crew. As each step is completed, they are documented as a mini-
milestone which represents a percentage of the total installation process. The
percentage given for each sub-task can vary based on the project. This progress is
usually agreed on to be used as a measuring tool beforehand. A good way to
implement this method in Primavera P6 is using Activity Steps.
3. Start/Finish
This method is only focused on capturing the starting point and the finishing point of
the task and nothing in between. It’s best for tasks that are short in duration. You
would implement this method if the tasks work estimations are not available or if the
percent complete progress data is too difficult to collect.

“Classic examples include testing services such as load test on electric panels,
flushing and cleaning of piping, and similar tasks.”1

Using the Start/Finish technique, we earn a percentage of progress when the task starts
and the other half is earned once the task is complete. These percentages are
determined by the owner and contractor of the project.

Often, companies agree to use the standard 50/50 Rule or other rules:

 50/50 Rule – once started, the task is marked as 50% complete and the balance
is earned at final completion of the work.

 20/80 Rule – used to track higher value tasks that takes a longer time to reach
completion.

 0/100 Rule – this rule illustrates that once 100 percent of the task is completed,
only then will the value be earned. Examples of this are testing or experimental
tasks since you cannot get results until the task is completed.

4. Cost Ratio
The Cost Ratio method is usually implemented on a project that has tasks that tend to
occur over a long phase or the entire project. Often used for Overhead costs, this
technique is measured based on the budgeted allocation of dollars vs. the labour hours
of production. This method gives the contractor the ability to earn value that is equal
to the overall percent of project completion.

“For example,[] if the overall progress of the project was determined to be 42 percent,
then the contractor would have earned 42 percent of the overhead and fees.” 1
 5. Experience/Opinion
Unlike the methods above that rely on definitive data, this method relies on the
experience and subjectivity of the project manager. This technique is used for tasks
such as de-watering or frost removal/protection. It’s not usually recommended and
tends to be seen as the last resort because each individual experiences and opinions
vary from one another and can cause conflict between owners, contractors, and
architects.

6. Weighted or Equivalent Units

This method was highlighted as the best technique in the text and is the one that
requires more effort, but also extends to a wider data range. The tasks that are being
calculated tend to occur over a longer duration time and includes multiple sub-tasks,
where sub-tasks can have different units of measurements.

The example used to illustrate this method is building a structural steel package. In
order to complete this project it requires various units, labour hours, resources and
sub-tasks. So to calculate the sub-tasks, it’s weighted on the estimated level of efforts
in labour hours or by monetary value that is particular to each sub-task. Once the
weighted value is determined, it’s converted to reflect that value in units of measure
specific to the task – and for this example, the units of measure would be tons.

So once each sub-task has been completed, the weighted tons (units of measure) is
then converted to the equivalent units of percentage complete of the overall project.

These 6 methods for measuring project progress are commonly used in Construction
project management and filter into a process of determining a percentage complete for
the project as a whole using Earned Value Management.

14. What is your understanding about Earn Value Management?

15. Tell me about your last project...

16. What was challenging about it

17. How did you drive the project?

18. How would you go about planning a two-week project with two contractors working at the same time?

19. When planning a programme of works with a large number of small projects how do you ensure that

the programme is on track?

20. What are your reasons for wanting to work for this organisation/x team/x business area?

21. What interest you about this particular role?

22. How do you see it fitting into your career aspiration?

23. Could you briefly outline the key skills and experiences that you believe make you suitable for this

role?

24. Give us an example of a time you’ve needed to deliver a high quality piece of work.

25. Why was the quality important?

26. What were your quality standards?

27. To what extent did you meet these standards?

 Domain Based
1. What is a baseline, how is it use while creating project management plan?
2. What are organizational influences? Explain with examples
3. What is a project charter? Is project manager involved in the creation of a project charter?
4. What is a project, how is it different from a program, and a portfolio?
5. How many knowledge Areas are there in Project Management. Do you use all in your
projects?
6. What are project management methodologies? Which one did you used in your projects?
7. What Is Triple Constraint Triangle In Project Management?
8. What do you mean by Talent Triangle?
9. What is an SOW? How is it different from Scope Management Plan?
10. What is the difference between project management and project operational/ Business As
Usual (BAU) activities?
11. What is the difference between agile project management and traditional project
management concept?

 Project Manager Skills

1. A project Manager is expected to be influential and exceptionally good in communication?
Do you agree? Why or why not?
2. How good are you in taking proactive decision? Give examples from your past experience?
3. Are you good in delegating responsibilities? Did you ever failed in your delegation style?
4. How do you handle escalations? Do you react immediately or take time before responding?
5. What mechanism do you use to monitor and review the delegated responsibilities?
6. Change is inevitable? How do you handle changes to your project?
7. What tools do you use as a manager to plan your and team’s activities to minimize conflicts
occurring due to dependencies?
8. On time delivery is the main performance criteria of any project manager. How do you
ensure that your project is always on track?
9. At times project managers had to make tough decisions. Do you have any instance to
share?
10. How influential you are in seeking help outside from people outside your project team?
11. How do you manage frequent Scope creep and interference of high management in your
project?
12. How good you are in handling contract based vendors for your project

 Schedule/Cost
1. Your project is behind the planned schedule, how do you get it back on track?
2. What is fast tracking and Crashing? Differentiate with examples.
3. What are the ways of compressing project time or schedule?
4. What are different cost estimation techniques?
5. What measures do you take in case of high cost variance in your project?

 Risk
1. What is a risk and how is it different from an issue
2. Can a risk be beneficial? If yes give examples.
3. What is the difference between contingency and Management reserve?
4. Quote an incident in your past project where you experienced a high level of uncertainty.
How did you tackle these uncertainties/risks?
5. What are the types of risks you may encounter in a project?
6. Are there any positive aspects of the risk identification process?
 Quality
1. What are different Quality tools used in project management? Mention any 3 which you
have used very often.
2. What is the 80/20 principle? Where is it generally used?
3. Did you take any initiative for process improvement plans in your projects?
4. How do you ensure Quality is as per client’s expectation?
5. What is the importance of prototypes?
6. What are Fishbone Analysis and Pareto Analysis?

 Communication/Stakeholders
1. Good communications skill is necessary for a successful project manager.How do you
communicate bad news or failure?
2. Stakeholder Management and engagement is essential for a successful project. How do you
determine the communication needs of stakeholders?
3. In case of dis-satisfaction of a customer with the quality or results of the product, what will
you do as a project manager?
4. Did you face any communication challenges in you past projects? Give examples?
5. What is the difference in your communication style when you are dealing with your internal
project team and end customer?
6. Who all are included as stakeholders in the project? Differentiate between direct and indirect
stakeholders?
7. How do manage external and internal stakeholders?

 Resource Management
1. How good are you in people management? Did you get a chance to manage discontented
employees?
2. How do you manage conflict between two key team members of your project?
3. How do you ensure work done in time by resources not reporting to you directly?
4. There are times when you fail to keep promise? How do you handle such situations?
5. How do you ensure you and your team deliver or exceed customer expectations?
6. At times Performance review becomes a challenge as you have pressure from your top
management with limitation of top rating. How do you mange it effectively?
7. What do you do to motivate your team members?
8. What tools or techniques do you use to develop a cohesive team?
9. How do you set goals for your team in alignment with the company’s goal? And how do you
track these goals?
10. It is difficult to manage resources not physically present. What challenges did you faced in
managing remote teams?
11. How do you manage team members that are not working to their full potential?
12. How do you handle team at the time of strict project deadlines?

 Software/ IT industry/Testing
1. What project management software do you prefer?
2. Explain The Phases Of Software Project?
3. What do you mean by SDLC?
4. Six Sigma Implementation Team?
5. What Is Cmmi?
6. What Are The Five Levels In Cmmi?
7. What Is Black Box Testing and White Box Testing?
8. What Is Regression Testing?
9. What Is System Testing?
10. What Is Acceptance Testing?
11. What is the Difference between Unit Testing, Assembly Testing And Regression Testing?

 General Questions
1. How do you deal with the situation when you have not performed well?
2. Did you involved in make or buy decision and end up with wrong estimation?
3. What do you think are 5 qualities required to be a successful project manager?
4. Do you think that a project manager should be proactive? Why
5. What is your view regarding professionalism and integrity at work place?
6. A project manager is more successful if he is a subject matter expert? Do you agree
7. How will you ensure that your team will stay on the right track to complete the project on
deadline?
8. What Do You Mean By Business Object?
9. Did any of the employees or managers challenge your decisions in your previous job?
10. How did you ensured and maintained long term relationship with you customers?
11. Where do you want to see yourself in next six years?