Interview questions

WATERFALL AGILE
Traditional approach, disciplined, planned Adaptive approach
Cost and time is variable Cost and time is focused
Poor customer involvement High Customer involvement
Output focus Outcome focus
Less flexible More Flexible
Less Transparency High transparency
Plan driven Value driven
Suited for less uncertainty project Suitable for complex project
Scope is fixed Scope is not fixed
High Cost of Change Controlled cost of change

1. WATERFALL VS AGILE

2. How do you handle Stakeholder Engagement?

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3. Types of waste in lean Management:

In Lean project management waste, or the Japanese term Muda, is defined as any
activity or process that doesn't add value to a product, but does add cost.
Lean's original Seven Forms of Waste include

TIM WOODS
 transportation,
 inventory,
 motion,
 waiting,
 overprocessing,
 overproduction, and
 defects. The new eighth form of waste is skills or non-utilized talent.
4. Milestones in Project

Milestones in Agile project keep on constantly changing due to iterative process and
continuous delivery.
However Agile sprint events like Sprint planning, Sprint review , sprint retrospective
serve as checkpoints to asses the progress and adapt strategies.

Detail description of the milestones:

1. Project kick-off: This is the initial phase where the project team is formed, and the
project goals, objectives, and requirements are defined. The project backlog is also
created during this phase.

2. Sprint planning: In this phase, the project team plans the work to be completed during
the upcoming sprint. The team selects user stories from the backlog and breaks them
down into tasks. The team also estimates the effort required for each task.

3. Sprint execution: This is the main development phase where the project team works
on completing the tasks identified in the sprint plan. The team holds daily stand-up
meetings to discuss progress, challenges, and plans for the day.

4. Sprint review: At the end of each sprint, the project team holds a review meeting to
demonstrate the completed work to stakeholders. Feedback is collected, and any
necessary adjustments or changes are made to the project backlog.

5. Sprint retrospective: After the sprint review, the project team holds a retrospective
meeting to reflect on the sprint and identify areas for improvement. The team discusses
what went well, what didn't go well, and any potential actions for improvement in future
sprints.

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6. Release planning: This milestone involves planning for the release of the product or
project. The team identifies the user stories or features that will be included in the
release and creates a release plan.

7. Product release: This is the final milestone where the product or project is released to
the end-users or customers. The release may include new features, bug fixes, and
improvements based on the completed sprints.

It's important to note that Agile is an iterative and incremental approach, so these
milestones are repeated throughout the project lifecycle. The team continuously plans,
executes, reviews, and reflects on their work to deliver value to the stakeholders.

5. Scrum of Scrums
Scrum of Scrums is a scaled agile technique that offers a way to connect multiple teams
who need to work together to deliver complex solutions. It helps teams develop and
deliver complex products through transparency, inspection, and adaptation, at scale. It’s
particularly successful when all high-performing scrum team members work towards a
common goal, have trust, respect, and are completely aligned.

6. Agile Manifesto

 Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

 Working software over comprehensive documentation

 Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

 Responding to change over following a plan

7. What Is a Roadmap in Project Management?

Project management can be a challenging process, particularly when it comes to prioritizing
tasks to meet the goals of the project. That’s why it’s essential to have the right tools and
techniques to help you stay organized and focused.
One of the most valuable tools in a project manager’s arsenal is a roadmap.
A project roadmap is a graphical, high-level overview of the project’s goals
and deliverables presented on a timeline.

8. SDLC cycle

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9. Kanban vs Scrum and which will you choose?

Scrum Kanban
Define Roles- PO, scrum Master, Scrum No defined roles
Team
SDLC divided into Sprint which last 2-4 SDLC is continuous – not time boxing
weeks – Timeboxing event
Policy adoption is not taken into consideration Policy can be adopted
Less flexible than Kanban More flexible
Artifacts – Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Kanban Board
Product increments
Three Pillars – Transparency, Inspection, Efficiency, effective, Predictable
adaption
Not that easy Easy in case of changing priorities
Generally used in development based Generally used in maintenance based
projects projects
Beneficial for implementing Scrum concepts Beneficial for completing project faster and
and focuses on Project Management focuses on improving workflows
Scrum Board gets cleared at the end of each Board is not cleared until end of the project
sprint and is prepared for next sprint

Kanban Should be use when:

 When priorities change frequently
 Limited no of work in WIP
 Limited work states for smooth flow
 Good for – Maintenance, production support or personal productivity project

Scrum :

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 When there is defined timeframe for the work

 Have dedicated team.

10. What is Agile Manifesto? What are its values and principles?

The agile manifesto is basically a document consisting of values and principles that are
expressed in Agile. It was created in early 2001. It simply consists of 4 values and 12 key
principles. This manifesto helps the development team to work more efficiently and provides a
clear and measurable structure that promotes team collaboration, iterative development, etc. It
is specially designed to improve development methodologies.
The 4 Agile Values

1. Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools: It focuses on giving more
attention and importance to communication with clients.
2. Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation: It focuses on the completion
of the project and making sure that the project is completing the final deliverables.
3. Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation: It focuses on involving customers
in all phases of the project so that the final product doesn’t lack any requirement that the
client needs. It is done to ensure 100% customer satisfaction.
4. Responding to Change over Following a Plan: It focuses on changes and motivates
the team to adopt the change quickly so that higher quality products can be delivered.
Therefore, agile works in short sprints so that changes can be utilized for good.

The 12 Agile Principles

1. Customer Satisfaction: First priority is to fulfill customer demands to ensure 100%

customer satisfaction.
2. Welcome Change: Changes are important for improvement therefore even late in the
development process, changes can be introduced and addressed throughout the
development period.
3. Deliver Frequently: Products have to be delivered as soon as possible therefore focus on
a shorter timescale.
4. Work Together: Both business stakeholders and team members work together through
the development process for better collaboration.
5. Motivated Team: For delivering high-quality products, team members are motivated and
encouraged. Team members are given the environment and support they need to perform
effectively.
6. Face-to-Face: Agile emphasizes Face-to-face communication which is the most effective
and efficient way of conveying information. It helps the team to communicate simple and
complex information in an effective way.
7. Working Software: Delivering working software to the customer is the major concern of
Agile. Working software or product is the primary measure of progress towards the final
product.
8. Constant Pace: Agile promotes sustainable development. All teams, sponsors,
developers, and users that are involved in the agile process should maintain a constant
speed to deliver working software in a short timescale.
9. Good Design: Focuses on good design and technical details to improve quality and agility
(quick and graceful).

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10. Simplicity: Team focuses on tasks and features that are essential and reduces the
amount of work and time spent on complex features and tasks that are not essential. It is
done to keep things simple.
11. Self-Organization: Agile team should be cross-functional and self-organized. It should not
depend on the manager to assign work, instead should find their own work and manage
the responsibilities and timelines. Such teams not only help to deliver good quality software
but also provide the best designs, requirements, and architectures.
12. Reflect and Adjust: To improve the effectiveness of a team, the team reflects on how to
become more effective and assess their working style at regular intervals. This is done so
that one can learn from their mistakes and take some steps to improve their performance
in the next iterations.

11. Agile Vs waterfall?

Agile Waterfall
Work is divided into Sprints SDLC is done in distinct phases
Flexible Rigid
Iterative Liner/sequential
High degree of co-ordination between the teams Very less co-ordination
Any requirements change can be easily adaptable Requirement changes needs to be take as a
change request
Testing and development goes concurrently Testing needs to be completed after the
development
Test plan is reviewed in every Sprint Test plan is hardly taken into consideration
PO sets the requirement for development Business Analysis prep the requirement

Agile and Waterfall are two different management methodologies best suited for different types
of projects. If you clearly understand the project outcomes from the beginning, Waterfall may be
the best fit. Waterfall is a better method when a project must meet strict regulations as it
requires deliverables for each phase before proceeding to the next one.
Alternatively, Agile is better suited for teams that plan on moving fast, experimenting with
direction and don’t know how the final project will look before they start. Agile is flexible and
requires a collaborative and self-motivated team, plus frequent check-ins with business owners
and stakeholders about the progress.

12. What do you understand by scope creep and how can you managed?
Scope creep is used to describe how a project's requirements tend to grow over time, like - a
single deliverable product becomes five when a product with three essential features becomes
ten, or when the customer's needs change midway through a project, requiring a reassessment
of the project requirements. Changes in project needs from internal miscommunication and
disagreements, and key stakeholders are some of the common causes of scope creep.

To manage scope creep, we need to use the change control mechanism to keep it under
control. This includes the following -
 Maintaining a baseline scope and keeping track of the project's progress.

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 To evaluate actual work performance metrics to the baseline scope, i.e., "How different
is the current project from the original plan?", we need to perform Variance analysis.
 Identifying the severity and source of the observed alterations.
 Selecting whether to take preventive or corrective action in response to requests
regarding changes.
 To recommend actions and manage all change requests by using the Perform Integrated
Change Control method (whether preventive or corrective).

13. What is burn Up and Burn -down Chart?

Burn-up Chart: It is the chart that display the amount of work that has been completed in the
project and the total amount of work for the sprint of that iteration
Burn- down Chart – It is the chart that displays the amount of work that is remaining to be
completed in the project.

14. What are the different types of burn-down chart?

Different types of Burn-Down charts are listed below:

1. Product Burndown Chart: It is a type of chart that is used to show story points of each
completed sprint so that it depicts the completion of requirements over time. It mainly
shows how many of the product goals are being achieved by the team and how much
work is remaining.
2. Sprint Burndown Chart: It is a type of chart that is used to show the remaining works for
the scrum team of a particular sprint. It makes the work of the team visible and shows the
rate at which work is completed and how much is remaining to be completed.
3. Release Burndown Chart: It is a type of chart that is used to show how a team is
progressing against the work for a release. This chart is updated by the scrum team at
the end of each sprint. It is very essential to see what process is being made during each
sprint.
4. Defect Burndown Chart: It is a type of chart that is used to show the total number of
defects that are being identified and fixed or removed.

15. Explain TimeBoxing in Scrum.

Timeboxing is an important time management technique or tool that is used to limit the amount
of time that is being spent to complete a task. It simply allows a fixed unit of time for each and
every task and this unit is known as a time box. The maximum length of the time box is 15
minutes. It not only helps to improve focus but also results in an increase in productivity. There
are some events in Scrum and all these events are timeboxed which means all these events are
allotted with a maximum and fixed unit of time for the task. The events that are time-boxed are
listed below:

 Sprint
 Sprint Planning
 Daily Scrum
 Sprint Review
 Sprint retrospective

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16. Explain the term “impediments” in Scrum.

Impediments are something that blocks or stops the progress of teamwork. It causes the team
not able to perform their task in a better way and on time that in turn also slows down the
velocity. It’s the responsibility of the Scrum master to remove or resolve impediments.
Impediments can be anything as listed below:

 Missing resource
 Strict boss or team member
 Technical or operational issue
 Power outage
 Lack of understanding about agile or scrum
 External issues such as war, weather, etc.
 Business problems

17. What is the main role of Sashimi in Scrum?

Sashimi is basically a Japanese word whose meaning is pierced body. In scrum, Sashimi is a
technique that is simply used to check whether all functions (every phase of the software
development cycle) are completed or not after the product is displayed. Functions include
requirement analysis, planning, design, development, testing, and documentation.

18. What are standard or common metrics for Agile? Explain.

Agile Metrics are basically standard metrics that are used to measure the work of the team.
These metrics are used to determine the quality of work, productivity, progress, team health,
etc. Its main focus is on value delivered to customers and how much end-users were impacted
by it.
Standard Metrics for the Agile project

1. Velocity: It measures the amount of work done by the development team during a
sprint. It gives ideas about progress, capacity, etc.
2. Cumulative Flow Diagram: It is a flow diagram used to measure the current status of
work in progress of the team. It is simply used to track the progress of agile teams and
manage flow stability.
3. Defect Removal Awareness: It is used to measure the ability of the development team
to remove defects prior to release. It helps to maintain the quality of products by a
working team.
4. Work Category Allocation: It is used to measure where we are spending or investing
our time so that we can adjust our priorities.
5. Sprint Burndown Metric: It is used to measure the total number of sprints or tasks that
are completed as compared to estimated scrum tasks. It usually tracks the progress
being made on tasks during a Sprint.
6. Defect Resolution Time: It is used to measure the time taken by the team to identify
and fix the defects or bugs in the software. There are several processes involved in
fixing bugs.
7. Time Coverage or Code Coverage: It is used to measure the time that is given to code
during testing. It helps one to understand how much code is tested and also helps in
assessing the test performance.
8. Business Value Delivered: It is used to measure the efficiency of the working team.

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19. Why aren't the user stories' man-hours estimated?

 Usually, the efforts are estimated in clock-hours.

 It’s difficult to estimate legacy work.
 If one resource gives estimates and the other works, then the estimation is useless.
 The estimation depends upon the experience level.
 Team usually exaggerate the difficulties they may face and consider the best case
scenario

Advantage of estimating in SP
 There is no co-relation between the estimator skills and experience and SP are
independent of the Author’s story
 Because SP are measurement of relative sizes and relative sizes cannot be changed
due to external forces , team members can estimate accurately
 SP encourages collaboration by prioritizing the team behavior over individual behavior
 It helps in tea building activity because team exchange argue , constructively criticize
and have fun while playing poker cards for estimation

20. How is estimation done in a project ?

Estimation is done on the basis of complexity and asses of scales
 T shirt Size
 Fibonacci series
 Numeric sizing
 Dog breed

21. What are the some risks in scrum? How they are handled?
 Budget
 People
 Sprint
 Product
 Knowledge and capility
Managing risks involves identifying, assessing, analyzing, defining and implementing risk,
managing risk and monitoring risk

22. Agile reports

1. Sprint Burndown
At a Sprint-level, the burndown presents the easiest way to track and report status (the
proverbial Red/Amber/Green), i.e., whether your Sprint is on or off-track, and what are the
chances of meeting the Sprint goals. The burndown chart – when used right – can provide near-
real time updates on Sprint progress.
“If your team do it right, then they would take in just the right amount of work into a sprint.”
At the beginning of a Sprint, the Scrum team perform Sprint Planning and agree to take on
development work worth a certain number of Story points. This forms the basis for the Sprint
Burndown chart.
The total story points agreed at the beginning of the sprint make up the y-axis, and the
individual dates in the Sprint make up x-axis. If your team do it right, then they would take in just

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the right amount of work into a sprint. And if everything goes well, the burndown trend will look
like this:

Figure 1: Ideal Sprint Burndown Chart

Of course, not all sprints are made equal. So actual Sprint Burndown may not look as perfect.
For instance, Scrum teams are prone to overestimate their ability to deliver during their first
development Sprint on a new project. Or if they are a newly formed team. Or if they are learning
to work Scrum. In such cases, it’s quite possible that the team fall behind schedule.
The burndown chart helps bring issues to the surface:

Figure 2: When the team are off track during a Sprint

As you can see, this particular team needed a spike late in the Sprint to catch up. This is not
uncommon, and the reasons could be many – the team overestimated, or development stalled
due to technical constraints. Ideally, such trends should be avoided.

2. Sprint Velocity
This metric goes hand in hand to help your team achieve ideal Sprint burndown.
How?

In simple words, Sprint Velocity represents the average number of story points a team can
take on for a Sprint. This number is based on observing how many story points were delivered
during the previous two to three Sprints, and simply calculating the average story points
delivered per sprint.
When you know your team’s velocity, it is then going to be easy to manage how much work they
can commit to at the beginning of a Sprint. Keeping track of Sprint Velocity will help you and
your team avoid situations where you need to reduce or change scope mid-sprint – which may
not make them (or you) look good.

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The obvious limitation with Velocity is that you need at least two to three Sprints’ worth progress
before you can identify a trend.
When it’s too early to know your team’s Velocity.
During the first few sprints, I try to avoid the off track scenario (like in Figure 2 above) by looking
at velocity from past Agile projects my team have been part of.
Where velocity data is available for past (similar) projects, and if the team are experienced
enough in Agile to employ consistent story pointing across projects, then you can begin new
projects like a boss, and get the team to accept reasonably accurate story points right from the
get go.
Again, velocity can differ between projects – even for the same team. So while this technique
might improve accuracy in Sprint Planning during the first few sprints, it is not fool proof. So
there’s that.

3. Epic, Product and Release Burndown

We know now that Sprint burndowns help you track status at Sprint-level. Epic, Product and
Release burndown charts provide a similar utility.

Figure 3 – Sample Release Burndown Chart

As with Sprint burndown, Release-level burndown charts help you understand when you can
expect to deliver a given scope. And again, note that the accuracy of the burndown improves
with time, as the team deliver the first few sprints.
“It is quite rare for Agile projects to have the entire scope nailed right at the beginning (like
Waterfall), so learn to accept spikes as a matter of course.”
As you can see from Figure 3, the sample release burndown is not an ‘ideal’ trend line like
Figure 1. Around Sprints 2 and 3, the team have (seemingly) added new requirements to the
release backlog. This has led to a spike in the blue line around sprint 3, before settling back to a
more stable burndown trend.

Any experienced Agile practitioner will tell you such spikes in the burndown trend line are
quite common in real life Agile projects. By nature, Agile allows you to groom the backlog
regularly to increase or decrease scope. It is then only natural that such grooming reflects in
your burndown charts. It is quite rare for Agile projects to have the entire scope nailed right at
the beginning (like Waterfall), so learn to accept spikes as a matter of course.
Or, Use Burnup Charts instead
There are limitations with Burndown charts. They don’t bring out issues such as scope creep
as clearly for all stakeholders to understand.
Why is this important?

Let’s take the release burndown depicted in Figure 3 earlier as a case in point. The spike
around sprint 3 depicts what looks like a bit of scope creep. This has led to a not-so-straight

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trend line, with a projection that is delivering noticeably later than the team could have before
the spike. The impact of the change in scope isn’t entirely clear to an onlooker.
For a senior stakeholder that sits outside the project, it may not be immediately apparent that
the team are doing more than they set out to plan. Therefore, the causes for any delays in the
project schedule aren’t understood as well as they could be with better information.
A burnup chart could help you here. Let’s see how with an example:

Figure 4 – Sample Burnup Chart

Credit
A burnup chart plots two key pieces of information – total work (hours, story points etc.)
and completed effort (progress against total work). In the example in Figure 4, you can see that
the Scope (i.e., total work) changes constantly (red line). In fact, it is expected to have changed
as much as 30% by the end of the iteration (sprint).
You can also see that actual effort has progressed steadily along the blue line. From a quick
glance, the following will be clear to anyone:
The scope of work for the iteration (sprint) has changed by as much as 30% through the
iteration.
The team set out to deliver 140 hours’ effort, and are on track to deliver 160 – i.e. they
are delivering about 15% more than they originally committed.
Despite the increased productivity, the team will still fall short of the (changed) scope for the
iteration (sprint).
What possible actions could be considered?
Better scope management – so the team don’t have to factor changes day-to-day, and
therefore lose effort in realigning with new scope constantly.
Better upfront iteration (sprint) management – so the product owner can work with the team
more effectively to produce a more concrete sprint backlog at the beginning of the iteration
(sprint).
Now, could you have surmised all that with just the green line in figure 4, or the spike in the blue
line in figure 3? Highly unlikely. That is the power of the burnup chart.
Choose burnup or burndown mindfully – or better yet, choose both!
When your release/sprint scope isn’t stable enough, switching from a burndown to a burnup
chart will help you identify and report risks and issues more effectively. If on the other hand,
your backlog is pretty stable up front, and you don’t see the scope changing regularly, burndown
charts will be sufficient to report progress.
4. Earned Value
Now this is one of the Agile reporting techniques I am just a little hesitant to recommend.
Let me explain.
If you don’t know Earned Value reporting, it’s basically about measuring whether the amount
of money spent through so far in your project justifies the amount of work completed at this
point in time.
There are a few variables here:

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Budget – the estimated cost of your project. This is usually decided at the beginning of the
project, and reviewed infrequently or not at all.
Actual cost (AC) – the proportion of the original budget your team have spent so far.
Planned Value (PV) – the proportion of your project scope that was expected to have been
delivered by this time.
Earned Value (EV) – the ‘real’ value of the scope that has actually been delivered so far.
Let’s consider the sample EV graph below:

Figure 5: Sample Earned Value Graph

Credit
At t1, the team has delivered more Earned Value compared to budget spent (Actual Cost), so
EV > AC.
At t2, the team has delivered less Earned Value compared to budget spent (Actual Cost), so EV
< AC.
What does this imply?
Not much, really – or a lot, depending on your situation.
If for example, you’ve technically only delivered 50% of your project scope but already spent
60% of the original budget,
This could mean your team aren’t efficient – after all, you’ve spent more than you earned.
It could also mean you budgeted incorrectly in the beginning – being Agile and all, the initial
budget would have been a ballpark estimate.
Again, it could be that your team have completed much foundation work during the initial phases
of the project that ultimately, EV will catch up to AC.
Or, your scope could have changed substantially to justify the additional spend (re-alignment) at
the given point in time.
Unless you truly understand the root cause of a variance in EV vs AC, it will be hard to judge
whether your Earned Value at a point in time is acceptable. Especially given the nature of
Agile projects in general, it is unfair to expect the level of certainty necessary to get budget and
scope right up front.
So use this metric – if only to keep an eye on how much money your project is spending relative
to progress. Just don’t rely too much on it – it might take you back to Waterfall. Which isn’t a
bad thing in itself – however, be careful not to confuse Agile and Waterfall.

5. Scope Change
This is a bit of an oxymoron. By nature, Agile projects should be open to scope change. Right?
Right?
Yeah, not so much.

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If your project is in churn all the time, you’ll find your team constantly working to re-align with
new requirements, dropped requirements, changes etc. If the project scope reduces
significantly as part of all this churn, it could mean you can deliver earlier than planned. If on the
other hand, there is significant addition to scope or if the scope has changed so much you need
a lot of rework, then all of a sudden, your project could be in the red because the original
schedule now looks like Mt. Kilimanjaro.
So what do you do in such scenarios?
You report the changes to scope regularly, of course. Agile projects can absorb changes to
scope. They should also report such scope changes diligently.
Did your Product Owner drop Feature number 4 mid-flight and bring in a Feature number 6 that
costs twice as much – in time and money? You need to report this so you can secure the
additional funding and time necessary to absorb the changes.
By reporting Scope Changes, you demand a certain level of responsibility on the part of the
Product Owner. They have the responsibility to think any significant changes through before
these are introduced to the project, so they can be prepared to answer any questions about
cost/scope creep.

6. Defects Trend
Plot defects as they are identified, their resolution and those that remain open on a graph, and
you’ll have yourself a visual Defects Trend chart. Defects Trends are useful in tracking
defects resolution for a release or product as a whole.
Not all defects may be fixed within the Sprint or Release they are identified. Some (usually
non-blocker defects) tend to get carried into future Sprints or Releases.

Figure 6 – Sample Defects Trend

Plotting and tracking the Defects trend will help your team in a number of ways:
You can manage code quality as you get closer to a release.
The trend will help you decide if you need a Defects spike.
Making defects trends visual brings a sense of urgency and accountability among developers,
who will (hopefully) work to improve code quality.

7. Team Capacity/Load
Whether you’re starting out with Agile Transformation, or if you’re at various stages of getting
there, the most challenging Agile tenet is not having team members spread on multiple projects.
“Even more challenging is to know if everyone in your team is working to optimal capacity.”
While Agile doesn’t allow sloths to survive – it exposes them eventually – we’re not talking about
work shirkers here.
You do genuinely need a way to know – at any point in time – what everyone in your team is
up to. The Team Capacity/load dashboard can help with providing you a snapshot of your
team’s workload.
How does it work?
For each team member on a project, capture the following information:

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Total capacity in hours = number of hours per day that they are able to dedicate to the project
multiplied by number of days that they are allocated to the project.
Assigned capacity in hours = number of hours (or story points multiplied by average number of
hours per story point for the team member’s particular skill) allocated.
Available capacity in hours = Total capacity – Assigned capacity
Having this information to hand will help manage your team’s allocation better – especially
when they are across multiple projects.
Tools like JIRA offer a number of plug-ins to manage Team Capacity/Load online, so you have
on demand access to the latest view of work distribution and capacity.
What do your stakeholders look for in an Agile Report?
What single question do you need to answer with all your reports?
Simple: Are You On Track?
This is almost everything anybody that consumes your report, wants to know. Almost.
Agile or Waterfall, whatever metrics or report templates you use, you are trying to report on this
one super-metric. Remember – as long as your reports provide a visible and clear answer to
this question, you will have done your job. All else is either exceptional or supporting
information, or just plain background noise.
“Almost all the Agile or scrum reports above can be set up once, and generated on demand in a
matter of seconds or minutes.”

23. What is MVP, MMP,MMR?

MVP MMP MMR
1 Minimum Viable Product Minimal Marketable Product Minimum Marketable release
2 Lean Startup concepts that Minimal number of features is a product release with the
stresses the impact of learning that address the requirement fewest features possible that
while performing product of the user address your customers'
development current new needs
3 It allows one to test and Helps organization to reduce MMRs are used to reduce the
understand by the idea getting time to the market time it takes to market
exposed to the users between releases by

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condensing each release's

coherent feature set to the
smallest increment that
provides new value to
customer
4 One has to collect all the relevant
data and learn from the collected
data
5 The thought of MVP is to being
able to produce the product, to
provide access to the users and
to observe how the product is
perceived and understood.
Basically to provide more insight
on the customer needs

24. What is product roadmap?

 A product map is tool which indicates how the product will look over the time.
 It gives the holistic view of product features which the correct product vision
 It also indicates the development, goals that the product will achieve , problems that
product will solve.
 It is managed by product manager . it helps the team members to work together to
achieve the desired goal.

25. What are the different types of methodology in agile?

 Scrum
 Kanban
 FDD
 CRYSTAL
 Lean
 Test Driven
 Adaptive System development
 Dynamic Software Development Method
 XP – extreme Programming

26. What are the three C’s in an User Story?

Card: It is a written account of the story that is utilized to plan and estimate. To keep user
stories succinct, they are manually written on index "cards."
Conversation: The Conversation is required to learn more about the Card. The conversation
encourages the agile team to work together in small steps to develop a shared understanding of
the problem and potential solutions.
Confirmation: Confirmation is an acceptance criteria that contains the fundamental requirements
and turns them into test criteria so that we can determine when the user story has been properly
provided.

27. . What is Scrum?

Scrum is an Agile framework that can help teams work together. Scrum can enable teams to
learn from experiences, self-organize while working on problems, to reflect on their victories and

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failures, to make improvements. This Agile Scrum interview question is often used as a starter
question to get the interview moving.

28. Define the roles in Scrum?

 Product Owner: The product owner is an individual who is responsible for increasing the ROI
by determining product features, prioritizing these features into a list, what needs to be
focused on the upcoming sprint, and much more. These are constantly re-prioritized and
refined.
 Scrum Master: This individual helps the team in learning to apply Scrum to ensure optimum
business value. The scrum master removes impediments, shields the team from
distractions, and enables them to adopt agile practices.
 Scrum Team: They are a collection of individuals who work together to ensure that the
requirements of the stakeholders are delivered.

29. What are the responsibilities of the Scrum Team?

The Scrum Team is one that’s self-organizing and involves five to seven members. The
following are their responsibilities:
 Working products must be developed and delivered during each sprint.
 Ownership and transparency must be ensured for the work assigned to the team members.
 Correct and crisp information must be provided to ensure a successful daily scrum meeting.
 They must collaborate with the team and themselves.

30. What are the Artifacts of the Scrum Process?

 Product Backlog: It is a list that consists of new features, changes to features, bug fixes,
changes to the infrastructure, and other activities to ensure a particular output can be
obtained.
 Sprint Backlog: It is a subset of the product backlog that contains tasks focused on by
the team to satisfy the sprint goal. Teams first identify the tasks to be completed from the
product backlog. These are then added to the sprint backlog.
 Product Increment: It is a combination of all product backlog items completed in a sprint
and the value of previous sprints' increments. The output must be in usable condition,
even if the product owner doesn’t release it.

31. How are the Product and Sprint Backlog different from One Another?
Product Backlog Sprint Backlog
1 It is a list of items that need to be completed It is a list of items to be completed during
for developing the product each sprint

2 The backlog is collected from the customer by The team collects the backlog from the
the product owner and assigned to the team product owner and sets up the time frame
for the sprint

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3 It has a specific end goal It is specific to a sprint

4 Based on customer vision Can vary based on product vision defined
by the product owner

5 It’s independent of the sprint backlog It’s dependent on the product backlog

6 The product owner maintains the backlog until Each new sprint has backlogs added by
the project is complete the team

32. Who is a Scrum Master? And what does he/she do?

A Scrum Master is someone who promotes and supports the usage of Scrum within the team.
 He/She understands the theory, practices, rules and, values of Scrum
 He/She ensures that the team follows the values, principles and, practices of Scrum
 They remove any distractions and impediments that hamper the progress of the project
 The Scrum Master ensures that the team delivers value during the sprint

33. What happens in Daily Stand-up sessions?

Stand-up sessions are daily discussions that take place and are usually 15 minutes long. Daily
Stand-up sessions help understand:
 What tasks went well
 What tasks were completed
 What tasks are pending, and
 The obstacles the team is facing
The meeting helps in understanding the overall scope and status of the project. Further
discussions can take place after the stand-up sessions.

34. What is Scrum-ban?

 Scrum-ban is a methodology that’s a combination of Scrum and Kanban. Scrum-ban can
be used to meet the needs of the team, and to minimize the batching of work, and to
adopt a pull-based system.
 It ingeniously includes the structure of Scrum and the flexibility and visualization of
Kanban.

35. What is Sprint 0 and Spike?

 Sprint 0 refers to the small amount of effort put in to create a rough skeleton of the
product backlog. It also includes insights towards estimating the release of products.
Sprint 0 is required for:
 Creating the project skeleton, along with research spikes
 Keeping minimal design
 Developing some stories completely
 Having low velocity and being lightweight
 The spike is a set of activities that involve Extreme Programming (XP) for research,
design, investigation, creating POCs, etc.
 The spike aims to reduce risks of the technical approach, helping gain knowledge to
better understand requirements and improve reliability

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Interview questions

36. What is ‘Scrum of Scrums’?

 It is a terminology used for scaled agile technologies, which is required to control and
collaborate with multiple scrum teams. It is best used in situations where teams are
collaborating on complex assignments.
 It is also used to ensure that the required transparency, collaboration, adaption, and
adoption are established and to ensure that the products are deployed and delivered.

37. What is User-Story Mapping?

 User story mapping represents and arranges user stories that help with understanding
system functionalities, system backlog, planning releases, and providing value to
customers.
 They arrange user stories based on their priority on the horizontal axis. On the vertical
axis, they are represented based on the increasing levels of sophistication.

38. What happens in a Sprint Retrospective?

The sprint retrospective takes place after the sprint review. During this meeting, past mistakes,
potential issues, and new methods to handle them are discussed. This data is incorporated into
the planning of a new sprint.

39. What is Empirical Process Control in Scrum?

 Empiricism refers to work that’s based on facts, experiences, evidence, observations,
and experimentation. It is established and followed in Scrum to ensure project progress
and interpretation is based on facts of observations.
 It relies on transparency, observation, and adaption.
 The mindset of the team and the shift in thought process and culture are essential to
achieve the agility required by the organization.

40. What are Some drawbacks to using Scrum?

 Scrum requires individuals with experience
 Teams need to be collaborative and committed to ensuring results
 A scrum master with lesser experience can cause the collapse of the project
 Tasks need to be well defined, lest the project has many inaccuracies
 It works better for smaller projects and is difficult to scale to larger, more complex
projects

41. What are the key skills of a Scrum Master?

 A strong understanding of Scrum and Agile concepts
 Fine-tuned organizational skills
 Familiarity with the technology used by the team
 To be able to coach and teach the team to follow Scrum practices
 Having the ability to handle conflicts and resolve them quickly
 To be a servant leader

42. How can discord be dealt with within the Scrum Team?
 The issue’s root cause needs to be identified and addressed
 Complete ownership needs to be established
 Try to diffuse the disagreement
 Emphasize on focus areas that complement the project
 A common understanding needs to be established to guide the team

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 Performing continuous monitoring and providing complete visibility

43. What is a User Story?

 A user story is an agile software development/ project management tool that provides
teams with simple, natural language explanations of one or more features of the project
that’s written from the perspective of the end-user.
 The user story doesn’t go into detail but only mentions how certain types of work will
bring value to the end-user. The end-user, in this case, could be an external component
or an internal customer/colleague within the organization.
 They also form the building block of agile frameworks like epics and other initiatives.
 They ensure that the teams work towards the goals of the organization, with the help of
epics and initiatives.
 The requirements to make a user story a reality are added later, after discussions with
the team.
 They are recorded on post-it notes, index cards, or project management software.

44. How are user stories, epics, and tasks different?

 User Stories: They provide the team with simple explanations of the business’
requirements created from the end user's perspective.
 Epics: An epic is a collection of related user stories. They are usually large and complex.
 Tasks: Tasks are used to break down user stories further. They’re the smallest unit in
Scrum that is used to track work. A person or a team of two people usually work on a
task.

45. What is a Sprint?

 Sprint is a terminology used in Scrum, used to describe a time-boxed iteration.
 During a sprint, a specific module or feature of the product is created.
 The duration of a sprint can vary between a week or two.

46. What is Velocity?

Velocity is a metric used to measure the amount of work completed by a team during a sprint. It
refers to the number of user stories completed in a sprint.

22. What are the responsibilities of a Product Owner?

 Defines the vision for the project
 Anticipates the needs of the customer and creates appropriate user
stories
 Evaluates project progress
 Acts as a liaison for all product-related questions
23. What is a Burnup and Burndown Chart?
 A burnup chart is a tool that’s used to track the amount of work that’s
been completed and to represent the total amount of work that needs to be done
for a sprint/project.
 A burndown chart represents how fast working through user stories is. It
shows total effort against the amount of work for each iteration.
24. How is Estimation Done in a Scrum Project?
 The estimation of user stories is done based on their difficulty

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Interview questions

 A particular scale is used to assess the difficulty of the user stories. Some
type of scales are:
 Numeric Sizing (1 - 10)
 T-shirt Sizes (S, M, L, XL…)
 Fibonacci Series (1, 2, 3, 5, 8…)
 Dog breeds (Great Dane, Chihuahua…)
25. What are some risks in Scrum? How are they handled?
Some types of risks in Scrum are:
 Budget: The risk of exceeding budgets
 People (team): Team members need to be of appropriate skill and
capability
 Sprint (duration and deliverables): Exceeding the duration, addition of the
scope of work
 Product (user stories, epics): Having ill-defined user stories and epics
 Knowledge and capability: Having the appropriate resources
Managing risks involves identifying, assessing, analyzing, defining, and implementing risk
responses, monitoring, and managing them. These are done on a continual basis right from the
starting of the project until completion. It is essential to understand that the impact of the risk is
based on the proximity of the actual occurrence of the risk.
26. How does a Scrum Master track Sprint progress?
 Daily Scrum meetings
 Scrum retrospectives
 Sprint planning
 Escaped defects
 Defect density
 Sprint burndown
 Team velocity
27. How to deal with Score Creep?
Score creep refers to a change that’s uncontrolled and added without checking its impact on
scope, time, cost, etc.
To handle it, here’s what needs to be done:
 Close monitoring of work being done on a day-to-day basis.
 Understanding and communicating the vision to the team and ensuring
they’re aligned.
 Capturing, reviewing the project requirements regularly (against what is
delivered), to emphasize to the team & customer about the requirements signed
off.
 Ensuring that any changes introduced go through change control & are
implemented based on the approval for change request.
 Avoid gold plating.
28. What are MVP and MMP?
 Minimum viable product (MVP) is a Lean Startup concept that stresses
the impact of learning while performing product development. This allows one to
test and understand the idea by getting exposed to the initial version for target
customers & users. To accomplish this, one has to collect all the relevant data
and learn from that collected data. The thought behind MVP is to produce the
product, to provide access to the users, and to observe how the product is used,
perceived, and understood. This will also provide more insight towards what the
customers’ or users’ needs are.
 The MMP (Minimal Marketable Product) refers to the description of the
product, which will have a minimal number of features that address the

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requirement of the users. The MMP would help also help the organization reduce
the time to market
29. What does DoD mean?
 Definition of Done (DoD) refers to the collection of deliverables, which
includes written codes, comments on coding, unit tests, integration testing, design
documents, release notes, etc. This adds verifiable and demonstrable values to
project development. DoD is very helpful to scrum while identifying the
deliverables to achieve the objective of the projects
 It helps with:
 Defining the steps required to deliver the iteration
 The usage of appropriate tools like burndown to make the process
more effective
 Ensuring on-time feedback throughout the project life cycle
 Ensuring the walkthrough of the product backlog items are done
and understood correctly
 The creation of a checklist for the product backlog items
 Ensuring the DoD is defined to become task-oriented
 Involving the product owner for reviewing during the sprint and
sprint retrospective
30. How can a Scrum Master be a Servant Leader?
 The term "servant leader" mainly focuses on the service orientation which
a leader should demonstrate.
 The Scrum Master needs to be a facilitator, a guide, a mentor, etc.
 This helps the team have increased involvement, empowerment, etc.
31. How can you coordinate between multiple teams?
 One of the most common approaches for this is the Scrum of Scrums
(SoS) meeting, where members representing each scrum team discuss the
progress, performance, issues, risks, etc. together.
 The frequency of these meetings must be pre-defined. Generally, scrum
masters would represent a particular scrum team, besides having the Chief
Scrum Master (whose responsibility is coordination & collaboration among all the
scrums) who facilitates these meetings.
32. What are the Scrum values?
The five Scrum Values are:
 Openness - In order for the Scrum team to make the most progress in the
shortest time feasible, each member of the team must be completely honest
about their personal development. The objective of the daily Scrum meeting is to
identify and address problems. That will happen only if team members are open
about any issues or roadblocks they're seeing. Members of the team should be
willing to work together and regard each other as important contributions to the
project's success.
Scrum masters can create openness by being honest with their teams. Giving honest feedback
at daily Scrum meetings inspires team members to be open and honest in return and is
important for making necessary modifications.
 Courage - Scrum teams must have the courage to be authentic, open,
and honest with themselves and stakeholders about any bottlenecks they
experience and the project's progress. Members of the team must also be gutsy
enough to ask for help when they need it, try unfamiliar procedures, techniques,
and respectfully disagree and debate openly. Scrum masters should foster
courage first and foremost by demonstrating it just like respect. In order to avoid

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mid-sprint modifications or scope creep, the Scrum Master must have the
confidence to stand up to product owners and stakeholders.
 Focus - To get the most out of each sprint, every team member must
remain focused on the task at hand and how it influences the sprint goal. To keep
team members engaged throughout sprints, scrum masters may limit the number
of tasks or priority allocated to each team member. Individuals can also stay on
task by making sure that the whole team is engaged in daily Scrum sessions.
 Respect - In a Scrum team, respect is accepting that no one person or
contribution is more valuable than the other. Respect means appreciating your
accomplishments, trusting your teammates to fulfill their tasks and also
considering their ideas, and listening to them. Scrum masters may help their
teams create mutual respect by demonstrating respect for the team members,
product owners, and stakeholders.
 Commitment - To achieve a common purpose, scrum teams must work
together. This means trusting one another to finish their tasks and deliver their
best. It will only happen only if every member of the team is entirely committed to
the team and the project.
33. How would you handle conflict within the team?
Giving individual coaching to team members is one of the most effective strategies to resolve a
problem. It is imperative for a Scrum Master to maintain positive relationships with team
members and provide guidance when they face challenges.
For a Scrum Master, paying attention to the source of the problem and listening and acting
accordingly would go a long way. Any disagreements should be shared with other team
members in a manner that they would be open to suggestions for resolving the issue. When a
conflict arises, the Scrum Master must intervene so that the process runs smoothly and without
hiccups.
The following steps help in handling conflicts within the team:
Step 1 - Scene setting
First, we must determine the source of the team's quarrel. Before taking any action, it is
necessary to understand the discrepancy between two groups or two persons. In times of
dispute, Scrum Masters typically react aggressively against team members in the hopes of
resolving the conflict on their own. However, while this may temporarily cure the problem, it
does not address any underlying concerns. The Scrum Master must lead the team and teach
them that disagreement is a regular occurrence in the workplace and it can be resolved with
assertiveness. It is the leader's responsibility to guarantee that team members' concerns are
acknowledged and addressed.
Step 2 - Gathering Information
Gathering facts about the conflict is usually crucial before coming to a conclusion about a
certain individual or suppressing the topic. This could be accomplished by listening to each
party separately and comprehending the situation from their point of view. The Scrum Master
should also consider other team members' perspectives and also respect every team member’s
decisions. As a result, the Scrum Master must elicit everyone's assistance in order to gain a
picture of the workplace conflict.
Step 3 - Brainstorming to find a solution
It is often impossible for the leader to resolve problems on his or her own. Furthermore, several
members of the Scrum Team would have better answers that would quickly remedy the
problem. Organizing spontaneous group talks and sharing opinions on various activities would
stimulate good discourse between the two people or groups in these situations. This would urge
both sides to see things from the other's perspective. This also provides opportunities for
superior ideas to be pushed and for the disparity to be bridged.
Step 4 - Solution conferring

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Listing all of the possible answers to an issue would only be useful if those solutions were put
into action. Scrum Master removes the team's roadblocks by implementing the solution in this
step. Throughout the conflict resolution process, remembering to stay calm and respectful will
aid in a speedier and more efficient resolution.
34. How would you deal with a difficult stakeholder?
The four strategies by which we can deal with difficult stakeholders are:
1. Listen to them carefully - Make an effort to comprehend their point of
view. If what they say aggravates you, consider whether their needs are in line
with the project's goals. Is it possible that they want things done a little differently?
Make efforts to discover some common ground. People desire to be understood
and to believe that their voices are heard.
2. Estimate their motivation - Try to understand the motivation behind the
stakeholders’ opposition. This will allow you to compromise, and come up with a
win-win solution, and complete the project. Answer questions like - Are they
reporting to a board of directors that has its own reservations? What's the source
of your stakeholders' sudden opposition? Are they concerned about exceeding
their budget? Concerned that the project may not turn out as planned?
3. Meet them one after another - Meeting without other stakeholders in the
room relieves stress and allows the stakeholders’ to be more at ease. So, make
time to meet with each challenging stakeholder separately. This results in
interactions becoming clearer and calmer. Take advantage of this chance to learn
more about their point of view and recommended solutions. However, don't ask
them why they don't like your plan outright. Ask open-ended inquiries about their
thoughts and how the project is moving instead.
4. Watch the stakeholders closely by identifying them - Determining the
stakeholders and finding out what inspires them should be the first step. Anyone
who is influenced by our work has control or influence over it or is interested in its
success is referred to as a stakeholder.
35. What are the three pillars of Scrum?
The three pillars of Scrum are summarized below -
Adaption: The method being processed must be changed if an inspector determines that one or
more aspects of a process are outside of permitted limits. A correction must be made as quickly
as possible to avoid future deviation.
Transparency: Transparency mandates that those elements be specified by a consistent
standard in order for viewers to understand what they are viewing. For example, while referring
to the process, all participants must use the same terminology. Those reviewing as well as
those executing the job and the resulting addition must have the same definition of "done."
Inspection: Scrum users must check Scrum artifacts and progress toward a Sprint Goal on a
regular basis to discover unwanted deviations. Inspections should not be carried out so
frequently that they constitute a burden to their work. Inspections are most successful when
skilled inspectors do them attentively at the point of work.
36. Explain user story structure with an example.
The User Story Structure is defined below -
As a <role of user>,
I want <To achieve a goal / perform a task>,
So that <I may achieve some value/goal>.
Example:
User Story of a person’s online course purchase -
As a Customer,
I want to purchase educational courses online from ed-tech websites,
So that I do not have to visit a training center.

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37. How can you assure that the user stories meet the requirements?
A good user narrative includes both a description and acceptance criteria. It should be
completed in a sprint with the fewest possible dependencies. The team should be able to
develop and test while still delivering estimations within the sprint's constraints. In short, good
user stories adhere to the INVEST concept.
I → Independent: The user story should be written in such a way that team members are less
dependent on one another.
N → Negotiable: it should define the functionality of the user story and is subject to the Product
Owner and the Team’s approval.
V → Valuable: It should offer value to the customer's experience.
E → Estimable: This lets us be able to roughly approximate in terms of time.
S → Small: The user story should be tiny enough for the team to finish in a sprint.
T → Testable: Good acceptance criteria after testing is required.
38. What are the five steps of Risk Management?
The five steps of Risk Management are given below -
Risk Identification: To identify the risks that your company is exposed to in its current operating
environment. There are several types of risks, such as market risks, legal risks, regulatory risks,
environmental risks, etc. It's crucial to be aware of as many risk factors as possible.
Risk Analysis: Once a risk has been identified, it must be investigated. The scope of the danger
must be determined. It's also important to understand the connection between other internal
factors and risk. It's critical to determine the risk's severity and importance by examining how it
affects the business operations.
Ranking the risk: Risks must be ranked and prioritized. Most risk management solutions include
numerous risk categories based on the severity of the danger. Risks that may cause minor
discomfort are prioritized the least, but risks that can result in significant loss are prioritized the
highest.
Treating the risk: As much as possible, all risks should be avoided or reduced by contacting
experts in the field in question. In a manual environment, this would include contacting each and
every stakeholder and setting up meetings for everyone to discuss the issues.
Risk review: To ensure that it has been entirely eradicated, the risk evaluation is done.
39. What do you mean by timeboxing in Scrum? When can a Sprint be canceled, and by
whom?
Timeboxing is the practice of devoting a set amount of time to a single activity. A timebox is a
unit of time measurement. A timebox should not exceed 15 minutes in length. A Sprint can be
canceled before the Sprint timebox limit ends. Only a Product Owner can cancel the sprint.
40. What do you understand about Scope Creep? How can Scope Creep be managed?
Scope creep is used to describe how a project's requirements tend to grow over time, like - a
single deliverable product becomes five when a product with three essential features becomes
ten, or when the customer's needs change midway through a project, requiring a reassessment
of the project requirements. Changes in project needs from internal miscommunication and
disagreements, and key stakeholders are some of the common causes of scope creep.
To manage scope creep, we need to use the change control mechanism to keep it under
control. This includes the following -
 Maintaining a baseline scope and keeping track of the project's progress.
 To evaluate actual work performance metrics to the baseline scope, i.e.,
"How different is the current project from the original plan?", we need to perform
Variance analysis.
 Identifying the severity and source of the observed alterations.
 Selecting whether to take preventive or corrective action in response to
requests regarding changes.

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Interview questions

 To recommend actions and manage all change requests by using the

Perform Integrated Change Control method (whether preventive or corrective).
41. When should a Scrum Master not act as a facilitator?
A workshop facilitator must be objective when it comes to the topics being discussed and should
avoid contributing facts or opinions to the conversation. Even though a Scrum Master's job is to
assist the team in achieving the best possible results, workshop facilitation can be challenging
at times. Most of the general product development workshops can be facilitated by the Scrum
Master if someone has the required knowledge. The Scrum Master should not facilitate a
workshop about modifying the Scrum process.
Q42. How do you make different stakeholders attend daily scrum meetings?
The coordination of business people and developers defines the success of a project. The
scrum master should conduct the daily standup meetings and encourage all stakeholders to be
a part of the call by explaining the impact it will have on the project. The motive of the daily
scrum is to know whether or not they will reach the sprint goal. If all stakeholders are present on
the call, they can see a clear picture of the product development and change their priorities to
meet the set expectations. Problems faced by different parties are also discussed here to bring
everyone together.
43. What is the structure of a good story?
The structure of a good story is as follows:
1. Who are we building it for, and who are the users? - As a <type of user>
2. What are we building, and what is the intention? -I want <some goal or
objective >
3. Why are we building it, and what value does it bring for the user.? - So
that <benefit, value>
Well-formed stories will meet the criteria of Bill Wake's INVEST acronym:
1. Independent - Does your story have the potential to be stand-alone?
2. Negotiable - Your story should have the scope to make adjustments.
3. Valuable - There has to be some takeaway for users or customers.
4. Estimable - The team should be able to use it for planning.
5. Small - Longer stories take more time to plan and implement. Keep your
story short.
6. Testable - Can you test the story?
44. What is the role of a Scrum Master in a sprint retrospective?
The scrum master in sprint retrospective inspects the progress of previous improvements. With
the help of team discussion, new improvements are also inspected and adapted. Scrum Master
plays the role of a facilitator for the team.
45. How can Scrum Masters ensure timely delivery of action items?
Regular scrum retrospective ensures timely delivery of action items. An effective retrospective
makes sure that the team has identified the action items. Some organizations use a
retrospective tracker to monitor action items. Here are the targeted categories: priority,
ownership, status, description, identified on, and type. Working on the action items gives the
team a boost that they are moving towards improvement and enhances the sense of
ownership.
46. What exactly do you mean by Sprint in Scrum?
A Sprint is at the heart of Scrum. An incremental product is released every two weeks or every
month. After the previous Sprint gets completed, a new Sprint begins. It breaks down large
projects into smaller, more manageable chunks. It allows companies to produce high-quality
work more frequently and quickly, making project management easy. Sprints have made them
more adaptable to changes. Daily scrums, Sprint planning, sprint review, development work,
and sprint retrospectives are part of a sprint.

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Interview questions

 The Scrum Team as whole plans the work that gets accomplished during
the Sprint planning phase.
 The Scrum Team values efforts and develops a plan for the following day
during the Daily Scrum Meeting, a timed 15-minute session.
 At the end of each Sprint, a Sprint Review gets held to evaluate the
increment and, if necessary, make changes to the Product Backlog.
 A Sprint Retrospective is held after the Sprint Review but before the
subsequent Sprint Planning. The Scrum Team will evaluate its performance and
develop a plan for implementing changes during the following Sprint during this
meeting.
47. What does the concept of Confidence Vote mean in Scrum? Why is it vital?
The Confidence Vote gets held at the Program Increment Planning session following the risk
analysis. It is when all team members assemble and voice their opinions and vote with their
fingers on their confidence level in completing the PI Targets. The confidence vote can be used
only once all the features and user stories get adequately estimated and prioritized. All work
must be clear to all parties involved, with all dependencies and risks clearly defined.
A vote of confidence can help to create an environment in which people feel comfortable
sharing and expressing their ideas. It boosts team morale because members should feel that
their opinions are valued.
48. Is a daily meeting suggested for all teams, irrespective of their size or experience level?
Explain.
A team can evaluate its progress in sticking to the sprint goal during the daily meeting. To
ensure that all are on the same page, all agile teams should meet frequently. They can conduct
the meeting in different ways depending on the size as well as the level of experience.
 Small and Experienced - A small, experienced team can get together for a
brief break or even an informal meeting.
 Small and Inexperienced - If the team is small and inexperienced, the
Scrum Master should prefer going through a standup because the team needs to
understand the progress. They may require assistance with technicalities or
business functionality and must also understand the values, principles, and
discipline.
 Large - Taking a relaxed attitude with huge teams may be troublesome,
as formal meetings are required to provide advice and clarity.
 Distributed Teams - Because scattered teams are at a distance from each
other, they can use the 'dial-in' feature to undertake meetings in an organized
manner.
49. Can the Scrum team members participate in the product development process? If so, please
explain how.
It is advantageous to involve the scrum team in the discovery phase stage of the product
development lifecycle. Agile teams collaborate with stakeholders early in the development cycle
to ensure that both parties are on the same page.
 By identifying technical implementation issues early in the process,
development teams can assist in modifying specifications with the client.
 Working with the product owner, the team starts to share a common
understanding of what needs to be ready. They can aid the product owner in
identifying requirements that may have gone undetected.
 They share an understanding of what needs to be ready. It also helps
teams maintain their dedication and confidence, encourages them to take
ownership of their work, and, most importantly, boosts team spirit.

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Interview questions

 To assist with this, the scrum master can begin involving teams in early
product discussions while the requirements are still hazy. The product owner and
the team can create the product backlog.
50. In Scrum, what do you mean by user stories? What benefits come from using them?
A user story is an informal, generic description of a software feature written from the end user's
perspective. Its purpose is to explain how a software feature could benefit the customer. Putting
people first is a critical element of agile software development, and a user story accomplishes
this by putting end-users at the center of the discussion. These anecdotes use non-technical
language to describe the development team and their efforts. After reading a user story, the
team understands why they are developing, what they are building, and what value it adds.
The following are some of the benefits of using User Story:
 The primary benefit of User Story is the user-centric definition. It is
because, in the end, the user will use the product in the relevant user scenarios. It
creates a connection between end users and team members.
 The syntax of the User Story ensures that the user's desired goal, benefit,
or value gets captured.
 Because the acceptance criteria get included in the user story, the Scrum
Team will benefit from them.
 A user story can change at any time during the project's execution. If the
scope of the user story becomes too large, it must get divided into smaller user
stories. The conditions of the acceptance criterion can also get altered.
51. Why aren't the user stories' man-hours estimated?
Estimating clock-in-hours is one among the most popular methods for evaluating teamwork.
Some significant disadvantages are:
 A few activities are difficult to estimate. Example – legacy work.
 If one team member provides the estimate, but another completes the
task, the estimate is rendered useless.
 The time it takes to complete a task gets determined by the developer's
experience level.
 Teams frequently exaggerate the difficulties they may face and only
consider the best-case scenario.
The following are some of the advantages of estimating user stories in points:
 There is no correlation between the estimator's skills and experience, and
story points are independent of the story's author.
 Because story points are a measurement of relative sizes, and the size
cannot get changed by external forces, team members can estimate more
accurately.
 Story Points encourages collaboration by prioritizing team behavior over
individual behavior.
 It serves as a team-building activity because teams exchange, argue,
constructively criticize, and have fun while playing poker cards to reach an
understanding of estimations.
52. Differentiate between MVP and MMR
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a Lean Startup concept emphasizing the value of learning
while developing a product. It allows the idea to be tested and understood by exposing target
consumers and users to the initial version. To do so, one must first collect all relevant data and
then learn from it. The MVP concept is to create a product, give it to consumers, and then watch
how the product gets used, perceived, and understood. It will also provide a clear understanding
of your clients' or users' needs.
Successful products get gradually introduced into the market, with each "significant" deployment
referred to as a release. An MMR (Minimum Marketable Release) is a product release with the

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Interview questions

fewest features possible that address your customers' current new needs. MMRs are used to
reduce the time it takes to market between releases by condensing each release's coherent
feature set to the smallest increment that provides new value to customers.
53. Name some other Agile frameworks.
There are other frameworks in addition to Scrum, such as Kanban, Test Driven Development,
and Feature-Driven Development. Mention frameworks you have followed and provide
scenarios.
54. When should you use Waterfall over Scrum?
Use waterfall if the requirements are simple, predictable, fully defined and understood, and will
not change.
55. Would you recommend automated testing for your project?
Scrum encourages the use of automated performance or regression testing so that you can
continuously deliver software as quickly as possible. Offer examples of any automated testing
tools that your team may have used.
56. How long were your sprints?
An ideal sprint length is between one and four weeks, with a two-week sprint being the most
widely used.
57. Is it okay if someone wants to change a requirement?
Yes. Agile encourages frequent feedback from customers and stakeholders so that the product
can be improved. We need to be able to embrace change.
58. What type of metrics or reports have you used?
Sprint, release burn-down and burn-up charts are standard reports. Most companies also want
to understand how many stories were committed versus completed per sprint and the number of
defects identified post-release to production.

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Questions. Take this free practice test to know where you stand!
59. What is a burn-down chart?
A burn-down chart displays the amount of work a team has burned through—such as hours
during the sprint. Discuss how you have used these in the past.
60. How many Scrum teams have you managed at one time?
This is a popular question. Don’t offer that Scrum guidelines state only one Scrum Master per
team as your answer! In this new role, you may be required to lead more than one team. Notice
the use of the word “managed” versus “led.” Scrum Masters do not manage, they lead teams—
so be sure to use this word in your response. Your interviewer is likely to be listening very
closely!
61. What type of requirements did you use for your teams?
Requirements in Scrum are written as user stories using a standard, “As a ___, I want___ so
that I can ___.” As a Scrum Master, you don’t necessarily write user stories, but you would
assist the Product Owner to ensure that user stories are written, prioritized, and ready for the
sprint.
62. Describe a time when your Delivery team members didn’t seem to be getting along. How did
you handle this?
A little bit of conflict is always good, but your interviewer is looking for your ability to be an
effective leader. Reflect on a time where you had a few team members that just never seemed
to be able to work things out. How did you encourage those team members to work together?
Was it a team-building exercise? Did you make sure they had a common goal? State the
problem you had, how you addressed it, and the outcome.

Agile Interview Questions

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Interview questions

1. Explain Agile in brief.

Agile is a popular set of methods and practices that majorly focuses on interactive development.
Thanks to self-organizing collaborations between cross-functional teams, the requirements from
their customers and potential solutions are obtained.
2. Explain the difference between the traditional Waterfall model and the Agile model.
Agile Waterfall
It is a linear sequential lifecycle
It is a continuous iteration lifecycle model used for
model for developing and testing
developing and testing software
software
It is a rigid and structured method
It is a flexible method to build a software
for software development
It follows a rigid sequence of steps,
It is highly collaborative, thus yielding quality output
hence team collaboration is difficult
The process is broken down into
The process of development is divided into sprints
several phases
Once the project development has
Changes can be made even after the initial planning is
started, development requirements
completed
cannot be changed
Development is completed as a
Development is a collection of many projects
simple project or deliverable
The testing phase follows the build
Testing is performed in the same iteration
phase
3. What are some important parts of the Agile process
The different principles of Agile are:
1. Customer Satisfaction
The needs of the customer need to be satisfied with the early and quick delivery of the product.
2. Welcome Changes
Changing needs need to be addressed, even if they are brought in late in the development
process.
3. Deliver Frequently
Ensure frequent product delivery within a short timeframe, thanks to a clear cut understanding
of the product.
4. Work Together
Developers and other team members need to work together through in collaboration with the
course of the project.
5. Motivated Team
Motivated and driven individuals who are trusted to get the job done can ensure the success of
the project.
6. Face-to-Face Conversations
Having face-to-face conversations is proven as the most efficient method for communication.
7. Working Software
This represents the primary measure of progress.
8. Constant Pace
With a constant pace, the agile process enables optimum sustainable development.
9. Good Design
By focusing on technical excellence and great design, the agility of the project can be improved
drastically.
10. Simplicity
The amount of time spent not doing work has to be minimized and simplified.
11. Self-Organized

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Interview questions

Self-organized teams provide the best architectures, requirements, and designs.

12. Reflect and Adjust
The effectiveness of the Agile process can be improved by regularly reflecting on it.
4. Explain Iterative and Incremental Development in Agile.
To understand how these processes work in Agile, we’ll have to talk about each one of them
individually.

Incremental Development
In this form of development, the process is divided into small, workable increments. Each
succeeding increment builds on the work completed in the previous increment. Over time,
functionalities are added based on everything already created.

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Interview questions

Iterative Development
This involves the development of a system that follows repeated cycles or iterations. Changes
are made based on results from the most recent iteration. This enables the project to evolve
over time.
Agile: Incremental+Iterative
The agile process involves the consideration and creation of a working product in an iteration,
which is a part of the final product. Each successive iteration is one step further towards the
final product. This continues until all product functionalities are satisfied.
Organizations and users use the working product and provide feedback that’s incorporated into
the next iteration. With this, product roadmaps can be built, produced, and tested before the
next iteration.
This is one of the most common and important Agile Interview Questions that everyone should
know the answers to.
5. What are the different types of Agile methodologies?
1. Extreme Programming
It is a framework that enables teams to create high-quality software that helps improve their
quality of life. It enables software development alongside relevant and appropriate engineering
practices. It is applicable to handle changing software requirements, risks caused due to new
software, working with a small, extended development team, and technology that allows
automated unit and functional tests.
2. Kanban
It is a method that’s used to design, manage, and improve the flow of systems. Kanban enables
organizations to visualize their flow of work and limit the amount of work in progress. It is used
in situations where work arrives unpredictably, and where work needs to be deployed
immediately without waiting for other work items.
3. Lean
It is a set of tools and principles that focuses on identifying and removing waste, to speed up
process development. Value is maximized, and waste is minimized. It is used in just about every
industry that produces waste in some form or the other.
4. Scrum
It is a framework that is used by teams to establish a hypothesis, test it, reflect on the
experience, and make adjustments. It enables teams to incorporate practices from other

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Interview questions

frameworks depending on the requirements. It is used by cross-functional teams that are

working on product development, and the work is split into more than one 2-4 week iterations.
5. Crystal
It focuses on people and their interactions, rather than on tools and processes. Aimed to
streamline processes and improve optimization, Crystal works on the principle that projects are
unique and dynamic. It is used when the focus is on strengthening team communication,
continuous integration, active user involvement, and configurable processes.
6. What Are the Principles of Agile Testing?
 Testing continuously to ensure continuous improvement of the product
 Continuous feedback to ensure the product satisfies the business
requirements
 Team roles like testing and development need to be actively involved in
the testing process
 Actively involving the business team and user representatives can help
obtain quick feedback for each iteration
 Clean and simplified code ensures it is defect-free during the iteration
 Documentation created must limit itself to a particular iteration
 Testing is done alongside development and implementation, to ensure
that the product is free from defects
 Involving the user ensures the final product matches their requirements
7. What are some Agile metrics that need to be focused on?
 Measuring the burndown of deliverables, usually represented in
burndown charts
 Velocity
 Lead time
 Cycle time
 Code quality
 Code covered in unit test
 Deployment success rate
 Net promoter score
8. What Is Kanban?
Kanban is a visual system that helps the management of work as it progresses through the
process. It visualizes and provides visibility into the process, workflows, and the work that’s
passing through the process. It is also known as a pull system, as new work is pulled from a list,
executed, and moved from ‘in-progress’ status to ‘done’ Tracking work is also made easier as
the workflow is visible and put on a display board. Modern organizations can also use the digital
display systems.
In Kanban, the goal is to identify constraints or potential bottlenecks in the process and ensure
they are addressed. It also helps make the workflow smoother and more efficient.
9. What are some popular Agile tools?

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Interview questions

10. What are the obstacles to the Agile process?

Some of the obstacles that could be faced are:
 Not having appropriate or sufficient tools and technologies
 The lack of active involvement from the customers
 Team members that are lacking in skills and capability
 The inability to design systems based on unseen requirements
 Successfully adopting the Agile culture to the organization
11. Differentiate between Agile and Scrum.
Agile Scrum
It is a set of principles that’s iterative and incremental in It is an implementation of the Agile
nature methodology
Used in teams that need to handle
Suited for projects involving a small team of experts
constant changing requirements
The project head takes care of all tasks and is vital to the No leader. Issues are handled by the
project scrum master and the team
Changes cannot be handled frequently Teams can react to change quickly
Sprints provide workable builds of
Requires frequent delivery to the end-user the final product to the user for
feedback
Daily stand-up meetings help with
Face-to-face interactions between cross-functional teams
collaboration
Design and execution can be
Design and execution is simple
innovative and experimental
12. What are some popular Agile certifications?
 PMI-ACP Certification
 Scrum Master Certification
 Certified Scrum Master Certification
 Prince 2 Agile Certification
 Scrum Product Owner Certification
13. Discuss the differences between Agile and traditional Project Management (Waterfall).
While traditional methodologies include different project life cycle phases, agile emphasizes
iterative project implementation approaches.
14. What are Agile frameworks?

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Interview questions

Other than Scrum, there are various alternative frameworks, including Test-Driven
Development, Feature-Driven Development, and Kanban.
15. When should you use Waterfall over Scrum?
Typically, Waterfall is employed when the requirements are straightforward, completely
specified, predictable, understandable, and permanent.
16. How long does the scrum cycle last?
The length of the Scrum cycle is determined by the size of the team and the project; it typically
takes 3 to 4 weeks to complete.
17. What is the scrum of scrums?
A separate meeting, known as a Scrum of Scrums, must be planned to coordinate among
several teams. In the scrum of scrums, an ambassador speaks on behalf of their squad.
18. Define epic, user stories, and tasks?
User Stories: Delivered throughout a specific sprint, user stories are created based on the
client's perspective, such as project or business functions.
19. What is test-driven development?
This approach involves a developer writing an automated test case that describes the new
function, writing little code to pass the test, and then re-factoring the new code to comply with
the required standards.
20. What do you mean by scrum poker technique or planning poker?
The general agreement-based card-based estimation method is called scrum poker or planning
poker. Among its characteristics are the following:
 The client must read the agile user's story as the first step.
 The estimator then comprehends the features.
 Each estimator has a distinct planning card with a different set of
numbers on it. The various numbers represent the plot points.
 This procedure is carried out repeatedly until a consensus is obtained.
21. What do you mean by the disadvantages of the Agile Model?
The disadvantages are:
 You will have trouble calculating the effort needed for a large project if
one is assigned.
 It's not always best to concentrate on documentation and design.
22. What is the right moment to use the agile model?
Lean software development, feature-driven development, dynamic development, and crystal
approaches are a few methodologies and innovations that can employ agile.
23. What do you mean by release candidate?
A code, version, or build—known as a release candidate—is released to guarantee that no
significant issues remain during the final development stage. This is used for testing and is the
same as the finished build.
24. Differentiate between agile testing methods and other testing methods?
The code is broken into smaller pieces in the main agile testing cases. Each code branch is
tested at one particular time. On that section of the code, the communication is ongoing.
25. What is Zero sprint in Agile?
The first sprint's pre-step is known as a zero sprint.
26. What does story point mean in the scrum?
A story point is the scrum term for the unit used to estimate the time needed to complete or
implement a backlog.
27. Why are user stories not estimated in working hours?
It is not required to estimate user stories in terms of man hours because doing so would indicate
a subpar product being supplied to the client. However, the budget and administrative costs are
given more consideration regarding working hours.
28. In which process a Scrum master recommends follow-up action items?

35
Interview questions

Establishing a follow-up of the work that needs to be done by the team members is the best way
to follow up on action items. Additionally, the scrum master will compile this data.
29. What are the most critical agile Matrices?
The most important agile matrices are listed below:
 Velocity
 Work category allocation
 Defect removal awareness
 The cumulative flow diagram
30. What are the essential qualities a good Agile tester should have?
A qualified Agile tester must possess the following qualities:
 Should swiftly comprehend the requirements
 Must be well-versed in the concepts and practices of Agile.
31. Mention the challenges involved in developing Agile Software?
The significant difficulties encountered when creating Agile Software include:
 more customer interaction and testing
 management is more affected than developers
 More preparation is needed.
32. When not to use Agile?
You can ditch Agile in the following circumstances:
 Your team does not understand Agile
 Your team is resisting Agile
 Expectations do not support agile
33. Explain what it means by product roadmap?
A product roadmap is a source of truth used by all parties to describe a product's long-term
goals, priorities, and progress.
34. What is the product burndown chart?
A project management chart called a burndown chart demonstrates how rapidly a team is
moving through a customer's user stories.
35. What is a sprint burndown chart?
This graph shows the number of completed and uncompleted sprints in the scrum cycle.
36. What is the Release burndown chart?
A release burndown chart summarizes the release progress by displaying the remaining
workload at the end of every sprint versus the ideal workload.
37. How is the velocity of the sprint measured?
Work is complete if capacity is expressed as a percentage of 40-hour workweeks: story points *
team capacity. If the capacity is expressed in terms of man-hours, then the team's capacity is
expressed in story points.
38. Are there any agile certifications?
The following list of agile certifications and scrum certifications:
 ACP (Agile Certified Practitioner)
 ASM (Agile Scrum Master)
 Safe Agilist
 CSM (Certified Scrum Master)
 PSM (Professional Scrum Master)
39. What are the major agile quality strategies?
These are the main strategies:
 Small feedback cycles
 Re-factoring
 Iterations
 Analysis of dynamic code
40. Define Product backlog and Sprint backlog.

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Interview questions

The project owner keeps a product backlog that includes every requirement and product
feature. A Sprint backlog is viewed as a subset of a product backlog that only includes needs
and features pertinent to one specific sprint.
41. What is Pair Programming, and what states its benefits?
Pair programming is a method where two programmers collaborate. The work of one coder is
reviewed by the other.
Benefits: Smooth knowledge transfer. The codes and tactics can be taught to another partner by
an experienced partner.
Code quality: The likelihood of errors occurring will decrease as the second partner
simultaneously reviews the code.
42. What is refactoring?
Refactoring is making changes to code without altering its functionality to increase
performance.
43. How can QA add value to an agile team?
By considering various scenarios differently, QA adds value to the story. It gives the developers
swift feedback on whether the new functionality is operating as intended.
44. What is the Application Binary Interface?
Application Binary Interface describes the low-level interface between an application and the
operating system or the interface to compile application applications.
45. What is a tracer bullet?
Tracer Bullet investigates how an end-to-end process functions and looks at its viability. With
the existing architecture or set of procedures, it is the spike.
46. What is the increment? Explain.
The sum of every product's backlog items during a sprint is known as the increment. Since they
are cumulative, each increment comprises the values from the previous sprint increment. As it is
a step toward achieving the aim, it should be configured to be in the available mode in its
upcoming release.
47. How to manage remote teams?
Utilizing remote project management solutions can enable you to manage your remote team
effectively while using outsourced resources. It assists you in managing people, tools, and
resources and gaining their support.
48. What is meant by the sprint retrospective meeting?
It is the meeting held following the sprint review meeting and takes place in the last stages of
the sprint. This conversation lasts for two to three hours and will involve the entire team.
49. Can we apply agile methodologies to other testing apart from development and software
testing?
Agile file testing approaches can be used in the biomedical, biophysical, and biochemical fields
and other areas where there is a lack of data and a small team is required to finish the project.
50. What does the term impediment mean?
An impediment prevents the team from working efficiently and hinders their ability to complete
tasks more effectively.
51. What do sprint planning meetings do?
A sprint planning meeting gathers the whole scrum team, including the product owner, scrum
master, and other team members. It is planned to discuss the items on the product backlog and
the key team characteristics.
52. Mention the places where the Scrum and Kanban methodologies are used?
Scrum is used when switching to the most visible and relevant methodology is
necessary. Kanban is deployed when there is a need to enhance an operating process with few
adjustments.
53. What are the essential qualities to have as a Scrum Master?

37
Interview questions

The main characteristics of a Scrum Master are sharing knowledge and comprehending the
goals and objectives.
54. What do you mean by planning poker or scrum poker technique?
The characteristics of planning poker include the following:
 The client must first read the agile user's story. The estimator then
comprehends the features.
 Each estimator has a distinct planning card with a unique set of numbers.
The different numbers represent the story points.
 This procedure is carried out continuously until an agreement is
obtained.
55. What is the right moment to use the agile model?
Certain approaches and projects can use agile, including lean software development, dynamic
development, and crystal methodologies.
56. How do agile testing methods differ from other testing methods?
The code is divided into smaller branches when using an agile testing methodology. Each
specific unit of code is tested at the same time. In that section of the code, communication is
continuing as well.
57. Is it possible to apply agile methodology to other testing apart from software testing and
development testing?
The file testing methodology can be used in the fields where there is a lack of data and a small
team is required to finish the project.
58. How to know that you are using agile development?
You are adopting agile development when you use a time-boxed task board, pair programming,
daily stand-up meetings, test-driven development, and other practices.
59. Describe the main roles in the scrum.
Scrum team: Responsible for organizing a group effort to finish a specific assignment.
Scrum Master: is in charge of putting the scrum team's final product on paper.
Product owner: In charge of outlining the entire idea for the product and communicating it to the
team.
60. What does build breaker mean?
Sometimes a software flaw is unintentionally introduced by the developer. This flaw could cause
warring or stop the compilation process. It is the root of failure when testing is carried out
normally. It is deemed that the build is broken in such circumstances.
61. What are the places where Scrum and Kanban are used?
Scrum is used when it's necessary to move toward a suitable and noticeable method. Kanban is
employed when process improvement is required, provided that there aren't many changes.
62. Can agile methodology also be applied other than software testing and development
projects?
In the fields of biophysics, biochemistry, and biomedicine, agile methodology can be used in a
range of situations, such as when there is a lack of data when a small team is required to
complete the project when the nature of the job is uncertain, and in several other situations.
63. What are the major Agile components?
The major Agile elements are:
 Pair programming, continuous deployment, test-driven development, etc.
 Collaboration cards and class responsibilities
 stand-up meetings daily
64. What is the process in which a master recommends following up on action items?
The best way to accomplish this is by creating a follow-up of the job the team members are
expected to complete.

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Interview questions

Jira Interview Questions for Freshers

1. What is Jira?
JIRA is a software tool that was developed by the software company, Atlassian. It is used
mainly for bug and issue tracking and project management. It is the perfect solution for
organizing tasks and managing agile teams.
2. Explain the workflow of JIRA.
JIRA Workflow is the series of stages or steps a bug/issue follows during its lifecycle from
creation to closing or completion.
The important phases in the workflow are:
 Created/Open
 Work in Progress (WIP)
 Completed/Closed
3. What is an issue in JIRA?
An issue can be:
 A Software bug
 The Project Task
 The Form for Leave-request
 A Help-desk Ticket
4. Why is JIRA used? /What are the benefits of using JIRA?
JIRA is used as a project tracking tool with benefits like:
 Ability to track project progress from time to time
 Use cases include project management, bug tracking, feature
implementation
 Easily customizable and extensible
 Platform-independent
 Upfront and fair licensing policy
5. Name some control programs with which JIRA integrates.
Such control programs are CVS, Subversion, Git, ClearCase, Mercurial, Visual SourceSafe, and
Perforce
6. Can you access JIRA cloud site via mobile device?
Yes, one can access JIRA cloud site via mobile device by using the URL of cloud site in the
mobile web browser.
7. What is the use of JIRA dashboard?
It is the first display we notice upon login to the Jira. The dashboard shows tools and
applications that help users to track progress of a project. It also includes important information
like user’s activity info, issues assigned, etc. Admin can change the view and items displayed on
the dashboard.
8. Name the agile methodologies supported by JIRA.
 Scrum – in this agile methodology, the development team works iteratively
to complete a project. Each stint or iteration has certain set scope and timeline.
Scrum is best suited for software development.
 Kanban – this method achieves just-in-time delivery by visualizing the
workflow and tasks currently in progress. Kanban is best suited for operation
teams.
9. What are the issue types in Scrum project?
In JIRA, an individual unit of work is referred to as issue. The types include:
 Story – single feature that needs to be implemented
 Epic – a big user story
 Bug – problem that needs to be fixed
 Task – generic task that is not a bug or story
10. Name some popular add-ons for Jira.

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Interview questions

 JIRA Toolkit Plugin

 JIRA Charting Plugin
 Portfolio for JIRA
 Suites utilities for JIRA
 Zephyr for JIRA – Test Management
 ScriptRunner for JIRA
Jira Interview Questions for Experienced
11. Name the report types generated in JIRA.
The JIRA reports that show statistics for projects, people, versions or other fields are of
following types:
 Time Tracking Report
 Average Age Report
 Pie Chart Report
 Single Level Group by Report
 Resolution Time Report
 Recently Created Issues Report
 Resolved vs. Created Issues Report
 User Workload Report
 Workload Pie Chart Report
12. What is cloning?
Cloning allows the user to create duplicate of original issue, such that multiple team members
can work on a single issue. The clone issue can be linked to original issue, and holds
information like:
 Summary
 Description
 Assignee
 Environment
 Priority
 Issue Type
 Security
 Reporter
 Components
13. What are not included in cloned issue?
 Time tracking
 Comments
 Issue History
14. How can you modify bulk issues?
We use the Bulk Change option from Tools menu and can then select all issues on current page
for bulk operations.
Details available after bulk operations:
 Workflow transition
 Delete
 Move
 Edit
15. What is the “Move Issue” wizard?
The move issue wizard enables users to specify another project in their JIRA instance. The
wizard allows changing some attributes of an issue like issue type, status and custom fields.
16. How can you share an issue with others?
We the use the Share option to email an issue in JIRA. A link to the issue can also be mailed to
other JIRA users or we can mention them in the issue’s Description or Comment field.
17. How can mail notifications for Bulk Operations be disabled?

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Interview questions

Deselect the “Send Notification” checkbox in bulk operation wizard.

18. What is included in issue change history?
 Changes to an issue field
 Attachment of a file
 Deletion of a comment
 Deletion of a work log
 Creation or removal of an issue link
19. Define schemas in JIRA.
Schemas are an important part of JIRA configuration. These are a collection of configured
values to be later used by one or more Jira project. There are 7 types of schemas including
Notification Schemes, Permission Scheme, Issue Type Scheme, etc.
20. What does JIRA schema consist of?
 Notifications
 Workflows
 Issue Types
 Permissions
 Screens
 Field Configurations
21. What is JQL?
JQL or JIRA Query Language is an advanced and flexible way of searching issues within JIRA.
It consists of a field, value, operator, and keyword.
22. Can you transition an issue back to its previous status in JIRA workflow?
It is not possible generally, but for emergency purposes, we can hold the “On Hold” feature for
transition.
23. What is an audit log?
Users can use audit logs to view all details about issues generated, plus changes made to any
issue.
24. Is it possible to get back up of JIRA cloud data?
The Backup Manager can be used to take backup of JIRA cloud data, but only one backup file
is stored at a time. new backups overwrite the existing ones.
25. What data can be backed up?
 Issues
 Attachments if selected
 Avatars
 Users and their group settings
26. What role do Validators play?
The validators in JIRA check the validity of an input made to the transition before the transition
is performed. If validator fails, the issue will not progress to destination status.
27. What is an event?
An event tells us the status, default template, notification scheme and workflow transition post
function associations for the event.
Subjective Jira Interview Questions
28. Explain labelling and linking issues in JIRA
 Labelling issue – enables the user to categorize the raised issue as
information, which is later assigned to a component. This issue is found using
labels.
 Linking issue – enables the user to link issue(s) that can be associated on
same or multiple JIRA servers.
29. What are the three color indicators for time tracking in JIRA?
For a particular issue, three colors are displayed representing the time spent behind the issue.

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Interview questions

 Blue (Original Estimate) – the amount of time originally estimated to

resolve an issue
 Orange (Remaining Estimate) – time left to resolve an issue
 Green (Time spent or logged) – actual time spent so far in resolving the
issue
30. How does a service desk work?
 The client expresses demand for service agents via entryway.
 It identifies demand in their JIRA service desk line and does further
assessment of the issue.
 The client can use the entry to discuss the demand with service desk
agent
 Finally, the expert completes the task and client demand is fulfilled.


How to improve sprint velocity?

You can improve sprint velocity by:

 🎓 Mastering backlog refinement. Refined backlogs contain plenty of detail. When
it’s time to start a new task, team members have all the information they need to
complete it. Backlog refinement often involves assigning story point estimates, which
set a guide for how much effort a task involve. Backlog refinement helps teams
maintain a high Sprint velocity and focus on execution because all the thinking and
planning have been done in advance.
 🤖 Automating parts of your work process. Learn how to automate tests, generate
code automatically, or use templates for specific product parts. This may take an
upfront investment of effort to set up, but it pays dividends in improved velocity.
 👨🏻‍💻Being aware of changes or shortcomings on the team. While you measure
velocity at the team level, the performance of individual members naturally influences
the number. Perhaps requirements have changed, and you’re missing a critical skill
on the team, or a former top performer is going through a rough period personally,
which is reflected in the team’s velocity. Keep this possibility in mind when you’re
looking for ways to optimize your velocity further.
 🔍 Looking at outside dependencies and technical issues. When you don’t find
room for improvements within the team, look at external factors that affect your
velocity. Perhaps the customer doesn’t provide feedback quickly, or another
department like finance has a complicated approval process for purchases the team
needs. Also, review potential technical obstacles, like an old testing server that gives
the team headaches and lowers velocity.
 🚀 Dedicating a Retrospective to optimizing velocity. Hold a Retrospective with the
team when you want to find additional optimization opportunities. Maarten has a list
of helpful questions you can ask during such a session, like “Was there a lot of
rework on issues?” or “Did the team actually make a plan on how to deliver the Sprint
Goal?”

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Interview questions

During a team’s initial Sprints, for example, velocity will almost certainly fluctuate heavily. You’re
still calibrating estimates, meetings take longer, and developers may be unfamiliar with the
codebase, so there’s less time for execution as people figure out how to collaborate effectively.

example of a velocity graph

(Graphic adapted from Maarten Dalmijn)

That’s why it’s critical to only start relying on and expecting a relatively stable velocity after three
to five Sprints. Optimizing velocity during this period would be ineffective and irrelevant. You
simply won’t have enough reliable data for the metric to be meaningful.

Maarten Dalmijn, Head of Product at Rodeo and Serious Scrum ambassador, recommends you
make everyone aware of this initial variability in advance. Managing expectations prevents
stakeholders from losing their belief in Scrum. It also protects the team’s motivation.

You also want to make sure you set the right objective for your optimization efforts. Aiming for
increased velocity makes sense if you’re focused on productivity gains. But a lower number
might be better when you want to improve the quality of work, like in the earlier example of
reducing bugs.

Common misunderstandings about velocity

The paradox of velocity was neatly illustrated in a survey we ran on Agile metrics. Survey
respondents ranked it as the second most popular metric, but it was also the metric most
commonly mentioned as unhelpful. 😯

graph of top agile metrics

(Source: The 10 Most Helpful Agile Metrics According to Experts)

Velocity can help or hurt your team, depending on how – and by whom – it’s deployed. Below,
we answer four questions about Sprint velocity to clarify common misunderstandings and
abuses.

Should outside stakeholders use sprint velocity for forecasting?

Sometimes, Product Owners (POs) use velocity to make forecasts to stakeholders about Sprint,
feature, or project completion. Say the total number of estimated story points for your project
adds up to 100, and your average Sprint velocity is 10. Then you could forecast that it will take
you 10 Sprints to deliver the project.

There are two issues with using velocity in this way:

😬 It’s highly uncertain, and you’ll need to add a large buffer to your estimate. A lot of things can
change during 10 Sprints that will affect velocity. Team members might leave, new items enter
the product backlog, estimations might turn out incorrect, and on and on.
🎯 It turns the number into an external goal instead of a tool for the team. Rarely will outside
stakeholders accept something as an estimate that’s subject to change. Once given, the
estimate often morphs into a hard deadline. That change turns velocity from a team-owned
metric into a fixed, externally set due date that can add considerable pressure to the team or
result in some form of punitive action if not met.
Note the difference between this way of using velocity versus the team’s use we discussed
earlier of setting a cap during Sprint Planning. Forecasting, as in this example, only serves

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external stakeholders, whereas using Velocity as a cap or the limit of what can be achieved,
helps the team plan their Sprints more accurately.

Should I track and compare team productivity with velocity?

Velocity is an unreliable metric for tracking team productivity. Using the number in that way also
conflicts with the fundamental agile principles of delivering customer value and trusting teams to
self-organize and get the job done.

Velocity makes for a lousy performance metric and turns into “measurement theater” for several
reasons:

⚖️Story points are relative units of measurement. Story Points are a “local currency” unique to
your team. One story point represents a different value for team A than it does for team B.
Making comparisons between teams doesn’t work.
👑 The team rules the number. Even when outsiders take control of velocity, the team holds
ultimate power over the number. They can, for example, inflate their estimates during Sprint
Planning, cut corners in their work, or only take on simple tasks they can quickly complete to
satisfy “velocity goals.”
Agile’s basic premise is that delivering customer value early and often matters most and that a
self-organizing team knows best how to do that. As long as the team hits their Sprint goals and
produces customer value continuously, how they do so is their business and should certainly
not depend on their velocity, a number that says little about value delivered, especially when
viewed in isolation of other Agile metrics.

Maarten sums it up aptly with the title of one of his articles: “Companies That Obsess Over
Velocity Are Clueless About Scrum.”

Should Sprint velocity always keep going up?

Whether Sprint velocity should always increase depends on whom you ask.

Scrum co-creator Jeff Sutherland is pretty clear on this point. In his book, Scrum: The Art of
Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time, he writes:

“Once you have your velocity, you can figure out the most important thing in Scrum: What is
keeping you from going faster? What is keeping you from accelerating?”

If that’s not explicit enough, his website states that:

“A well-functioning Scrum Team’s velocity should steadily trend upward by roughly 10% each
Sprint.”

But many agile practitioners, like Maarten Dalmijn, the experts we surveyed, and John Cutler,
who coined the term “feature factory,” don’t share this view. They argue that an obsession with
velocity can lead to lower quality work, product features with little customer value, or team
members burning out.

Common sense alone shows that higher velocity isn’t always the appropriate goal and that it
cannot keep increasing into infinity. Reducing velocity naturally serves any situation where
slowing down might increase quality, value delivered, or team happiness.

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Interview questions

So, to return to our question: Should Sprint velocity keep going up? We’d say, “often, but
certainly not always, and only for the right reasons.”

What’s the difference between velocity and capacity?

Velocity and capacity are both agile metrics, but they often get confused. Both are used to
measure and predict how much work a team can complete, but they do so differently.

Velocity looks at past performance to predict the right amount of work for the next Sprint. E.g.
Comparing story points completed over time.
Capacity focuses on resources. It takes the velocity number and adjusts it to estimate a team’s
available development resources in upcoming Sprints.
For example, You have a team of just two developers whose average velocity is 10 story points.
One of them will be on vacation for the entire next Sprint. In that case, you have 50% fewer
developers, so your capacity for the next Sprint would be 5 story points.

When to press eject on velocity

Velocity is an optional measurement to help Agile or Scrum teams team reach their Sprint
Goals. The team should own it, track it, and decide whether or not it’s helpful for their work.

Allie Dyer Bluemel at Shortcut provides a helpful gauge for metrics like velocity:

“If it’s painful to use them, if it’s a chore to fill them out, then change how you use them.”

When it comes to velocity, you and your team are the ones flying the plane. Nobody else is in
the cockpit, except perhaps a Scrum Master. Your attention is on the Sprint Goal. So you cross-
check the velocity meter when necessary. The PO at air traffic control keeps you updated on
your end destination.

In this metaphor, outside stakeholders are like the executives at airline HQ. They keep an eye
on fuel costs and passenger numbers. They’d never radio into your cockpit to inquire – or
lecture you – about your flight instruments. If your managers do, it might be time to press eject
on them, velocity, or both.

A Gantt chart
is a project management tool that illustrates work completed over a period of time in relation to
the time planned for the work. A Gantt chart can include the start and end dates of tasks,
milestones, dependencies between tasks, assignees, and more.

MPP:

Resume based scenario questions for APM

1. Facilitating Scrum Ceremonies for the Team and working very closely with
the Scrum Master.

Sprint Planning Meeting: In this meeting, the discussion takes place about features and product
backlog items (user stories) that are important to the team. This meeting is usually attended by

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the product owner, Scrum Master and Scrum Team. It is a weekly meeting and usually lasts for
about an hour.

Sprint Review Meeting: In this meeting, the Scrum team gives a demonstration of the product.
After this, the product owner determines which items completed and which are not completed.
He also adds some additional items to the product backlog on the basis of feedback from
customers or stakeholders. Its main aim is to inspect the product being created in the sprint and
modify it if required.

Sprint Retrospective Meeting:

This meeting takes place after the Sprint planning meeting. In this meeting, the Scrum team
meets again to inspect itself and discuss the past mistakes, potential issues and methods to
resolve them. Main aim of this meeting is to improve the development process. This meeting
lasts for about 2-3 hours.

Daily scrum

A daily stand-up meeting is a day-to-day meeting among all the members of the agile team. Its
main purpose is to know the current progress and performance of every team member that
works on Scrum tasks. The meetings take place mostly in the morning and usually involves
product owners, developers, and the scrum master.

These meetings usually take place for the following reasons:

 To know what was done yesterday and what is the plan for today.
 To provide a better understanding of goals.
 To make sure that every team member is working toward the same goal.
 To bring problems of team members into focus so that problems can be
addressed quickly.
 To bring everyone up to date on the information and help the team to stay
organized.
Product backlog refinement

1. also known as product backlog grooming, is a meeting that takes place

towards the completion of a sprint. The reason for the meeting is to review the
backlog and keep it clean and orderly so that it’s ready for the next sprint.
2. The scrum team and product owner participate in the product backlog
refinement meeting. As they look over the top items on the backlog, the team will
ask the type of questions that usually arise in sprint planning meetings.
3. Some of the queries include: what should we do if the user’s data is
wrong, are all users accessing this part of the system and other what-if
scenarios. These questions allow the product owner to answer them and help the
team understand what they need to do.
4. The purpose of the product backlog refinement is not to fully resolve
issues but more of a chance for the scrum team and product owner to make sure
the backlog is accurate. Therefore, the whole team usually doesn’t participate.

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Coordinating between the team and other stakeholders Product Owner\Business

Executive\Client).

2. Facilitating Sprint\Iteration\Program Increment Planning and come up with Sprint\Iteration

Backlog.

Sprint Backlog: It is generally owned by the development team. It only contains those
features and requirements that are related to the specific sprint only. It is considered a
subset of the product backlog. It is compiled of everything that must be done to
complete a particular sprint. It only includes items that can be completed during each
agile sprint. It is specific to the sprint goal only in a particular sprint.

Product Backlog:

It is generally owned and maintained by the project owner. It usually contains each and every
feature of the product as well as the requirements of the product. It is compiled to everything
that must be done to complete the whole process. It just breaks down every item into a series of
steps. It is more specific to the end goal of the product

Iteration Backlog

means a plan setting out the parameters of that Iteration and which should include the specific
Outcomes to be delivered and Definition of Done to be achieved during the Iteration

What is Iteration?

In agile software development, an iteratioSn is a set amount of time reserved for development.
Typical iterations last 1-2 weeks, however, some may go as long as 4 weeks. Most agile
development teams agree on the length of their iterations and proceed to operate on an
iteration-by-iteration basis

Program Increment Planning : Program Increment (PI) Planning is the heartbeat of the Agile
Release Train(ART). Planning is a cadence-based event for the entire ART that aligns teams
and stakeholders to a shared mission and vision.

The PI Planning event is two days of focused planning with all the teams, stakeholders, and
product owners/managers in one place to review the program backlog and determine the
direction of the business. This event typically happens every eight to 12 weeks and can be a
significant challenge for large teams that are spread out across the country or even the world.
The Agile Manifesto states, “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to
and within a development team is a face-to-face conversation.” SAFe takes this to the next level
with PI planning.

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Interview questions

Business Benefits of PI Planning

PI planning delivers many business benefits, including:
 Establishing face-to-face communication among all team members and
stakeholders
 Building the social network the ART depends upon
 Aligning development to business goals with the business context, vision, and
Team and ART PI objectives
 Identifying dependencies and fostering cross-team and cross-ART collaboration
 Providing the opportunity for just the right amount of architecture and Lean User
Experience (UX) guidance
 Matching demand to capacity and eliminating excess Work in Process (WIP)
 Fast decision-making

Inputs to PI planning include:

 Business context (see ‘content readiness’ below)

 Roadmap and vision
 Highest priority Features of the ART Backlog
A successful PI planning event delivers two primary outputs:
 Committed PI objectives – Each team creates a set of SMART objectives with
the business value assigned by the Business Owners.
 ART planning board – Highlighting the new feature delivery dates, feature
dependencies among teams, and relevant milestones

PI preparation :

PI planning is a significant event that requires preparation, coordination, and communication. It

is facilitated by the RTE and event attendees, including Business Owners, Product
Management, Agile Teams, System and Solution Architects, the System Team, and other
stakeholders.

Organizational Readiness Before PI planning, there must be strategy alignment among

participants, stakeholders, and Business Owners. Critical roles are assigned. To address this in
advance, however, event organizers must consider the following:
 Planning scope and context – Is the planning process’s scope (product, system,
technology domain) understood? Do we know which teams need to plan together?
 Business alignment – Is there reasonable agreement on priorities among the
Business Owners?
 Agile teams – Do we have Agile teams? Are there dedicated team members and
an identified Scrum Master/Team Coach and Product Owner for each team?
Content Readiness It’s equally important to have a clear vision and context so that the right
stakeholders can participate. Therefore, the PI planning must include the following:
 Executive briefing – A briefing that defines the current business context
 Product vision briefing(s) – Briefings prepared by Product Management, including
the top 10 features in the
 ART Backlog Architecture vision briefing – A presentation made by the
CTO, Enterprise Architect, or System Architect to communicate new Enablers,
features, and Nonfunctional Requirements (NFRs)

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Interview questions

Logistics Readiness Preparing an event to support a large number of attendees isn’t trivial. This
prep can include securing and preparing the space for physically collocated planning. For
remote attendees or a fully distributed PI Planning, this also includes investment in the
necessary technical infrastructure. Considerations include:
 Locations – Each location where planning takes place needs preparation in
advance.
 Technology and tooling – Real-time access to information and tooling to support
distributed planning or remote attendees
 Communication channels – Primary and secondary audio, video, and
presentation channels must be available

Day 1 Agenda - BPAPTDM

 Business context – A Business Owner or senior executive describes the

current state of the business, shares the Portfolio Vision, and presents a

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Interview questions

perspective on how effectively existing solutions address current customer

needs.
 Product/solution vision – Product Management presents the current vision
(typically represented by the top ten or so upcoming features). They highlight
changes from the previous PI planning event and any relevant milestones.
 Architecture vision and development practices – The System Architect
presents the architecture vision. Also, a senior development manager may
introduce Agile-supportive changes to development practices, such as test
automation, DevOps, Continuous Integration, and Continuous Deployment,
which the teams will adopt in the upcoming PI.
 Planning context and lunch – The RTE presents the planning process and
expected outcomes.
 Team breakouts #1 – In the breakout, teams estimate their capacity for
each Iteration and identify the backlog items they will likely need to realize the
features. Each team creates draft plans, visible to all, iteration by iteration.

 Draft plan review – During the tightly timeboxed draft plan review, teams
present key planning outputs, which include capacity and load, draft PI
objectives, potential risks, and dependencies. Business Owners, Product
Management, and other teams and stakeholders review and provide input.
 Management review and problem-solving – Draft plans likely present
challenges like scope, people and resource constraints, and dependencies.
During the problem-solving meeting, management may negotiate scope changes
and resolve other problems by agreeing to various planning adjustments. The
RTE facilitates and keeps the primary stakeholders together for as long as
necessary to make the decisions needed to reach achievable objectives.\

 Draft plan review – During the tightly timeboxed draft plan review, teams
present key planning outputs, which include capacity and load, draft PI
objectives, potential risks, and dependencies. Business Owners, Product
Management, and other teams and stakeholders review and provide input.

 Management review and problem-solving – Draft plans likely present

challenges like scope, people and resource constraints, and dependencies.
During the problem-solving meeting, management may negotiate scope changes
and resolve other problems by agreeing to various planning adjustments. The
RTE facilitates and keeps the primary stakeholders together for as long as
necessary to make the decisions needed to reach achievable objectives.

Day 2 Agenda

 Planning adjustments – The next day, the event begins with management
presenting changes to the planning scope, people, and resources.
 Team breakouts #2 – Teams continue planning and making the appropriate
adjustments. They finalize their objectives for the PI, to which the Business Owners
assign business value, as shown in Figure 4. Figure 4. A team’s PI objectives sheet
with assigned business value
 Final plan review and lunch – All teams present their plans to the group during
this session. At the end of each team’s time slot, the team states its risks and

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Interview questions

impediments and provides the risks to the RTE for use later in the ROAMing
exercise. The team then asks the Business Owners if the plan is acceptable. If the
plan is accepted, the team brings their team PI objective sheet to the front of the
room so everyone can see the aggregate objectives unfold in real-time. If the
Business Owners have concerns, teams can adjust the plan to address the identified
issues. The team then presents its revised plan.

 ART PI Risks – During planning, teams have identified risks and impediments
that could impact their ability to meet their objectives. These are resolved in a
broader management context before the whole train. One by one, the risks are
discussed and addressed with honesty and transparency and then grouped into one
of the following categories:

1. Resolved – The teams agree that the risk is no longer a concern

2. Owned – Someone on the train owns the risk since it cannot be

addressed during PI planning
3. Accepted – Some items are simply facts or potential problems that
must be understood and accepted
4. Mitigated – Teams identify a plan to reduce the impact of the risk

 Confidence vote – Once ART PI Risks have been addressed, teams vote on their
confidence in meeting their team PI objectives Each team conducts a vote using their
fingers (fist of five) or a digital tool for remote events. If the average is three fingers
or above, then management should accept the commitment. If it’s less than three,
the team reworks its plan. Anyone voting two fingers or fewer should be allowed to
voice their concerns. These concerns might add to the risk list, require replanning, or
provide information. Once each team has voted, it’s repeated for the entire ART, with
everyone expressing their confidence in the collective plan, as illustrated in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Confidence vote for an ART
 Plan rework – If necessary, teams adjust their objectives until they have high
confidence. This additional planning is one occasion where alignment and
commitment are valued more highly than adhering to a timebox.
 Planning retrospective and moving forward – Finally, the RTE leads a brief
retrospective for the PI planning event to capture what went well, what didn’t, and
what to do better next time, as shown in Figure 6.

PI Outputs

Committed PI Objectives
 SMART objectives that are created by each team

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 Program Managers will use these to update the Program Board

Program Board
 Accepted Features
 New Feature Delivery Dates
 Feature dependencies (between teams and other ARTs)
 Milestones

Remote Challenges of PI Planning

Remote Teams need to be engaged and accountable

The Agile Manifesto states, “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to
and within a development team is a face-to-face conversation.”
The challenge of keeping the remote team members engaged and focused on the planning
tasks can be tough. There are a number of video conferencing services on the market that allow
teams to video conference individual members but to also have cameras focused on local
teams. This makes it possible for everyone to see and interact with each other in the same way
as if they were all sitting together in a meeting room. Applications such as Zoom offer team
video conferencing but also breakout sessions for PI planning. Remote members should be
required to keep their cameras on so that everyone can see each other. They should also plan
to be in a quiet place so that there are no distractions and they can focus and participate in the
planning sessions.

Agile Values and Principle:

The 4 Agile Values

1. Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools: It focuses on giving

more attention and importance to communication with clients.
2. Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation: It focuses on the
completion of the project and making sure that the project is completing the final
deliverables.
3. Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation: It focuses on involving
customers in all phases of the project so that the final product doesn’t lack any
requirement that the client needs. It is done to ensure 100% customer satisfaction.
4. Responding to Change over Following a Plan: It focuses on changes and
motivates the team to adopt the change quickly so that higher quality products can
be delivered. Therefore, agile works in short sprints so that changes can be utilized
for good.

The 12 Agile Principles

1. Customer Satisfaction: First priority is to fulfill customer demands to ensure

100% customer satisfaction.
2. Welcome Change: Changes are important for improvement therefore even late
in the development process, changes can be introduced and addressed throughout
the development period.
3. Deliver Frequently: Products have to be delivered as soon as possible therefore
focus on a shorter timescale.

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Interview questions

4. Work Together: Both business stakeholders and team members work together
through the development process for better collaboration.
5. Motivated Team: For delivering high-quality products, team members are
motivated and encouraged. Team members are given the environment and support
they need to perform effectively.
6. Face-to-Face: Agile emphasizes Face-to-face communication which is the most
effective and efficient way of conveying information. It helps the team to
communicate simple and complex information in an effective way.
7. Working Software: Delivering working software to the customer is the major
concern of Agile. Working software or product is the primary measure of progress
towards the final product.
8. Constant Pace: Agile promotes sustainable development. All teams, sponsors,
developers, and users that are involved in the agile process should maintain a
constant speed to deliver working software in a short timescale.
9. Good Design: Focuses on good design and technical details to improve quality
and agility (quick and graceful).
10. Simplicity: Team focuses on tasks and features that are essential and reduces
the amount of work and time spent on complex features and tasks that are not
essential. It is done to keep things simple.
11. Self-Organization: Agile team should be cross-functional and self-organized. It
should not depend on the manager to assign work, instead should find their own
work and manage the responsibilities and timelines. Such teams not only help to
deliver good quality software but also provide the best designs, requirements, and
architectures.
12. Reflect and Adjust: To improve the effectiveness of a team, the team reflects on
how to become more effective and assess their working style at regular intervals.
This is done so that one can learn from their mistakes and take some steps to
improve their performance in the next iteration

RISKS

Risk can be defined as a predicament or situation exposed to any small or big danger. However,
as long as we know how to presume and manage risk, we can overcome the snags to move
forward and complete the project without delays. Here are some of the risks involved in Agile
software development and how they can be resolved:
1. Budget Risk: When any project is planned, an estimated budget is discussed for
it. One of the foremost risks in the Agile software development process is going over
budget. It is not always possible to presume variations in customers’ needs or even
changes in the market. Hence, going over budget is a very common and potential
risk.

Solution: The best way to ensure that the project sticks to the budget is to avoid
overquoting or underquoting. A reserve should also be maintained to avoid running
out of money in case of necessary changes costing more than planned. Above all
this, there should be a plan in place stating solutions in case the budget issue
occurs.
2. Scope Creep: Scope creep happens when the scope of the project starts to
expand. Along the way, the customers might want to add features that were not
already discussed at the planning stage. When this happens, it is called scope creep

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Interview questions

leading to project going over budget and deadline being pushed.

Solution: Not only is it essential to plan the scope of the project in advance, it is also
necessary to ensure that the plan is being followed. The progress of the project
should be constantly checked by the manager to avoid the risk of scope creep. While
discussing the plan, it should be ensured that the stakeholders agree and sign on the
planned scope. Besides this, the software development team should also implement
a change control process after discussing it with the customer.
3. Not sticking to Agile: Agile methodology focuses on collaboration and flexibility.
This means that the self-organizing cross-functional teams, through iterative testing,
are quick to anticipate changes in customer needs corresponding to the dynamic
market and come up with pragmatic solutions along the course. However, if the Agile
process is not followed carefully, the issues won’t be eliminated on time. As a result,
the overall cost will be more when the changes have to be made after the
development process is over. The product quality will also suffer considerably.

Solution: Here, communication is key! Following Agile methodology properly is

important for the software development process to be successful. The stakeholders
must understand the importance of applying Agile principles to the process and how
the results can be heavily impacted if not followed through and through. It should be
carefully communicated and applied.
4. Time Delays: Sticking to deadlines for software release and reducing the time-to-
market of the product is the main goal of the whole process. Several factors like
improper planning, mismanagement, lack of talent, continuous change in customer
needs and variations in market dynamics besides budget issues can lead to delay in
the completion of work.

Solution: The best way to avoid time delays is to keep room for delay while planning
the timeline. You have to factor in reasons like emergencies, holidays, time taken for
testing and QA and complexities in the project and time taken to incorporate changes
after each round of testing. Even after all this, there should still be some extra time
that can allow further improvement.
5. Miscommunication of goals: Agile software development methodology
succeeds because it ensures continuous communication among team members to
achieve each solution or goal. If even one member has misunderstood or
miscommunicated a step of the product lifecycle or ongoing operation, it can
collectively affect the outcome.
Solution: To avoid this kind of risk, the best solution is to apply Squad-based agile
software development. This essentially means that an Agile team that is well
equipped and aware of each member’s talent can work with each other closely to
deliver the highest quality product. An Agile squad comes with several benefits that
include each team members being aware of each other’s capacity and knowledge,
easier communication due to same work location, increased development speed
because of continuous discussions, reduced risk due to low chances of
miscommunication and autonomy allowing them to choose the path they want to
reach the goal.

Challenges faced by AGILE Manager

Challenges in Agile Project Management

1. Insufficient Planning

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Interview questions

Before approving a project, many company leaders need a comprehensive strategy, including
its benefits and an anticipated final cost. Many leaders believe that knowing how much a
project will cost until after it is completed, or simply completing the next item that has to be
done without a strategy, is insufficient.
Leaders must acquire a more agile attitude and comprehend that plans are still necessary for
agile projects; they are simply executed differently. It is permissible to plan in the form of
requirements scoping, design work, project architecture, and time and cost estimates for sprints
and milestones. Planning may be a part of agile if it's done in the context of sprint planning and
ongoing adaptation.
2. Changing Requirements
Changes can occasionally be made to a product's specs or requirements. Most of the time,
these modifications are handled, but if they come up near the end of a sprint, they are
postponed until the next sprint and constitute a burden on the developers and testers. The
testing team should take risk analysis into account and start by testing the most crucial
features. Regression testing can be used to see if other code sections are impacted and may
be automated.
3. Lack of Management Support
Poor managerial support is still one of the primary reasons why Agile does not succeed in
every situation. To transition to agile, all executives, middle managers, and senior managers
must know that project management methodologies will change in certain ways. They need to
be aware of the advantages of the impending Agile transformation and the specifics of how it
will impact the operational facets of the company. They must completely comprehend what is
required of them to assist the Agile adoption effectively.
4. Continuous Testing
Testing is a continuous process that begins before the development phase rather than being
limited to a single stage. Because testers are expected to begin developing tests for features
either before development or in the middle of it, this poses a significant difficulty. Together,
testers, developers, and product owners should determine each story's specifics before
creating effective acceptance criteria.
Before beginning development, the team should ensure that each narrative has enough
acceptance criteria and that everyone understands the story's context. As a result, it is easy to
develop tests as soon as the feature's code is complete and implement them.
5. Lack of Team Ownership
A major barrier to the advancement of Agile transformations and scaling is still certain teams'
resistance to implementing agile techniques. Agile combats this internal culture by encouraging
team members to fully own their work and give up relying on what other people tell them to do.
To accomplish this effectively, the project manager must promote increased team member
participation and communication. Promote involvement and upward movement.
Increasing team members' ownership over the process would allow them to independently
evaluate and develop solutions to problems rather than waiting for permission after approval.
6. Conventional HR Practises
HR departments should use agile techniques when hiring, reviewing, and promoting staff
members. Agile is a useful method of working since it encourages the participation of the right
individuals in projects rather than relying on pre-existing roles or job descriptions. People will
volunteer because they feel competent and knowledgeable in the project's field and have
established working relationships with others who share their enthusiasm.
These people are helpful to the project because they are motivated more by an intriguing task
or challenge, working with a particular group or leader, than by receiving pay or other material
advantages. Agile businesses should revise their incentive and performance plans to
accommodate team-based learning.
7. Frequent Regression Cycles

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Interview questions

Developers regularly and continually add functionality to the product. Previous features may
have regressions as a result. Testers use regression testing to pinpoint and fix this issue;
however, manual regression testing is unfeasible in a quick-paced agile setting.
Modern online apps act differently when accessed on various devices or browsers, which
presents another difficulty. As a result, a complicated matrix of compatibility test examples must
be checked to ensure the program works properly for all users.
8. Inconsistent Practises Across Team Members
Customer satisfaction is a guiding principle of the Agile methodology. Agile frameworks like
Kanban recommend building a range of services within the firm to accomplish this goal. All
departments, teams, and people may self-organize around the task, cooperate, and change
how they conduct business while being motivated by quality improvement thanks to this
network of services.
Enhance the work processes, the product, and the service to offer more value. People must
adhere to the same rules and use the same concepts for this network of services to function.
Agile teams that consistently communicate and work together are essential. This comprises
cross-functional Agile positions or teams assisting with completing a project.
9. Finance Clashes
Not every phase in an agile strategy is detailed and planned. This is a significant shift for many
finance departments, which frequently have a more conventional and conservative approach.
One of the major obstacles to becoming agile in a business is finance and financing.
Organizations require exposure to address this issue and restructure the finance and other
departments to improve communication and awareness. It might be useful to explain why even
traditionally costed projects typically go late and over budget to get finance on board with the
business and operational teams.
10. Performance Variations
The applications we use now are far more powerful and complicated. During the development
phase, developers must write a lot of code. This occasionally has an impact on how well the
product performs. This typically occurs when developers create a product without considering
the end-user's needs and strictly adhering to the specifications. Utilizing load testing tools can
aid in locating and resolving performance problems. Finding performance bottlenecks can also
be aided by automated techniques.

Difference between Scrum Board and Kanban Board?

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Interview questions

Defect Triage
Overview
The word “Triage” is basically used in the medical field. Actually, it used to decide the order in
which the patients should be treated. Usually, in big hospitals, where there are thousands of
patient’s approaches for consultation or actual treatment on a daily basis. But not all the patients
are admitted or treated immediately.
The severity of the illness or the injury is the main criteria for consultation and based on this all
the patients are categorized accordingly. If the injury or health of any patient is very critical then
the doctors usually treat such patients as a priority and get admitted if required.
Normal diseases or non-critical injuries are considered at a lower priority and such patients are
treated later.
Similarly, the term Triage is introduced in software testing for defects in the application or a
project. Usually, the Defect Triage process is implemented in large projects and in many cases,

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Interview questions

it is not applicable for small-scale projects. There are chances to identify a huge number of
defects in bigger projects than medium or small projects.
Also in bigger projects, the frequency of defect identification is quite higher.
Take a look at the below image which shows the outcome of Defect triage meeting and
gives answers to specific questions like:

Defect Triage Meeting

The main objective of a triage meeting is to track all the defects and ensure the correct
resolution in a timely manner.
During the test execution phase, the testers start reporting defects in the Defect Management
tool like HP ALM, QC etc. Then Defect Triage Meeting is held in which the developers and
testers are required to be present as these people will discuss all the defects and take the
necessary further course of action.
Mainly the presence of the below participants is required mandatorily:
 Project Manager
 Test Lead
 Development Lead or Developer
 Tester
 Test Manager
 Business Analyst
 Environment Manager
Although I have given an exhaustive list of all the participants in the meeting, it is not necessary
to involve all of them like Business Analyst, Environment Manager, Test Manager, etc in the
daily meeting. Whenever necessary the Test Lead or Project Manager invite them and they can
share their valuable feedback and opinion regarding a specific defect.
And the entire team is known as a Triage Team. Now, I’m going to explain the exact process of
triage meeting and how this meeting is set-up.
Consider one hypothetical Example: We have one project related to the Banking application,
size is very large and the frequency of identifying and reporting the defect is high. Hence the
Test Lead decides to set-up a Defect Triage Meeting with the required participants.
For setting up a meeting the Test Lead sends a meeting invite via email to everyone and sets a
particular timing for Triage Meeting. The below given hypothetical image shows the meeting
invite sent by a Test Lead via outlook to all the participants.
Here everything is imaginary in the below image like – the participant names, meeting
room, conference call details, date, time etc.
(Note: Click on any image for an enlarged view)

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Interview questions

Every day before the start of the triage meeting, the Test Lead sends a list of all the “Open”
defects is a spreadsheet format to all the participants so that they can go through all the defects
before the meeting and understand what exactly the defect is and what kind of fix is required for
it.
Before the start of every triage meeting, ensure that each defect:
 Has enough information to understand the defect for all the participants in
the meeting.
 Has reported under correct project and category.
 Has mentioned the priority and severity of the defects.
 All the detailed information provided in the defect to understand it
correctly to all the participants.
Recommended Read => A Complete Guide to Defect Management Process
Defect Triage Template
Before the kickstart of every Defect Triage Meeting, the Test Lead shares the defect report to all
the participants in a specific format and the report pulled out from the Defect Management Tool
like HP ALM, HP QC etc. I am showing one sample format in the below image which will give a
high-level idea of which fields are mentioned in the Defect Report Template.

Usually, the fields included in the defect report are:

 Defect ID
 Description
 Priority
 Severity
 Detected Date
 Detected By
 Status
The list is not exhaustive but as per the project need, the other fields in the defect report
template can be included.
Usually, the spreadsheet format is used as a template for defect reporting, hence I have given
the hypothetical defect details in the spreadsheet format. Please note that all the information
provided in the above defect report is only imaginary and not related to any project or
actual application.
Defect Triage Process

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Interview questions

A commonly heard and experienced situation in test teams is limited availability of resources.
Defect triage is a process which tries to do some re-balancing as a result of this phenomenon.
So when there are many defects and limited Developers/testers to fix/verify them, defect triage
helps to get as many defects resolved as possible by balancing the technical personnel based
on defect parameters like priority and severity.
Typically, a defect triage session is attended by the Product Manager, a development lead, a
test lead and sometimes business analysts. In some cases, certain other members may also be
invited to give their opinions and perspectives regarding certain defects. These are collectively
called a triage team.

Most systems use priority as the main criteria to assess the defect, however, a good triage
process considers the severity as well.
Let’s take a closer look at the triage process with two examples that we’ve talked about in the
previous section. In both the examples above, it would actually be the first defect that would be
given a very high priority. Despite it being only a cosmetic defect, the impact of not fixing would
be huge.
The second one, on the other hand, is a surely functionality defect, however, its occurrence is in
only certain conditions which are seldom practiced customer scenarios. Fixing it may need more
time and people, which could be better utilized for other defects. Hence it would deem lower
priority than that of the first and maybe deferral candidate to another release.
Thus the triage process involves triage team sitting down together, reviewing all the defects
including rejected defects. They draw an initial assessment of the defects based on its content,
their respective priority, and severity settings; with each person in the triage team presenting
their perspective on how to prioritize the defects.
The product manager then sets the priority based on all the inputs and assigns the defect to the
correct release I.e. in the current release or any future release. He also redirects the defect to
the correct owner/team for further action. Rejected defects also are put through a similar
analysis. Based on the reason for rejection, the futuristic action of whether it needs to be
deferred or canceled is determined.
In the triage meeting, each and every defect should be discussed including the defects which
are categorized as a lower priority one. The triage team review evaluates all the defects and
takes necessary action on each defect. If a defect is running short of information then the
developer assigns back such defects to the testers and requests for necessary information.
The triage meeting can be held in the meeting room if all the participants are at the same
location. But in many organizations, the work is carried out from a different location and all the
teams are spread across various locations so that the meeting is also held using teleconference
or business Skype.

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Interview questions

[image source]
Step by step process of the defect triage meeting:
 Test Lead kicks off the meeting with the defect report which was sent
earlier on the day.
 The discussion starts with the actions pending from the previous triage
meeting. The necessary updates or action that was taken on any defect is
discussed initially.
 If there are new defects in the defect report then these defects are
reviewed and evaluated. It also verifies if the priority and severity are
assigned properly, if not, then these are corrected in the meeting.
 All the defects are discussed in the meeting and the development team
also discusses the complexity of fixing the defect. The risk associated with
the defect is also discussed by the triage team.
 Triage team comes to a conclusion on, which defect should require
immediate attention & fix and which defect needs to wait for some time and if
required those defects can be postponed to future releases.
 All the defects are assigned to the respective team in QC or ALM
simultaneously during the meeting. Appropriate comments are also added in
the QC/ALM.
 All the essential updates and action items are noted down and the Test
Lead calls out for the end of the meeting.
 After triage meeting completion, Test Lead sends out minutes of meeting
to all the participants.
Roles and Responsibilities
Roles and responsibilities based on each category are explained below:
Test Lead
 Test Lead schedules a defect triage meeting and sends out a formal
meeting invite to the required team.

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Interview questions

 Sends the defect report before every triage meeting.

 Kicks off the meeting with the pending action items from the previous
triage meeting.
 Discuss each defect and impact on the schedule if any functionalities are
blocked due to the defect.
 Helps in assigning priority and severity of each defect if it was not
assigned correctly earlier.
 Update the QC/ALM with appropriate comments.
 Note down all the updates, action items, risk related to a defect, etc.
 Sends minutes of meeting to all the participants.
Development Lead/Developer
 Share updates on the action items pending from the last triage meeting.
 Discuss all the defects from a technical perspective.
 Identify how much time it will require for fixing based on the complexity of
the defect and functionality.
 Discuss the complexity of the defect and risk associated with the defect if
any.
 Development Lead assigns defect to the appropriate developer after
validating all the available detailed information.
 Updates the defect with the expected resolution date.
 Assists in identifying the root cause of the defect.
Project Manager
 Ensure that if all the representative from every area is available for the
meeting.
 If necessary, project manager invites Business Analyst in the meeting for
their opinion on a specific defect.
 If the defects are not moving or if there is any major blocker then
escalates with the escalation process.
 If required, acts as a mediator if any dispute or conflict happens between
the teams and takes the necessary decision.
 Take the confirmation from the development team for the next release
date for fixed defects.
 Make aware of the updated schedule and release date of the project to all
the teams.
At times, it is also a good idea to involve the other team members in the triage call so that they
can also understand and contribute to the meeting and if required they can also provide their
feedback.
Reports for agile

The following are all the reports which we provide to stake holders

Burn-up Chart:

It is a type of chart that is used to display or represent the amount of work that has been
completed and the total amount of work for a sprint or iteration.

Burn-down Chart:

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Interview questions

It is a type of chart that is used to display or represent the amount of work that is remaining to
be completed in the project. These charts are very simple and easy to understand.

Different types of Burn-Down charts are listed below:

 Product Burndown Chart: It is a type of chart that is used to show story points
of each completed sprint so that it depicts the completion of requirements over time.
It mainly shows how many of the product goals are being achieved by the team and
how much work is remaining.
 Sprint Burndown Chart: It is a type of chart that is used to show the remaining
works for the scrum team of a particular sprint. It makes the work of the team visible
and shows the rate at which work is completed and how much is remaining to be
completed.
 Release Burndown Chart: It is a type of chart that is used to show how a team
is progressing against the work for a release. This chart is updated by the scrum
team at the end of each sprint. It is very essential to see what process is being made
during each sprint.
 Defect Burndown Chart: It is a type of chart that is used to show the total
number of defects that are being identified and fixed or removed.

Velocity in Agile?

A velocity is basically a measurement unit that measures or calculates how much work an agile
development team can successfully complete in a single sprint and how much time will be
required to finish a project. It is widely used as a calibration tool that helps development teams
to create accurate and efficient timelines. It is also used to identify problems and measure the
improvements that occur with time.

Earned Value

Now this is one of the Agile reporting techniques I am just a little hesitant to recommend.

Let me explain.

If you don’t know Earned Value reporting, it’s basically about measuring whether the amount
of money spent through so far in your project justifies the amount of work completed at this
point in time.

There are a few variables here:

1. Budget – the estimated cost of your project. This is usually decided at the
beginning of the project, and reviewed infrequently or not at all.
2. Actual cost (AC) – the proportion of the original budget your team have spent so
far.
3. Planned Value (PV) – the proportion of your project scope that was expected to
have been delivered by this time.
4. Earned Value (EV) – the ‘real’ value of the scope that has actually been
delivered so far.
Name the types of reports generated in JIRA

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Interview questions

JIRA offer reports that show statistics for projects, versions, people or other fields within issues.
Various reports included with JIRA are

 Average Age Report

 Pie Chart Report
 Resolution Time Report
 Recently Created Issues Report
 Resolved vs. Created Issues Report
 Single Level Group by Report
 Time Tracking Report
 User Workload Report
 Workload Pie Chart Report, etc.

Xray – test management tool used

Reports created in XRAY
Traceability matrix

Jira software

Why use JIRA software?

The reason behind using JIRA is

 Upfront and fair licensing policy

 Features that is not available elsewhere
 Get the latest update on the progress of projects
 It runs anywhere and recognized with many famous companies
 Easily extensible and customizable

Explain labeling and linking issue in JIRA

 Labeling Issue: It enables you to categorize an issue in a more informal way

than assigning it to a component or version. You can then search issues according to
the label.
 Linking Issue: This feature enables you to link an association between two
issues on either on the same or different JIRA servers.

State the difference between Bugzilla and JIRA?

Bugzilla JIRA
It is an Open Source It is a commercial tool
Using Bugzilla might be little complicated
For some using JIRA would be more convenient
for few due to grouping users and granting
than Bugzilla
permissions
Bugzilla allows you to show/hide the whole
JIRA enables conditional configuration based only
custom field or specific values based on
on Type fields and Project.
the value of some other field

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Interview questions

JIRA lacks advance-level search options. JIRA has

Bugzilla’s has a powerful advanced search
a flexible JQL language (JIRA Query Language). It
option
enables you to build arbitrary boolean expressions.
Unlike Bugzilla, JIRA enables you to define multiple
Unlike JIRA, Bugzilla allows users to select
workflows which are applied based on the issue’s
the initial status of a new issue.
Project and Type.
JIRA has configurable link types with user-defined
Bugzilla has only one link type:
semantics. JIRA enables to link an issue to any
Blocks/depends and a Bug ID custom field
other entity outside JIRA.

For an Agile project, how user stories in JIRA are created?

For an Agile project to create user stories in JIRA, follow below steps.

 Issue type – Jira Epic and Issue type – Story linked to it. In order to do so, in the
‘Create Issue’ page, go to “Configure Fields” and select “Epic link” field to be
included in the issue creation screen.
 Or you can have a product backlog by creating a main User story and having
various sub-tasks under it.

Confluence

1. What do you know about the Confluence tool?

Ans: Confluence is a fully web-based corporate technology developed by a company called

Atlassian Software Company. Confluence can be developed with the help of the JAVA
programming language. Confluence tool is mainly used by a team to share the knowledge
related to product effectively and also help to collaborate with other teams. The main purposes
of using confluences included are capturing project requirements, assign tasks to any specific
users, and also helps the team to manage calendars.

2. Mention the differences between Confluence and JIRA?

Ans: The below table explains the main differences between Confluence and JIRA:

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Interview questions

3. What are the advantages of using the Confluence tool?

Ans: The following are the important advantages of using the Confluence tool:
 Easy access and search for information
 Documents and files in order.
 Possibility of setting restrictions and the receivers group.
 Achieving all versions of created pages.
 This tool is fully integrated with JIRA software.
 Products scalability and Confluence grow with your company.

4. What sort of conflicts can be avoided by using Confluence?

Ans: As we already know that Confluence is a popular software application mainly used in the
form of a framework. This Confluence tool assures the team to get effective results or
outcomes. Confluence is also capable of simplifying the requirement and also helps to eliminate
all the issues related to product nature and sources. You can also find a few other issues such
as Human errors, and application glitches. These errors can be eliminated with the help of
confluence.

5. Can you tell me some important factors that need to be cared for when it comes to
team collaboration? How they matter?

Ans: Some of the important factors included are:

 Budget related to the product
 Quality of the final product or outcome
 Scope of the project after done with accomplishment
 Risk associated with the project
 Helps to utilize the resources.

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Interview questions

6. What is the basic aim of using the confluence tool?

Ans: The main basic aim of using the confluence tool is to simplify the product resources and
enable other users to work remotely on any project without facing any problem related to
processing, information sharing, and management of raw data usage for a project.
Want to enhance your skills to become master in Confluence Certification, Enroll in
our Confluence Online Training.

7. What are the prime requirements for Confluence technology?

Ans: There are two prime factors matter a lot while working on the Confluence tool such as:
 Confluence is a platform independent tool
 This tool can run anywhere.

8. Name a few important approaches that are useful in Scope defining?

Ans: Well, you can see lots of approaches are available and they play a vital role in the
development of the Confluence tool;
Let me explain a few factors such as;
 Analyzing the product requirements
 Value engineering is mandatory
 Product breakdown management
 4. Alternative analysis tool
 System and value analysis
 Brain storming technique
 Performing pair-wise comparison.

9. Can you suggest some ways that can help in compressing a Schedule or a project time
in team collaboration?

Ans: There are several ways available to compress a schedule or a project time in team
collaboration;
 Fast tracking of subtasks and crashing techniques. This is a widely used and
best factor.
 Crashing is used to enhance the schedule making based on the availability of
time slots without considering the cost factor.
 Fast tracking is a process used to perform quick selection activities or any sub-
task to assure effective outcomes.

10. How will you define Quality control?

Ans: Quality control is a set of inspections used to ensure the required availability and also
helps to meet the quality outcome. The primary aim of using quality control is to eliminate all the
errors related to a task or a project.

11. What exactly do you know about a milestone approach?

Ans: When you working with any team, the tasks and responsibilities will be divided accordingly.
When a small portion of a project or some objectives of a project can be accomplished. This is
known as a milestone.

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Interview questions

12. What are the basic components of Confluence architecture?

Ans: Below are the building blocks of confluence architecture;

 SNA services
 Disambiguation engine
 Rule base ontology
 Assertions manager
 Corpus, workspace services

13. What are the drawbacks of using Confluence?

Ans: The following are the major drawbacks of using Confluence such as;
 By using Confluence, the scaling is a problem. As products and product teams
scale, managing artifacts across the trio and growing needs get harder.
 Several PMs and teams might customize the tools and workflow to their
preferences which leads to a fragmented approach to product management which is
not efficient in the long run.
 After some point you start feeling the pinching need for something built especially
for product management needs.

13. Do you think dedication and leadership are the prime requirements in team
collaboration?

Ans: The answer is yes. The team members with no dedication and leadership it’s very difficult
to get an effective outcome.

14. What exactly WBS stands for in team collaborations or project management?

Ans: WBS stands for work breakdown structure.

If you have any doubts on Confluence, then get them clarified from Confluence Industry
experts on our Confluence Community!

15. Name any factors that matter a lot while working in a team?

Ans: There are two factors which matter a lot while working in a team such as :
 Management capabilities of the software tool collaboration.
 Processing the coordinated tasks.

16. How does using Confluence save much time and money for you?

Ans. Confluence eliminates the need to routinely verify the project progress for users who work
in multiple departments or places. It provides some amazing features that can better handle
ideas, communication, and other tasks quickly. It saves much time and money for the users.

17. Define Project Charter?

Ans. In Confluence, a project charter is an important document that includes complete details of
a project. This document authorizes all the activities that are executed under a team

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Interview questions

collaboration. Also, this document provides explicit information on relevant results related to the
project.

18. What is meant by Process in team collaboration?

Ans. A process in team collaboration is a method of task management. It provides the required
information that helps to take necessary actions and follow the correct order.

19. What are Process Groups in team collaboration?

Ans. In team collaboration, process groups are the order of processes related to other project
pursuits.

20. Define Project Management?

Ans. In every project, a team of various resources works on it. Project management uses the
right skills/talent at the right time and technology, which can be in multiple forms. Moreover, it
ensures that there will be perfect output.

21. What is meant by a Project Lifecycle?

Ans. A project consists of multiple modules when there is no relation between the various
activities related to a project. There are two modules available in this regard: the beginning and
closing stages. Both stages are responsible for forming the project's lifecycle, and both of them
contribute to it.

22. Will there be different activities related to a project while working on a project in team
collaboration?

Ans. There are multiple activities which can be different from each other. But it is optional that
all the actions need similar efforts and skills. Hence, we can locate some activities quickly and
some cannot. Further, when the activities need to execute, they may differ from the required
efforts.

23. Who are called the "Stakeholders"?

Ans. A stakeholder is someone who has an interest in the company and is impacted by the
business project. Moreover, the stakeholder's influence is the most important factor while
planning and executing a project. Thus, stakeholders need special attention while dealing with a
project.

24. How can we define Projects, Programs, and portfolios, and how do they differ from
each other?

Ans. We start projects to fulfil a wide range of needs. These are arrangements for various
purposes. A program is a group of projects explicitly managed to accomplish smaller tasks for
great success. The portfolio is nothing but a series of several programs and projects that aims
to fulfil a goal with higher output\

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Interview questions

25. How can we say that baselines are related to a project?

Ans. It is typically an essential task before a project is carried out in any business entity. These
are the completed editions of all the plans associated with any project. Moreover, it helps in
forecasting the project's performance in the future.

26. What is meant by Effort variance?

Ans. Efforts are essential thing while executing a task through team collaboration. The term
effort variance refers to the difference between the estimated effects of completing a job and the
actual efforts required for it. Further, if there is any, special attention is given to work performed
to verify the variance.

27. What do you mean by a Project in general?

Ans. A project is not a regular task in an organization but has a specific time limit to complete. It
is different from other tasks in a business. In other words, a project is an arrangement of
activities to be executed serially to develop a product or a service.

28. Explain the various advantages of Teamwork?

Ans. It is better to do Teamwork where multiple minds work together to get better results. With
Teamwork, it will be good to assess other's work or notice any errors and suggest better
solutions to improve the final results. Therefore, a good team can manage better time in
accomplishing a task and finishing it with fewer errors.

29. What are the various tasks that Collaboration Software can accomplish?

Ans. Software team or team collaboration can accomplish a wide range of tasks. They smooth;y
run many critical corporate processes timely. Further, it also guarantees immense productivity.
Also, it can easily connect two different users, irrespective of their places, to manage company
operations and other activities. Moreover, a project includes multiple modules created at various
locations, and collaboration software helps to connect them to address several tasks efficiently.

1. Preparing timelines for the project based on step-by-step activity.

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2. Ensure quality & continuous on time delivery via CI & CD model adhering
DevOps.
What is continuous delivery in DevOps CI CD?
3. Continuous delivery usually means a developer's changes to an application are
automatically bug tested and uploaded to a repository (like GitHub or a container
registry), where they can then be deployed to a live production environment by the
operations team.
Understanding CI/CD
CI/CD, in layman’s terms, is a step-by-step approach to continuously and consistently code,
build, test, release, and monitor a software product through automation.
Pipelines are pre-defined jobs that help understand what needs to be accomplished and when it
has to be done. Jobs are executed in parallel as much as possible to speed up and accelerate
the delivery.
A typical CI/CD pipeline would consist of stages where code gets pushed to the repository; the
build gets triggered, build is tested and deployed to the production environment.
Building CI/CD pipelines are completely tailor-made based on the needs and requirements and
could have multiple stages and jobs, and could be complex and comprehensive.
Typically building a CI/CD pipeline consists of the following phases/stages.
1. Code: Checked into the repository
2. Build: Build is triggered and deployed in a test environment
3. Test: Automated tests are executed
4. Deploy: Code is deployed to stage, and production
environments.

Release Manager Questions

RFC – Request for Change

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Interview questions

4. What Roles Does a Release Manager Perform?

The interviewer seeks to know whether you are aware of your roles.
Tip #1: Mention several roles performed by release managers
Tip #2: Give the impression that you understand your roles
Sample Answer
A release manager is in charge of the release management lifecycle. He plans about the
release lifecycle and manages associated risks. He or she coordinates different aspects of
projects and production into one integrated solution. Moreover, release managers ensure that
timelines, resources, and other process elements are considered as well as accounted for.
Besides, they make sure that releases are delivered within requirements and budget.

5. What Qualities Should a Release Manager Have to Perform Effectively?

There are specific traits that make release managers effective and successful. The interviewer
wants to find out whether you know them.
Tip #1: State the qualities that a release manager should possess
Tip #2: Provide your answer promptly without mulling
Sample Answer
A competent release manager should have great negotiation, organization, and leadership skills.
He should possess effective communication skills and be a good problem solver. A good release
manager should also have good relationship-building, negotiation, and management skills.

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Interview questions

Besides, this role needs an individual who can think proactively and be able to set SMART
goals.

6. How Does a Typical Day of a Release Manager Look Like?

The interviewer seeks to assess your familiarity with the duties performed by release
managers.
Tip #1: Mention some key duties performed by a release manager
Tip #2: Provide your answer promptly to show you know your roles
Sample Answer
A release manager performs various duties including planning the release windows, mitigating
risks that affect release scope, and communicating major project requirements, plans, changes,
and commitments. Other duties are monitoring and measuring progress, making sure
requirements are fulfilled at every stage, ensuring the set budget is adhered to, and managing
relationships.

7. Why Do You Want to be a Release Manager?

The interviewer is looking for what makes you best suited for the release manager position.
Tip #1: Mention the skills and qualities that relate to this position
Tip #2: Give the impression that you are qualified for the job
Sample Answer
I want to become a release manager because my skillset perfectly fits this role. I am also
experienced in release management. Having worked for over seven years as a release
manager, I have extensive knowledge about the release management lifecycle. Over the years,
I have gained understanding concerning what works and what doesn’t.

8. How Do Your Colleagues Describe You?

The interviewer seeks to know the way your co-workers describe you.
Tip #1: State the qualities that your colleagues see in you
Tip #2: Be honest and provide a convincing answer
Sample Answer
My co-workers say that I am professional in all my dealings, I respect others, and that they can
count on me whenever I am called upon to assist. They also say that I am a good team player
who they enjoy working with. Besides, they will tell you that I am a solution-oriented person.

9. What Viewpoint Do You Hold Regarding Management?

Your perspective and approach to management are what the interviewer seeks to know here.
Tip #1: State your viewpoint concerning management
Tip #2: Be clear and go straight to the point
Sample Answer
My opinion about management is that teams should have leaders who coordinate them and
ensure all members are working towards the same goal. Also, managers should ensure that
teams have individuals with specialized skills. These persons can handle certain tasks that
require expert or special skills. Besides, I believe that workload should be distributed equally
among team members.

10. As a Release Manager, How Do You Measure Your Success?

The interviewer is interested in knowing how you assess your level of success.
Tip #1: Describe the way you measure your success
Tip #2: Ensure to provide a relevant and correct answer
Sample Answer

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Interview questions

I ensure to set goals, communicate them to my team, and distribute related activities among
team members. I oversee different processes and operations to ensure everything is performed
as planned. In the end, I measure how successful I am by checking whether the set goals have
been met. When goals are met, I consider myself to be successful.

11. How Do You Deal With a Subordinate Who is Performing Inefficiently?

This question seeks to assess the way you deal with subordinates who are performing poorly.
Tip #1: State the approach you take concerning underperforming employees
Tip #2: Show that you can deal with issues of inefficiency
Sample Answer
I consider all employees that work with me as extensions of my effectiveness. If I discover that
one of my subordinates is performing inefficiently, I will have a heart-to-heart with him. This will
enable me to know the problem or challenge affecting the individual. Following that, I will
develop a performance improvement plan and use it to improve performance. This may include
teaming up the worker with others who can help him improve his skills.

12. In What Ways Do You Keep Your Team Inspired?

The interviewer wants to know whether you can keep your subordinates motivated.
Tip #1: State two or three ways you use to inspire employees
Tip #2: Give the impression that you can keep your team motivated
Sample Answer
As a release manager, I always make effort to recognize individuals that meet goals. In my
experience, doing that keeps them inspired to continue working hard and accomplish more
tasks. I also make task delegation interdependent. This helps employees to learn by working
with each other. In the process, they improve each other and boost overall production. Giving
gifts to the best performers is another method I use to motivate workers.

13. Concerning Duty Delegation, How Do You Ensure To Be Confident That Assigned
Work Will Be Performed Perfectly?
The interviewer wants to know whether you get the work done and achieve the desired results
through delegation.
Tip #1: State how you delegate work
Tip #2: Make the interviewer understand how your method gets the work done perfectly
Sample Answer
Before delegating tasks to my team, I make sure to know the skills and abilities of every team
member. This way, I understand who can perform particular tasks excellently. Following that, I
delegate tasks based on the skills of my team members. I place everyone where they can
perform best. In doing so, I get the work done perfectly.

14. Where Do You See Yourself In Five Years?

Here, the interviewer wants to hear your career goals or what you plan to achieve in five years.
Tip #1: Mention where you see yourself in five years
Tip #2: Show that you plan and anticipate growth in your career
Sample Answer
I expect to have acquired more skills in the industry and gained lots of experience. I will be able
to handle more complex challenges and take on more managerial responsibilities. Moreover, I
would want to be a reliable person who can be relied on by colleagues to get problems solved
quickly.

15. Briefly Tell Us the Most Difficult Situation You Faced and How You Handle It

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Interview questions

The interviewer seeks to evaluate your problem-solving skills.

Tip #1: Describe the most difficult situation you have experienced
Tip #2: State how you tackled it
Sample Answer
Sometime during my last assignment, a member of the development team who was very
instrumental in finalizing the product resigned. This turned out to be a huge challenge because
no other team member had the necessary skills to get the product completed and released on
time. The deadline was approaching and the client was eagerly waiting for the product. At first,
we couldn’t get a specialist. But after a week of searching, we managed to get another expert.
The development process resumed and the product was finalized and released on time.

16. As A Release Manager, How Do You Respond To Working Under Pressure?

Tip #1: Mention how you work under pressure
Tip #2: Show that you can perform effectively under pressure
Sample Answer
When I have too much work that needs to be completed within strict deadlines, I begin
by prioritizing tasks. I order them based on their order of importance and deadline. Essential
activities that need to be completed immediately top my list. The other tasks follow based on the
same criteria. I also ensure to complete tasks faster and even extend beyond the normal
working hours to get the work completed on time.

17. What Have You Done to Improve Your Knowledge in the Last 12 months?
The interviewer wants to know if you have done any career development in the past year.
Tip #1: Mention the career development activity undertaken
Tip #2: Be honest and precise with your answer
Sample Answer
I the last 12 months, I have acquired a managerial certification. This relates to a five-month
course that I completed two months ago. Through it, I have enhanced my knowledge and skills,
particularly concerning management.

18. How Will You Make Sure there is Continuous Integration, Support, Deployment, and
Flow of Development
The interviewer wants to know whether you can be trusted to ensure constant development.
Tip #1: Mention how you will make sure there is continuous integration, support, and
development.
Tip #2: Make sure to provide a relevant answer
Sample Answer
I will seek to have everyone understand their role including what they should respond to and the
set delivery time. I will also ensure proper planning and execution as well as control of tasks and
activities under my role. Moreover, I will be holding one-on-one meetings with concerned
members to schedule work and resolve issues.

19. As a Release Manager, What Motivates You?

Using this question, the interviewer wants to test your positive attributes and character.
Tip #1: Mention what keeps you going
Tip #2: Do not provide a vague or generic answer
Sample Answer
I am very passionate about what I do. The desire to see the outcome of my efforts gives me the
energy to work optimally. When handling any project, I aim at attaining a 100 percent success

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rate. Although this target isn’t easy to meet every time, it inspires me to become more
productive.

20. How Do You Ensure Products are Released on Time?

The interviewer wants to find out the strategies you employ to get products delivered within the
set deadline.
Tip #1: State how you ensure deadlines are met
Tip #2: Demonstrate that you can deliver products on time
Sample Answer
I begin by assessing all that is required to ensure a product is released on time. Then I plan
accordingly concerning how different processes will be executed within the set deadline. I also
make sure that the required resources are in place to avoid delays. Moreover, I ensure that
planned tasks are assigned based on the competence of every individual to guarantee effective
work and timely delivery.

Conclusion
Preparing for your hiring process doesn’t have to be another hectic undertaking. Use these
release manager interview questions and answers to get ready for your next release manager
job interview. They cover the main areas you need to assess to know the competencies of your
candidate. Hopefully these release manager interview questions will help you land your next
dream job.
x

General Management Questions;

Question 1: You have just joined a product company as the Senior Manager-Product
Development. There are several developers, testers, and release engineers. Your brief
from senior management is that we are getting bugs found only close to production
release or by the clients after the software has been deployed. As the Sr. Manager,
leading the team, we have charged you to identify the problems and work towards a
solution. With that in mind, please summarize your 15, 30- and 90-day plan. Your answer
can be as detailed as you wish and should consider all departments and stakeholders.

Identify the problems (15 days plan)

As the above description of the problems, it seems that either QA issues or UAT issues are not
identified at the appropriate time and it hurts the delivery process, therefore, we need to identify
those problems. According to the 80/20 Principle, generally, the reasons for the 80% issues are
20% of causes, so we need to identify those fatal issues which impact our productivity and
quality. For the analysis of fatal issues and prioritizing of them, we can use root cause analysis.

1. Root cause analysis

Check the root cause of each severe issue from random samples, discuss with the team and
concerned stakeholders and try to identify the core problem area. There are many techniques
like the 5 why technique which can help us to understand the root cause of the problems. Plot
them on a fishbone diagram for better visibility and understanding.

What are the 7 categories in a fishbone diagram?

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Interview questions

This type of fishbone is named after the 8 categories that make it up: Procedures, Policies,
Place, Product, People, Processes, Price and Promotion.06-Apr-2020

Solution Implementation (30 days plan)

Compile the all-stakeholder opinions and feedbacks with problems of the project and analyze
the problem during the identification phase and plan the prevention strategies. Initially, we need
to implement the resolution for the first three high proprieties and severe issues. Below are the
few suggested steps to permanently fix the problems:

· Set clear responsibilities of each stakeholder for each deliverable.

· Implement best practices for each process.

· Everyone (like BA, Lead) should contribute to the improvement of quality

· Quality should be one of the KRA of annual appraisal of team members

· Keep team members in consensus and explain why it is important

· Develop a detailed plan for each improvement activity. For example, if code analysis
requires the check which has the most bugs then start the code analysis of that module first. If
functional understand is the issue, then organize the function knowledge of technical training.

· The process always helps to prevent repeatable mistakes and give insight for future issues,
so we need to develop the process practices.

Monitor the efficiency of implementation of best practices (90 days plan)

Regular monitor the efficiency of process improvement. Track the current data and match it with
the previous records. Tweak fine-tune it if required. If process improvement is not working, then
do not hesitate to try something new. This is an ongoing process.

Question 2: As the Senior Manager-Product Development, you are noticing that while
JIRA is reporting that all staff are 100%+ utilized, deliverables of software are frequently
late or are rejected almost instantly by testing as not fit for purpose. What steps would
you put in place to analyze the problem so you can communicate to both management
(for problem identification) and staff (for problem resolution).

Rather than focus on the entire JIRA, we need to focus on sprint planning and execution for the
core development features and requirements which will help us to control the development,
quality, and delivery with measuring metrics. Sprint should be small which will help us to
analyze and control our developments, quality, and delivery, and implement prevention
strategies before the real problems occur.

Question 3: FRD’s coming from the Business analysts detail the functionality of
proposed changes to the product. What you are observing is that at close to, or during
the time of release, clients are disappointed with the fact that certain functionality is

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missed. There are many areas where the problems could be. Highlight the problem areas
and where you can better manage the situation going forward.

Missing functionalities are a clear indication of huge chaos between project planning and
deliverables.

To eradicate such issues, we need to give the proper responsibilities to senior lead stakeholders
in the timeframe.

Question 4: As the Senior Manager-Product Development, you are seeing people

resigning from the company and difficulties in backfilling these positions without seeing
escalating costs. What would be your approach for managing attrition, backfilling, and
mitigating risk from departing staff. What strategies do you recommend for reducing
attrition and retaining key staff for the long term? What hierarchical structure for
development do you recommend ensuring a good mix of staff?

Approach for managing attrition:

1. Remove the unnecessary stress and pressure on the resources (like over
bureaucracies’ rules, dres' code,
2. Align the junior resources with seniors to reduce the technical pressure and
provide a better mentor, assistance, and helping hand.
3. Entire resources should work like a team rather than individuals.
4. Hire the right people, define the role clearly, assign work according to their
knowledge and skills
5. Fair and transparent performance review, show them a clear career path
6. Regularly recognize and reward employees for their good work
7. Offer flexibility like work from home and flexible working hours
8. Respect the people and treat them equally
9. Focus on employee’s skill enhancement, provide pieces of training, regularly
conduct knowledge sharing sessions
10. Give compensation and benefit as per industry standard

\\

Approach for backfilling:

Backfilling always contains the own cost, either in the shape of budget, time or scope and each
one is closely associated with each other, so we can take the below steps to reduce this risk:

1. Promote talented junior resource to fill the position of senior resource

2. Always Identify at-risk employees/positions and be prepared for such scenarios
in advance.
3. Cross-train employees to backfill the position, for example, some QAs want to
become a developer
4. Ask current employees to provide referral
5. Sometimes it takes time to hire the new employee considering time investment
on searching for the right fit and their notice period. We can insource employee from
other IT companies who provide manpower as T&M contract

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6. Always keep 10-15% employees extra in the team so that they can quickly take
place of that employee who resigns. We may keep temporary staff for that purpose.

Approach for mitigating risk from departing staff:

Departing staffs are realities of the current markets and industries, therefore, we need to
develop the processes and frameworks which can monitor and control such risks and act
according to situations, nature of the projects, and businesses.

1. Develop a process of documentation for every important activity related to the

application and get this verification from other team members. For example, architecture
diagram, deployment diagram, etc.
2. Documentation should be in audio, video, or other formats.
3. Knowledge sharing among team members on regular basis.
4. Organize proper handover of all the functional and technical knowledge to new
employee
5. Always develop a backup of each employee, so if one employee resigns another
person has all the required knowledge and skills. He or she can manage the work till the
time new employee joins. Pair based approach can be considered.

A mix of Staff:

Mixing the staff is always a tactical and strategical decision of the management and it always
depends on the nature of projects and business, so it is tough to explain in the generalized form,
but there are several approaches that can help in this endeavor:

Heuristic Approach: This approach says that 30% of staff members should be senior and 70%
of staff could be mid and junior level.

Scrum Team: Scrum always advocates the cross-functional and mix nature of the team.
Generally, the scrum team consists of 5 to 7 cross-functional team members. At the senior level,
Scrum Master and Product Owner are part of the team, and Developers and QAs come from the
junior level.

Question 5: Management has spent money on new systems like JIRA to aid the lifecycle
of a project and give greater transparency. However, management believes that people
are just ‘filling in’ the information into JIRA and it is more a case of garbage in, garbage
out. What reporting metrics would you communicate to management and explain the
value and how would you change the perception or if management is correct, fix the
problem?

In the real-time environment, we cannot act according to perception and belief, therefore we
need to investigate such issues/problems and collect the real-time data, facts, and gaps. For
this analysis, we can work below steps:

1. Design the proper metrics for project planning, quality, and delivery which will
help to measure the project progress and control the project’s activities.
2. We can arrange the Audit process of each ticket of JIRA.
3. Analysis of the JIRA ticket and actual deliveries (by customer feedback).
4. Ticket creation should be monitored by cross teams and senior resources.

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Interview questions

Question 6: As the Senior Manager-Product Development, you have noticed that deep
knowledge of the systems is held in a very small number of personnel. Management have
said this is a serious issue because sometimes even with monetary incentives, we
cannot retain the staff. What do you recommend mitigating this risk?

Functional and business information/knowledge is the assets of the organization; therefore, it is

a primary duty of an organization to protect and preserve them. For this protection and
preservation, the below activities can be implemented:

1. An organization should develop the documentation processes and frameworks

for each product and business.
2. Information should be democratized according to hierarchies.
3. Sensitive and confidential information should be encrypted and in the right hand.
4. Need to develop the appropriate SOP (Standard Operation procedures) for each
level.
5. Need to develop training materials for the products and business.
6. Management should motivate/promote the resources for training, learning, and
studies of the products and business according to their position.

Fundamental Project Management Interview questions

Q1. How will you define a project?
Ans. As per PMI, a project is a ‘temporary endeavor’ that has a pre-defined start and end time
along with the pre-stated scope and required resources. From developing software to planning a
sales process, everything is a ‘project’ that is performed to meet the actual goals of the
company. Generally, every project has the below-listed characteristics:
 A defined life cycle
 Unique deliverables leading to a predefined idea
 Continues amplification
These characteristics make projects different from routine operations because we can split
project tasks into:
 Project management methods
 Product centered methods
Q2. Explain a project’s life cycle.
Ans. Every project has to go through a series of phases from initiation to closure and this is
what we call a project life cycle. As per PMBOK, projects need to go through 5 phases –
 Initiation – Find answers to ‘can/should we do the project?’
 Planning – Define the ways of doing the project
 Execution – Actually put the project plan into motions
 Monitoring & Control – Compare the progress report of the project with the
planned project
 Closing – Release the final deliverables and hand over the project
documentations to business
Q3. What is a project charter?

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Interview questions

Ans. It is mainly a document that officially starts a project and includes every detail of the
project. From start to end, the document also includes project authorization. This document lists
all the top-level requirements as per the stakeholders and the outcomes of the project.
Q4. Define Planned Value, Actual Cost, and Earned Value?
Ans. Planned Value is the value of the project that has been estimated and approved before
the project starts.
Actual Cost is the total cost or the amount of money spent during the project.
Earned Value is the value earned in the completion of the project. These three elements
together form Earned Value Management (EVM).
Q5. What is a Decision Support System (DSS)? How many types of DSS are there?
Ans. DSS is a software system that helps in the decision making process in project
management. There are two types of DSS: structured and unstructured.
Q6. What is a Fishbone diagram and when to use it?
Ans. Fishbone Diagram or Ishikawa Diagram is a visualization tool to understand the potential
causes of a problem to identify its root causes. It is used usually in brainstorming sessions so
that the team’s conversation is focused on the actual problem and not stray away from only the
symptoms.
This type of fishbone is named after the 8 categories that make it up: Procedures, Product,
Processes, Promotion, Price ,Policies, Place, People.
Q7. What is RAID in project management and why is it necessary to create a RAID log?
Ans. RAID is an acronym for Risk, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies. A RAID log is
important for a project manager to track anything that would impact a project now or in the
future.
Q8. Name the ten key knowledge areas as mentioned in the PMBOK Guide?
Ans. Integration Management, Scope Management, Time Management, Cost Management,
Quality Management, Human Resource Management, Communications Management, Risk
Management, Procurement Management, and Stakeholder Management.
Q9. What do you understand by the Pareto (also known as 80/20 rule) principle/analysis?
Ans. It is a decision-making technique through which by doing 20% of the work you produce
80% of the desired result.
Q10. Define the Triple Constraint Triangle in project management?
Ans. The triple constraint triangle or project management triangle is a constraint model where
scope, schedule, and cost are constraints forming the sides of a triangle, with quality as the
central theme.
Q11. What is Work Breakdown Structure (WBD) and how does it affect the work
estimates of tasks/activities?
Ans. WBD is the process of decomposition of a project into deliverable-oriented components.
This helps the project manager to oversee the project more effectively.
Q12. What are some techniques used for defining scope?
Ans. Product breakdown, requirements analysis, systems engineering, systems analysis, value
engineering, value analysis, and alternatives analysis.
Explore the best Project Management Frameworks Courses on Shiksha Online
Q13. What are the techniques for doing “activity time” estimates?
Ans. The techniques are parametric estimates, three-point estimates, and analogous
estimates.
Q14. What is the plan baseline?
Ans. These are the final version of all plans before the initiation of a project. It includes a time
schedule, quality plan, communication plan, and everything else. This acts as the reference to
measure the project performance.
Q15. What is the time & material contract?

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Interview questions

Ans. It is a mutually agreed arrangement, where a contractor is paid on the basis of factors like
–
 The actual cost of direct labor at hourly rates
 The actual cost of equipment and material usage
 A fixed add-on to include profits and overheads
Q16. What is effort variance?
Ans. Effort Variance = (Actual effort – Estimated Effort) / Estimated Effort.
It is the difference between the estimated effort and the effort required.
Q17. Explain the difference between Risk Impact and Risk Probability.
Ans. As the name implies, Risk Probability is the chance of a risk to happen, while Risk Impact
is the cost when the risk occurs.
Also Read>> PMP vs. Scrum
Q18. What is Project Scope Management?
Ans. It is a set of processes to ensure that a project’s scope is accurately defined and mapped.
The process involves a number of steps, which include –
 Planning scope management
 Collecting requirements
 Defining scope
 Creating Work Breakdown Structure
 Validating Scope
 Controlling Scope
Q19. What is CMM?
Ans. It stands for Capability Maturity Model and has five levels, including –
 Initial – Start point of a new process.
 Repeatable– It suggests the repeated use of any process.
 Defined – It includes documentation of the standard guidelines and procedures.
 Managed – It involves the measurement and management of a process.
 Optimizing – It is the highest level of process maturity in CMM and includes
optimization and improvement of a process.
Scenario-Based/Situational Project Management Interview Questions
Q20. How do you handle any changes to the project?
Ans. A project manager’s strength lies in his/her ability to display a high level of adaptability.
Nobody wants changes in a project and are not entirely unavoidable. You must approach this
question with great wit and convince the interviewer that you are capable, having handled such
situations before.
Q21. What values do you think a project manager should have?
Ans. Everybody has their own idea of values. However, it should focus on the job profile and
associated with project management.
Q22. What performance metrics do you use to determine if a project is going as
expected?
Ans. The ability to understand if a project is going in the right direction is a core skill of a project
manager and performance metrics will help in that matter. Some of the useful performance
metrics are Cost Variance, Resource Utilisation, Quality, Customer Satisfaction, and Gross
Margin.
Q23. What strategy do you follow to mitigate the risks involved in a project?
Ans. There will always be risks involved in a project; sometimes even before you start it. You
must be able to give the interviewer enough points on different areas where you can work so
that there are effects of risks.
Q24. Did you ever face any challenges while managing projects? How did you handle
those challenges?

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Interview questions

Ans. With the responsibilities of a project manager, comes a lot of challenges. So pick out one
which you have been successful in handling. Give the various ways how you have handled it
and the strategy you came up with.
Q25. Which of the methodologies have you used in your projects? Why do you prefer it
over others?
Ans. There are various methodologies — Agile, Waterfall, etc. — which are used in project
management. Be well-prepared about the various pros and cons of each methodology that you
have used. Never mention the ones that you haven’t used.
Q26. What do you know about the critical path of a project? What steps will you take if
you find that one of your tasks is going to take more time than expected?
Ans. Put simply, the critical path of a project is all the key tasks that are required to complete a
project. There are ways to shorten task time. E.g. adding an extra person to the project on the
contract or from a different team to complete the particular tasks.
Also Read>> Resume Mistakes Project Management Professionals Often Make
Q27. How do you estimate using three-point estimating methods?
Ans. It is the best technique to develop estimates for your project. There are three steps:
 Identify the positive and negative risks involved in the project
 Then make three estimates — Best Guess (BG), Pessimistic (P), and Optimistic
(O) estimates
 The final step is to calculate the mean and standard deviation using the formulas:
(O+4BG+p)/6 and P – O/6 respectively.
Q28. Do you prefer working on a single project or multiple projects at the same time?
Ans. You must always show your enthusiasm to the interviewer, but also be honest. If you feel
that you can handle more projects than one, then say that you prefer multiple projects.
Q29. Which project management tools have you used before?
Ans. Tell them about some important and commonly used Project Management tools like –
 Gantt Chart
 Work Breakdown Structure
 Product Breakdown Structure
 PERT Chart
 Logic Network
Q7. Which one skill does a project manager need to succeed?
Ans. There are multiple ways to answer this question:
1. To answer this question, you must decide on one of the critical skills
needed by a project manager.
Sample Answer: Team building skills are often the most essential skills for the project manager
as s/he can only lead the team in a good direction if they are cohesive and well organized.
 If you think more than one skill is important, then you can frame your answer like
the following.
Sample Answer: There is not just one important skill for a project manager. A project manager
must be equally versed in leadership skills, and communication skills, decision making, time
management, and resource allocation. All these skills are essential for your success as a project
manager.
Remember that your greatest strength as a project manager should be your answer to this
question.
Q30. How will you handle the failure of a project?
Ans. Being a project manager, one should have the quality to handle both successes and
failures. While informing about the failure of a project, one should always ensure that it doesn’t
impact the morale of the team and the work pace.
Q4. What was the most difficult decision you have made?

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Interview questions

Ans. It will show their knowledge of PMI code and their approach towards work. The
interviewers want to know how they have handled the new challenges and stressful situations.
Get this one right to score major points.
Also Read>> 10 Best Product Management Courses That are Worth Considering Today
Q31. How are you managing projects while working from home?
Ans. To make a project successful while working from home we follow the below-listed
strategies:
1. Focus on clear and timely communications
2. Well-organized workspace
3. Set remote working guidelines so that we meet the desired expectations
and maintain productivity
4. Extensively use project collaboration tools to increase the productivity of
the tasks
1. Conduct weekly meetings for discussing project updates and problems
2. Set and prioritize things as per the requirements
Q32. What do you do when you/your team does not meet the project’s deadline or
budget?
Ans. This is a very tricky question and by asking this question recruiters want to know how often
you miss the deadlines and what do you do when you miss them. Thus you can share your
experience. Generally, the following reasons are some of the most prominent reason for missing
a product’s deadline:
1. Unclear deadlines
2. Overburdened deadlines
3. Poor monitoring and tracking system
4. Added project-related responsibilities by clients
5. Performance issues
6. Less staff
7. Inefficient process
8. IT/tech-related issues
Q33. How do you handle an unhappy client?
Ans. As a project manager, it is your job to keep the clients satisfied. However, there are
incidents when the clients are not happy with the project deliverables. In such cases the
following practices help:
 Communicate with clients at regular intervals
 Listen to his/her problems before reacting
 Look for a median point between the needs
 Rightly evaluate and discuss their expectations
 Ask questions and give the desired solutions
Q34. What is your approach towards gold plating?
Ans. Gold plating in project management is about delivering more than what was desired. From
the client’s point, this is a good thing and can make them happy. However, this can severely
affect the project’s predefined timelines and can also add to the costs. Thus as a project
manager, it is your job to control gold plating which can be done in the following ways:
1. Define and assign clear KPIs to project team members
2. Connect with leaders to monitor if any team member is doing gold plating
3. Give a clear message to the members involved in the same by first
making them understand what is gold plating and how s/he is doing it along with
pros and cons. The objective should not be to demotivate the person involved but
to make his/her understand the desired scope of work.

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Interview questions

4. Make a note of possible ideas of optimization possible in the project and

give the same to the sales team who can convince clients for further optimizations
resulting in up-selling.
By doing this you prove to the recruiter that you understand the project scope, give weight to
delivery timelines, and at the same time handle your team effectively.
Also Read>> Learn 6 In-Demand Project Management Skills [Courses, Certifications, and
Books]
Skill-based Project Management Interview Questions
Skill 1: Conflict Management Skills
Project management teams are usually big and demand interaction with clients, team members,
tech-team, and all the other stakeholders. Thus, hiring managers prefer to hire professionals
who have strong people management skills and can wisely resolve conflicts.
Some of the most frequently asked project management interview questions to review conflict
management skill are:
Q35. A customer rejects the final deliverables. What will you do?
Ans. This is a tricky project management interview question and you must answer it in a way
that you know how to handle conflicts and showcase the skills stating that you have convincing
skills.
To answer this question, you can start having a conversation with the client, and initially, you
can bring up the scope of the project and ask on what ground they are rejecting the project
when your team has met all of their initial requirements. Before starting this in the actual
conversation, you need to be sure that you have not missed anything from your end.
Also, in such situations, you must ask the clients about any additional expectations, discuss and
plan with the internal team, share the additional costs with clients, and post-approval, deliver the
final product.
Q36. Your team has some internal issues and the project is suffering due to these
internal conflicts. What will be your course of action?
Ans. When a team works to achieve common objectives, internal conflicts are likely to happen.
As a project head, my task for this would be to identify:
 The root cause of the conflict
 How it is affecting the project
 What can I do for handling this situation without elevating a feeling of
demotivation in my team?
 If the issues are still persistent, what alternatives solutions are available
 Some major things which need to be taken care of are:
 Avoid individual feelings and show empathy
 Resolve problems analytically
 Hear both the parties and give and play the role of a moderator while they share
challenges
 Give reasonable solutions
Skill 2 – Leadership
During the project manager interview round, the recruiter asks certain questions that outline
your leadership qualities, and cracking these kinds of items increases the chance that the
recruiters like your candidature.
Some of the most frequently asked project management interview questions to check leadership
skills are:
Q37. What is your leadership style?
Ans. This is the most common yet most tricky question that most hiring managers ask during
interview rounds. Some of the common leadership styles are:
1. Lead by example: Leaders demonstrate what needs to be done and give
clear understanding to the team.

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2. Lead by communicating: Here the leaders choose to lead by facilitating

easy and quick communication within the team.
3. Delegating – Lead by delegating: Leaders are pro at delegating the jobs
based on an individual’s strengths and areas of interest.
All you need to do is evaluate yourself, identify your leadership style, and vouch for the same to
the hiring manager by stating an example.

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Q38. Do you believe in delegating responsibilities/work?
Ans. As defined earlier, a project is a pre-defined goal that needs to be delivered by a solicited
time. Thus, most often project managers need to delegate the job to their team members with
complete responsibility.
That makes this question among the most important ones as through this question, the hiring
manager audits your ability to lead, flexibility, and team management skills.
Share your experience of how you used delegation as a strategy to get the work done and
deliver the project on time.
Skill 3 – Goal-oriented
Project management is all about meeting the desired goals in the given time. Thus, hiring
managers assure to check skills like – goal-driven abilities, agility, smart working approach by
asking certain project management interview questions like:
Q39. How do you manage to drive the team towards achieving the desired goals and
project expectations?
Ans. As the leader of the team, it is the responsibility of a project manager to deliver the project
on time. For this, it is very important to stay self-motivated and at the same time, ensure that the
team members are also motivated. For this we follow the following practices:

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 Set realistic goals/deadlines and clearly state them to the team

 Plan and execute based on project timelines
 Anticipate the possible disasters and plan a way out beforehand
 Offer a room to team members to share their ideas, feedback, and views
 Conduct frequent project review meetings to discuss the progress and talk about
the challenges faced by the team to give timely resolution
 Set milestones and celebrate small success/achievements
 Give and take feedbacks
 Incentivise if possible
 Provide access to the right project management tools and technologies
Also Read>>What is PMP?
Q40. Why do you think you are goal-driven?
Ans. Being goal-driven makes you impactful at work and that’s why you need to prove that you
are a goal-driven person who has the ability to drive the project as per the planned strategy.
When the recruiter shoots this question during your project management interview round, you
need to answer them aptly by describing past incidents that prove that how you:
 Break long projects into sprints
 Plan your time effectively
 Write everything down
 Organize your work
 Motivate your team
 Delegate the job
 Offer/ask for constructive feedback
Also state how you have delivered the projects in the past, what strategies you have used, etc.
as this will convenience the interviewees that you are goal-driven.
Skill 4: People Management/ Team Handling
Q41. How do you inspire the team member who is not very motivated and ensure that
s/he delivers the desired results?
Ans. Every team has a set of employees who are somewhat demotivated, underperforming,
sensitive, or/and restraining.
However, as a project leader/manager it is the job to handle all such employees and direct them
in a path where they start performing. For this the following tips can help:
 Observe if this is a one-time thing or happens frequently and try to have a
conversation with the person and let them open up so that you offer help
 Set a KPI dashboard to track project performance
 Keep everyone on the same page and ensure that your team clearly understands
your expectations
 Value the team’s feedback and suggestions
 Avoid micromanaging
 Help the team to learn and grow
Q42. How do you manage your team’s workload?
Ans. Managing workload is another important aspect of a project manager’s job. This needs to
be well planned to keep moving forward the project in the right direction. The below steps help:
 Review the team’s current workload by following the matrix organizational
structure
 Use resource management reports to find ways for answering project related
queries
 Connect with staff who are overloaded and find ways to optimize their tasks
 Delegate responsibilities to staff who have less on their plate
 Plan upskilling sessions for employees

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Interview questions

1) Define an ideal project?

This is the most common question that is asked of a Project Manager in an interview. To answer
this question, one has to be clear about their interests in a particular field.
While answering this question, one makes sure to mention all the points like; if they want to
work with a team or the world to work alone to complete any project.
On the basis of this answer, the proceedings of the interview will take place. It is highly
important for an individual to be clear about the ideal project they want to run in the future.
Further, they should also mention their strong points in certain areas of a project they choose to
work on as a Project Manager.
They should also mention the type of deadlines they prefer, while they should also be vocal
about working on types of projects.
For instance; they can share their idea for working on an innovative project and be open about
their ideas while answering such questions.
2) Presently working from home has become a common thing after the prevalence of
COVID-19. So how do you think that you can manage a remote team?
Presently, a Project Manager needs to be equipped with vast knowledge and skills related to
virtual project management. They should be able to manage remote teams from various regions
of the world at once and strategize their plans beforehand.
They should be able to explain their plans to their project teams over a virtual meeting.
However, they should stick to strict protocols of Project Management to carry out such types of
meetings and refer to the principles of Project Management in managing remote teams.
3) How would you prioritize the tasks?
While encountering such questions, they should understand that they are being tested on the
basis of their flexibility and adaptability. Prioritization of tasks it is an indispensable step. A
Project Manager prioritized tasks in order to determine the success rate of a project.
It aims to determine the time of completing each phase of the project and manage the time for
future stages of the project. Task prioritization is a crucial part of running any project.
So, it is recommended for an individual to by using points like the urgency of a project stage and
the importance of any present stage.

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Interview questions

4) What do you think skill is required the most in order to become a successful Project
Manager?
Project Management is such a field that a single skill is not enough to carry on any project.
Instead, a Project Manager should possess a wide range of skills.
A candidate has to learn and develop new skills continuously to meet the demands of other
stakeholders with trending methods. Further, when it comes to the in-demand skills of a Project
Manager, one can look forward to describing skills like:
- Communication
- Leadership
- Negotiation
- Budget Management
- Time Management
- Risk Management
Apart from the above skills, a project manager should also concentrate on developing various
other skills to move along with time.
5) Suppose a project has gone off track. As a Project Manager, how would you bring it
back to track?
When the project goes off track, then there must be a cause that has disturbed any stage of
progress in a project. In that case, a project manager should look forward to prioritizing new
plans which can help them to bring their project back to track.
In such situations, critical thinking is required to eradicate any type of disturbances that are
created due to mismanagement. They should consider re-evaluating and re-adjust resource

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management, and they should be prepared to put in extra efforts to bring the project back to
track.
6) On the basis of your Project Management experience, tell us about the most
challenging projects that you have ever run.
When this type of question arises from the interview panel, and then a person should answer in
a manner that does not sound like they are complaining.
For instance; to answer such questions, one should not refer to the unavoidable and known
risks or challenges, like they should not talk about how they handle a tough team or a team
member.
Handling a team or team member is one of the preliminary aims of Project Managers in any
organization. Instead of describing such types of scenarios, a person should consider describing
scenarios about external disturbances.
They should describe the extra-terrestrial challenges they faced while managing any project.
Must consider describing the challenges they faced while a project was called off during
progress.
They should talk about the challenges they faced while fundraising was stopped for any project.
After describing those challenges, they should also discuss how they manage to handle such
situations.
7) Be vocal about the biggest mistakes you have committed as a Project Manager and
explain the approach that influenced that mistake
This type of frequent question is asked by the interviewer to evaluate the honesty and passion
of a person regarding Project Management.
A Project Manager is a normal human being who has expertise in handling projects.
Becoming a Project Manager does not defy the fact that he or she is a human being.
As a Project Manager, a person has to work along with numerous responsibilities. They have to
manage a whole project team while they are also responsible for taking and giving suggestions
to the higher authorities.
He/she creates a bridge of communication between the stakeholders, higher authorities, and
project teams.
It depicts that the job of a Project Manager is exhaustive, so it is obvious that a project manager
can make mistakes while running any project.
However, no human is errorless; mistakes are made by even the higher authorities too. While
answering this question, an individual should be very honest and never ignore these questions.
Ignoring such questions creates a bad impression in the minds of the employer, and that can be
the end of the interview too.
8) How would you describe a failed project? Can you relate it to your Project
Management experience?
Success and failure come along with every project. There are possibilities that a project can
become successful or fail for some reason.
Many instances follow where even after taking all the required measures, the project has failed.
At the same time, there are instances where a project has become successful despite
mismanagement.
There are many factors that influence the success rate and failure rate of any project. One of
the most influential factors that need to be taken care of while managing a project is managing
possible risks.
While answering this question, an individual should be honest. They should openly discuss their
failed projects.
Further, they should also discuss what type of experience they gained from their failure in
managing the project.
The reason for asking this question is to check a person's risk management capability, another
such capability that is required to minimize the chances of failure of a project.

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9) Suppose your stakeholder is not satisfied with the quality of the outcome of any
project. So, as a Project Manager, how would you handle such situations? What would
you do to make your stakeholders happy?
A Project Manager is the face of any project. For every mishappening or any type of project-
related issue, a Project Manager is answerable.
When it comes to customer satisfaction, then a Project Manager should look forward to taking
all the suggestions from their customers.
They should also try to understand the customer needs and can plan their projects on the basis
of the customers' basic requirements.
If the stakeholders do not get what they want as the outcome of a project, then it is obvious that
they will be unhappy. And when a stakeholder is unhappy, then he or she has the audacity to
question.
To answer this type of question, a person should discuss how he or she could strategize and
make plans to meet all the demands of their customers.
10) What is the process of calculating the three-point estimating method?
The three-point estimate can be calculated in the following ways:
1) PERT Distribution E = (P+4M+O)/6
2) Triangular Distribution E = (P+M+O)/3 Beta
Where P denotes pessimist, O is optimist, and M denotes most likely.
11) What are the motivation theories and formal techniques to drive team motivation?
The following motivation theories and techniques are essential for project success:
- Herzberg’s Motivation Theory
- McGregor’s Hypothesis
- McClelland’s Hypothesis
- McClelland’s Three Needs Theory
- Maslow’s Theory of Motivation
- Theory of Hertzberg
- Vroom’s Prediction Theory
Intermediate Level Project Manager Interview Questions and Answers
12) An ideal Project Management team should work in a collaborative manner. But there
are possibilities of internal conflicts in a Project Management team are high too? As a
Project Manager, how would you handle such situations?
This question is asked to the knowledge of a person's knowledge of the domain in the
framework of project management. The process can be defined as completing tasks of a project
successfully. At the same time, the process groups can be defined as a series of processes that
are needed to be carried out in various phases of the project.
13) Differentiate between risk and issues.
Risk can be defined as a condition of uncertainty that may influence a project both in a positive
and a negative manner.
Sometimes risks can be unavoidable, so a Project Manager should always be prepared to
tackle any type of risk. It can influence a project for a longer period of time.
It may ruin a project at once, or it may also make a project successful.
And on the other hand, issues can be defined as an uncertain event that occurs
instantaneously. Risks are the major factors stimulating issues.
However, in comparison to risks, issues are always considered as an event that impacts
negatively do any process or procedure of a project.
14) What do you mean by RAID?
RAID is an acronym used to imply Risks, Actions, Issues, and Decisions. The RAID is one of
the most important tools for a Project Manager.
In order to track risks, take actions, tackle issues, and make decisions, the Project Manager
uses the RAID tool.

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Interview questions

15) What techniques are used to define the scope of the project?
There are a number of techniques used to define the scope of any project which involves:
- Product Breakdown
- Analyzing requirements
- System Engineering
- Analysis of Systems
- Engineering the values
- Analyzing the values
- Analyzing alternatives
16) How would you form teams in project management?
For each phase of any project, different types of rules are allotted to team members involved in
a project.
A Project Manager should have knowledge of the domain related to forming teams. This domain
comprises five stages of development that are: forming, storming, norming, performing, and
adjourning.
By following these five developmental stages, a Project Manager can easily form a team in
every stage of the project.
Project Manager Interview Questions on Domain Knowledge and Skills-Based Questions
Domain knowledge-based questions are asked to evaluate the knowledge of a Project Manager.
A Project Manager should have deep knowledge of various domains of project management.
We have listed below a few project manager interview questions and answers enough to
provide the required insight into such types of questions.
Advanced Project Manager Interview Questions and Answers
17) What do you know about the three key challenges that the industry faces today? How
would you tackle those challenges efficiently?
This is one of the commonly asked project interview questions. This question is asked by
interviewers to evaluate the conceptual knowledge of a project manager.
A person should clearly define all three key challenges that the industry faces in running any
project.
If a person is able to answer and explain each of the challenges perfectly, it is possible that the
interviews may not ask any further questions based on domains and knowledge.
While answering this question, one should think about the challenges that may arise in
operating any type of project according to the present market situation.
A person should be highly attentive as the response of the candidate will explain the candidate’s
knowledge to the interviewers.
Project Manager Interview Questions and Answers on Clear Communication

These questions are asked to evaluate the candidate's communication levels and skills in
managing projects.
A Project Manager is a professional who is expected to be highly skilled in communicating with
stakeholders, the leadership body, and their team members clearly.
Project Managers should be able to communicate in such a way that they can easily explain the
complex terms of a project in simple terms.
18) Define the challenges you faced in communicating in your previous projects.
While managing projects, it is possible for a Project Manager to have communication issues.
There are no such constraints that the Project Manager will be able to communicate with their
teams and higher authorities effectively all the time.
To tackle such questions, it is important for a candidate to describe the past communication
issues they faced.

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Interview questions

After describing the communication issues, they faced, they should move on to describe "how
they handle such situations despite having communication issues with their teams or any other
members."
19) Describe your style of communication with your team.
It is never possible for a project manager to complete any project and accomplish all the project
goals without efficient project management.
Whatever the phasor situation may be, a project manager has to discuss each and every
complexity of any situation that may arise in a project.
- They are not only responsible for leading teams, but for motivating their team members to do a
certain amount of work to gain the planned objectives.
- They should play the role of an effective communicator.
- Listen and count team suggestions and helping them to understand some of the complex
terms that arise while working on a project.
- Ensure that team member understands the motives of a project. Such question is asked by the
interviewers to check the tone of the candidates. By doing so, the interviewer can easily
understand that he or she is sensible enough to become an effective communicator while
leading a team.
Project Manager Interview Questions and Answers on Customer Orientation
The responsibility of a project manager requires understanding customer intent and reverting in
a matter of time given to achieve customer expectations.
They must build trust and effectiveness, developing and maintaining professional relationships
with customers.
Given below are some of the interesting project manager interview questions and answers to
tackle customer orientation questions.
20) Define good customer focus
The factors to good customer focus rely on:
- Understanding customers and their needs.
- Deliver Client products or services as expected.
- Identify and resolve problems as possible that meet customer satisfaction.
- Implementing methods to track, measure, and maintain customer satisfaction standards.
21) What is the method to handle angry customers?
Here are the simple ways to deal with angry customers:
- Keep calm and listen to their main issue.
- Take things practical.
- Apologize and sympathize while collecting the grievances.
- Search for a solution.
- Keep lightheaded.
Project Manager Interview Questions and Answers on Team Development
For achieving real-time results, enforcing strong team activities is essential. Project managers in
this aspect have to take an active part in developing, mentoring, coaching team members, and
taking and offering feedback.
The following project manager interview questions and answers gauge the candidate’s
intelligence quotient on customer focus.
22) How to deal with managing the team's performances?
Leadership is an important skill to utilize for boosting team performance. The key skills include:
- Getting brief on assigning tasks versus daily targets of respective teams.
- Conducting sessions, meetings, and discussions.
- Feedback on managing improvisation
23) How do you motivate team members?
A key role for a project manager is to act as a catalyst of motivation and the right guide on any
project they are investing in.

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For instance; giving a compliment on the job done can result as a sign of motivation.

1. Which Project Management Software and Tools do You Prefer Using, and Why?

Interviewers want to know how adept you are at using project management software because it
accounts for a significant portion of the project management business.

The best way to respond to this is to look up the project management software and tools that
the organization uses before you go for the interview. Be sure you talk about the software
you’ve used in the past. Also include your areas of expertise. It is great to include common
project management tools like RACI charts or collaboration software like Asana or Trello as
well.

2. How Did You Improve Your Knowledge in the Last Year

The answer to this question is indicative of how seriously you take your role as a project
manager. Those who are truly invested in their profession will continue to educate and update
themselves at least once during the course of the year. It is important to demonstrate to your
interviewer that you are willing to take in new information and ideas and update yourself
regularly. You might consider exploring one of the project management courses on Emeritus
from some of the world’s best universities as they add immense value to your resume.

3. Do You Have Outsourced Personnel or Supplier Management Experience?

The interviewer is interested in hearing about any time you’ve spent collaborating with remote
teams or external vendors. The inquiry is simple and directly related to your experience so be
sure you’re thorough with the response you give.

4. How Would You Rate Your Project Management Skills

Modesty is not necessary in this situation. Rating yourself highly can demonstrate your self-
assurance. You need to provide evidence to support your assessment. Therefore, give an
example of how your skills are beneficial to complete a project successfully. To make it simpler
for the interviewer, rate yourself on a scale of 1 to

5. Tell Me the Best Way to Allocate Resources.

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Interview questions

Managing a project involves more than just giving orders; it also involves making the most of
limited resources. By asking this question, the interviewer will examine your theoretical and
practical knowledge as a project manager.

6. Tell Me the Specific Training You Have That Would be Relevant to This Project Manager
Job?

To respond to such a question, you need to elaborate on the relevant courses for your job role
and ones that showcase your project management skills. If you have already pursued a PM
certification course you can describe it. If you have learnt on the job, speak about projects
where your skills as a project manager have been tested.

7. Do You Have Budget Management Experience?

Managing the project’s finances effectively is crucial. So, your answer to this question can make
all the difference. The interviewer wants to know how well you are in budget negotiation,
management, and efficient use, as these are the primary responsibilities of a project manager.

8. How Would You Deal with a Situation Where Your Project is Behind Because the Resource
You Booked is Being Used by Another Urgent Project

The recruiter’s goal is to understand your problem-solving abilities. This can be done by
examining how you tackle a stressful situation where you need to finish the project with fewer
resources. They are looking to see if you can handle stress and uncertainty on the job. Also,
how well you perform under pressure, and whether or not you would be a good manager are
being tested. So think carefully about your response to such tricky questions about hypothetical
situations.

9. What’s the Difference Between Project Management and Technical Project Management?

The prime differences between a technical project manager and a project manager are:

 A technical project manager should bring technical expertise to handle a project.

Meanwhile, a regular project manager manages the project in a more generic way.
He/she may or may not be an expert in the technical field
 A technical project manager should have expertise in technical concepts. This
includes scrum methodologies, and certification in CompTIA, PRINCE2 Foundation,
and PRINCE2 Practitioner.
 A regular project manager doesn’t need to be proficient in the above technical
skill. However, they should be a subject matter expert on project management areas
such as planning, budgeting, risk management, pivoting, and monitoring.
10. What is the Largest Problem That You Have Faced to Date as a Project Manager?

The interviewer asks this question to test the candidate’s fortitude. The main objective is to
understand how the candidate determines the problem and tackles it. If you have faced any
critical situations as a project manager role in your previous organization, you can elaborate on
how you have tackled it. Since there can be no universally applicable solution to any problem,
your response will be entirely contextual, based on your skill set, and what you perceive as a
challenge.

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Questions You Should Ask the Interviewer

Here are some of the questions that you can ask the interviewer at the end of the technical
project manager interview:

 How would you describe the responsibilities of the position?

 What are the biggest challenges of this job?
 What’s one thing you’re hoping a new person can bring to the role?
 What does it take to be successful here?
 What about my resume caught your attention for this position?
 For the first three months of our relationship, how can I best demonstrate my
worth to you?
 Will I be given a chance to learn new skills and advance in my current
position/company?
 During the next five years, where do you see this company heading?
T Project Manager Interview Questions
Question: What methodologies do you use to manage IT projects?
Explanation: By asking this question, the interviewer is seeking to understand how you go
about doing your job. This is an example of an operational question. Operational questions help
the interviewer understand your qualifications and skills. They are best answered directly and
concisely.
Example: “When managing complex IT projects, I employ methodologies including Agile, Lean,
and Waterfall. Using these frameworks, I can keep a project on schedule and under budget. The
frameworks also help me identify the project milestones and correct any errors or mistakes
before they have a larger impact on the overall project.”

Question: If you could design your ideal project, what would it look like?
Explanation: An interviewer will ask this question to understand your project management
preferences. When you answer, also provide them information about how you manage projects
and what roadblocks are challenges you prefer to avoid. Your answer should also reflect the
type of projects the organization with which you are interviewing typically engages in.
Example: “My ideal venture would be a challenging software development project. The
application would be designed for internal use, and the customer would be one of the
organization’s internal departments. The project team would be well experienced and familiar
with the application and the end-user community. The timeline would allow us enough time to
complete the project, and the budget would enable us to obtain all of the needed resources. The
project requirements would be clear and transparent, and the stakeholders would be available
to provide timely and helpful feedback.”

Question: What experience do you have managing budgets?

Explanation: An interviewer will be interested in your background in budget management
because this is a crucial skill every project manager must possess. In addition to completing
projects per the requirements and on time, meeting the budget is critical. You should be able to
briefly summarize your experience managing project budgets and also include a statement as to
why this is important in your answer.
Example: “I have a great deal of experience managing project budgets. I have worked on
projects with budgets ranging from four to six figures. I understand the importance of keeping
projects under budget, and I strive to do this without jeopardizing the quality of the work or the
timeliness of the project. Having worked on many projects, I know how to identify areas in which
I can save money without any impact on the overall project.”

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Question: What steps do you take to collaborate with customers and other project stakeholders
effectively?
Explanation: Collaborating with the project stakeholders as well as the end users or customers
is critically important. An interviewer will ask this question to gain an understanding of your
collaboration and communication skills. You may also want to mention your negotiation skills in
your answer since you use these to reach an agreement with the stakeholders.
Example: “Working closely with the project stakeholders and customers is a critical skill for any
project manager. The steps I take to develop a good relationship with the team involves holding
a project meeting early in the process to define the project goals, parameters, resources, and
budget. I make sure everybody clearly understands this and is committed to it. Using the Agile
process, I hold stand-up meetings each day to assess the project progress, identify areas of
concern, and correct any issues that may impact the project in the long term.”

Question: What criteria do you use to prioritize tasks on a project?

Explanation: Prioritizing tasks on a project is critically important. This is what keeps the project
on track and under budget. It also determines when the project resources are required. Proper
prioritization is a critical skill every project manager must possess, and you should be able to
describe how you go about accomplishing this quickly.
Example: “I spend a lot of time reviewing the tasks required for a project and prioritizing them.
The criteria I use to prioritize the tasks include how critical the task is to the overall success of
the project, how timely the task is, and any dependencies the task may have. Critical and timely
tasks receive high priorities as do those which are required for other tasks to be completed.”

Question: What issues do you look for to indicate a project is falling behind schedule?
Explanation: Keeping a project on schedule is one of the project manager’s most important
roles. Being able to identify issues that indicate a project has fallen behind schedule is critical to
the job. The interviewer will ask you this operational question to learn how you go about doing
this and what systems and tools you use. Operational questions are best answered directly and
concisely, describing the process or the steps you take to accomplish this task.
Example: “Keeping a project on schedule is one area in which I invest a lot of time and
resources. Since I employ the Agile methodology, I have the opportunity to identify issues that
impact a project schedule every single day. Indications a project has fallen behind schedule
include incomplete tasks, feedback from the project team about a lack of resources, and
requests for additional time to complete a task.”

Question: If a project is falling behind schedule, what actions do you take to get it back on
track?
Explanation: This is a follow-up to the previous question. The interviewer will ask a follow-up
question if they are interested in the topic being discussed or need additional information to
determine your qualifications and skills. During an interview, you should anticipate follow-up
questions to any answer you provide. Keeping your answer short and concise will enable the
interviewer to move on to a new question or provide them the opportunity to ask a follow-up
question.
Example: “As I mentioned in my previous answer, I have several criteria I use to determine if a
project is falling behind schedule. When I identify an issue that may impact the project schedule,
I examine it very closely to determine if it is genuine and needs to be addressed. If it is genuine,
I take corrective actions to mitigate it. If it isn’t, I coach the team member about the importance
of staying on track and spend even more time monitoring their progress on the tasks they are
assigned.”

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Question: Have you managed projects which utilize remote teams and outsourced resources?
Explanation: The interviewer will ask this question to determine your experience in this area.
You should take this as an indication that the organization utilizes outsourced resources and
remote teams when working on IT projects. If you have experience in this area, you can
describe it and discuss the techniques you use to manage these resources. If you don’t have
this experience, admit it and then discuss what techniques you believe you would use to
manage external resources.
Example: “Many if not all of the projects I manage involve remote team members and external
resources. This is very common for IT projects. I have a set of tools I use to manage both of
these aspects. They include video conferencing, screen-sharing software, Gantt charts,
outsourcing agreements, and daily Agile stand-up meetings. Together, these tools enable me to
make sure the remote team members are staying on task and external resources are available
when needed.”

Question: What is your process for addressing team members who are working well below their
potential?
Explanation: As a project manager, you’re a team leader, and you are expected to be able to
manage a team so they are producing up to their full potential. The interviewer will ask this
question to determine your leadership skills and how you go about accomplishing this task. Any
skilled project manager should be able to answer this question easily.
Example: “Keeping my team on task and working up to their full potential is a challenge, but
one that I welcome. I take the time to get to know each of my team members very well and
understand what they are capable of. I only assign them tasks I know they can accomplish. I
take the time to communicate the project goal and requirements. I also make sure each team
member commits to their role on the project both verbally and in writing. I do daily check-ins with
them to ensure they are on schedule and identify any issues which may be impacting their work.
Finally, at the end of the project, I recognize their contributions and provide a small reward for
their work.”

Question: Have you ever sought help outside of the immediate project team, and if so, why?
Explanation: This is another operational question in which the interviewer is hoping to
understand whether you are willing to go outside of the immediate project team and
stakeholders to request assistance when you need it. Project managers need to take full
responsibility for the successful completion of the project but must also be open to requesting
assistance. You should be able to confirm that you are willing to request outside assistance and
describe why you would do this and what result you would expect to achieve.
Example: “Even the most competent project teams often require assistance from an outside
source. I am not averse to doing this, as long as the assistance is reasonable and will not
impact the timeline or the budget for the project. I normally request help from someone who may
have the skills or resources not available from the project team. I only request help if it is
absolutely necessary, and I make sure the person I am requesting help from understands it is a
one-off and that I am willing to return the favor when needed.”
1. Challenges in Agile Project Management
12 common project management challenges
Project management is a multifaceted process that encompasses multiple phases—initiation,
planning, execution, monitoring and Controlling, Closing.
1. Scope creep
Scope creep occurs when a project's scope grows beyond its original definition or goals. It
typically happens when stakeholders ask for changes to the project. Any alteration to a project's

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plan can cause confusion, increase the cost of resources and make it difficult to meet
deadlines.
If you can avoid scope creep, you can improve your chances of completing a project on time
and within budget. To prevent or manage scope creep, consider the following strategies:
 Clearly define project requirements and goals.
 Create a schedule that includes every step of the process.
 Involve clients or stakeholders in project planning.
 Use tools such as Gantt charts to plan and track projects.
 Communicate to stakeholders how scope changes might affect deadlines and
budgets.
 Refuse project changes that might cause delays or unreasonable costs.
To manage scope creep, we need to use the change control mechanism to keep it under
control. This includes the following -
 Maintaining a baseline scope and keeping track of the project's progress.
 To evaluate actual work performance metrics to the baseline scope, i.e.,
"How different is the current project from the original plan?", we need to perform
Variance analysis.
 Identifying the severity and source of the observed alterations.
 Selecting whether to take preventive or corrective action in response to
requests regarding changes.
 To recommend actions and manage all change requests by using the
Perform Integrated Change Control method (whether preventive or corrective).

2. Poor communication
Strong communication is one of the keys to completing a project successfully. With well-
developed written and verbal communication skills, a project manager can effectively give
instructions, gather information and update stakeholders. Otherwise, their team can become
confused, leading to delays.
Improve communication between all of the parties involved in a project by:
 Using collaborative tools and project management software to update team
members
 Giving frequent feedback concerning employee performance
 Developing a communication plan and status report schedule for stakeholders
 Doing team-building activities to improve relationships and communication
between team members
 Being transparent about project progress
 Keep in mind that it may be necessary to adjust your communication methods to
accommodate different communication styles
3. Unclear goals
Projects can be successful only if the team has well-defined and measurable goals to work
toward. Ideally, every member of the team is aware of each project objective and the
stakeholders' exact expectations concerning each. Otherwise, they may spend undue time and
resources trying to accomplish something that doesn't provide the desired value.

Devise and communicate clear project goals by:

 Using the SMART method to set goals

 Determining the project's specifications, including the timeline, before
implementation
 Meeting with your team to define and discuss the goals

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 Using project planning software to specify goals and each team member's role in
achieving them
 Identifying ways to monitor progress, such as with milestones
4. Poor budgeting
Smart financial planning and skillful cost management are essential for ensuring that you use
funding appropriately. In contrast, poor budgeting may result in undesirable outcomes. Without
a strong handle on money matters, you may find your team facing cost overruns, which is likely
to displease the stakeholders and prevent the successful completion of the project.

Take these steps to avoid budgeting issues:

 Plan your budget ahead of time, using realistic estimates.

 Review similar projects to compare their budgets to yours.
 Get advice from experts, such as software developers or quality assurance
specialists, who are familiar with cost and time estimates for your type of project.
 Reassign resources or change suppliers, services or vendors as needed.
5. Skill gaps
You may find that the skill levels of some of your team members aren't enough to satisfy the
required competencies to realize project goals. This situation is known as a skill gap. If
someone is incapable of performing the duties of their role, then you can expect a
corresponding gap between your project goals and project outcomes.

Ensure your team members have adequate skills for your project by:
 Creating a list of the skills or knowledge a project requires
 Assessing current employee skills and providing training as needed
 Assigning employees to project tasks based on their strengths and experience
 Outsourcing or hiring additional staff to complete specialized tasks

6. Insufficient risk analysis

Risk analysis is the process of predicting the potential factors that may arise that can jeopardize
the success of a project. It's a vital part of the project life cycle, but the process itself is
susceptible to certain risks. Rushing the analysis, for example, can lead to oversights that fail to
foresee major obstacles. This, in turn, can result in flaws in the project plan, financial issues or
unknown variables.
Improve your risk analysis by:
 Researching the possible issues a project or the team might encounter during
every stage of the project
 Developing control measures to prevent potential risks
 Creating replacement plans you can use if the project changes
 Knowing what resources you have to minimize or control risks
7. Lack of accountability
Accountability means taking ownership of actions and their outcomes, particularly when it
comes to mistakes. Thus, an accountable person is willing to face the consequences of what
they've done and make every effort to resolve the subsequent issues that have arisen. When
leaders and team members lack accountability, they can impede progress in a couple of ways.
One is by damaging the morale of the team, which may absorb the consequences of a particular
person's mistakes. The other is by slowing productivity when project resources channel into the
effort to identify the cause of a problem.
Improve your team's accountability on a project by:
 Assigning every team member clear tasks
 Establishing a common goal and helping your team work toward it

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 Building accountability into the project's workflow so team members understand

their roles and responsibilities
 Leading by example so that your team members understand it's acceptable to
make mistakes as long as they take responsibility for them
 Building trust between the members of the team so everyone feels comfortable
being honest with one another

8. Stakeholder disengagement
Stakeholder engagement is the process by which a project's stakeholders—those who have a
vested interest in the project, such as the client—collaborate and communicate with the team.
The involvement of the stakeholders is important because they can provide input that guides the
project toward the best possible outcome. Several of the other challenges that projects face,
such as unclear goals and insufficient risk analysis, arise when the stakeholders aren't
sufficiently engaged.
Follow these steps to ensure stakeholder engagement:
 Involve stakeholders in the project planning process.
 Communicate with stakeholders frequently, and give them regular project
updates.
 Directly ask clients for their feedback on every project phase.
9. Unrealistic deadlines
An unrealistic deadline is a project due date that is impossible or unreasonable to meet given
the specifications and requirements. When a team faces unrealistic deadlines, they find
themselves forced to condense their activities in such a way that compromises the quality of
their work. As a result, the finished state of the project is likely to fall short of client
expectations.
Make sure you set realistic deadlines by:
 Prioritizing tasks
 Building extra time into your deadline to account for potential obstacles
 Finalizing deadlines with relevant team members
 Discussing deadline concerns with stakeholders before starting the project
 Using a project calendar to plan and manage schedules and deadlines
10. Technological shortcomings
Nowadays, project management software is essential for planning, organizing and managing
project progress. It's not uncommon for project teams to encounter issues with the software and
other tech tools they've chosen to help manage the project life cycle. Being forced to use
insufficient technology, they may encounter delays arising from frustration, slowed
communication and the additional learning required to devise workarounds.

Avoid or address technological shortcomings by choosing an effective program that meets

specific needs, such as:
 Tracking time
 Functionality on multiple devices
 Customization
 Integration with existing tools and software
 Team communication channels
 Scheduling
 Searchability
 Notifications
 Easy to use
 Prioritize the features you value most, and find a project management program
that not only includes those features but also fits your budget.

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11. Scheduling conflicts

A scheduling conflict is a situation in which two or more priorities compete for your time and
attention. If your team or company is working on multiple projects at once, you might experience
scheduling conflicts. As a result, one or several projects may face delays and difficulties
concerning resource allocation.
Share project resources effectively and keep your project on schedule by:
 Coordinating your project schedule and needs with other project managers
 Checking team members' vacation and time-off schedules to avoid unexpected
absences
 Using an online calendar planner to organize multiple projects and their
resources simultaneously
12. Uncertainty
Uncertainty is a condition in which stakeholders, including the members of the team, are unsure
about any aspect of the project on which they're working. They may feel unconfident about the
team's ability to meet goals, the potential impact of the project when completed or the use of
resources associated with the project. When uncertainty arises, it can affect the morale of
everyone involved, which can lead to poor project outcomes.
Reduce uncertainty by monitoring progress and tracking metrics, such as:
 Burn rate, or how quickly you are spending your budgeted resources
 Estimated hours and costs versus actual hours and costs
 Employee workload to ensure each team member has a balanced number of
tasks

20 MAIN PROJECT RISK EXAMPLES AND THEIR MITIGATION STRATEGIES

To begin with, the 20 main project risk examples and how to mitigate these risks will be
discussed in the upcoming paragraphs.

1. Purpose and Need not well-defined: The first project risk example is the risk related to
the need and purpose of the project. This is a medium type of risk but it can get transferred to
the high project risk category if the project is impacted by this factor.

Mitigation: Any organization needs to complete a business case, or the planning artifacts to be
prepared if it is not provided beforehand. Also, the need and purpose of the project have to be
mentioned and defined accurately.

2. Incomplete project design and deliverable definition: The second project risk example
is incomplete project design and deliverable definition. It is a low-risk factor but can eventually
become a high-risk factor if not controlled beforehand.

Mitigation: It is always beneficial to appoint a subject matter expert to prevent such a risk. The
experts will help you define the project by conducting design workshops. This way, the risk can
be prevented efficiently.

3. Difficulty in defining and understanding project schedule : Every project must have a
specific completion period. If there is no set schedule or if there is difficulty in understanding the
project schedule then this project risk example will arise. It is included in the low-risk category
but can cause a medium risk to the project.

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Mitigation: Workshops are really important in such cases. All should conduct scheduled
workshops with the team members. This will help them manage time efficiently and also avoid
missing tasks.

4. Risks related to budget: There may be times when the costs go beyond the revenue, and
in such scenarios, this project risk example arises. There may be uncertainty in every business
activity related to the future, and when the cost exceeds revenue, the risk factor becomes
severe.

Mitigation: To prevent such risks, all should analyze the external factors and the internal factors
that hinder the project’s working and keep some cash aside for meeting the crisis soon.

5. Resistance to changes: This is another project risk example in which if a project does not
implement changes with the changing trends, it will cause issues in the project. For example, if
technology has to be changed in an organization, and the team members resist the changes, it
will cause a problem with respect to the working of the project.

Mitigation: A successful project is the one that goes with the flow. This means the flexible
project will see long-lasting success in comparison to the projects which resist those changes.

6. Risks related to the resources: The next project risk example is related to the resources.
This risk arises if the project cannot acquire the relevant resources, for example, skilled
workers, finances, and so on.

Mitigation: A project must show a bright picture to the investors and the team members related
to the project’s success. This way the project can attract more investors to fulfill the financial
aspects and also attract skilled workers to give their best.

7. Lack of control over staff priorities: The next project risk example is related to the staff
members. If a project fails to create a backup for team members, then the project will be
delayed, which is indeed a negative aspect that may give rise to other risk factors.

Mitigation: To prevent this risk factor, a project manager must take the initiative to brief out the
importance of the project to the other managers. The manager should schedule the dates for
performing each task and provide backup for every team member. If anyone leaves the project
team, time must not be wasted in finding another candidate suitable for the profile. Instead, a
backup must be kept ready to avoid such risks.

8. Risk factors related to disputes: A project is handled by many people, and it is likely to
happen that disputes can arise due to different thoughts, different, and different expectations.
So therefore, this is included in the project risk examples.

Mitigation: The way to avoid such risks is to conduct meetings regularly and let all the team
members and project-related personnel participate so that the issues can be discussed openly
and a relevant solution is provided as soon as possible.

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9. Unplanned work risk: There are several tasks to be performed by each one related to the
project. When tasks are not planned efficiently, then this type of risk arises, and the project will
have cases of delayed work more than the tasks which are being completed.

Mitigation: To avoid this risk, one must attend the project schedule workshops and analyze the
previous projects. You must check all the plans and quantity surveys and document the
findings. This must be reported to the project manager before the project kicks off.

10. Communication issues: One of the other project risk examples includes the
communication channel between the people related to the project. Due to a lack of
communication, there will be no clarity, and instead, confusion will arise which will be stressful
for the efficient running of the project.

Mitigation: To prevent such risks, the communication plan must be established considering the
audience, frequency, and goal of the project. Along with the plan, the right communication
channel is to be established through emails, phone calls, writing, and so on.

2. Conflict management. Conflict happens on all projects. Projects operate in

dynamic
environments and face many mutually exclusive constraints including budget, scope, schedule,
and quality, which can lead to conflicts. It is not uncommon to want to avoid conflict, but not all
conflict is negative. How conflict is handled can either lead to more conflict or to better decision
making and stronger solutions. Addressing conflict before it escalates beyond useful debate
leads to better outcomes.

The following approaches can help:

▹ Keep communications open and respectful. Because conflict can cause anxiety, it is important
to keep a safe environment to explore the source of the conflict. Without a safe environment,
people will stop communicating. Make sure words, tone of voice, and body language remain
nonthreatening.

▹ Focus on the issues, not the people. Conflict is based on people perceiving situations
differently. It should not be personal. The focus is on resolving the situation, not casting blame.

▹ Focus on the present and future, not the past. Stay focused on the current situation, not past
situations. If something similar happened previously, bringing up the past will not resolve the
current situation. In fact, it can serve to intensify the current situation even more.

▹ Search for alternatives together. Damage incurred from conflict can be repaired by looking for
resolutions and alternatives together. It can also create more constructive relationships. This
moves the conflict into more of a problem-solving space where people can work together to
generate creative alternatives.

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3. How will you negotiate with business if the asked functionality / feature cant be
accommodated within given timelines to aid development team to deliver close to
viable product (eg download feature SCV , excel , pdf or dashboard etc )
Negotiation
There are many models for negotiation. One model is Steven Covey’s principle of “Think Win-
Win.”
This principle applies to all interactions, not just negotiations, but it is described here in the
context

▶ Win-win. This is the optimal outcome, where each person is satisfied with the outcome.
of negotiation. In negotiations, there are different possible outcomes:

▶ Win-lose/lose-win. This describes a competition perspective where in order to win,

someone else loses. It may also come from a martyr perspective where someone chooses

▶ Lose-lose. This outcome can occur when win-win outcomes may have been possible, but
to lose so that others can win.

competition overwhelms collaboration. In this scenario, everyone ends up worse off.

Business negotiations are a critical part of the day-to-day life of any business. Making or
breaking a deal can have tremendous consequences for your company. Missing out on
opportunities can deal a fatal blow to an otherwise great product or service.
Though the stakes might be high and the task daunting, don’t let yourself be thrown off by a
business negotiation. While innate negotiation skills such as relational intelligence and
charisma can make the difference, preparation and strategy are key.
This guide will tell you exactly what negotiations are all about. We’ll discuss the negotiation
process, taking you through the 6 steps of business negotiation. Ready to start striking
deals left and right? Scroll down to get started!

What is a business negotiation?

Negotiation teams are sat around the bargaining table: a negotiation has started. Business
negotiations involve at least two parties looking to reach an agreement. The topic of
negotiations can be quite diverse, as the negotiation process can apply to all areas of business,
from service delivery to merging and acquisitions. The negotiators may also come
from different backgrounds and industries: for example, they could be suppliers from all
around the world.
A business negotiation can be seen as a discussion between two or more parties focused
on conflict resolution. The goal is to arrive at a win-win situation, meaning all sides will
benefit from the contract signed in the end. Since participants all have different outlooks
and strategic interests, making concessions is required in order to make progress.
Knowing when to yield or how to defend your positions will determine the outcome of the
negotiation. Reaching your goals while ensuring your partners are content with the terms of the
deal is a delicate balancing act. This is why negotiating requires negotiation strategies and
thorough preparation.

The 6 steps of the business negotiation process

The negotiation process can be divided into 6 steps. Structuring your approach to negotiating
will help you define an effective strategy at each stage of this sometimes lengthy process.
Step 0: Preparation

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Preparing for negotiation is an important first step. Going into a negotiation without having all
the required information and knowledge about both your own offer and your partner or
prospect will always lead to disastrous results.
You must think about your selling points, arguments and requirements before the negotiation
starts. Set clear goals to describe what you expect to achieve with this dialogue, and keep them
in mind at all times.
Conversely, you should gather as much information as possible about your negotiation
partners. Try to guess what their negotiating style could be, what their needs and
objectives are in order to better adjust your approach and refine your value proposition.
In the case of M&As or investment rounds, a term sheet outlining the rough contours of the
negotiation can be drafted by both parties. This non-binding document may help everyone get
on the same page and align their expectations.
To better prepare the sales, check out our sales proposal template!
Step 1: First contact
The first contact must have two goals: establishing a cordial relationship and presenting the
objectives of the negotiation.
Though the first meeting might not be very long, this phase is of utmost importance and will
have a lasting impact on the entire negotiation process. You only get one chance to make a
good first impression. The parties involved will base their opinion of you and your firm based
on this first contact.
Be sure to pay special attention to the way you express yourself and your ideas, including
both verbal and non-verbal communication. Maintain a professional appearance, an open
and warm attitude, smile and use body language effectively. Observe the other negotiators to
try and know more about their outlook and the perspective from which they seem to approach
the negotiation.
Step 2: Need definition
During this second phase, you will need to demonstrate your active listening skills.
Understanding what the other party needs, wants or any other relevant information can help
you make more enticing offers. Ask open questions to gain valuable insight.
You can use the 5W method:
 Who is involved at large?
 What are the main issues at hand?
 Where, meaning the scope of the negotiation
 When should negotiations take place?
 Why is the negotiation held?
 + How could the problem be solved?
Remember that your goal is to arrive at a win-win agreement: your attitude should demonstrate
a genuine intent to understand their concerns and prove that you are willing
to compromise and find ways around issues.
See also
o The 5 W's in business: Definition, examples, and benefits
Step 3: Offer presentation
Once you are familiar with the expectations and needs of each party, you should be able to
conduct a more effective negotiation. Now that you have a good understanding of their
motives, you can offer more personalized solutions to their concerns.
Be sure to meet your partners’ expectations in your argumentation. Your presentation
should never be a monologue: engage the other party at each step. You can gauge their
response over the course of your speech by paying attention to their attitude and asking
short yes/no questions to check everyone agrees with your points.
Step 4: Objection management

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Listening to divergent opinions and taking different outlooks into account is a prerequisite
for conflict resolution. Objections should be viewed as a sign
of engagement and interest rather than obstacles.
Provide solutions and answers to minor objections and use more serious issues to spark
discussion. The different stakeholders may raise issues that, if managed properly, could
strengthen the final agreement. Make sure you understand their points in detail and feel free
to ask follow-up questions.
Handling objections in sales is less hard with our guide! Check out this article now!
Step 5: Contract negotiation
Once a common path forward has been established, the final elements of
the contract or agreement can be discussed. This phase is at the heart of the negotiation, as it
is during this step that the outcome will take shape.
This is when business negotiation skills are most useful. Your negotiation strategies should
leverage all the key elements of the deal. One of the most important bones of contention is
usually the price.
Thus, you ought to be able to explain why and how the price you’re offering was set. Highlight
your competitive advantages or the quality of your solution. Don’t let the price overshadow
other aspects of your value proposition: it is but the reflection of the other elements that make
up your offer.
This step is made of compromise: both parties should be flexible and accommodate the other
to strike the best balance between their interests. Think about which elements you’re willing to
compromise on and which things you cannot afford to concede in advance.
Step 6: Deal closure
Do you feel like your interlocutors are happy with your offer? If they seem genuinely content with
your proposal, you can ask the sales closing questions. Ask questions such as “What shall we
do next?” or “Do you have any other concern?” to prompt the other party to make a
choice or settle on the current offer.
Do not treat this step as a mere formality: listen carefully for any remaining questions and
make sure all doubts have been lifted. Ensuring the negotiations have truly come to an end and
that everyone sees the deal as beneficial will ensure the negotiated agreement will last and
serve as a robust base for its execution.
If you feel that the closing phase is dragging on for too long, you can instil a sense of urgency
by stressing the fact that this is a temporary offer or that your solution should be adopted
quickly. Only resort to this technique if you are certain your solution will satisfy your partners or
client. Otherwise, this will result in a rushed contract.
This step should allow you to build a trusting relationship: taking sufficient time will plant the
seeds of customer loyalty or give rise to a long-term collaboration well after you’ve closed
the deal.

End-to-end (E2E)
project management breaks a project down so that you know exactly what to do and when. It’s a
formula for delivering a quality product, every time.

E2E Definition & Benefits

End-to-end project management is a methodical process for moving through a project from the
beginning stages all the way to completion. It breaks a project down into key stages, and
identifies all the tasks and objectives for each stage. The process creates a continuous
workflow, as it sufficiently prepares the project to move into each successive stage.

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Here are some of the central promises of end-to-end planning:

The Project Stays Within Its Constraints

End-to-end planning creates orderliness and deliberation. Things are carefully planned and
monitored, and so it increases the odds that a project is completed within its stated scope,
budget and timeline.
The Project Manager Grows and Improves
With end-to-end planning, a project manager takes plenty of time to reflect and analyze systems
at every stage of a project. This creates opportunities to improve and update processes with
every go-around.
It Decreases Rework
End-to-end planning is an efficient process. It encourages continual communication so all team
members are in alignment and working toward the same objectives.
As you can see, end-to-end project management delivers clear benefits to a project. The
following is a summary of each project stage in the end-to-end cycle, including the key
objectives of each stage.

1. Initiation Stage

In this first stage, the project manager seeks to define the project and determine whether or not
to take it on.
Define the Project
The first step is to clarify the project in general terms, identifying first the objective, the timeline
and the budget, and then gaining a rudimentary estimation of the scope. These are broad
estimations; the particulars are spelled out later.
For example, if the project is a home remodel, this stage clarifies the key objectives, such as
refinish the basement, add a bathroom and knock out a wall to expand the living room.
Feasibility Study
A feasibility study, as the name suggests, determines if the project can succeed, given its
objective and constraints. It primarily focuses on the cost of the project and the value of the final
deliverable.
A feasibility study answers questions such as:
Do we have the resources (labor, equipment and materials) needed to achieve the proposed
objective?
Does the return on investment justify the costs?
A feasibility report includes breakdowns of the project’s cost, alongside the anticipated income.
Identify Stakeholders
The initiation stage also clarifies everyone involved in the project. Who is invested in the
outcome, and whose input needs to be considered in the discovery stage?
Select Tools
At this point, it’s necessary to outline what communication tools and software to use for the
project. A remote project requires special attention at this phase, as the quality of the
communication is directly determined by selecting user-friendly tools.
In summary, this initial stage again is about gaining a broad overview of the project. It paints
with a broad brush. This stage seeks to develop a framework for the project, define
stakeholders, outline resources, clarify objectives, and then determine whether or not it makes
good business sense to move forward.

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2. Planning Stage
The planning stage lays a foundation for a project and creates a roadmap for the team to
follow.
A solid plan places the project in a position to succeed.
Although a thorough plan is a lot of work, the effort is worth it. Working through the details
minimizes scope creep, gets everyone in agreement on project goals, and clears up
assumptions and miscommunications.
Here are the central components of the planning stage.
Business Case
A business case states the justification for the project. Among other criteria, it outlines the
project in terms of the objective, the benefits and the cost.
Procurement Strategy
A procurement strategy goes hand-in-hand with the business case, as it outlines how the project
plans to obtain the required labor, equipment and materials within the project’s scope and cost.
Requirement Summary
A thorough understanding of all requirements is necessary before beginning a project.
There are several methods for capturing requirements, including a MoSCoW meeting, where
stakeholders distinguish musts from shoulds, and a user story session, where all stakeholders
write out requirements individually.
Whatever method is used, the objective for the project manager is to communicate with all
stakeholders, and develop a clear understanding of what the project seeks to accomplish, both
in terms of the “what” and the “why.” That is to say, this stage identifies both the tangible
deliverables and the value that these deliverables seek to add.
Scope Summary
A scope summary defines the scope of a project, using the project’s requirements. It includes
assumptions, exclusions and a list of all requirements. A thorough scope document is the surest
way to avoid scope creep during the project’s execution stage.
Work Breakdown Structure and Resource Schedule
A work breakdown structure (WBS) uses both the objective and the high level requirements to
break the project down into smaller work packages. These work packages spell out all of the
resources needed for the project, including the equipment, the labor, the materials, the location
and the fees.
The project manager identifies the relationships between each of the work packages, to create a
critical path. She or he assigns roles to all the team members and creates work flows.

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Wherever possible, the project manager also applies the strategies of smoothing,
leveling, crashing and fast-tracking in order to create efficiencies in the schedule.
Change Management Plan
Even though the planning stage seeks to clarify objectives and reign in scope creep, changes
are bound to occur in the project nonetheless. Creating a change management process allows
the team to properly document changes as they occur during the project’s execution.
Project Management Methodology
The project manager also determines a methodology for managing the project during the
planning stage. The nature of the project itself often determines which structure to choose. A
project with high risks and upfront costs often leans toward a more waterfall approach, while a
project that can pivot easily takes a more agile approach.
Risk Management Plan
A risk management plan carefully examines the project and anticipates all possible occurrences,
both positive and negative. The plan also considers the likelihood of each occurrence. For
example, a winter construction project would anticipate inclement weather, and place a high
probability on this occurrence.
A risk management plan may sound silly to some, as it anticipates issues that may or may not
occur. However, ultimately it saves the project time, money and resources.
When the vulnerabilities and threats for each asset have been identified, the next step is to
determine how to handle them. Risks can either be avoided, transferred, accepted, or
mitigated.
It also includes a succession plan, in the event a team member leaves during the execution
stage.
Plan Kickoff Meeting
Finally, when the planning is complete, it’s time to set up a kickoff meeting to share the plan with
all stakeholders. The kickoff meeting carefully outlines all the deliverables, presents the WBS
and resource schedule, and calls attention to risks.
The agenda for the meeting includes outlining the deliverables, sharing the schedule, and
soliciting feedback. Ideally, it’s scheduled at a time and place where all stakeholders can
attend.
As you can see, the planning stage thoroughly looks at all aspects of a project, to be sure it
commences without a hitch. Now it’s time to move onto the execution stage!

3. Execution Stage

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The next two stages of the project management cycle are the longest, and they are performed
simultaneously.
The third stage puts the project into action, and begins with a kickoff meeting.
Kickoff Meeting
Execution begins with a meeting that shares and discusses all of the documents and
discoveries from the planning stage. The objective is to get everyone on the same page as to
what the project aims to achieve, and how it aims to achieve it.
Particular attention is given to the project requirements, the timeline and the procurement
strategy.
It also solicits stakeholder feedback and seeks to identify and clear up any last-minute
miscommunications and assumptions.
Execute on the Plan
‘At this point, the team works to deliver requirements to the client. Depending on the project, the
execution plan may last quite some time. Whenever possible, the requirements are presented in
incremental stages, in order to collect feedback. Oftentimes, the team reflects on client
feedback and changes course if need be.
The team works hard during the execution stage. Depending on the project management
strategy, the team may continually meet in sprint sessions and scrum meetings, or else follow a
carefully laid plan on a gantt chart. Either way, the objective is the same: To fulfill requirements
within the given scope, timeline and budget.

4. Monitoring Stage
Monitoring is critical to the successful execution of a project. The objective of the project
manager at this stage is to supervise the team and determine if the project is on track with the
given budget, timeline and resources.
At this point, many of the processes outlined in the development stage are put into action. Some
central components of the monitoring stage include:
Scope Management
Scope management aims to avoiding incidents of gold-plating and scope creep, two forms of
undocumented changes to the project’s requirements.
This entails keeping close supervision on the team, to be sure everyone works toward fulfilling
requirements exclusivity, with no add-ons. It also means ongoing communication with the client
to identify and approve changes, and ensure they’re incorporated into the change process.
Change Management

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As mentioned, changes are bound to occur in a project. Sometimes the change is a recovery
plan, intended to get a delayed project back on track. At other times, the change is an
adjustment to the deliverables, based on client feedback.
Ongoing communication with team and client determine when and if the change is needed.
Following the change processes outlined in the planning stage ensures the changes are
documented and integrated into the project schedule and resource plan.
Risk Supervision
A project manager follows the risk management plan and monitors the project for upcoming
risks. The plan is also updated to include new risks assumed by changes to the project, or the
addition of new requirements.
Daily Scrum Meetings
Ongoing communication is central to successfully monitoring a project. Ideally, a team meets
every day to discuss the work plan, and align efforts to the overall project goal.
This is also an opportunity to air concerns about risks, discuss feedback from the client, or
suggest changes to the project.
Final Deliverable Sign-off
When the client signs-off on the final deliverable, both the monitor and the execute stage come
to an end. Everyone drinks a glass of champagne, and toasts to their hard work.

5. Closure Stage
In addition to popping a bottle of champagne, there are still some loose ends to tie up in the final
stage of a project.
Post-Mortum Meeting
A post-mortum meeting acknowledges the hard work from key players and the significant
milestones the team achieved together.
It’s also an opportunity for the team to share feedback on various processes and procedures
used during the project. These suggestions indicate how to improve the next time around.
Reflect on Processes and Systems
This is an important stage for the project manager to reflect on what worked well in the project
and what did not work so well, with particular focus on the following areas:
Communication methods
Scope document template
Requirements gathering method
Project management method
Change management plan

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Risk management plan

A careful reflection creates a window of opportunity to improve processes for the next project.
Close the Books
And finally, it’s time to take inventory, store files and share results with all necessary
stakeholders.
Conclusion
Just like the various stages of our lives, a project also has a lifecycle with clear stages.
We complete school, we enter out of childhood and into adulthood. And a project progresses
from the idea, to the plan, to the execution, and finally to the completion.
In order to move successfully from one stage into another, it’s necessary to determine
milestones for each stage. Without end-to-end management, the project ends up being a
confused, muddled mess.
If you’re managing a remote team, the planning, monitoring and executing are no cinch, that’s
for sure. Consider signing up for Teamly, the intuitive project management software that allows
teams to interact daily in video chat, messages and online meeting spaces.

1. Walk us through key phases of water fall project life cycle with entry and exit
criteria of each phase and gating process . Please call out key documentations &
sign off check points to be done at each phase of project life cycle since initiation till
Go live & post live warranty period

The 6 phases of the waterfall project management methodology

Any team can implement waterfall project management, but this methodology is most useful for
processes that need to happen sequentially. If the project you’re working on has tasks that can
be completed concurrently, try another framework, like the Agile methodology.
If you’re ready to get started with waterfall project management, follow these six steps:
1. Requirements phase
This is the initial planning process in which the team gathers as much information as possible to
ensure a successful project. Because tasks in the waterfall method are dependent on previous
steps, it requires a lot of forethought. This planning process is a crucial part of the waterfall
model, and because of that, most of the project timeline is often spent planning.
To make this method work for you, compile a detailed project plan that explains each phase of
the project. This includes everything from what resources are needed and what specific team
members are working on the project. This document is commonly referred to as a project
requirements document.
By the end of the requirements phase, you should have a very clear outline of the project from
start to finish, including:
 Each stage of the process
 Who’s working on each stage
 Key dependencies
 Required resources
 A timeline of how long each stage will take.
2. System design phase

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In a software development process, the design phase is when the project team specifies what
hardware the team will be using, and other detailed information such as programming
languages and user interface.
There are two steps of the system design phase: the high-level design phase and low-level
design phase. In the high-level design phase, the team builds out the skeleton of how the
software will work and how information will be accessed. During the low-level design phase, the
team builds the more specific parts of the software. If the high-level design phase is the
skeleton, the low-level design phase is the organs of the project.
Those team members developing using the waterfall method should document each step so the
team can refer back to what was done as the project progresses.
Read: How to write a software requirement document (with template)
3. Implementation phase
This is the stage where everything is put into action. Based on the requirements document in
step one and the system design process in step two, the team begins the full development
process to build the software as outlined by both the requirements phase and the system design
phase.
Read: What is an implementation plan? 6 steps to create one
4. Testing phase
This is the stage in which the development team hands the project over to the quality assurance
testing team. QA testers search for any bugs or errors that need to be fixed before the project is
deployed.
Testers should clearly document all of the issues they find when QAing. In the event that
another developer comes across a similar bug, they can reference previous documentation to
help fix the issue.
Create a waterfall project management template
5. Deployment phase
For development projects, this is the stage in which the software is deployed to the end user.
For other industries, this is when the final deliverable is launched and delivered to end
customers.
6. Maintenance phase
Once a project is deployed, there may be instances where a new bug is discovered, or a
software update is required. This is known as the maintenance phase, and it's common in
software development to be continuously working on this phase.

When to use the waterfall methodology

The waterfall methodology is a common form of project management because it allows for
thorough planning and detailed documentation. However, this framework isn’t right for every
project. Here are a few examples for when to use this type of project management.
Project has a well defined end goal
One of the strengths of the waterfall approach is that it allows for a clear path from point A to
point B. If you're unsure of what your point B is, your project is probably better off using
an iterative form of project management like the Agile approach.
Projects with an easily defined goal are well-suited for the waterfall method because project
managers can work backwards from the goal to create a clear and detailed path with all of the
requirements necessary.
Read: How to write an effective project objective, with examples
No restraints on budget or time
If your project has no restraints on budget or time, team members can spend as much time as
possible in the requirements and system design phase. They can tweak and tailor the needs of
the project as much as they want until they land on a well thought out and defined project plan.

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Creating repeatable processes

The waterfall model requires documentation at almost every step of the process. This makes it
easy to repeat your project for a new team member; each step is clearly detailed so you can
recreate the process.
Creating repeatable processes also makes it easy to train new team members on what exactly
needs to be done in similar projects. This makes the waterfall process an effective approach to
project management for standardizing processes.
Read: 5 project management phases to improve your team’s workflow

Benefits of waterfall project management

Consistent documentation makes it easy to backtrack

When you implement the waterfall project management process, you’re creating documentation
every step of the way. This can be beneficial—if your team needs to backtrack your processes,
you can easily find mistakes. It's also great for creating repeatable processes for new team
members, as mentioned earlier.
Tracking progress is easy
By laying out a waterfall project in a Gantt chart, you can easily track project progress. The
timeline itself serves as a progress bar, so it’s always clear what stage a project is in.

Team members can manage time effectively

Because the waterfall methodology requires so much planning during the requirement and
design phase, this makes it easy for stakeholders to estimate how much time their specific part
of the waterfall process will take.
Read: 18 time management tips, strategies, and quick wins to get your best work done

Downsides of the waterfall model

Roadblocks can drastically affect timeline

The waterfall methodology is linear by nature, so if there's a bump in the road or a task gets
delayed, the entire timeline is shifted. For example, if a third party vendor is late on sending a
specific part to a manufacturing team, the entire process has to be put on pause until that
specific piece is received.
Linear progress can make backtracking challenging
One of the major challenges of the waterfall methodology is that it's hard to go back to a phase
once it's already completed. For example, if someone is painting the walls of a house, they
wouldn’t be able to go back and increase the size of one of the rooms.
QA is late in the process
In comparison to some of the more iterative project management methodologies like Kanban
and Agile, the review stage in a waterfall approach happens later in the process. If a mistake is
made early on in the process, it can be challenging to go back and fix it. Because of how the
waterfall process works, it doesn’t allow for room for iteration or searching for the best solution.
Read: Waterfall vs. Agile vs. Kanban vs. Scrum: What's the difference?

Managing your waterfall project

With waterfall projects, there are many moving pieces and different team members to keep track
of. One of the best ways to stay on the same page is to use work management software to keep
workflows, timelines, and deliverables all in one place.

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If you're ready to try waterfall project management with your team, try a template in Asana. You
can view Asana projects in several ways, including Timeline view which visualizes your project
as a linear timeline.

a. Assume you are been designated as project manager for a regulatory project
please walk us through the step by step procedure you will do end to end
1. Project Kick Off - project kickoff meeting is the first meeting between the
project team and the client, when you establish expectations, communication, and
goals. The meeting allows both parties to define the project's purpose and what they
consider a success.

2. Project Charter – Project charter. A project charter is a document issued by the

project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project and
provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to
project activities.

3. Budget planning –

Reasons Why Budget Planning Is Vital

Whenever we work with startups or enterprises – we strive to be accurate, transparent, and

flexible in estimates as possible.
Communicating with a client properly is an important task to prioritize that minimizes the
potential for doubt about the accuracy of your cost estimates.
However, it is still essential to create an estimate covering all possible issues and is as accurate
as possible.

How to Plan a Perfect Software Development Budget

Step 1: Figure Out the Client’s Expectations

The first and most essential step in creating a cost estimate is finding out the client’s vision of
the project.
Every project manager’s dream client provides detailed documentation that describes every
element of the future product. The reality is that this rarely happens. In this case, the primary
task of an engagement manager, or anyone else who communicates with a customer, is to
figure out the client’s exact vision and the primary functionality of a project.
It is not enough to have a general idea of the project. The more detailed the customer is, the
more accurate estimate they will receive from the software development provider. If you are
unsure how some aspects of a project should work, don’t make anything up. Ask a client to
clarify the ideas.
At KindGeek, we believe that asking the right questions is crucial for the success of the project.
The more answers you receive, the better — for both you and the client.
Don’t be afraid of appearing incompetent when asking many questions when it comes to figuring
out a budget for software development. This fear can cost a company’s employees dozens of
hours of unnecessary work and frustration and lots of extra expenses for the client. Remember,
you are asking questions, not because of your lack of knowledge but because you want to
deliver exceptional service and ensure that everything works out well.
If the client comes to us without a clear vision of how exactly the product will look, we suggest
conducting a discovery phase. Business analysts investigate the functionality of a future project

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in detail and its place in the modern market. It allows us to test products before the
implementation phase, saving costs and up to 20% of the time for development.
It is essential to inform a client that the discovery phase will help make a future estimate more
accurate and create a more competitive and reliable project.
Step 2: Find Out the Client’s Budget
It is essential to consider how much the client is willing to pay for the project. However, not all
clients want to share their budgets with software development providers due to several
reasons.
About 30% of our clients do not want to share their budgets.
One of the reasons for that is that some clients are afraid that a software provider will try to
squeeze the most money out of the customer and adjust the project cost accordingly.
However, knowing the exact amount the customer is willing to pay for the development might
improve client-company communication in two ways:
1. The estimate will be crafted quicker since the software development provider would meet the
client’s budget expectations straight away.
2. Less frustration and misunderstandings.
If the customer’s budget is too small, we can ignore non-primary functions by creating an MVP
before the finished product. This might happen when the customer is launching a startup and is
going through the investment rounds.
About 75% of startups we worked with did an MVP first.
Step 3: Make an estimate
While the actual estimate does not take a lot of time to craft, choosing the right person to
perform this task is essential.
This person should be aware of all the technical aspects of the project and be skilled enough to
estimate the work of developers, designers, and business analysts involved in the project. You
might also use a sample budget for a software development project that could be found on the
web.
There are four things to consider when crafting a software development project budget
estimate:
1. The complexity of the project.
2. Software size and type.
3. The team needed to build a product and their rates.
4. The time it takes to complete a project.
Step 4: Evaluate the risks and include out-of-scope expenses.
No, we don’t try to scare the customer straight away. The risks are evaluated to prepare and
inform the customer about possible extra expenses.
It is also essential to include an out-of-scope section while creating a budget for a software
development project if you are doing an MVP.

Thoughts on Crafting a Perfect Software Development Budget and Estimate

“When we’re talking about estimated budget, there are a lot of things to be considered. First of
all, the perfect budget should meet expectations: both clients and the company’s. The client
should indicate at least the best (optimistic) / worst (pessimistic) case scenarios to understand
whether he or his investors can cover this budget. A company should make a reasonable profit.
The budget should consider possible risks and their cost. It also needs to consider project
timeline (duration), team composition, and its members’ salary reviews. It should include a
contingency to cover estimates uncertainties. It also should not be 100% fixed – there should
always be room for a change because we don’t live in constants, but much rather in variables.”
— Oleh, PM at KindGeek

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Consider Kindgeek Your Trusted Healthcare Software Development Partner

KindGeek is a software development company that builds innovative and secure technological
software solutions. We match our engineering culture to your core values to deliver custom
software development services to startups, SMB, and enterprises.
Product-oriented
We want our customers to succeed with industry-shaping products we build together. We
research the market, analyze data, and apply design thinking to develop relevant and problem-
solving solutions.
People-first
We recommend starting every project with a discovery phase. We learn about the needs and
habits of product users to build easy-to-use, user-oriented products.
Innovative
At KindGeek, we believe in innovations and startups. We constantly add new technologies to
our stack to turn the most challenging idea into an innovative medical software development
project.
Looking for a software development partner? Let’s see if we match.

Final Thoughts

The process of creating an estimate is both an art and a craft. Apart from developing software,
this is one of the essential processes.
Despite the complexity of this process, using this checklist we’ve compiled will help ensure that
you have everything required for the most accurate estimate possible:
1. Find out client’s expectations
2. Figure out the client’s budget
3. Let the most professional team member craft an estimate
4. Evaluate the risks and include out-of-scope expenses

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Resource planning – The more projects in your enterprise’s portfolio, the greater the amount
and diversity of resources needed to keep them on track. Organizations must balance the
requirements of multiple ongoing endeavors that draw on the same resource pool — which
includes people, equipment, and financial resources — while ensuring that projects coming
down the pipeline are adequately resourced as well.

Building a solid resource plan is the only way to effectively identify and allocate all the resources
necessary to meet organizational goals. Resource planning requires a mastery of individual
project details combined with a holistic view that takes the needs of the enterprise’s entire
project portfolio into account. That’s no easy feat when your company also faces uncertainties
related to supply chains, labor, changing regulations, and more. Whether you’re building a
power plant or contemplating a new mining operation, you need a resource plan that accounts
for all the unique challenges your organization faces.

Here you’ll find everything needed to make resource planning a strength of your enterprise by
developing plans that can handle the complexities of its project portfolio.

What is Resource Planning?

Resource planning is the process of identifying, acquiring, and allocating all resources required
to complete projects across your organization. More than just enabling success for individual
projects, resource planning is a key facet of project portfolio management (PPM). Allocating
resources to the right projects at the right times is critical, especially when juggling multiple
large-scale projects that may take years to complete.

Resource planning involves managing resource capability, availability, and demand to meet
project requirements. It ties into many other key PPM and project management practices,
including budgeting, scheduling, and forecasting. Resource planning is how you’ll stay on track
to meet project budgets and develop effective schedules that take into account all projects in
your organization’s portfolio. And it relies on accurate forecasting, together with proactive risk
management practices, to account for uncertainties and anticipate both current and future
resource needs.

Manage resource capacity, demand and availability with EcoSys

DOWNLOAD SOLUTION SHEET (PDF)LEARN MORE ABOUT ECOSYS & RESOURCES

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Interview questions

What does a resource plan look like?

When developing your organization’s resource plan, you’ll want to ask questions that get at the
core of your company’s resource needs. Here are a few questions every enterprise should ask
during the resource planning process.

What resources do you need?

The most fundamental part of any resource plan is a list of all required resources for your
enterprise’s current projects and those on its radar. This rundown should feature relevant details
for each resource. These details include the resource’s category, cost, and availability. For
people resources, you should also list information on roles and sourcing, noting whether they’re
in-house, sub-contractors, or otherwise outsourced.

Which projects will the resources be allocated to?

Resources won’t do your organization much good if they aren’t allocated to the projects that
need them. A resource plan must lay out the projects and teams or individuals that your
enterprise should allocate specific resources to. This helps ensure that resources are used
efficiently and any conflicts between projects that require the same resource are identified well
in advance.

What are the schedules and roles of any people resources involved?

Your company’s employees are its most valuable resource, and they add a few additional
considerations when it comes to building a resource plan. Resource planning involves matching
personnel with the appropriate roles, identifying any existing talent gaps, and mapping out the
schedules of all people resources on a per project basis. The goal is to know when and where

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every team member is needed so your enterprise understands any people resource-related
constraints and can stay ahead of the curve when it comes to training and recruitment.

What’s the status of each resource now?

Consumable materials are used up, employees join and move on, and critical equipment breaks
down. The resource landscape doesn’t stay static, and neither should your resource plan. Keep
it up to date with the status of each resource as it changes over time you can make informed
decisions regarding resource allocation and project timelines.

What are the benefits of resource planning?

Resource planning leads to better project and portfolio outcomes. Here are just a few of the
advantages to a well-crafted resource plan.

Boosted efficiency

A resource plan is a key part of turning your operation into a well-oiled machine. It serves as the
real-time roadmap that helps team members move smoothly from task to task and project to
project. Resource planning means that employees can spend more time getting the job done
instead of tracking down or waiting for whatever they need to complete it.

Improved visibility

Resource planning gives managers a much clearer picture of resource capacity, demand, and
availability — and with the right platform, they can make this information visible to the rest of the
workforce as well. This sets expectations, improves collaboration, and makes it easy for team
members to identify potential roadblocks or spot areas where processes could be improved.

Better utilization of resources

Materials sitting in a warehouse or employees sitting idle without work represent costs
detracting from your organization’s bottom line. And equipment needed in two places at once, or
team members forced to work overtime for months on end, can be just as problematic.
Resource planning minimizes both under- and over-utilization, so your company gets the most
value possible out of every resource without expecting too much from any of them. A good plan
also reveals opportunities to invest in additional resources, even on a temporary basis, to
overcome deficits that would otherwise result in projects running behind schedule..

Optimized resource allocation

Some projects are more important to your enterprise’s success than others, and the last thing
you want to do is shortchange a key project by dedicating resources to a less critical endeavor.
Some relationships matter more to your business, some clients are more time- or budget-
conscious than others, and some projects simply bring in more revenue. Resource plans allow
you to allocate resources to the highest priority projects first, making sure the most important
balls are never dropped.

5 steps to a great resource planning process

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Quality resource planning is within the reach of every organization. Here are 6 steps you can
take to start crafting effective resource plans.

1. Review the project portfolio

The resource planning process begins by identifying all projects in your enterprise’s portfolio,
prioritizing them, and defining the objectives of each. While resource plans get into the details of
each individual project, effective planning requires a high level, holistic view of your
organization’s entire project portfolio. When you understand how each project fits into your
company’s overarching business strategy, you can make intelligent, informed decisions during
the rest of the process.

2. Identify and forecast resource requirements

Once you’ve carefully reviewed the forest, it’s time to move into the trees. Dive into the project
details, estimating the resources — materials, equipment, and labor — that will be required to
meet each objective on time and, if possible, within budget. This should cover everything from
the software team members use to stay connected in the field to the personnel themselves.
Consult with stakeholders who have relevant experience so you can get a variety of
perspectives on what it will take to achieve project success.

This stage of resource planning also involves accurately estimating and forecasting resource
needs over the entire project lifecycle. With the right software, you can easily generate forecasts
informed by relevant historical data using your choice of methodology. An integrated project
portfolio management (PPM) solution also lets you perform automated capacity checks and take
a deeper look at aggregated resource demand, so your resource plan is as accurate as
possible.

3. Acquiring resources

You’re now ready to actually acquire the resources you identified in step 2. This involves
assessing what resources your enterprise currently has on hand, what you lack, and taking
steps to close the gap. Equipment sourcing, purchasing materials, and putting together teams
based on the roles required are all tasks that fall into this stage of the resource planning
process.

As you proceed with resource acquisition, you’ll have to evaluate whether resource constraints
mean the scope of one or more projects needs to change. You’ll also need to decide whether
your organization has the necessary internal personnel to meet all its needs or should step up
hiring and training — or possibly look to third parties for additional talent.

Resource acquisition doesn’t always mean looking to external sources, of course. As you’ve
taken a thorough look at your organization’s project portfolio, you can make smart decisions
about what, if any, resources to transfer and share between projects to keep the most important
tasks moving. This broad perspective also makes it easier to key in on resource constraints that
impact the portfolio as a whole. And it allows you to identify resource needs that impact multiple
projects so you can reduce project costs further by buying in bulk.

4. Develop a resource schedule and allocate resources

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Scheduling is one of the most important parts of any resource plan. Acquiring all necessary
resources is a hollow victory if they arrive too late or are unexpectedly required by several
projects at once.

A resource schedule goes beyond team members’ work schedules — although those are vital
— to include the assignment of specific tasks, delivery of newly purchased materials, how
equipment needed by multiple projects will be shared, and more. It should also incorporate risk
management practices so you have the leeway needed to handle any issues that arise.
Handling these complexities requires a resource planning and management platform that pulls
in data from across your enterprise and integrates with other key HR and scheduling systems.

Scheduling blends naturally with allocating resources to specific projects, tasks, and teams.
While resource allocation will never be perfect, all the steps you’ve taken up to this point make it
much simpler. With the right resources dedicated to the most important projects, your
organization is well-positioned for success.

5. Monitor resource use

Resource planning is a dynamic process without a set end point. Instead, use your resource
planning platform to monitor resource use in real time, seeing if your forecasts match reality and
adjusting the plan when needed. This is especially important when sharing resources between
multiple projects in your company’s portfolio, as one changed variable can have a cascade
effect across your organization. Frequent data collection and analysis helps ensure that all your
enterprise’s resources are utilized as efficiently as possible.

Finding the right resource planning tool

Resource planning is a big job, but you don’t have to go it alone. Resource planning solutions
provide the capabilities needed to produce accurate resource plans swiftly and confidently.
Enterprise-wide resource plans need the insights into demand, availability, and capacity that
only an integrated resource planning and management platform can provide.

Resource planning tool features

When evaluating resource planning software options, there are several key capabilities you
should look for.

Visibility into capacity, demand, and availability

Resource capacity, availability, and demand are the three key concepts your resource plan is
built around. Your solution should give you a firm grasp on each with direct access to relevant
data for all projects in your company’s portfolio. It should also let you generate capacity and
demand plans for specific types of resources, so you can dig into the details as needed.

Resource performance benchmarks

Without establishing resource performance benchmarks, it’s hard to know whether you’re
utilizing resources as expected. Set expectations from the get-go with a platform that allows you
to use resource performance benchmarks when building your plan and when monitoring project

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progress afterwards. As projects move towards completion, you can more easily identify
changes needed to keep them on track.

Resource breakdown structures

Resource breakdown structures are visual aids that display resources as a hierarchy based on
attributes like rates, locations, and skills, so you can get a better understanding of these details
at a glance. Look for a resource planning tool that automatically builds and updates resource
breakdown structures while offering the ability to customize the attributes they display whenever
necessary.

Forecasts

Resource planning relies on accurate forecasting. Leverage a solution that brings in data from
across your enterprise, including other key platforms and external sources, to develop forecasts
you can rely on using whatever forecasting methods suit your business best.

User-friendly portal

Team members want to focus on getting the job done, not filling out paperwork to get the
resources they need for it. Your resource planning platform should make submitting, managing,
and approving requests for resources simple with an intuitively designed portal featuring
customizable approval workflows.

Integration with existing systems

Resource planning relies on information from all parts of your organization, and your solution
should make obtaining that data easy. Find a platform that can incorporate all capacity and
demand sources by integrating with tools like human resource information, scheduling, and
construction management systems to ensure your resource plans are built on the most
comprehensive, up-to-date information available. And if your resource planning software
natively integrates other key PPM capabilities in a single platform, like budgeting, scheduling,
and risk management, you can leverage these important processes to build a more intelligent
resource plan.

Make resource planning easier with EcoSys

Effective resource planning is within the reach of even the largest enterprises handling the most
complex projects. EcoSys is an integrated enterprise project performance solution backed by a
team of experts who specialize in helping organizations improve resource management and
PPM. It takes a holistic approach to resource planning by integrating with other key process
areas and external systems, so everyone stays aligned and working towards your enterprise’s
strategic goals. From data-driven forecasts to automated project monitoring, EcoSys includes all
the features needed to build accurate resource plans that will help guide your projects toward
success.
Ready to see for yourself? Contact us today for a free demo.

a.

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b. allocation and tracking productivity

How to allocate resources to a project

Resource allocation involves several important steps: figuring out project needs and resource
demand, identifying the required resources, assessing their capacity, skills, and interests,
assigning them to valuable projects, and making adjustments when needed.
Here, we provide you with steps to create a resource allocation plan that works effectively,
giving top priority to your people.
1. Determine the resource requirements of your project
Refer to your project brief to identify the activities needed to meet your project objectives and
produce deliverables.
For instance, if your project involves the development of an e-commerce website, you will
require a team comprising back-end engineers to handle the server-side functionality, front-end
engineers to work on the user interface, copywriters to create compelling content, and QA
testers to ensure the website's quality.
➡️Learn more: IT resource management best practices + expert tips
2. Confirm the availability of resources
It's essential to identify the best-suited team members for the project.
This involves considering various key factors. Firstly, assess their capacity to handle the
workload – do they have the time available?
Equally important is evaluating their skill set to ensure they have the necessary abilities for the
assigned tasks.
Also, take into account their interests and strengths in relation to the project's needs; this means
checking if the roles resonate with their passions and contribute to their personal growth.
You can easily find information on your team members' skill sets and availability in Float.
Let’s assume you need a back-end developer skilled in Javascript. But you also need to find
someone who would be available for the duration of your project.
Navigate to Schedule and then use tags to filter your team. For example, you can type “java”.

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The profiles of team members skilled in Javascript will show on the schedule.

Let’s assume that the project is to last for 5 months, and you want to find out if any engineer has
their annual leave coming up.
Add a filter and choose “Time off” and choose the leave type.

To make well-informed decisions, collaborate with team leads, department heads, and the
resources themselves, who can offer valuable insights on growth opportunities and individual
interests.

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Colin Ross

Director of Engineering
Float
In the case where a team member is frequently requested for tasks, what strategies do
you employ to avoid overutilization and bottlenecks?
Firstly, strive as far as possible to allow a single focus at any given moment to avoid the cost of
context switching. This leads to some hard decision-making about the critical path through the
project list since this team member is the key to completing anything.
Secondly, looking to hire or cross-train other team members to help out in this area to ease the
bottleneck, so that in the future this should be less of a problem. It is important to note that there
will always be a bottleneck somewhere - the trick is to understand what level of ‘throttling’ you
ultimately find acceptable at any given moment.
3. Allocate time to the project
Once you’ve found the people with the right skillset and availability, the next step is allocating
time to the project.
Because resource allocation is focused on finding the right people for project work, you want to
keep it high level and avoid getting into details about tasks.
Also, tasks and subtasks belong in your project management tool while your resource planner is
meant for optimizing and tracking how your team spends their time.
That’s why we have recently renamed tasks to allocations.
By scheduling allocations and optionally assigning them to related tasks, you can quickly
understand your team's planned time and track total hours faster in your reporting. Find out
more about this change here.
To allocate time to a project, simply click and drag over a date on the Schedule. This will bring
up the scheduling menu.

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Next, specify the allocation hours and choose the client and project to add the allocation to the
team member's schedule.

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4. Get feedback from your team on allocations

Never assume that allocations are perfect without getting your team’s input.
Without your team’s feedback, you might assign tasks to individuals that do not align with their
expertise or interests and impose unrealistic deadlines. This could lead to missed deadlines and
subpar work.

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One solution is to consult with team leads/department heads or even the resources about who
is best suited for tasks.
Let's say you think a design brief should take roughly two hours to complete, and you block out
time for the project. You check in with the designer and find out that your estimate is off and
they need an extra hour to finish their task.
“Once allocations have been made, make it a habit in 1:1s and other discussions to ask your
team how they feel about capacity allocations. Too much? Too little? Just right? And then
adjust.” says Michael Luchen, Director of Product at Float.
To maintain flexibility, you can initially keep allocations as tentative until you've gathered
feedback from your team.
When setting up an allocation, choose "Tentative" status. This will indicate that the time
allocation isn't confirmed and will be displayed as a color outline on the Schedule.

4. Monitor the progress of the project and make adjustments when necessary
After assigning tasks, you will need to keep an eye on the project so you can make bottlenecks
or over-allocation and under-allocation.
Luchen suggests using software tools to track the state of allocations.
“For software development projects, I rely on tools like Linear to automatically project velocity
for individual tasks. Paired with a tool like Float, our team can make informed decisions on
progress and resourcing–do we need to reduce the scope? Extend the timeline? If so what else
has to move”
You might discover that you have too many resources at your disposal—or worse—you might
have overloaded your team and are in danger of missing a deadline. In such cases, it's
essential to remain flexible and ready to make changes when necessary.
Let's say a team member is allocated more than 40 hours a week.

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In Float, you can filter by availability and skills to find someone who can take on more work.

Then you drag and drop tasks into the team member’s schedule.
5. Make plans for the unexpected
Resource allocation for human resources can be a challenging task, due to the unpredictable
nature of projects.
A crucial resource to be reassigned to a project of higher priority. A team member might take a
sick day. These can disrupt the planned allocation.
It is best to be prepared for such situations before they happen. One effective approach is
maintaining a roster of freelancers or contractors who can be readily assigned tasks when
needed.
By having a pool of qualified individuals readily available, the time and effort that would
otherwise be spent searching for someone to fill a role can be significantly reduced.

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Pro tip:

Use Float to save time on manual follow up with @mentions in the notes of any task, time off, or
project. Simply type "@" followed by their name. Depending on their settings, notifications are
sent via email, Slack, or mobile push. For example, you might alert your manager when you
schedule new tentative time off or to check in on a teammate's progress on a task.

6. Run a post-project evaluation

At the end of any project, host a post-project evaluation to see what worked (and, more
importantly) what didn't.
Some basic post-project questions to consider are:
 Were there delays or setbacks during the project? If so, what were they?
 Did your team handle their tasks efficiently, or were they overloaded?
 Were the project details, such as the scope and deadlines, clear?
 What areas could be improved for future projects?
Don't hold back in these meetings—everyone involved must be open and honest about the
triumphs and mistakes of the project. Doing so will help your project managers (and the rest of
your team) plan and predict the needs of future projects more effectively.
Using resource management software, it's easy to pull data. You'll be able to spot which
roadblocks you hit and if the estimated hours allocated matched the actual project hours.
Here's a detailed video on how to analyze your project data in Float.
Float Masterclass on real time analytics in schedule and project plan

c. Requirement Gathering (BRD , FRD , Sign offs)

d. Development ( Tech Design , Sign Off , Development)
e. Certificate management
f. Risk Management – Maintaining RAID (Risk Assumptions Issues &
Dependencies) tracker
g. What is RAID log , its significance and how will you maintain?
b. What do you mean by RAID?
c. RAID is an acronym used to imply Risks, Actions, Issues, and Decisions. The
RAID is one of the most important tools for a Project Manager.
d. In order to track risks, take actions, tackle issues, and make decisions, the
Project Manager uses the RAID tool.
e. Q7. What is RAID in project management and why is it necessary to create
a RAID log?
f. Ans. RAID is an acronym for Risk, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies. A
RAID log is important for a project manager to track anything that would impact a
project now or in the future.

a. What is SWOT analysis , its significance and how will you implement?
SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis assesses the strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and
threats of an organization, project, or option.

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Conducting a SWOT analysis is a powerful way to evaluate your company or project, whether
you’re two people or 500 people. In this article, you’ll learn: what a SWOT analysis is, see some
SWOT analysis examples, and learn tips and strategies for conducting a comprehensive SWOT
analysis of your own. You’ll also see how you can use the data a SWOT exercise yields to
improve your internal processes and workflows, and get a free, editable SWOT analysis
template.

The Complete Guide to SWOT Analysis:

Table of contents
 What is a SWOT analysis?
 Breaking down the SWOT analysis definition
 How to do a SWOT analysis
 SWOT analysis questions
 PEST analysis
 Benefits of SWOT analysis for small businesses
 A full SWOT analysis example
 How to act on your results
 Free SWOT analysis template

What is a SWOT analysis?

A SWOT analysis is a technique used to determine and define your Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats – SWOT.

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SWOT analyses can be applied to an entire company or organization, or individual projects

within a single department. Most commonly, SWOT analyses are used at the organizational
level to determine how closely a business is aligned with its growth trajectories and success
benchmarks, but they can also be used to ascertain how well a particular project – such as an
online advertising campaign – is performing according to initial projections.
Whatever you choose to call them, SWOT analyses are often presented as a grid-like matrix
with four distinct quadrants – one representing each individual element. This presentation offers
several benefits, such as identifying which elements are internal versus external, and displaying
a wide range of data in an easy-to-read, predominantly visual format.

Breaking down the SWOT analysis definition

We know that SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats – but what
does each of these elements mean? Let’s take a look at each element individually.
Strengths
The first element of a SWOT analysis is Strengths.
 Things your company does well
 Qualities that separate you from your competitors
 Internal resources such as skilled, knowledgeable staff
 Tangible assets such as intellectual property, capital, proprietary technologies,
etc.

As you’ve probably guessed, this element addresses things that your company or project does
especially well. This could be something intangible, such as your company’s brand attributes, or

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something more easily defined such as the unique selling proposition of a particular product line.
It could also be your people, your literal human resources: strong leadership, or a great
engineering team.
Weaknesses
Once you’ve figured out your strengths, it’s time to turn that critical self-awareness on your
weaknesses.
 Things your company lacks
 Things your competitors do better than you
 Resource limitations
 Unclear unique selling proposition

What’s holding your business or project back? This element can include organizational
challenges like a shortage of skilled people and financial or budgetary limitations.
This element of a SWOT analysis may also include weaknesses in relation to other companies
in your industry, such as the lack of a clearly defined USP in a crowded market.
Opportunities
Next up is Opportunities.
 Underserved markets for specific products
 Few competitors in your area
 Emerging needs for your products or services
 Press/media coverage of your company

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Can’t keep up with the volume of leads being generated by your marketing team? That’s an
opportunity. Is your company developing an innovative new idea that will open up new markets
or demographics? That’s another opportunity.
In short, this element of a SWOT analysis covers everything you could do to improve
sales, grow as a company, or advance your organization’s mission.
Threats
The final element of a SWOT analysis is Threats – everything that poses a risk to either your
company itself or its likelihood of success or growth.
 Emerging competitors
 Changing regulatory environment
 Negative press/media coverage
 Changing customer attitudes toward your company

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This could include things like emerging competitors, changes in regulatory law, financial risks,
and virtually everything else that could potentially jeopardize the future of your company or
project.

Free Guide >> The 30 Best Ways to Promote Your Business

SWOT analysis internal and external factors

The four elements above are common to all SWOT analyses. However, many companies
further compartmentalize these elements into two distinct subgroups: Internal and External.
Internal factors
Typically, Strengths and Weaknesses are considered internal factors, in that they are the result
of organizational decisions under the control of your company or team. A high churn rate, for
example, would be categorized as a weakness, but improving a high churn rate is still within
your control, making it an internal factor.
External factors
Similarly, emerging competitors would be categorized as a threat in a SWOT analysis, but since
there’s very little you can do about this, this makes it an external factor. This is why you may
have seen SWOT analyses referred to as Internal-External Analyses or IE matrices.

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Image via Bplans

Subcategorizing your four primary elements into Internal and External factors isn’t necessarily
critical to the success of your SWOT analysis, but it can be helpful in determining your next
move or evaluating the degree of control you have over a given problem or opportunity.
Now that we know what each of the elements of a SWOT analysis means, let’s take a look at
how to go about creating and conducting a SWOT analysis.

How to do a SWOT analysis

You can get the full experience in our video below, and this entire post is dedicated to
answering that question, but for simplicity’s sake, here’s how to do a SWOT analysis:
1. Gather your team together—ideally bring candy.
2. Set up your quadrants—on a whiteboard or projector (perhaps using our
template).
3. Start with strengths—ask the below list of questions.
4. Follow suit with weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
5. Organize the information collected into a neat and tidy document.
6. Send out to the team with notes.
7. Organize a second meeting to come up with action items and owners.

SWOT analysis questions

Like feature-benefit matrices, there are several ways to conduct a SWOT analysis. However,
regardless of how you choose to structure your analysis, we need to start by asking a series of
questions. Here is a breakdown of the questions you should seek to answer when performing
your SWOT analysis.
Strengths questions
Let’s take our first element, Strengths, for example. To determine what your strengths are as an
organization, you could begin by asking some of the following questions:
1. What do your customers love about your company or product(s)?
2. What does your company do better than other companies in your industry?
3. What are your most positive brand attributes?
4. What’s your unique selling proposition?
5. What resources do you have at your disposal that your competitors do not?

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By answering these questions, you’ll be in great shape to start identifying and listing your
organization’s strengths.

Positive brand attributes associated with WordStream, as identified by our customers

Weakness questions
We can use the same principle to determine your company’s weaknesses:
 What do your customers dislike about your company or product(s)?
 What problems or complaints are often mentioned in your negative reviews?
 Why do your customers cancel or churn?
 What could your company do better?
 What are your most negative brand attributes?
 What are the biggest obstacles/challenges in your current sales funnel?
 What resources do your competitors have that you do not?
You may find that determining the strengths and weaknesses of your organization or project is
considerably easier or takes less time than figuring out the opportunities and threats facing your
company. This is because, as we said earlier, these are internal factors. External factors, on the
other hand, may require more effort and rely upon more data, as these are often beyond your
immediate sphere of influence.

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Opportunities questions
Identifying opportunities and threats may require you to conduct in-depth competitive
intelligence research about what your competitors are up to, or the examination of wider
economic or business trends that could have an impact on your company. That’s not to say that
opportunities and threats cannot be internal, however; you may discover opportunities and
threats based solely on the strengths and weaknesses of your company. Some possible
questions you could ask to identify potential opportunities might include:
 How can we improve our sales/customer onboarding/customer support
processes?
 What kind of messaging resonates with our customers?
 How can we further engage our most vocal brand advocates?
 Are we allocating departmental resources effectively?
 Is there budget, tools, or other resources that we’re not leveraging to full
capacity?
 Which advertising channels exceeded our expectations – and why?
Threat questions
When it comes to threats, you could certainly begin by asking a series of questions like those
above. However, it’s often quite easy to come up with a list of potential threats facing your
business or project without posing questions beforehand. This could include “branded” threats

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such as emerging or established competitors, broader threats such as changing regulatory

environments and market volatility, or even internal threats such as high staff turnover that could
threaten or derail current growth.

What is PEST analysis?

While we’re on the topic of internal versus external factors, I wanted to mention a tangential but
entirely separate type of analysis closely relevant to SWOT analyses, known as a PEST
analysis.
Earlier, I mentioned that external factors such as changing regulatory policies and market
volatility could be considered threats in a standard SWOT analysis. However, despite their
importance, challenges like this are often highly nuanced and driven by dozens or hundreds of
individual factors. This can place them beyond the scope or intent of a typical SWOT analysis.
This is why many companies also conduct PEST analyses.

This type of analysis is not what an exterminator does upon arriving at a roach-infested
tenement. Rather, a PEST analysis functions very similarly to a SWOT analysis, only they’re
concerned with four external factors:
1. Political
2. Economic
3. Sociocultural
4. Technological
Pros of PEST analysis
One of the main reasons it’s worth looking at PEST analyses is because many of the factors
that could end up in a PEST matrix could also be relevant to the Opportunities and Threats in
our SWOT analysis. The kind of political and economic turmoil we’ve seen in the United States

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during the past year, for example, could very well pose legitimate and serious threats to many
businesses (as well as some opportunities), but these kinds of obstacles tend to be much more
complicated than the opportunities and threats you’d see in most SWOT analyses, given their
broader scale and often-complex underlying factors.

Image via Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue/Hofstra University

Cons of PEST analysis
Obstacles identified in a typical PEST analysis also tend to be on much longer timeframes – it’s
a lot easier and quicker to try and overcome internal challenges like high staff turnover than it is
to wait and see if the economy picks up (or if the bubble will burst again). That’s why many
larger companies conduct both SWOT and PEST analyses simultaneously – the SWOT
analysis provides them with more immediate, potentially actionable roadmaps, whereas PEST
analyses can be highly valuable when it comes to formulating longer-term plans and business
strategies.

Benefits of SWOT analysis for small businesses

If you’re a marketer or small-business owner, you might be wondering if SWOT analyses are
practical or even feasible for smaller companies and organizations. Although there is definitely a
resource overhead involved in the creation of a SWOT analysis, there are many benefits in
doing so, even for the smallest of companies.
 Get a bird’s eye view: For one, conducting a comprehensive SWOT analysis
provides a unique opportunity to gain greater insight into how your business
operates. It’s all too easy to get lost in the weeds of the day-to-day workings of your
company, and conducting a SWOT analysis allows you to take a broader, bird’s eye
view of your business and the position it occupies in your industry.

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 Improve specific campaigns and projects. Another benefit of SWOT analyses

is that this technique can be applied to a wide range of scenarios, not just as an
overview of your business. You could use SWOT analyses to evaluate the potential
strengths and weaknesses of a forthcoming advertising campaign, a planned content
project, or even whether your company should be represented at a trade show or
industry event.
Here’s an example of a project SWOT analysis:

Image source
 Develop tangible roadmaps. Obviously, it almost goes without saying that
conducting a SWOT analysis allows you to identify what your company does well,
where it could improve, and the opportunities and threats facing your business.
However, conducting a SWOT analysis provides you with the opportunity to not only
identify these factors, but also develop and implement tangible roadmaps and
timelines for potential solutions. This can be beneficial in the creation of budgetary
plans, identifying hiring needs and other mid- to long-term strategic planning.

A full SWOT analysis example

So, now we know what each element of a SWOT analysis is concerned with and the kinds of
exploratory questions we can ask to get the ball rolling, it’s time to actually get to work and
create your SWOT analysis.
To illustrate how it works, we’ll create our own SWOT analysis example: a family-owned
restaurant, with a single location, operating in an urban area.

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Here’s the SWOT analysis example based on our fictional restaurant:

As you can see, this matrix format allows you to quickly and easily identify the various elements
you’ve included in your analysis.
Strengths examples
 Excellent, well-trafficked location
 Good reputation in local community
 Seasonal menu, locally sourced.
Weakness examples
 Higher costs than comparable chain restaurants
 Single location means limited reach
 Modest advertising budget
 Not currently using food delivery apps/technology
Opportunity examples
 Growing interest in/support for locally sourced ingredients
 Seasonal menu keeps things fresh and interesting
 Potential growth via food delivery apps/technology
Threat examples
 Intensifying competition from established chain restaurants

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 Uncertain economic environment

 Rising cost of ingredients

SWOT analysis example: Acting on your results

So, you’ve finally got your hands on a completed SWOT matrix. You’ve identified internal
strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats. You’ve begun to see
your company in a whole new light.
Now what?
Ideally, there are two stages of action you should take upon completing a SWOT analysis. First,
you should attempt to match your strengths with your opportunities. Next, you should try
to convert weaknesses into strengths. Let’s take a look how this works.
1. Harness your strengths
One of the best things about the strengths you identified in your SWOT analysis is that you’re
already doing them.

In our example above, the restaurant’s location, reputation, and seasonal menu are all
strengths. This tells the fictitious company that it should continue to experiment with its popular
seasonal menu. It also tells the company it should continue to develop and nurture the strong

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relationships with its regular customers that have strengthened the restaurant’s reputation in the
community.
Essentially, acting upon your business’ strengths consists of “do more of what you’re already
good at.”
2. Shore up your weaknesses
Acting on the weaknesses you identified in your SWOT analysis is a little trickier, not least
because you have to be honest enough with yourself about your weaknesses in the first place.

Going back to our example, some of these weaknesses are very challenging to act upon. Going
up against the considerable purchasing power of rival chain restaurants can be very difficult for
smaller, family owned businesses. The restaurant is also struggling with its limited reach, the
restrictions of a modest advertising budget, and is also failing to leverage the potential to
increase sales by allowing customers to order food online through delivery apps like Foodler or
GrubHub.
However, that’s not to say all hope is lost. It might be harder for our example business to
compete with a chain, but there are plenty of other ways small companies can be more
competitive – such as by developing strong, meaningful relationships with customers, which
was not only one of the company’s strengths, but also something chain restaurants simply
cannot offer.

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3. Seize opportunities
The Opportunities section of your SWOT analysis is by far the most actionable, and that’s by
design. By identifying opportunities by evaluating your organization’s strengths, you should have
a ready-made list of targets to aim for.

In the example above, increasing consumer appetites for ethically produced, locally grown
ingredients is a major opportunity. However, our restaurateurs cannot rest on their laurels –
there’s still work to be done. In this example, this may involve investing in technical expertise to
take advantage of the opportunities presented by food delivery apps, or sourcing locally grown
produce more aggressively in an attempt to reduce costs.
It’s also important to avoid hubris or complacency in your opportunities. Even if you have an
iron-clad advantage over every other business in your industry, failing to devote sufficient time,
money, or personnel resources in maintaining that advantage may result in you missing out on
these opportunities over time.
Every business’ opportunities will differ, but it’s vital that you create a clearly defined roadmap
for capitalizing upon the opportunities you’ve identified, whether they be internal or external.
4. Mitigate threats
Anticipating and mitigating the threats identified in your SWOT analysis may be the most difficult
challenge you’ll face in this scenario, primarily because threats are typically external factors;

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there’s only so much you can do to mitigate the potential damage of factors beyond your
control.

Earned Value

Now this is one of the Agile reporting techniques I am just a little hesitant to recommend.

Let me explain.

If you don’t know Earned Value reporting, it’s basically about measuring whether the amount
of money spent through so far in your project justifies the amount of work completed at this
point in time.

There are a few variables here:

5. Budget – the estimated cost of your project. This is usually decided at the
beginning of the project, and reviewed infrequently or not at all.
6. Actual cost (AC) – the proportion of the original budget your team have spent so
far.
7. Planned Value (PV) – the proportion of your project scope that was expected to
have been delivered by this time.
8. Earned Value (EV) – the ‘real’ value of the scope that has actually been
delivered so far.
Name the types of reports generated in JIRA
JIRA offer reports that show statistics for projects, versions, people or other fields within issues.
Various reports included with JIRA are

 Average Age Report

 Pie Chart Report
 Resolution Time Report
 Recently Created Issues Report
 Resolved vs. Created Issues Report
 Single Level Group by Report
 Time Tracking Report
 User Workload Report
 Workload Pie Chart Report, etc.

Xray – test management tool used

Reports created in XRAY
Traceability matrix
1. Questions on MPP (Microsoft Project Plan)
a. What is your awareness on PMBOK and what are the key phases
What are the five stages of project management?

The project management process is usually broken down into phases according to its life
cycle, starting from Project Initiation and ending in Project Closure. Each phase has its
own goals, activities, and deliverables, making it easier to control the project and the
quality of output in general.

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According to the PMBOK Guide (Project Management Body of Knowledge) by the

Project Management Institute (PMI), a project management life cycle has 5 distinct
phases:

Project Initiation
Project Planning
Project Execution
Project Monitoring
Project Closure
In this project management guide, we will take a closer look at these five phases.

Phase 1: Project Initiation

The project initiation phase is the first phase of a project life cycle. It’s where abstract
ideas are converted into meaningful project goals.

During the project initiation phase, you need to develop a business case and define the
project, which involves defining the project’s requirements and creating a project
charter.

What is a project charter? Well, the project charter documents the project constraints,
objectives, budget, project timeline (high level), etc. Note that the project charter does
not contain any technical details, which will be collected and documented during the
project planning phase.

Once the project goals are scope are identified, identify the stakeholders involved in the
project. A stakeholder is someone who has an interest in the project, and he/she/they
can influence the project (e.g., the project development process) or the outcome of the
project (e.g., the system to be developed), or be affected by the project. Typical
stakeholders are sponsors, customers, board members, developers, suppliers, or
partners. Document the role of the stakeholder, the type of interest/influence, and the
communication requirements.

Phase 2: Project Planning

The project planning phase consists of an in-depth overview of the project’s goals and
requirements. Typically, it accounts for almost half of the entire project time span.

During the planning phase, the project deliverables and requirements are defined and
the project schedule is created.

It involves creating a set of plans to help manage time, cost, quality, change, risk, and
related issues. They will also help you control staff and outside vendors to ensure you
deliver the project on time and within budget and schedule.

Here are the basic processes of project planning:

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Scope planning – Define the boundary of the project by specifying the scope of the
project, which is essential to facilitate creating the work breakdown structure.
Work breakdown structure – Break down a project into tasks and sub-tasks to make it
more manageable.
Project schedule – Scheduling of activities and detailing their dependencies
Resource planning – identify who will do what work, at which time and if any special
skills are needed to accomplish the project tasks
Budget planning – specify the budgeted cost to be incurred at the completion of the
project
Procurement planning – focus on vendors outside your company and subcontracting
Risk management – identify the possible risks and work out optional contingency plans
and/or mitigation strategies
Quality planning – assessing quality criteria to be used for the project
Communication planning – designing the communication strategy with all project
stakeholders
Phase 3: Project Execution
The project execution phase is where the project team does the actual work to turn the
project goals into deliverables.

It is important for the project to maintain an effective collaboration between project

stakeholders and ensure that everyone stays on the same page.

Phase 4: Project Monitoring and Controlling

The monitoring and controlling of a project run simultaneously with project execution to
ensure the objectives and deliverables are met.

In this phase, the project manager has to ensure the original plan is properly
implemented by establishing the Critical Success Factors (CSF) and Key Performance
Indicator (KPI).

So what are Critical Success Factors? What are Key Performance Indicators?

Critical Success Factors are the conditions, capabilities, events, and circumstances that
contribute to project success. The purpose of identifying the critical success factors is to
ensure that the project success criteria defined can be met.

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a measurable value that demonstrates how

effectively the team is achieving the project goals defined. Project teams use KPIs to
evaluate success at reaching targets.

Phase 5: Project Closing

As the final phase of the project management process, the Project Closing refers to the
activities to perform after the final delivery of the project, which typically includes a
discussion of lessons learned throughout the project, the termination of contracts, etc.

Lessons Learned document the lessons learned based on both the positive experiences
and the negative experiences that result in undesirable outcomes. Lessons learning is a

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process to convert experiences into knowledge to aid future decision-making and

problem-solving. It helps improve project performance, avoid mistakes from happening
again, and maintain good practices.

Finally, a detailed report is written that covers the different aspects of the project. The
report, along with other necessary data is stored somewhere for future access.

b. How will you prepare a project charter in MPP cut across phases end to
end
c. Please call out key phases of project planning with documents/key
artificats to be prepared at each phases and gating process. Please call out
significance of those documents / gating process
d. Please explain what do you mean by tasks in critical path in MPP and
what does it signify. How will you identify looking MPP how many task are in
critical path and health of project

What Is the Critical Path Method?

The critical path method is the process of identifying the string of tasks and dependencies that
take the longest time to complete in a project. This group of to-dos is called the critical path,
while the tasks inside it are called critical activities. The total duration of the critical path is the
minimum time you’ll need to complete a whole project. Any delay for critical activities will result
in extending the total project duration.

How to Identify a Project’s Critical Path

You can find your project’s critical path by using project management tools that use
algorithms to find it for you. However, you can also calculate critical path by doing a
forward and backward pass.

Step 1: List All Project Tasks

Start by breaking your project down into milestones, deliverables, and actionable tasks. This
helps you visualize the day-to-day activities you and your team have to accomplish to progress.
Here’s an example of all the tasks associated with planning an online press conference:
Guests Program Logistics Online Press Kit
Collect contacts for Confirm speakers and Pre-production Press release
publications panelists meeting outline
Create invite Check speaker slides Collect assets
Draft press
Send out invites
release
Finalize press
Send out reminders
release
Send out press kit
Step 2: Identify Dependencies and Estimates
Once you have all project tasks laid out, identify dependencies, or the tasks that can’t proceed
without another’s output. List them out in a table, along with an estimate of how long each task
would take. Returning to the example above:
Task ID Task Dependency Estimate (Days)

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1 Collect contacts for publications – 0.5

2 Create invite – 0.5
3 Send out invites 1, 2 0.5
4 Confirm speakers and panelists – 1
5 Check speaker slides 4 0.5
6 Press release outline – 1
7 Collect assets – 1
8 Draft press release 6 1
9 Finalize press release 8 3
10 Send out press kit 9, 1, 7 1
11 Implement press conference 10, 5, 3 0.5
Step 3: Use a Network Diagram That Traces Dependencies
A network diagram is a series of boxes and arrows that help visualize the connections of
specific variables. In this case, it’s used to represent tasks and their relationships.

Dependencies point to the tasks that can proceed once they’re finished. For example, “Collect
contacts to publications” (Task 1) points to “Send out invites” (Task 3) because Task 3 can only
proceed once Task 1 is finished.
Step 4: Do a Forward Pass
There are two variables to consider when doing a forward pass:
 Early Start Time (ES): The earliest time a task can start
 Early Finish Time (EF): The earliest time a task can finish
In the diagram, put each task’s ES at the upper-left corner and its EF at the upper-right. To get
the EF, simply add the duration of the time to the ES. So, if Task 1 can start at day 0 and take
0.5 days to finish, then ES = 0 and EF is 0.5. As for Task 3, the earliest time it can start is when
Task 1 is completed. So, Task 3’s ES is 0.5. With a 0.5 day duration, its EF is 1.

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If there are conflicts where three tasks are pointing to it, as is the case with Task 11, pick the
highest EF as its ES. In the above example, Task 3’s EF is 1, Task 5’s is 1.5, and Task 10’s is
6. Because 6 is the highest EF, this will be Task 11’s ES.
Step 5: Do a Backward Pass
Once you’re done with the forward pass, you may now do the backward pass; however, there
are two new variables to consider:
 Latest start time (LS): The latest time that a task can be started without delaying
the whole project
 Latest finish time (LF): The latest time a task can be finished without delaying
the project
In the network diagram, the LS is at the lower-left side of the task, while the LF is at the lower-
right side of the task. To start computing for each task’s LS and LF, begin by copying the last
task’s EF as its LF. In our case, copy Task 11’s EF (6.5) at its upper-right side, and write it on
the lower-right side as well. Find the LS by subtracting the duration from the LF. In Task 11’s
case, LS is 6. Use task 11’s LS as the LF of all the tasks pointing to it: Task 3, Task 5, and Task
10. Subtract their durations to find their LS, respectively.

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For tasks that point to more than one task, use the lower LS as its LF. An example of this is
Task 1. It points to both Task 3 and Task 10. When doing the backward pass, you’ll see that
Task 3’s LS is 5.5 and Task 10’s LS is 5. Because of this, Task 1’s LF is 5.
Step 6: Find the Critical Path
To know your project’s critical path, look for the tasks with the same EF and LF. This means that
the earliest time it can finish is also the latest time it can finish; therefore, it can’t be delayed.

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In this case, the critical path is the creation of the press release:
 Press release outline (Task 6)
 Draft press release (Task 8)
 Finalize press release (Task 9)
 Send out press kit (Task 10)
 Implement press conference (Task 11)
For non-critical activities such as Task 4 (confirming speakers and panelists), failing to finish on
day 1 (EF) wouldn’t extend the duration of the project as a whole — as long as it’s finished on or
before day 5.5 (LF). But for a critical activity such as Task 9, failing to finish on time will result in
the press conference as a whole being delayed. Read more: Top 5 Steps for Creating a
Successful Project Schedule

Benefits of the Critical Path Method

 Prioritizing tasks: Knowing your critical activities will help you identify those
tasks you’ll need to pay close attention to and avoid delaying.
 Anticipate and avoid bottlenecks: Laying out tasks and their dependencies can
help you anticipate possible bottlenecks you can avoid when you’re scheduling or
resource planning.
 Identify slack: Slack, also known as float, is the number of days a task can be
delayed before it affects the project’s entire timeline, which can be found by
subtracting the EF from the LF.

e. How will you manage shared resources in MPP where they are used
across multiple projects and how will you measure their productivity

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The first step: adding resources to your project team From the ‘View’ ribbon click on the
‘Resource Sheet’ view, input your resources and fill out the relevant information:

Once all the resources and their information has been input, save the file; I saved the file as
‘Res Pool’, but you can use any name you like. Note:Do not close out the project schedule Step
two: Importing The Shared Resource pool into a project Open the project in which you want
to use the resource pool. Click on the ‘Resource Pool’ button in the ‘Assignments’ section of the
‘Resource’ ribbon and click ‘Share Resources’.

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From the ‘Share Resources’ dialogue box select ‘Use resources’ then select the resource file
you just saved, in my case it would be ‘Res Pool’, in the ‘From’ dropdown menu. In the ‘On
conflict with calendar or resource information’, select ‘Pool takes precedence’ then press
‘OK’. By selecting ‘Pool takes precedence’ the project will honor the resource calendar and the
resource’s information in the ‘Resource Pool’ file over the individual project. So you need to
ensure that all calendars are set up in the ‘Resource Pool’ file. Note:you must have the
resource file you saved earlier, open in Microsoft Project. You should now be able to access the
shared resource pool and assign resources to the tasks within your project.

In the example below: I created two Projects with the same start date and connected them both
to the same resource pool; ‘Res Pool’. You can see that ‘Task A’ within ‘Project A’ has Ali Al
scheduled to work at the same time that ‘Task 1’ within ‘Project B’ is scheduled . He is therefore
over allocated; this is indicated by the ‘red man’ icon in the indicators column. We can see
immediately that sharing a resource pool will improve resource management across multiple
projects.

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If you were working in Project A and wanted to analyze further, the ‘Resource Usage’ view will
show the external task that Ali is working on and the number of hours that he is over allocated
by. You can select the Resource Usage view from the ‘Resource Views’ section of the ‘View’
ribbon.

You can see that Ali is scheduled to work 16 hours on the Thursday, Task A for 8 Hours and
Task 1 for 8 hours as his calendar states that he can only work 8 hours per day he is over
allocated. I have been told that a limitation to this would be that if you are linking more than 50
projects to a shared resource pool or if you have more than 40 resources in the resource
pool; the files can become unstable. If you find yourself in this situation Project Server would be
the way to go.

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f. Please explain key columns in MPP (Early Possible start date , Late
possible start date , Early possible completion date and Late possible close
date) ? What does it signify ? How can you work around

Perhaps you have not explored the functionality of MSP sufficiently because you are suggesting
creating fields/columns which are already there, built in. The early and late start and finishes are
in the schedule table. View, Tables, Schedule Table.

Bars appear on the chart according to Format, Bar Styles.

Formatting changes the current view, so it is better to leave the standard Gantt chart as original,
and make a copy of the view and then change formatting in the copy.

There are many ways to depict the start and finish of the bars.

For example (from Stephen Devaux's book Total Project Control), this is the schedule table, and
the grey bars are late start to late finish, and stacked on row 2. It is interesting to note that the
predecessor arrows go from the late bars for the critical tasks and from the early bars for
noncritical. AFAIK there is no way to change that.

g. How will you find or represent key dependencies and how will you track
and represent in MPP and reporting and project health status update

What Are Project Dependencies?

Project dependencies, also called task dependencies, are relationships between tasks based on
their sequence. Dependent tasks require one or more other tasks to be completed or started
before the team can start work on them.

Think of project dependencies as a series of gears that can’t begin turning without all the others
ahead of it. Creating and using dependencies ensures that you can complete workflows
accurately every time.
The Importance of Project Dependencies
Project dependencies are a key part of project planning. Having a clear sequence of tasks helps
ensure that teams complete work correctly and efficiently. Stay organized, avoid delays, and
manage complex projects by identifying dependencies.

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Trevor Larson, CEO and Co-Founder of Nectar, explains why you should manage and account
for project dependencies: “Dependencies can impact the timeline or budget of your project. If
you depend on an external tool or service, any changes or delays caused by an outdated
version can add to your time and costs. In some cases, not managing your dependencies can
even create security risks. If you're using an old software version of a library with known
vulnerabilities and aren’t following a regular update schedule before starting on new projects,
your project could be at risk.”

Types of Project Dependencies

There are four main types of project or task dependencies. Each outlines when a task can start
or finish based on the status of another task. Some tasks might be dependent on more than one
previous task.

“It's really important to know your dependencies so that you can plan your project in the most
logical and efficient way. For instance, if you were building a house, you would pour the
foundation before you put in the plumbing, and you would finish the plumbing before you close
up the walls. If you do any of these out of order, you're not going to be able to build your house.
The same is true for every project. There are always things that need to be done before others
can be successfully completed, and managing them is a critical part of bringing your project
through to successful completion,” explains Molly Beran, President and Founder of Projects By
Molly.

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It is also important to remember that multiple tasks might share one or more dependencies. As
in Beran’s example, both wiring and insulation would be installed before closing up the walls,
which is also around the same time the plumbing would be set up.

Keeping in mind this potential for more complex systems, we’ve outlined the basics of the four
types of project dependencies below:

 Finish to Start: In this scenario, task A must finish before task B can begin. This
is the most common example of a project dependency and is generally the most
straightforward. For example, a fabrication team cannot begin building until the final
design has been approved.
 Start to Finish: In a start-to-finish dependency, task A cannot finish until task B
has started. These are less common but are prevalent in retail and shift work
environments. For example, the morning shift in a restaurant’s kitchen cannot finish
their day until the evening shift has arrived and started their own.
 Start to Start: Start-to-start dependencies require task A to start before task B
can begin. For example, a writer cannot begin to revise an article draft until the editor
has started to edit it.
 Finish to Finish: In a finish-to-finish scenario, task B cannot finish until task A
has finished. Start-to-start and finish-to-finish dependencies are often related to one
another. For example, a server cannot finish serving everyone at a table until the
kitchen has finished cooking and plating each dish that was ordered.

Key Dependencies in Project Management

There are five key dependencies in project management. The four internal dependencies are
based on logic, resources, preferences and best practices, and cross-team dependencies. In
addition, some dependencies come from external sources.

These are the key dependencies in project management:

 Logical: Logical dependencies follow a logic-based binary, such as an if-then

statement. Some tasks must be completed before it is possible to complete other
tasks. Logical dependencies follow a predictable path from start to finish.
 Resource-Based: Resource-based dependencies deal with available resources
rather than task completion. Resource dependencies can be focused on the
availability of labor, financing, materials, or software and upgrades.
 Preferential: Preferential dependencies refer to best practices for the completion
of a task. These dependencies suggest that it is best to let the glue dry or the data
mature before moving on to the next task in the sequence.
 Cross-Team: Cross-team dependencies relate to deliverables and tasks
completed by other teams. For example, the sales team must wait for the
engineering team to complete a new software product before they can start offering it
to customers.
 External: External dependencies refer to any circumstances outside the
business’s control, such as weather events, bureaucracy, or legislature.

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In addition to these key project dependencies, it is important to understand the idea of blockers.
A blocker is any event or circumstance that can hinder the completion of a project task, such as
team member absences or shipping delays. Note that most tasks have some combination of
both internal and external dependencies of varying impact.
Internal Dependencies in Project Management
Internal dependencies in project management include logical, resource-based, preferential, and
cross-team dependencies. We’ve listed more subcategories below and provided examples of
each.

These are some common internal dependencies:

 Task Based: Basic, task-based dependencies follow a logical path to completion.

For example, you must print shipping labels before you can mail customer orders.
 Team Based: Team-based dependencies require collaboration between teams.
For example, you can’t take product photos for sales brochures until the production
team produces a prototype to photograph.
 Approval Based: Some dependencies are based on approval requirements. For
example, you can’t purchase new large-scale manufacturing equipment until you get
approval from the CFO.
 Best Practices Based: Many dependencies are based on the best practices
required to complete a task. For example, it is best to let your kitchen equipment cool
down completely before cleaning it.
 Resource Based: Resource-based dependencies require certain items to be
available for use before a task can begin. For example, you cannot print sales
brochures without the right kinds of cardstock and ink.
 Software Based: Some dependencies require software inputs or updates before
tasks can progress. For example, you must update storage software regularly for
continued secure access to data.
External Dependencies in Project Management
External dependencies are outside of a business’s control. They can be the most difficult to
predict and manage. These include factors such as deliveries, weather events, finances, and
traffic changes.

These are some common external dependencies:

 Deliveries: Supply chain issues can affect project timelines. You can’t start the
work to build a product if the materials haven’t arrived.
 Weather: Good weather is a requirement for many construction-related tasks.
You cannot begin construction on a house while there is a hurricane.
 Bureaucracy: Most industries require various certifications and permits, which
are dependent on local bureaucracy. Oftentimes work cannot begin before the team
secures those permits and certifications.
 Traffic: Traffic congestion can delay some work. For example, you cannot set up
your booth at a trade show when all of your equipment is stuck in a traffic jam.
 Finances: A company’s finances, especially regarding loans, can cause delays
due to dependencies. You cannot start purchasing expensive equipment when your
loan funding hasn’t come through.
 Legislature: Some dependencies are based on anticipated legal changes. For
example, a restaurant in a dry county might have plans to start offering wine if the
ordinance changes.

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Dependencies in Project Plans

Many project managers highlight dependencies during project planning. Dependencies can
affect project budgets, schedules, resources, and risks. It is important to account for them early
in the planning process.

Part of project planning is to create a network diagram and identify the critical path to project
completion. By breaking down your project into its core components and identifying the ways in
which they relate to one another, it is easier to see which tasks are dependent on information or
deliverables from previous steps or projects. Highlighting these task dependencies helps to
ensure that your project schedules, budgets, and resource requirements are as accurate as
possible.

Also important to project planning are project constraints, or the limits within which your project
must operate. Project dependencies might rely on certain constraints, particularly resource
availability. If a project is constrained to a single software engineer, it will take longer than if an
entire engineering team was available.

Project Dependency Examples

Project dependencies come in many forms. There are different kinds of dependencies for
different industries and project sizes. We’ve gathered some common examples that project
managers might encounter in their own work.

Here are some visual examples of project dependencies:

 Branded Ad Campaign: Creating and launching a branded ad campaign

requires the creation of a brand style guide. Before you can make your style guide,
you must put together a creative team. Once this team finishes creating the style
guide, they can work on designing the materials that will be in your ad campaign.
While the creative team works on branding and design, the marketing team needs to
find and purchase ad space. As soon as you meet these dependencies, you can
launch your ad campaign.

 Email Marketing Campaign: An email marketing campaign first requires market

research. While research and analysis are ongoing, your creative team can get
started on the visual materials in your email template. When the research team
completes market analysis and determines a marketing strategy, your writers can
create the email copy. Once your team meets all of those dependencies, your emails
can go out to your subscribers.

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 New Store Location Opening: Opening a new store or business location

requires the purchase or lease of the building, then designing the space and hiring
for the new location can begin. Once you have your new staff, you can begin training
them. This can happen while you purchase, fabricate, and install interior furnishings.
During this time, you must also secure all needed permits and certifications to open
your new business. Once you meet these dependencies, your new store can
celebrate its grand opening.
Project Dependency Examples by Type and Industry
Along with visual maps, we’ve created a table of basic examples for each type of dependency
that you might find in a construction, IT, or marketing project. The chart makes it easy to see
how task dependencies between industries can vary, but also how they can look similar to one
another.

Construction IT Marketing
A marketing
The team must campaign must
Apps follow a logical
build structures in follow a logical
development process
a particular order progression of steps
Logical of conception, design,
so that they from conception to
programming, testing,
maintain stability research to
and launch.
and functionality. campaign design and
rollout.
Access to large-scale
App development
printing machines,
Construction requires that skilled
availability of
cannot begin until software engineers are
billboards, or access
Resource necessary building available, as well as
to certain kinds of
materials are high-end computer
cardstock or ink can
present. hardware and reliable
affect a direct mail
internet connections.
marketing campaign.
It is best practice to
perform focused
It is best practice It is best practice to market research
to cure and dry the test a new program for before designing an
Preferential cement foundation bugs and errors before ad campaign. This
before continuing sending it out for use helps ensure that
to build on top of it. by the general public. your message gets
out to the right
people.
Cross- Plumbing and Sales teams must wait Marketing teams rely
Team electrical teams for the software on production teams
must complete engineers to send to produce the
their installations them usable demos or products and
before the drywall final products before services they sell to
team can close up they can share them customers.

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Interview questions

with and sell to

the walls.
customers.
A marketing
campaign's schedule
Inclement weather, Security vulnerabilities
might have to change
such as rain or or large-scale power
if a competitor
External snow, might delay outages can affect IT
releases an identical
the building schedules and
campaign two weeks
schedule. budgets.
before the intended
rollout.
Project Dependency Examples by Type and Industry

How to Identify Project Dependencies

In order to identify project dependencies, you must first create a map of project tasks. Next, look
for tasks that the team cannot perform until they receive information or deliverables from a
previous task. Those tasks are dependent.

Think of your whole project as a series of workflows or a flowchart. Map out the major steps
needed to complete the project. Next, map out each step required to move between those
steps. Make note of events that must occur before you can move on to the next task. These are
your dependencies.

Generally, dependencies become obvious when looking at the project as a whole. Sometimes
this isn’t the case. Cornelius Fichtner, President of OSP International LLC, suggests visualizing
dependencies to better understand them. “I mostly use Kanban boards or Gantt charts to show
team members what stage the project is on and which tasks are dependent,” he says.

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Interview questions

Lee Dobson, Head of Client Services at Bulldog Digital Media, suggests another approach.
“There are a number of ways to identify project dependencies. One way is to use your project
schedule and identify which tasks are dependent on other tasks being completed first. Another
method is to look at the project resources and identify which resources are constrained and how
that affects the next steps. Additionally, you can look at the project risks and identify where they
might have an impact on your project schedule or resource dependencies,” he explains.

How to Manage Project Dependencies

The best way to manage project dependencies is to learn how to identify them. Staying
organized and having strong communication with your team will help as well. We’ve outlined
these and other best practices for managing project dependencies below.

Here are some best practices for managing project dependencies:

 Learn to Identify Dependencies: The first step to successfully managing project

dependencies is learning to identify them. “Pay attention to anything that could
impact the timeline or cost of your project. This includes both dependencies and
internal constraints such as team size or budget. Then, make a list of all the potential
dependencies so you can keep track of them throughout the project,” suggests
Larson.
 Stay Organized and Updated: Keeping your project information up to date will
help you spot dependencies early on. It can also help you identify ones you may
have missed. “Generally speaking, it's best to identify dependencies and constraints
as early as possible. The trick is making sure you routinely keep an eye out for new
and missed dependencies. This can be more easily done via weekly status meetings
with your team, or by consistently asking about them throughout the project,” says
Beran.
 Identify and Track Risks: Create a risk log, and use it to keep track of risks as
your project advances. Risks are often linked to constraints and dependencies, so it
can be valuable to keep an eye on them as part of your general risk
management strategy.
 Make Contingency Plans: Allocate extra time into your schedule and money
into your budget. Some dependencies are entirely out of your control, and something
as simple as a missed delivery window might derail your schedule. It is always a
good idea to have a backup plan.

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Interview questions

 Communicate with Your Team: Communicating the status of deadlines and

deliverables is crucial to managing expectations surrounding dependencies. “Project
dependencies are managed poorly when there’s a lack of communication between
teams and departments in a business. When clear goals and time frames aren’t set
for each project and it isn’t clear how each task depends on the other, processes
aren’t managed effectively,” explains Fichtner.
 Use Software: Many project management software programs include tools to
help track and manage project dependencies.
Project Dependency Management Tools
Project managers use various tools to track and manage project dependencies. Choose the tool
that fits your organizational style and the needs of your team. Kanban boards, Gantt charts,
calendars, and project management software are all useful.

 Kanban Boards: Kanban boards are tools that help you create visual workflows
for project tasks and phases. They can be made digitally using software or physically
on a wall or whiteboard. Use a Kanban board to break down a project into its
component parts and more easily identify dependent tasks.
 Gantt Charts: A Gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart that acts as a visual
scheduling tool. Each bar represents the time it takes to complete a project task or
phase. The vertical structure of these bars indicates when one task ends and
another begins. Gantt charts can help a team identify and visualize task
dependencies.
 Shared Calendars: A lower-tech solution to dependency monitoring is the use of
shared calendars. Project managers can use shared calendars to indicate start and
end dates for project tasks. This is a great option for tracking scheduling
dependencies, but it is much harder to use calendars to track resource-based or
external dependencies.
 Project Management Software: Project management software can combine
these tools into a single solution, using their best elements to create a powerful
project planning and dependency tracking tool. Many let you visualize your
dependencies in multiple ways, which can be helpful for identifying those that may
not be immediately obvious.

For more project management tools and templates to help you plan projects and manage
dependencies, check out this collection of free Excel project management templates.

Project Dependencies Template Starter Kit

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Interview questions

Download Project Dependencies Starter Kit

We’ve created this starter kit to help you start working with project dependencies. We’ve
included everything you need to identify and manage dependencies in your next project,
including a Gantt chart template created especially for tracking project dependencies. All of
these templates are completely customizable to suit your business needs. Download each
template individually or as a set in the complete kit.

Included in this kit, you’ll find:

 A work breakdown structure diagram template for Microsoft Excel to help break
your project down into smaller steps and phases.
 A Gantt chart template with dependencies for Microsoft Excel to help you
visualize and track all of the tasks required to complete your project.
 A project risk log template for Microsoft Excel to help you identify and manage
potential risks your project may encounter

For more help identifying and managing project dependencies, check out our collections of work
breakdown structure templates and Gantt chart templates with dependencies.

Project Dependency Questions

You might wonder how to get started managing project dependencies. There are some
questions you can ask to help identify dependencies and make a plan to manage them.

Ask yourself the following questions to help you create a project dependencies management
plan:

 What is the best way to start managing project dependencies? The best way
to start managing project dependencies is to first learn how to identify them in your
work. Start by breaking down your project into individual phases and tasks, and
make a note of which ones depend on the start or completion of other tasks.
 How do I know if a task is dependent on another task? A task is dependent
on one or more other tasks if it requires information from, deliverables from, or the
completion of another task to begin or end. These can be anything from the logical
progression of project tasks to resources or approval needs.
 What external dependencies should I track and manage for my
project? Managing external dependencies is a form of project risk management.
You cannot control everything, but by staying aware of weather patterns, delivery
dates, and local legislature, you may be able to anticipate some external
dependencies.
 What Recurring Dependencies Have I Seen in Similar Projects? Many times,
similar projects will have similar dependencies. If this is not the first time you have
approached a project of this kind, use your knowledge from past projects to help
identify and anticipate potential dependencies.

Benefits of Project Dependency

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Interview questions

There are many benefits of identifying and tracking project dependencies. These include better
adherence to project plans, improved risk management, and better management of lead and lag
time. Learn how project dependencies can benefit you and your team.

These are some of the biggest benefits of project dependency:

 Better Management of Lead and Lag Times: Recognizing dependent tasks

helps a project manager better manage lead and lag times. Lead and lag times refer
to the amount of time a task can be moved forward or pushed back based on its
place in the critical path.
 Better Project Visualization: By laying out each project phase step by step, you
create a visual project map that is useful for planning your project and sharing key
information with stakeholders.
 More Thorough Project Planning: By breaking down project phases into tasks
and identifying dependencies, project managers can dial into the nuances of an
upcoming project. When thinking about projects in this way, you can create more
detailed project plans.
 Better Adherence to Project Plans: Tracking and managing dependencies
allows you to create more accurate project projections, which makes your plans
easier to stick to. “You need to understand that each project task depends on others
to create realistic project schedules. Dependencies help you keep track of the proper
flow of the tasks,” explains Fichtner.
 Better Risk Management: Many project risks are based on timing and project
dependencies, so preemptively managing project dependencies is also a form of risk
management.

Challenges of Project Dependency

Tracking and managing project dependencies can be difficult. Common challenges include
accurately identifying them or finding complicated or conflicting dependencies. We’ve asked
experts to share some of the biggest project dependency challenges.

These are some challenges of tracking project dependencies:

 Can Be Time Consuming: The time required to break down each project phase
is significant. Project managers must set aside planning time to identify
dependencies.
 Requires Frequent Updates: Managing project dependencies require that
teams always have up-to-date project budgets, task statuses, and schedules. This
can be difficult for teams with a more laid-back attitude to project management.
 Requires Close Attention to Domino Effects: Changing one element of a
project’s budget or schedule can have unintended effects down the line. Be aware
that a seemingly minor dependency can have larger implications in later project
phases. “It can be difficult to coordinate changes across multiple dependencies. If
you change one dependency, there's a chance it will cause a domino effect of
changes that need to be made, which can be time consuming and expensive,” warns
Larson.
 Does Not Always Progress Linearly: It is not always the case that task C is
dependent on task B is dependent on task A. Sometimes, one task is dependent on

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Interview questions

the completion of two or more tasks, or it requires information from a later project
phase and must be put on hold until then.
 Can Create Circular Dependencies: It is possible that without thorough
planning, you find yourself with circular dependencies. These are situations where
task A requires input from task B, but task B requires task A to be completed before
it can provide that input. In these more complicated situations, it is important to break
down tasks as granularly as possible and identify dependencies that may be hiding
within the tasks themselves.
 Requires Up-to-Date Tools: Maintaining a regular software update schedule is
critical to ensuring that your dependency tracking tools work as intended. “We often
see recurring dependencies in our projects, such as relying on an up-to-date version
of an operating system, using certain tools or libraries that are required for
compatibility, and working with teams that are located in different time zones,” says
Larson.
 Is Not Always Obvious: While some dependencies are immediately obvious on
the surface, many are not. It takes an experienced project manager to identify and
manage dependencies that others don’t see coming. “I spent a lot of my career doing
software implementations in healthcare settings, and whenever you are installing a
new system, some dependencies people don't always think about are making sure
that there is a strong network in place and that the people who will use the new
system have the technical skills necessary. After that, every system has its own set
of dependencies, either in terms of decisions that need to be made sequentially or
feature sets that need to be configured before others,” explains Beran.

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h. If you are running multiple projects in MPP how will you give a
overraching program view covering all sub projects within program with clear
depiction (dependencies , critical path , reporting etc)
2. Managing multiple projects is a juggling act; managing multiple projects with
intertwined dependencies can be a nightmare.
3. Project provides tools to help you manage cross-project dependencies, even
tasks in one project that are dependent on the completion of another project.

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Interview questions

4. When things get even more complicated, you can tap into Project Server,
SharePoint, and Outlook.
5. Follow the links in each step to get detailed information about each process.

This article is one of many project management goals on the Project Road Map.

Example from project management . . .

When you link one project to another by creating dependencies between tasks in those projects,
you aren't necessarily combining two projects into one. You are making it possible to manage or
monitor two separate projects from one location.

For example, your main project is the construction of an airplane. Your facility cannot attach the
wings (a task in the main project) until another facility builds the wings (an entire project). Other
tasks in the other project might also be beyond your control.

You can link the “wing building” project to your main project as a task that updates as new
information is available. Or you can make “wing building” into a subproject of your master
project. The choice depends on whether you simply want updates on the progress of the other
project or you need to manage it directly.

Work with multiple projects

Master projects and Merge subprojects into a single master project to monitor how
subprojects individual projects affect a related group of projects.
Communicate project Making sure stakeholders and team members have up-to-date
information project data is a key to successfully juggling multiple projects.
Collaborate without Project Find out what other applications you can use to share project
information.
Use Project with previous Managing multiple projects may involve reviewing files that were
versions created in an earlier version of Project.
Embed Excel data in Project You can insert Excel data into Project as a linked object that is
updated dynamically when you change the source file.
Sync with a SharePoint task SharePoint can help you share project information without using
list Project Server.
Up to speed with Project Web The ultimate tools for project collaboration: Project Server and its
App companion Project Web App.

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Interview questions

Every threat, and the appropriate reaction to that threat, is different. Regardless of the specific
threats you’ve identified in your SWOT analysis, responding to and monitoring those threats
should be among your very top priorities, irrespective of the degree of control you have over
those threats.
In the example above, all three threats are particularly challenging. To compete with the prices
of its chain competitors, our restaurateurs may be forced to either compromise on their values to
secure cheaper ingredients, or willingly cut into their profit margins to remain competitive.
Similarly, economic uncertainty is virtually impossible to fully mitigate, making it a persistent
threat to the stability of our example restaurant business.
In some SWOT analyses, there may be some overlap between your opportunities and threats.
For example, in the analysis above, the popularity of locally sourced ingredients was identified
as an opportunity, and heightened competition was identified as a threat. In this example,
highlighting the restaurant’s relationships with local farmers – further reinforcing the restaurant’s
commitment to the local community and regional economy – may be an effective way for our
restaurateurs to overcome the threat posed by the increasingly desperate chain restaurants
vying for their customers.
When compiling the results of your SWOT analysis, be sure to look for areas of crossover like
this and see if it’s possible to seize an opportunity and reduce a threat at the same time.

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Interview questions

b. Data Security Management ( Data security adherence and approvals)

c. Regulatory compliance assessment , adherence and sign off. Ensuring
secured data transfer / exchange (inbound / outbound) complying to
regulatory and CS norms
d. Testing
i. Test Strategy , Test Plan ,Test Coverage , Test Data preparation ,
Regression Suite Preparation , Functional & Non Functional testing ,
Performance / Penetration Testing
ii. How will you ensure test data is good enough and well covered to
ensure 360 degree coverage of project delivery and how will you
avert any delays by spotting this late in the project life cycle
iii. Unit Testing , SIT , UAT & GO LIVE
e. GO LIVE plan
i. Run book preparation
ii. Dry Run execution, lessons learnt & course correction
iii. Service introduction to PROD artifacts preparation & activities like
Operation manual to business and IT support (KEDB , known
debts , work arounds etc)
iv. GO LIVE & business testing / IT check outs
v. Warranty support , lessons learnt , retrospective and project
closure
f. Project Closure

6. Questions on MPP (Microsoft Project Plan)

a. What is your awareness on PMBOK and what are the key phases
Every project has to go through a series of phases from initiation to closure and this is what we
call a project life cycle. As per PMBOK, projects need to go through 5 phases –
 Initiation – Find answers to ‘can/should we do the project?’
 Planning – Define the ways of doing the project
 Execution – Actually put the project plan into motions
 Monitoring & Control – Compare the progress report of the project with the
planned project
 Closing – Release the final deliverables and hand over the project
documentations to business

b. How will you prepare a project charter in MPP cut across phases end to
end
It is mainly a document that officially starts a project and includes every detail of
the project. From start to end, the document also includes project authorization.
This document lists all the top-level requirements as per the stakeholders and the
outcomes of the project.

1. Please call out key phases of project planning with documents/key

artificats to be prepared at each phases and gating process. Please call out
significance of those documents / gating process

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Interview questions

A plan is a proposed means of accomplishing something. Project teams develop

plans for

individual aspects of a project and/or combine all of that information into an overarching project
management plan. Plans generally are written documents but may also be reflected on visual/

▶ Change control plan. A change control plan is a component of the project management
virtual whiteboards.

plan that establishes the change control board, documents the extent of its authority, and

▶ Communications management plan. This plan is a component of the project, program,

describes how the change control system will be implemented.

or portfolio management plan that describes how, when, and by whom information about

▶ Cost management plan. This plan is a component of a project or program management

the project will be administered and disseminated.

▶ Iteration plan. This plan is a detailed plan for the current iteration.
plan that describes how costs will be planned, structured, and controlled.

▶ Procurement management plan. This plan is a component of the project or program

management plan that describes how a project team will acquire goods and services from

▶ Project management plan. The project management plan is a document that describes
outside of the performing organization.

▶ Quality management plan. This plan is a component of the project or program

how the project will be executed, monitored and controlled, and closed.

management plan that describes how applicable policies, procedures, and guidelines

▶ Release plan. This plan sets expectations for the dates, features, and/or outcomes
will be implemented to achieve the quality objectives.

▶ Requirements management plan. This plan is a component of the project or program

expected to be delivered over the course of multiple iterations.

management plan that describes how requirements will be analyzed, documented,

▶ Resource management plan. This plan is a component of the project management plan
and managed.

▶ Risk management plan. This plan is a component of the project, program, or portfolio
that describes how project resources are acquired, allocated, monitored, and controlled.

management plan that describes how risk management activities will be structured
and performed.
Scope management plan. This plan is a component of the project or program
management plan that describes how the scope will be defined, developed, monitored,

▶ Schedule management plan. This plan is a component of the project or program

controlled, and validated.

management plan that establishes the criteria and the activities for developing,

▶ Stakeholder engagement plan. This plan is a component of the project management

monitoring, and controlling the schedule.

plan that identifies the strategies and actions required to promote productive involvement

▶ Test plan. This document describes deliverables that will be tested, tests that will be
of stakeholders in project or program decision making and execution.

conducted, and the processes that will be used in testing. It forms the basis for formally
testing the components and deliverables.

4.6.1 STRATEGY ARTIFACTS

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Interview questions

Documents that are created prior to or at the start of the project that address strategic,
business,
or high-level information about the project. Strategy artifacts are developed at the start of a
project and

▶ Business case. A business case is a value proposition for a proposed project that may
do not normally change, though they may be reviewed throughout the project.

▶ Business model canvas. This artifact is a one-page visual summary that describes the
include financial and nonfinancial benefits.

value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances. These are often used in lean

▶ Project brief. A project brief provides a high-level overview of the goals, deliverables, and
start-up situations.

▶ Project charter. A project charter is a document issued by the project initiator or sponsor
processes for the project.

that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with

▶ Project vision statement. This document is a concise, high-level description of the project
the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.

▶ Roadmap. This document provides a high-level time line that depicts milestones, significant
that states the purpose, and inspires the project team to contribute to the project.

events, reviews, and decision points.

c. Please explain what do you mean by tasks in critical path in MPP and
what does it signify. How will you identify looking MPP how many task are in
critical path and health of project
d. How will you manage shared resources in MPP where they are used
across multiple projects and how will you measure their productivity
e. Please explain key columns in MPP (Early Possible start date , Late
possible start date , Early possible completion date and Late possible close
date) ? What does it signify ? How can you work around
f. How will you find or represent key dependencies and how will you track
and represent in MPP and reporting and project health status update
g. If you are running multiple projects in MPP how will you give a
overraching program view covering all sub projects within program with clear
depiction (dependencies , critical path , reporting etc)

7. Scenario based Questions:

a. Assume you are project manager for a department which receives
regulatory report from upstream system. One fine day PM of upstream
system pulls you into a call with other similar downstream stakeholders and
communicate this regulatory report is currently produced by Deloitte and due
to budget constraints and their contract comes to end by this month we have

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Interview questions

taken decision to terminate this contract and outsource to different vendor.

How will you react and what will be the next course of actions?
b. If you are given 1 liner requirement to plan for a project building
regulatory report what will be your next course of actions?

1. What is the use of link tasks on the Microsoft Project?

This is the process through which a project manager links two different tasks in one project.
2. What is the use of the Summary task in the Microsoft Project?
This is the process of estimation of the time period of a task and the length of the project. The
task can be organized in order accordingly.
3. Where is the summary task located in the software?
The Summary task can be found under the Insert option of the Main menu in the software.
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Global online training platform for the “MS Project Training” Course. This course will help you
to achieve excellence in this domain.
4. What are the types of tasks available in the software?
There are four types of tasks in the software, namely Summary tasks, Subtasks, Recurring
Tasks, and Milestones.
5. Explain what kind of task is a Milestone.
Milestone is one of the most important tasks in the project which gets adjusted to a time scale of
zero duration. It is like a short-term goal of the project.

6. Explain the utility of the New Project Templates feature.

The Project Template is a feature available in the latest 2013 version of the software. It is
compliant with the specific requirements of sections like business, marketing, software
development, construction, and more.
7. What is a task path in the software?
The task path is a feature that is made specifically for the managers responsible for handling
complicated and large schedules. It allows the user to set a specific path for a specified task.
There are four sections to this name, driving, driven, predecessors, and successors.
Related Article: Microsoft Project Tutorial
8. Mention three new features included in the latest version of the software.
The three new features in the latest version of the software are as follows.
1. It offers easy amalgamation between the data from the software and Microsoft
office 365.
2. It offers innovative reporting tools and easy accounting for varied organizations.
3. The software gives you a better opportunity at the presentation where you can
see the project more clearly, and scheduling can be done accordingly.
9. What is known as the constraint in the software? Mention the types of constraints
seen in the software.

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Interview questions

A constraint is a tool used for scheduling a task and then set up a due date for the task. There
are eight available constraints in the software name, as soon as possible, as late as possible,
must finish on, must start on, start no later than, finish no later than, finish no earlier than and
start no earlier than.
Related Article: Tools and Techniques for Project Management
10. Explain the process of setting a deadline for the MS Project.
There is a four-stage process of setting a deadline in the software.
1. Open the information dialogue box by double-clicking on a task.
2. Click on that advanced tab there.
3. On the deadline field, click on the arrow which shows the calendar and choose a
date from there.
4. Now save the entire thing by clicking on the save button.
11. What are the methods to move tasks in the 2013 version?
In the latest version of the software, you can move tasks by using any one of the two
techniques.
1. The cut and paste method.
2. The drag and drop method.
Related Article: Project Management Methodologies List
12. What is the process of removal of the resource from the project?
The steps to remove the resource from the project are as follows.
1. Filter task list to see only the resource allocated ones. Then move on to the
editing part of each task to replace the resource.
2. Choose the task-oriented view and let the list show only milestones and tasks.
3. Choose the dropdown list from the data section of the tab.
4. Select the option of using resources from the list.
5. A drop-down list will come with the name of show tasks using. Here you can
select and delete the resources according to your need.
6. Under the assignment part of the tab, select the option to replace the resource.
From the table that you get select the tasks that you want to replace and what you
want to replace them with.
7. Move on to the Format tab and click the checkbox for showing summary tasks.
8. Then you will get the resource sheet in the resource view section and move on to
delete the resources that you want.
13. What is the utility of work contouring in the software? Name the different types of
contouring that are used in the MS Project.
A Project manager needs to know the spreading of the work hours during the week. This is
facilitated by the work contouring feature of the software. It shows you a graph according to the
distribution of the work in the week.
 A flat contour shows evenness in the distribution of work in the week.
 The peak of activity at the end of the project is shown by the backloaded option.
 The peak of activity at the beginning of the project is shown with the front loading
option.
 There are only two major peaks in the project known as double peaks- one in the
beginning and one at the end.
 When the activity rises at a peak at the earliest in the project, it is known as the
early peak.
 When the same thing as back loading comes with a ramp, it is known as the late
peak.
 The singular peak in the middle of the project is known as the bell.
 When there are both ramps down and up in a bell, it is known as a turtle.
14. What do know about the benefit of the leveling of resources in the software?

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Interview questions

This one is being held as the best tool introduced in the software in its latest version. This one
has made the job a lot easier for those who are engaged in multitasking. This tool prevents any
kind of over-allocation of jobs to the employees. This can be better explained by using an
example. If there are two projects namely X (allotted time of 3 days) and Y (allotted time of 5
days). By using this tool, the project X's work will be scheduled for the first two days and then
the next two days will be for the work of project Y. then on the last day, you will come back to
project X. This eases out the job and makes completing it relatively easier than before.
15. How will you assign numerical code to the tasks?
A numerical code can be assigned after a work breakdown has been created. Go to the options
under the tag of tools in the taskbar. Here you will find the outline option, and under this, you
need to click on the option named showing of the outline number. The task list will come with a
numerical code before it.
16. How will create a work breakdown in outlining structure?
An outline can be created by giving a project name. Select all the necessary items under the
heading and then press the indent option. The things will line up, and the items will be seen in
bold format.
17. What are things to look out for before excel file importing in the software?
The following are the things that you should keep an eye out for when you importing an excel
file.
 Select the excel fields from the file that you want to be mapped in the software.
 Every field is not needed to be imported into the Project, and you get to leave out
the field that you do not need.
 Make sure that you include the column header while importing.
 The fields that stay blank in the excel file will remain blank in the project as well.
 The start and the finish that you have put in the excel file will be imported into the
project as the start and finish constraints of the task.
 One has to make sure that he checks the file format that he has used in the excel
file as that is what dictates the map selection choice viewing.
18. How are the budget resource values shown in the software?
Viewing the budget resource value is really easy when one uses the project. The first step is
going to the resource usage option under the View menu. You can add the different heads here
if they are not already present in the table. These heads can range from budget, work, and
budget costing. On the right side of the column name, you will find an arrow that allows a group
of the resources as needed. The next step is the selection of the drop-down list of resources to
group the rows. Here you can select the options that contain the categories for budget and then
apply. In the summary group of rows, you can compare budget cost and work values at the
same time. You can dismantle this group as and when you want by going on the arrow that is on
the right side of the name of the resources name heading.
19. What is the use of setting up a time exception in the latest version of the project?
The time exception setting in the latest version of the project is used to change the available
work hours for a certain day of work.
20. What is the process of setting up a time exception in the latest version of the
project?
One just needs to select the project and change the work times. The next step is changing the
date which can be done by choosing the day from the calendar. The exception enables you to
show these changes. It gives a name cell with a blank row where you can type the exceptions
that you need. You will get a detailed dialogue box for the exception where you can enter all the
details of the exception that you want. After you have made the changes just click ok and the
job is done.
21. What made you select the certification for the project?

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The project comes with some huge advantages for the ones seeking jobs in the fields of project
handling. It enables a person to handle multiple projects with ease and get the job done in time.
It makes a person better equipped to coordinate the work of all the workers under him. The
integration and management of tasks become easy which makes the project manager a major
troubleshooter for the company. He ensures that the tasks are completed systematically and
efficiently.
Explore MS Project Sample Resumes! Download & Edit, Get Noticed by Top Employers!
22. Mention the top features of the Gantt Basics Chart
The top six features of Gantt are as follows:
 The display pattern shows a single task in a row.
 The dates are depicted in an increasing pattern according to the time taken for
the project.
 The horizontal bar displays the time of the beginning and the time of ending each
of the tasks in the project.
 It gives three options for running the tasks namely, overlap, sequential and
parallel.
 It gives a chart with a bar diagram that shows the proportion of the work that has
been done until the time that has been taken.
 The completed work is shown on the left, and the pending ones are shown to the
right.

Resume based scenario questions for APM

1. Project management
2. Jira
3. Agile practices
4. Rally
5. HP ALM
6. EACH quarter consists 3 releases 1 release2 iteration – therefore 1 quarter 6
iteration
7. MPP
8. Git
9. Jenkins
10. Spring boot
11. Velocity calculation
12. How do you plan IT project
13. Predictability
14. Defects triage

Planned-to-Done Ratio (Predictability)

This predictability helps both the Development Team and the Product Owner. Measuring
Planned-to-Done ratio is a simple exercise of documenting how much work the team commits to
doing at the start of the Sprint versus how much they have completed at the end of the Sprint.

2. Facilitating Scrum Ceremonies for the Team and working very closely with
the Scrum Master.

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Sprint Planning Meeting: In this meeting, the discussion takes place about features and product
backlog items (user stories) that are important to the team. This meeting is usually attended by
the product owner, Scrum Master and Scrum Team. It is a weekly meeting and usually lasts for
about an hour.

Sprint Review Meeting: In this meeting, the Scrum team gives a demonstration of the product.
After this, the product owner determines which items completed and which are not completed.
He also adds some additional items to the product backlog on the basis of feedback from
customers or stakeholders. Its main aim is to inspect the product being created in the sprint and
modify it if required.

Sprint Retrospective Meeting:

This meeting takes place after the Sprint planning meeting. In this meeting, the Scrum team
meets again to inspect itself and discuss the past mistakes, potential issues and methods to
resolve them. Main aim of this meeting is to improve the development process. This meeting
lasts for about 2-3 hours.

Daily scrum

A daily stand-up meeting is a day-to-day meeting among all the members of the agile team. Its
main purpose is to know the current progress and performance of every team member that
works on Scrum tasks. The meetings take place mostly in the morning and usually involves
product owners, developers, and the scrum master.

These meetings usually take place for the following reasons:

 To know what was done yesterday and what is the plan for today.
 To provide a better understanding of goals.
 To make sure that every team member is working toward the same goal.
 To bring problems of team members into focus so that problems can be
addressed quickly.
 To bring everyone up to date on the information and help the team to stay
organized.
Product backlog refinement

5. also known as product backlog grooming, is a meeting that takes place

towards the completion of a sprint. The reason for the meeting is to review the
backlog and keep it clean and orderly so that it’s ready for the next sprint.
6. The scrum team and product owner participate in the product backlog
refinement meeting. As they look over the top items on the backlog, the team will
ask the type of questions that usually arise in sprint planning meetings.
7. Some of the queries include: what should we do if the user’s data is
wrong, are all users accessing this part of the system and other what-if
scenarios. These questions allow the product owner to answer them and help the
team understand what they need to do.
8. The purpose of the product backlog refinement is not to fully resolve
issues but more of a chance for the scrum team and product owner to make sure
the backlog is accurate. Therefore, the whole team usually doesn’t participate.

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Coordinating between the team and other stakeholders Product Owner\Business

Executive\Client).

2. Facilitating Sprint\Iteration\Program Increment Planning and come up with Sprint\Iteration

Backlog.

Sprint Backlog: It is generally owned by the development team. It only contains those
features and requirements that are related to the specific sprint only. It is considered a
subset of the product backlog. It is compiled of everything that must be done to
complete a particular sprint. It only includes items that can be completed during each
agile sprint. It is specific to the sprint goal only in a particular sprint.

Product Backlog:

It is generally owned and maintained by the project owner. It usually contains each and every
feature of the product as well as the requirements of the product. It is compiled to everything
that must be done to complete the whole process. It just breaks down every item into a series of
steps. It is more specific to the end goal of the product

Iteration Backlog

means a plan setting out the parameters of that Iteration and which should include the specific
Outcomes to be delivered and Definition of Done to be achieved during the Iteration

What is Iteration?

In agile software development, an iteratioSn is a set amount of time reserved for development.
Typical iterations last 1-2 weeks, however, some may go as long as 4 weeks. Most agile
development teams agree on the length of their iterations and proceed to operate on an
iteration-by-iteration basis

Program Increment Planning : Program Increment (PI) Planning is the heartbeat of the Agile
Release Train(ART). Planning is a cadence-based event for the entire ART that aligns teams
and stakeholders to a shared mission and vision.

The PI Planning event is two days of focused planning with all the teams, stakeholders, and
product owners/managers in one place to review the program backlog and determine the
direction of the business. This event typically happens every eight to 12 weeks and can be a
significant challenge for large teams that are spread out across the country or even the world.

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The Agile Manifesto states, “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to
and within a development team is a face-to-face conversation.” SAFe takes this to the next level
with PI planning.

Business Benefits of PI Planning

PI planning delivers many business benefits, including:
 Establishing face-to-face communication among all team members and
stakeholders
 Building the social network the ART depends upon
 Aligning development to business goals with the business context, vision, and
Team and ART PI objectives
 Identifying dependencies and fostering cross-team and cross-ART collaboration
 Providing the opportunity for just the right amount of architecture and Lean User
Experience (UX) guidance
 Matching demand to capacity and eliminating excess Work in Process (WIP)
 Fast decision-making

Inputs to PI planning include:

 Business context (see ‘content readiness’ below)

 Roadmap and vision
 Highest priority Features of the ART Backlog
A successful PI planning event delivers two primary outputs:
 Committed PI objectives – Each team creates a set of SMART objectives with
the business value assigned by the Business Owners.
 ART planning board – Highlighting the new feature delivery dates, feature
dependencies among teams, and relevant milestones

PI preparation :

PI planning is a significant event that requires preparation, coordination, and communication. It

is facilitated by the RTE and event attendees, including Business Owners, Product
Management, Agile Teams, System and Solution Architects, the System Team, and other
stakeholders.

Organizational Readiness Before PI planning, there must be strategy alignment among

participants, stakeholders, and Business Owners. Critical roles are assigned. To address this in
advance, however, event organizers must consider the following:
 Planning scope and context – Is the planning process’s scope (product, system,
technology domain) understood? Do we know which teams need to plan together?
 Business alignment – Is there reasonable agreement on priorities among the
Business Owners?
 Agile teams – Do we have Agile teams? Are there dedicated team members and
an identified Scrum Master/Team Coach and Product Owner for each team?
Content Readiness It’s equally important to have a clear vision and context so that the right
stakeholders can participate. Therefore, the PI planning must include the following:
 Executive briefing – A briefing that defines the current business context
 Product vision briefing(s) – Briefings prepared by Product Management, including
the top 10 features in the

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 ART Backlog Architecture vision briefing – A presentation made by the

CTO, Enterprise Architect, or System Architect to communicate new Enablers,
features, and Nonfunctional Requirements (NFRs)
Logistics Readiness Preparing an event to support a large number of attendees isn’t trivial. This
prep can include securing and preparing the space for physically collocated planning. For
remote attendees or a fully distributed PI Planning, this also includes investment in the
necessary technical infrastructure. Considerations include:
 Locations – Each location where planning takes place needs preparation in
advance.
 Technology and tooling – Real-time access to information and tooling to support
distributed planning or remote attendees
 Communication channels – Primary and secondary audio, video, and
presentation channels must be available

Day 1 Agenda - BPAPTDM

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 Business context – A Business Owner or senior executive describes the

current state of the business, shares the Portfolio Vision, and presents a
perspective on how effectively existing solutions address current customer
needs.
 Product/solution vision – Product Management presents the current vision
(typically represented by the top ten or so upcoming features). They highlight
changes from the previous PI planning event and any relevant milestones.
 Architecture vision and development practices – The System Architect
presents the architecture vision. Also, a senior development manager may
introduce Agile-supportive changes to development practices, such as test
automation, DevOps, Continuous Integration, and Continuous Deployment,
which the teams will adopt in the upcoming PI.
 Planning context and lunch – The RTE presents the planning process and
expected outcomes.
 Team breakouts #1 – In the breakout, teams estimate their capacity for
each Iteration and identify the backlog items they will likely need to realize the
features. Each team creates draft plans, visible to all, iteration by iteration.

 Draft plan review – During the tightly timeboxed draft plan review, teams
present key planning outputs, which include capacity and load, draft PI
objectives, potential risks, and dependencies. Business Owners, Product
Management, and other teams and stakeholders review and provide input.
 Management review and problem-solving – Draft plans likely present
challenges like scope, people and resource constraints, and dependencies.
During the problem-solving meeting, management may negotiate scope changes
and resolve other problems by agreeing to various planning adjustments. The
RTE facilitates and keeps the primary stakeholders together for as long as
necessary to make the decisions needed to reach achievable objectives.\

 Draft plan review – During the tightly timeboxed draft plan review, teams
present key planning outputs, which include capacity and load, draft PI
objectives, potential risks, and dependencies. Business Owners, Product
Management, and other teams and stakeholders review and provide input.

 Management review and problem-solving – Draft plans likely present

challenges like scope, people and resource constraints, and dependencies.
During the problem-solving meeting, management may negotiate scope changes
and resolve other problems by agreeing to various planning adjustments. The
RTE facilitates and keeps the primary stakeholders together for as long as
necessary to make the decisions needed to reach achievable objectives.

Day 2 Agenda

 Planning adjustments – The next day, the event begins with management
presenting changes to the planning scope, people, and resources.
 Team breakouts #2 – Teams continue planning and making the appropriate
adjustments. They finalize their objectives for the PI, to which the Business Owners
assign business value, as shown in Figure 4. Figure 4. A team’s PI objectives sheet
with assigned business value

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 Final plan review and lunch – All teams present their plans to the group during
this session. At the end of each team’s time slot, the team states its risks and
impediments and provides the risks to the RTE for use later in the ROAMing
exercise. The team then asks the Business Owners if the plan is acceptable. If the
plan is accepted, the team brings their team PI objective sheet to the front of the
room so everyone can see the aggregate objectives unfold in real-time. If the
Business Owners have concerns, teams can adjust the plan to address the identified
issues. The team then presents its revised plan.

 ART PI Risks – During planning, teams have identified risks and impediments
that could impact their ability to meet their objectives. These are resolved in a
broader management context before the whole train. One by one, the risks are
discussed and addressed with honesty and transparency and then grouped into one
of the following categories:

5. Resolved – The teams agree that the risk is no longer a concern

6. Owned – Someone on the train owns the risk since it cannot be

addressed during PI planning
7. Accepted – Some items are simply facts or potential problems that
must be understood and accepted
8. Mitigated – Teams identify a plan to reduce the impact of the risk

 Confidence vote – Once ART PI Risks have been addressed, teams vote on their
confidence in meeting their team PI objectives Each team conducts a vote using their
fingers (fist of five) or a digital tool for remote events. If the average is three fingers
or above, then management should accept the commitment. If it’s less than three,
the team reworks its plan. Anyone voting two fingers or fewer should be allowed to
voice their concerns. These concerns might add to the risk list, require replanning, or
provide information. Once each team has voted, it’s repeated for the entire ART, with
everyone expressing their confidence in the collective plan, as illustrated in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Confidence vote for an ART
 Plan rework – If necessary, teams adjust their objectives until they have high
confidence. This additional planning is one occasion where alignment and
commitment are valued more highly than adhering to a timebox.
 Planning retrospective and moving forward – Finally, the RTE leads a brief
retrospective for the PI planning event to capture what went well, what didn’t, and
what to do better next time, as shown in Figure 6.

PI Outputs

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Committed PI Objectives
 SMART objectives that are created by each team
 Program Managers will use these to update the Program Board
Program Board
 Accepted Features
 New Feature Delivery Dates
 Feature dependencies (between teams and other ARTs)
 Milestones

Remote Challenges of PI Planning

Remote Teams need to be engaged and accountable

The Agile Manifesto states, “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to
and within a development team is a face-to-face conversation.”
The challenge of keeping the remote team members engaged and focused on the planning
tasks can be tough. There are a number of video conferencing services on the market that allow
teams to video conference individual members but to also have cameras focused on local
teams. This makes it possible for everyone to see and interact with each other in the same way
as if they were all sitting together in a meeting room. Applications such as Zoom offer team
video conferencing but also breakout sessions for PI planning. Remote members should be
required to keep their cameras on so that everyone can see each other. They should also plan
to be in a quiet place so that there are no distractions and they can focus and participate in the
planning sessions.

E2E
Here are the end-to-end steps for Agile project management:

1. Define the Project Vision: Begin by clearly understanding and articulating the project's
vision, goals, and desired outcomes. This step involves collaborating with stakeholders and
ensuring a shared understanding of the project's purpose.

2. Create the Product Backlog: Develop a prioritized list of features, functionalities, and
requirements called the product backlog. This backlog serves as a comprehensive inventory of
work that needs to be completed during the project.

3. Sprint Planning: Select a set of prioritized items from the product backlog and define a sprint
goal. The sprint goal represents the specific objective to be achieved during the upcoming
sprint, which is a time-boxed iteration of the project.

4. Sprint Backlog Creation: The team selects items from the product backlog and breaks them
down into smaller, actionable tasks. These tasks are added to the sprint backlog, which
becomes the team's focus for the current sprint.

5. Sprint Execution: The development team works on the tasks from the sprint backlog,
applying Agile principles and practices. Daily stand-up meetings are conducted to provide
progress updates, address any obstacles, and ensure alignment within the team.

6. Continuous Integration and Testing: As the development progresses, teams continuously

integrate their work to detect and resolve any conflicts or issues. Regular testing is performed to
ensure that the software meets the required quality standards.

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7. Daily Communication and Collaboration: Effective communication and collaboration

among team members, stakeholders, and customers are crucial throughout the project. Agile
methodologies emphasize frequent feedback and interactions to ensure everyone stays aligned
and informed.

8. Sprint Review: At the end of each sprint, a review meeting is held to showcase the
completed work to stakeholders. Feedback is gathered, and adjustments are made to the
product backlog and project plan based on the insights gained.

9. Sprint Retrospective: Following the sprint review, a retrospective meeting takes place to
reflect on the recently completed sprint. The team identifies what went well, what could be
improved, and actionable steps to enhance future sprints.

10. Repeat Sprints: The project continues by returning to the sprint planning phase, selecting
new items from the product backlog, and proceeding with subsequent sprints. This iterative
process allows for flexibility, adaptability, and continuous improvement.

These steps provide a high-level overview of Agile project management. It's worth noting that
there are various Agile methodologies, such as Scrum or Kanban, which may have slight
differences in their specific practices or terminologies.

Agile Values and Principle:

The 4 Agile Values

5. Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools: It focuses on giving

more attention and importance to communication with clients.
6. Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation: It focuses on the
completion of the project and making sure that the project is completing the final
deliverables.
7. Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation: It focuses on involving
customers in all phases of the project so that the final product doesn’t lack any
requirement that the client needs. It is done to ensure 100% customer satisfaction.
8. Responding to Change over Following a Plan: It focuses on changes and
motivates the team to adopt the change quickly so that higher quality products can
be delivered. Therefore, agile works in short sprints so that changes can be utilized
for good.

The 12 Agile Principles

13. Customer Satisfaction: First priority is to fulfill customer demands to ensure

100% customer satisfaction.
14. Welcome Change: Changes are important for improvement therefore even late
in the development process, changes can be introduced and addressed throughout
the development period.
15. Deliver Frequently: Products have to be delivered as soon as possible therefore
focus on a shorter timescale.
16. Work Together: Both business stakeholders and team members work together
through the development process for better collaboration.

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17. Motivated Team: For delivering high-quality products, team members are
motivated and encouraged. Team members are given the environment and support
they need to perform effectively.
18. Face-to-Face: Agile emphasizes Face-to-face communication which is the most
effective and efficient way of conveying information. It helps the team to
communicate simple and complex information in an effective way.
19. Working Software: Delivering working software to the customer is the major
concern of Agile. Working software or product is the primary measure of progress
towards the final product.
20. Constant Pace: Agile promotes sustainable development. All teams, sponsors,
developers, and users that are involved in the agile process should maintain a
constant speed to deliver working software in a short timescale.
21. Good Design: Focuses on good design and technical details to improve quality
and agility (quick and graceful).
22. Simplicity: Team focuses on tasks and features that are essential and reduces
the amount of work and time spent on complex features and tasks that are not
essential. It is done to keep things simple.
23. Self-Organization: Agile team should be cross-functional and self-organized. It
should not depend on the manager to assign work, instead should find their own
work and manage the responsibilities and timelines. Such teams not only help to
deliver good quality software but also provide the best designs, requirements, and
architectures.
24. Reflect and Adjust: To improve the effectiveness of a team, the team reflects on
how to become more effective and assess their working style at regular intervals.
This is done so that one can learn from their mistakes and take some steps to
improve their performance in the next iteration

RISKS

Risk can be defined as a predicament or situation exposed to any small or big danger. However,
as long as we know how to presume and manage risk, we can overcome the snags to move
forward and complete the project without delays. Here are some of the risks involved in Agile
software development and how they can be resolved:
6. Budget Risk: When any project is planned, an estimated budget is discussed for
it. One of the foremost risks in the Agile software development process is going over
budget. It is not always possible to presume variations in customers’ needs or even
changes in the market. Hence, going over budget is a very common and potential
risk.

Solution: The best way to ensure that the project sticks to the budget is to avoid
overquoting or underquoting. A reserve should also be maintained to avoid running
out of money in case of necessary changes costing more than planned. Above all
this, there should be a plan in place stating solutions in case the budget issue
occurs.
7. Scope Creep: Scope creep happens when the scope of the project starts to
expand. Along the way, the customers might want to add features that were not
already discussed at the planning stage. When this happens, it is called scope creep
leading to project going over budget and deadline being pushed.

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Solution: Not only is it essential to plan the scope of the project in advance, it is also
necessary to ensure that the plan is being followed. The progress of the project
should be constantly checked by the manager to avoid the risk of scope creep. While
discussing the plan, it should be ensured that the stakeholders agree and sign on the
planned scope. Besides this, the software development team should also implement
a change control process after discussing it with the customer.
8. Not sticking to Agile: Agile methodology focuses on collaboration and flexibility.
This means that the self-organizing cross-functional teams, through iterative testing,
are quick to anticipate changes in customer needs corresponding to the dynamic
market and come up with pragmatic solutions along the course. However, if the Agile
process is not followed carefully, the issues won’t be eliminated on time. As a result,
the overall cost will be more when the changes have to be made after the
development process is over. The product quality will also suffer considerably.

Solution: Here, communication is key! Following Agile methodology properly is

important for the software development process to be successful. The stakeholders
must understand the importance of applying Agile principles to the process and how
the results can be heavily impacted if not followed through and through. It should be
carefully communicated and applied.
9. Time Delays: Sticking to deadlines for software release and reducing the time-to-
market of the product is the main goal of the whole process. Several factors like
improper planning, mismanagement, lack of talent, continuous change in customer
needs and variations in market dynamics besides budget issues can lead to delay in
the completion of work.

Solution: The best way to avoid time delays is to keep room for delay while planning
the timeline. You have to factor in reasons like emergencies, holidays, time taken for
testing and QA and complexities in the project and time taken to incorporate changes
after each round of testing. Even after all this, there should still be some extra time
that can allow further improvement.
10. Miscommunication of goals: Agile software development methodology
succeeds because it ensures continuous communication among team members to
achieve each solution or goal. If even one member has misunderstood or
miscommunicated a step of the product lifecycle or ongoing operation, it can
collectively affect the outcome.
Solution: To avoid this kind of risk, the best solution is to apply Squad-based agile
software development. This essentially means that an Agile team that is well
equipped and aware of each member’s talent can work with each other closely to
deliver the highest quality product. An Agile squad comes with several benefits that
include each team members being aware of each other’s capacity and knowledge,
easier communication due to same work location, increased development speed
because of continuous discussions, reduced risk due to low chances of
miscommunication and autonomy allowing them to choose the path they want to
reach the goal.

Challenges faced by AGILE Manager

Challenges in Agile Project Management

1. Insufficient Planning
Before approving a project, many company leaders need a comprehensive strategy, including
its benefits and an anticipated final cost. Many leaders believe that knowing how much a

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project will cost until after it is completed, or simply completing the next item that has to be
done without a strategy, is insufficient.
Leaders must acquire a more agile attitude and comprehend that plans are still necessary for
agile projects; they are simply executed differently. It is permissible to plan in the form of
requirements scoping, design work, project architecture, and time and cost estimates for sprints
and milestones. Planning may be a part of agile if it's done in the context of sprint planning and
ongoing adaptation.
2. Changing Requirements
Changes can occasionally be made to a product's specs or requirements. Most of the time,
these modifications are handled, but if they come up near the end of a sprint, they are
postponed until the next sprint and constitute a burden on the developers and testers. The
testing team should take risk analysis into account and start by testing the most crucial
features. Regression testing can be used to see if other code sections are impacted and may
be automated.
3. Lack of Management Support
Poor managerial support is still one of the primary reasons why Agile does not succeed in
every situation. To transition to agile, all executives, middle managers, and senior managers
must know that project management methodologies will change in certain ways. They need to
be aware of the advantages of the impending Agile transformation and the specifics of how it
will impact the operational facets of the company. They must completely comprehend what is
required of them to assist the Agile adoption effectively.
4. Continuous Testing
Testing is a continuous process that begins before the development phase rather than being
limited to a single stage. Because testers are expected to begin developing tests for features
either before development or in the middle of it, this poses a significant difficulty. Together,
testers, developers, and product owners should determine each story's specifics before
creating effective acceptance criteria.
Before beginning development, the team should ensure that each narrative has enough
acceptance criteria and that everyone understands the story's context. As a result, it is easy to
develop tests as soon as the feature's code is complete and implement them.
5. Lack of Team Ownership
A major barrier to the advancement of Agile transformations and scaling is still certain teams'
resistance to implementing agile techniques. Agile combats this internal culture by encouraging
team members to fully own their work and give up relying on what other people tell them to do.
To accomplish this effectively, the project manager must promote increased team member
participation and communication. Promote involvement and upward movement.
Increasing team members' ownership over the process would allow them to independently
evaluate and develop solutions to problems rather than waiting for permission after approval.
6. Conventional HR Practises
HR departments should use agile techniques when hiring, reviewing, and promoting staff
members. Agile is a useful method of working since it encourages the participation of the right
individuals in projects rather than relying on pre-existing roles or job descriptions. People will
volunteer because they feel competent and knowledgeable in the project's field and have
established working relationships with others who share their enthusiasm.
These people are helpful to the project because they are motivated more by an intriguing task
or challenge, working with a particular group or leader, than by receiving pay or other material
advantages. Agile businesses should revise their incentive and performance plans to
accommodate team-based learning.
7. Frequent Regression Cycles

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Developers regularly and continually add functionality to the product. Previous features may
have regressions as a result. Testers use regression testing to pinpoint and fix this issue;
however, manual regression testing is unfeasible in a quick-paced agile setting.
Modern online apps act differently when accessed on various devices or browsers, which
presents another difficulty. As a result, a complicated matrix of compatibility test examples must
be checked to ensure the program works properly for all users.
8. Inconsistent Practises Across Team Members
Customer satisfaction is a guiding principle of the Agile methodology. Agile frameworks like
Kanban recommend building a range of services within the firm to accomplish this goal. All
departments, teams, and people may self-organize around the task, cooperate, and change
how they conduct business while being motivated by quality improvement thanks to this
network of services.
Enhance the work processes, the product, and the service to offer more value. People must
adhere to the same rules and use the same concepts for this network of services to function.
Agile teams that consistently communicate and work together are essential. This comprises
cross-functional Agile positions or teams assisting with completing a project.
9. Finance Clashes
Not every phase in an agile strategy is detailed and planned. This is a significant shift for many
finance departments, which frequently have a more conventional and conservative approach.
One of the major obstacles to becoming agile in a business is finance and financing.
Organizations require exposure to address this issue and restructure the finance and other
departments to improve communication and awareness. It might be useful to explain why even
traditionally costed projects typically go late and over budget to get finance on board with the
business and operational teams.
10. Performance Variations
The applications we use now are far more powerful and complicated. During the development
phase, developers must write a lot of code. This occasionally has an impact on how well the
product performs. This typically occurs when developers create a product without considering
the end-user's needs and strictly adhering to the specifications. Utilizing load testing tools can
aid in locating and resolving performance problems. Finding performance bottlenecks can also
be aided by automated techniques.

Difference between Scrum Board and Kanban Board?

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Defect Triage
Overview
The word “Triage” is basically used in the medical field. Actually, it used to decide the order in
which the patients should be treated. Usually, in big hospitals, where there are thousands of
patient’s approaches for consultation or actual treatment on a daily basis. But not all the patients
are admitted or treated immediately.
The severity of the illness or the injury is the main criteria for consultation and based on this all
the patients are categorized accordingly. If the injury or health of any patient is very critical then
the doctors usually treat such patients as a priority and get admitted if required.
Normal diseases or non-critical injuries are considered at a lower priority and such patients are
treated later.
Similarly, the term Triage is introduced in software testing for defects in the application or a
project. Usually, the Defect Triage process is implemented in large projects and in many cases,

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it is not applicable for small-scale projects. There are chances to identify a huge number of
defects in bigger projects than medium or small projects.
Also in bigger projects, the frequency of defect identification is quite higher.
Take a look at the below image which shows the outcome of Defect triage meeting and
gives answers to specific questions like:

Defect Triage Meeting

The main objective of a triage meeting is to track all the defects and ensure the correct
resolution in a timely manner.
During the test execution phase, the testers start reporting defects in the Defect Management
tool like HP ALM, QC etc. Then Defect Triage Meeting is held in which the developers and
testers are required to be present as these people will discuss all the defects and take the
necessary further course of action.
Mainly the presence of the below participants is required mandatorily:
 Project Manager
 Test Lead
 Development Lead or Developer
 Tester
 Test Manager
 Business Analyst
 Environment Manager
Although I have given an exhaustive list of all the participants in the meeting, it is not necessary
to involve all of them like Business Analyst, Environment Manager, Test Manager, etc in the
daily meeting. Whenever necessary the Test Lead or Project Manager invite them and they can
share their valuable feedback and opinion regarding a specific defect.
And the entire team is known as a Triage Team. Now, I’m going to explain the exact process of
triage meeting and how this meeting is set-up.
Consider one hypothetical Example: We have one project related to the Banking application,
size is very large and the frequency of identifying and reporting the defect is high. Hence the
Test Lead decides to set-up a Defect Triage Meeting with the required participants.
For setting up a meeting the Test Lead sends a meeting invite via email to everyone and sets a
particular timing for Triage Meeting. The below given hypothetical image shows the meeting
invite sent by a Test Lead via outlook to all the participants.
Here everything is imaginary in the below image like – the participant names, meeting
room, conference call details, date, time etc.
(Note: Click on any image for an enlarged view)

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Every day before the start of the triage meeting, the Test Lead sends a list of all the “Open”
defects is a spreadsheet format to all the participants so that they can go through all the defects
before the meeting and understand what exactly the defect is and what kind of fix is required for
it.
Before the start of every triage meeting, ensure that each defect:
 Has enough information to understand the defect for all the participants in
the meeting.
 Has reported under correct project and category.
 Has mentioned the priority and severity of the defects.
 All the detailed information provided in the defect to understand it
correctly to all the participants.
Recommended Read => A Complete Guide to Defect Management Process
Defect Triage Template
Before the kickstart of every Defect Triage Meeting, the Test Lead shares the defect report to all
the participants in a specific format and the report pulled out from the Defect Management Tool
like HP ALM, HP QC etc. I am showing one sample format in the below image which will give a
high-level idea of which fields are mentioned in the Defect Report Template.

Usually, the fields included in the defect report are:

 Defect ID
 Description
 Priority
 Severity
 Detected Date
 Detected By
 Status
The list is not exhaustive but as per the project need, the other fields in the defect report
template can be included.
Usually, the spreadsheet format is used as a template for defect reporting, hence I have given
the hypothetical defect details in the spreadsheet format. Please note that all the information
provided in the above defect report is only imaginary and not related to any project or
actual application.
Defect Triage Process

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A commonly heard and experienced situation in test teams is limited availability of resources.
Defect triage is a process which tries to do some re-balancing as a result of this phenomenon.
So when there are many defects and limited Developers/testers to fix/verify them, defect triage
helps to get as many defects resolved as possible by balancing the technical personnel based
on defect parameters like priority and severity.
Typically, a defect triage session is attended by the Product Manager, a development lead, a
test lead and sometimes business analysts. In some cases, certain other members may also be
invited to give their opinions and perspectives regarding certain defects. These are collectively
called a triage team.

Most systems use priority as the main criteria to assess the defect, however, a good triage
process considers the severity as well.
Let’s take a closer look at the triage process with two examples that we’ve talked about in the
previous section. In both the examples above, it would actually be the first defect that would be
given a very high priority. Despite it being only a cosmetic defect, the impact of not fixing would
be huge.
The second one, on the other hand, is a surely functionality defect, however, its occurrence is in
only certain conditions which are seldom practiced customer scenarios. Fixing it may need more
time and people, which could be better utilized for other defects. Hence it would deem lower
priority than that of the first and maybe deferral candidate to another release.
Thus the triage process involves triage team sitting down together, reviewing all the defects
including rejected defects. They draw an initial assessment of the defects based on its content,
their respective priority, and severity settings; with each person in the triage team presenting
their perspective on how to prioritize the defects.
The product manager then sets the priority based on all the inputs and assigns the defect to the
correct release I.e. in the current release or any future release. He also redirects the defect to
the correct owner/team for further action. Rejected defects also are put through a similar
analysis. Based on the reason for rejection, the futuristic action of whether it needs to be
deferred or canceled is determined.
In the triage meeting, each and every defect should be discussed including the defects which
are categorized as a lower priority one. The triage team review evaluates all the defects and
takes necessary action on each defect. If a defect is running short of information then the
developer assigns back such defects to the testers and requests for necessary information.
The triage meeting can be held in the meeting room if all the participants are at the same
location. But in many organizations, the work is carried out from a different location and all the
teams are spread across various locations so that the meeting is also held using teleconference
or business Skype.

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[image source]
Step by step process of the defect triage meeting:
 Test Lead kicks off the meeting with the defect report which was sent
earlier on the day.
 The discussion starts with the actions pending from the previous triage
meeting. The necessary updates or action that was taken on any defect is
discussed initially.
 If there are new defects in the defect report then these defects are
reviewed and evaluated. It also verifies if the priority and severity are
assigned properly, if not, then these are corrected in the meeting.
 All the defects are discussed in the meeting and the development team
also discusses the complexity of fixing the defect. The risk associated with
the defect is also discussed by the triage team.
 Triage team comes to a conclusion on, which defect should require
immediate attention & fix and which defect needs to wait for some time and if
required those defects can be postponed to future releases.
 All the defects are assigned to the respective team in QC or ALM
simultaneously during the meeting. Appropriate comments are also added in
the QC/ALM.
 All the essential updates and action items are noted down and the Test
Lead calls out for the end of the meeting.
 After triage meeting completion, Test Lead sends out minutes of meeting
to all the participants.
Roles and Responsibilities
Roles and responsibilities based on each category are explained below:
Test Lead
 Test Lead schedules a defect triage meeting and sends out a formal
meeting invite to the required team.

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 Sends the defect report before every triage meeting.

 Kicks off the meeting with the pending action items from the previous
triage meeting.
 Discuss each defect and impact on the schedule if any functionalities are
blocked due to the defect.
 Helps in assigning priority and severity of each defect if it was not
assigned correctly earlier.
 Update the QC/ALM with appropriate comments.
 Note down all the updates, action items, risk related to a defect, etc.
 Sends minutes of meeting to all the participants.
Development Lead/Developer
 Share updates on the action items pending from the last triage meeting.
 Discuss all the defects from a technical perspective.
 Identify how much time it will require for fixing based on the complexity of
the defect and functionality.
 Discuss the complexity of the defect and risk associated with the defect if
any.
 Development Lead assigns defect to the appropriate developer after
validating all the available detailed information.
 Updates the defect with the expected resolution date.
 Assists in identifying the root cause of the defect.
Project Manager
 Ensure that if all the representative from every area is available for the
meeting.
 If necessary, project manager invites Business Analyst in the meeting for
their opinion on a specific defect.
 If the defects are not moving or if there is any major blocker then
escalates with the escalation process.
 If required, acts as a mediator if any dispute or conflict happens between
the teams and takes the necessary decision.
 Take the confirmation from the development team for the next release
date for fixed defects.
 Make aware of the updated schedule and release date of the project to all
the teams.
At times, it is also a good idea to involve the other team members in the triage call so that they
can also understand and contribute to the meeting and if required they can also provide their
feedback.
Reports for agile

The following are all the reports which we provide to stake holders

Burn-up Chart:

It is a type of chart that is used to display or represent the amount of work that has been
completed and the total amount of work for a sprint or iteration.

Burn-down Chart:

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It is a type of chart that is used to display or represent the amount of work that is remaining to
be completed in the project. These charts are very simple and easy to understand.

Different types of Burn-Down charts are listed below:

 Product Burndown Chart: It is a type of chart that is used to show story points
of each completed sprint so that it depicts the completion of requirements over time.
It mainly shows how many of the product goals are being achieved by the team and
how much work is remaining.
 Sprint Burndown Chart: It is a type of chart that is used to show the remaining
works for the scrum team of a particular sprint. It makes the work of the team visible
and shows the rate at which work is completed and how much is remaining to be
completed.
 Release Burndown Chart: It is a type of chart that is used to show how a team
is progressing against the work for a release. This chart is updated by the scrum
team at the end of each sprint. It is very essential to see what process is being made
during each sprint.
 Defect Burndown Chart: It is a type of chart that is used to show the total
number of defects that are being identified and fixed or removed.

Velocity in Agile?

A velocity is basically a measurement unit that measures or calculates how much work an agile
development team can successfully complete in a single sprint and how much time will be
required to finish a project. It is widely used as a calibration tool that helps development teams
to create accurate and efficient timelines. It is also used to identify problems and measure the
improvements that occur with time.

Earned Value

Now this is one of the Agile reporting techniques I am just a little hesitant to recommend.

Let me explain.

If you don’t know Earned Value reporting, it’s basically about measuring whether the amount
of money spent through so far in your project justifies the amount of work completed at this
point in time.

There are a few variables here:

9. Budget – the estimated cost of your project. This is usually decided at the
beginning of the project, and reviewed infrequently or not at all.
10. Actual cost (AC) – the proportion of the original budget your team have spent so
far.
11. Planned Value (PV) – the proportion of your project scope that was expected to
have been delivered by this time.
12. Earned Value (EV) – the ‘real’ value of the scope that has actually been
delivered so far.
Name the types of reports generated in JIRA

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Interview questions

JIRA offer reports that show statistics for projects, versions, people or other fields within issues.
Various reports included with JIRA are

 Average Age Report

 Pie Chart Report
 Resolution Time Report
 Recently Created Issues Report
 Resolved vs. Created Issues Report
 Single Level Group by Report
 Time Tracking Report
 User Workload Report
 Workload Pie Chart Report, etc.

Xray – test management tool used

Reports created in XRAY
Traceability matrix

Jira software

Why use JIRA software?

The reason behind using JIRA is

 Upfront and fair licensing policy

 Features that is not available elsewhere
 Get the latest update on the progress of projects
 It runs anywhere and recognized with many famous companies
 Easily extensible and customizable

Explain labeling and linking issue in JIRA

 Labeling Issue: It enables you to categorize an issue in a more informal way

than assigning it to a component or version. You can then search issues according to
the label.
 Linking Issue: This feature enables you to link an association between two
issues on either on the same or different JIRA servers.

State the difference between Bugzilla and JIRA?

Bugzilla JIRA
It is an Open Source It is a commercial tool
Using Bugzilla might be little complicated
For some using JIRA would be more convenient
for few due to grouping users and granting
than Bugzilla
permissions
Bugzilla allows you to show/hide the whole
JIRA enables conditional configuration based only
custom field or specific values based on
on Type fields and Project.
the value of some other field

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Interview questions

JIRA lacks advance-level search options. JIRA has

Bugzilla’s has a powerful advanced search
a flexible JQL language (JIRA Query Language). It
option
enables you to build arbitrary boolean expressions.
Unlike Bugzilla, JIRA enables you to define multiple
Unlike JIRA, Bugzilla allows users to select
workflows which are applied based on the issue’s
the initial status of a new issue.
Project and Type.
JIRA has configurable link types with user-defined
Bugzilla has only one link type:
semantics. JIRA enables to link an issue to any
Blocks/depends and a Bug ID custom field
other entity outside JIRA.

For an Agile project, how user stories in JIRA are created?

For an Agile project to create user stories in JIRA, follow below steps.

 Issue type – Jira Epic and Issue type – Story linked to it. In order to do so, in the
‘Create Issue’ page, go to “Configure Fields” and select “Epic link” field to be
included in the issue creation screen.
 Or you can have a product backlog by creating a main User story and having
various sub-tasks under it.

Confluence

1. What do you know about the Confluence tool?

Ans: Confluence is a fully web-based corporate technology developed by a company called

Atlassian Software Company. Confluence can be developed with the help of the JAVA
programming language. Confluence tool is mainly used by a team to share the knowledge
related to product effectively and also help to collaborate with other teams. The main purposes
of using confluences included are capturing project requirements, assign tasks to any specific
users, and also helps the team to manage calendars.

2. Mention the differences between Confluence and JIRA?

Ans: The below table explains the main differences between Confluence and JIRA:

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Interview questions

3. What are the advantages of using the Confluence tool?

Ans: The following are the important advantages of using the Confluence tool:
 Easy access and search for information
 Documents and files in order.
 Possibility of setting restrictions and the receivers group.
 Achieving all versions of created pages.
 This tool is fully integrated with JIRA software.
 Products scalability and Confluence grow with your company.

4. What sort of conflicts can be avoided by using Confluence?

Ans: As we already know that Confluence is a popular software application mainly used in the
form of a framework. This Confluence tool assures the team to get effective results or
outcomes. Confluence is also capable of simplifying the requirement and also helps to eliminate
all the issues related to product nature and sources. You can also find a few other issues such
as Human errors, and application glitches. These errors can be eliminated with the help of
confluence.

5. Can you tell me some important factors that need to be cared for when it comes to
team collaboration? How they matter?

Ans: Some of the important factors included are:

 Budget related to the product
 Quality of the final product or outcome
 Scope of the project after done with accomplishment
 Risk associated with the project
 Helps to utilize the resources.

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6. What is the basic aim of using the confluence tool?

Ans: The main basic aim of using the confluence tool is to simplify the product resources and
enable other users to work remotely on any project without facing any problem related to
processing, information sharing, and management of raw data usage for a project.
Want to enhance your skills to become master in Confluence Certification, Enroll in
our Confluence Online Training.

7. What are the prime requirements for Confluence technology?

Ans: There are two prime factors matter a lot while working on the Confluence tool such as:
 Confluence is a platform independent tool
 This tool can run anywhere.

8. Name a few important approaches that are useful in Scope defining?

Ans: Well, you can see lots of approaches are available and they play a vital role in the
development of the Confluence tool;
Let me explain a few factors such as;
 Analyzing the product requirements
 Value engineering is mandatory
 Product breakdown management
 4. Alternative analysis tool
 System and value analysis
 Brain storming technique
 Performing pair-wise comparison.

9. Can you suggest some ways that can help in compressing a Schedule or a project time
in team collaboration?

Ans: There are several ways available to compress a schedule or a project time in team
collaboration;
 Fast tracking of subtasks and crashing techniques. This is a widely used and
best factor.
 Crashing is used to enhance the schedule making based on the availability of
time slots without considering the cost factor.
 Fast tracking is a process used to perform quick selection activities or any sub-
task to assure effective outcomes.

10. How will you define Quality control?

Ans: Quality control is a set of inspections used to ensure the required availability and also
helps to meet the quality outcome. The primary aim of using quality control is to eliminate all the
errors related to a task or a project.

11. What exactly do you know about a milestone approach?

Ans: When you working with any team, the tasks and responsibilities will be divided accordingly.
When a small portion of a project or some objectives of a project can be accomplished. This is
known as a milestone.

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12. What are the basic components of Confluence architecture?

Ans: Below are the building blocks of confluence architecture;

 SNA services
 Disambiguation engine
 Rule base ontology
 Assertions manager
 Corpus, workspace services

13. What are the drawbacks of using Confluence?

Ans: The following are the major drawbacks of using Confluence such as;
 By using Confluence, the scaling is a problem. As products and product teams
scale, managing artifacts across the trio and growing needs get harder.
 Several PMs and teams might customize the tools and workflow to their
preferences which leads to a fragmented approach to product management which is
not efficient in the long run.
 After some point you start feeling the pinching need for something built especially
for product management needs.

13. Do you think dedication and leadership are the prime requirements in team
collaboration?

Ans: The answer is yes. The team members with no dedication and leadership it’s very difficult
to get an effective outcome.

14. What exactly WBS stands for in team collaborations or project management?

Ans: WBS stands for work breakdown structure.

If you have any doubts on Confluence, then get them clarified from Confluence Industry
experts on our Confluence Community!

15. Name any factors that matter a lot while working in a team?

Ans: There are two factors which matter a lot while working in a team such as :
 Management capabilities of the software tool collaboration.
 Processing the coordinated tasks.

16. How does using Confluence save much time and money for you?

Ans. Confluence eliminates the need to routinely verify the project progress for users who work
in multiple departments or places. It provides some amazing features that can better handle
ideas, communication, and other tasks quickly. It saves much time and money for the users.

17. Define Project Charter?

Ans. In Confluence, a project charter is an important document that includes complete details of
a project. This document authorizes all the activities that are executed under a team

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collaboration. Also, this document provides explicit information on relevant results related to the
project.

18. What is meant by Process in team collaboration?

Ans. A process in team collaboration is a method of task management. It provides the required
information that helps to take necessary actions and follow the correct order.

19. What are Process Groups in team collaboration?

Ans. In team collaboration, process groups are the order of processes related to other project
pursuits.

20. Define Project Management?

Ans. In every project, a team of various resources works on it. Project management uses the
right skills/talent at the right time and technology, which can be in multiple forms. Moreover, it
ensures that there will be perfect output.

21. What is meant by a Project Lifecycle?

Ans. A project consists of multiple modules when there is no relation between the various
activities related to a project. There are two modules available in this regard: the beginning and
closing stages. Both stages are responsible for forming the project's lifecycle, and both of them
contribute to it.

22. Will there be different activities related to a project while working on a project in team
collaboration?

Ans. There are multiple activities which can be different from each other. But it is optional that
all the actions need similar efforts and skills. Hence, we can locate some activities quickly and
some cannot. Further, when the activities need to execute, they may differ from the required
efforts.

23. Who are called the "Stakeholders"?

Ans. A stakeholder is someone who has an interest in the company and is impacted by the
business project. Moreover, the stakeholder's influence is the most important factor while
planning and executing a project. Thus, stakeholders need special attention while dealing with a
project.

24. How can we define Projects, Programs, and portfolios, and how do they differ from
each other?

Ans. We start projects to fulfil a wide range of needs. These are arrangements for various
purposes. A program is a group of projects explicitly managed to accomplish smaller tasks for
great success. The portfolio is nothing but a series of several programs and projects that aims
to fulfil a goal with higher output\

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Interview questions

25. How can we say that baselines are related to a project?

Ans. It is typically an essential task before a project is carried out in any business entity. These
are the completed editions of all the plans associated with any project. Moreover, it helps in
forecasting the project's performance in the future.

26. What is meant by Effort variance?

Ans. Efforts are essential thing while executing a task through team collaboration. The term
effort variance refers to the difference between the estimated effects of completing a job and the
actual efforts required for it. Further, if there is any, special attention is given to work performed
to verify the variance.

27. What do you mean by a Project in general?

Ans. A project is not a regular task in an organization but has a specific time limit to complete. It
is different from other tasks in a business. In other words, a project is an arrangement of
activities to be executed serially to develop a product or a service.

28. Explain the various advantages of Teamwork?

Ans. It is better to do Teamwork where multiple minds work together to get better results. With
Teamwork, it will be good to assess other's work or notice any errors and suggest better
solutions to improve the final results. Therefore, a good team can manage better time in
accomplishing a task and finishing it with fewer errors.

29. What are the various tasks that Collaboration Software can accomplish?

Ans. Software team or team collaboration can accomplish a wide range of tasks. They smooth;y
run many critical corporate processes timely. Further, it also guarantees immense productivity.
Also, it can easily connect two different users, irrespective of their places, to manage company
operations and other activities. Moreover, a project includes multiple modules created at various
locations, and collaboration software helps to connect them to address several tasks efficiently.

4. Preparing timelines for the project based on step-by-step activity.

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5. Ensure quality & continuous on time delivery via CI & CD model adhering
DevOps.
What is continuous delivery in DevOps CI CD?
6. Continuous delivery usually means a developer's changes to an application are
automatically bug tested and uploaded to a repository (like GitHub or a container
registry), where they can then be deployed to a live production environment by the
operations team.
Understanding CI/CD
CI/CD, in layman’s terms, is a step-by-step approach to continuously and consistently code,
build, test, release, and monitor a software product through automation.
Pipelines are pre-defined jobs that help understand what needs to be accomplished and when it
has to be done. Jobs are executed in parallel as much as possible to speed up and accelerate
the delivery.
A typical CI/CD pipeline would consist of stages where code gets pushed to the repository; the
build gets triggered, build is tested and deployed to the production environment.
Building CI/CD pipelines are completely tailor-made based on the needs and requirements and
could have multiple stages and jobs, and could be complex and comprehensive.
Typically building a CI/CD pipeline consists of the following phases/stages.
5. Code: Checked into the repository
6. Build: Build is triggered and deployed in a test environment
7. Test: Automated tests are executed
8. Deploy: Code is deployed to stage, and production
environments.

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