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?

In the context of Agile Project Management, stakeholder management plays a

crucial role. Let’s delve into this topic:
1. Definition of Stakeholders: Stakeholders are individuals or groups who have a
vested interest in the outcome of a project. They can be either internal (such as
employees, managers, and owners) or external (including customers, suppliers,
and government entities). Their feedback and perspectives significantly shape
the project’s objectives and outcomes1.
2. Scrum Guide’s Perspective: The Scrum Guide mentions stakeholders several
times but doesn’t delve into specifics. It emphasizes that the Scrum Team and
stakeholders should collaborate, information should be transparent to all
stakeholders, and Sprint Review participants include key stakeholders invited by
the Product Owner. However, the details remain somewhat vague2.
3. Effective Stakeholder Management Approaches: As a Product Owner,
consider the following approaches for effective stakeholder management:
o Matrix of Influence:

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 Classify stakeholders based on their power and interest:

 Crowd (Low interest / low power): Inform them about your product. Passive
communication (making information available) or active communication
(sending newsletters, version notes) suffices.
 Context setters (Low interest / high power): Although they may not show
much interest in your product, they can influence development efforts. Establish
a good relationship with them, considering possible connections between your
product and their domain.
 Subjects (High interest / low power): Engage with them actively. They care
about your product but lack significant influence.
 Players (High interest / high power): Invest substantial effort and time in
your relationship with them. They are both interested and influential2.
o Stakeholder Management Process:
 Identify Stakeholders: Recognize stakeholders based on their ability to:
 Provide a voice of reason.
 Facilitate change resulting from your project.
 Lead opinions.
 Remove impediments.
 Slow down or enhance your project.
 Impact your project3.
o Other Considerations:
 Analyze Stakeholders: Understand their needs, concerns, and expectations.
 Prioritize Stakeholders: Allocate resources and attention based on their
importance.
 Engage Stakeholders: Communicate effectively, manage expectations, and
involve them in decision-making.
 Scaling: Adapt these practices to your specific context 4.

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:

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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.

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

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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

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 Policy can be adopted
consideration
Less flexible than Kanban More flexible
Artifacts – Product Backlog, Sprint Kanban Board
Backlog, 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

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Beneficial for implementing Scrum Beneficial for completing project faster

concepts and focuses on Project and focuses on improving workflows
Management
Scrum Board gets cleared at the end of Board is not cleared until end of the
each sprint and is prepared for next sprint project

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 :
 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.

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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 iterations.

11. 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.
 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).

12. 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

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Burn- down Chart – It is the chart that displays the amount of work that is remaining to
be completed in the project.

13. 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.

14. 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

15. 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

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 Lack of understanding about agile or scrum

 External issues such as war, weather, etc.
 Business problems

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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

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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

19. 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

20. 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

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

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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.

The obvious limitation with Velocity is that you need at least two to three Sprints’ worth
progress before you can identify a trend.

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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 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.

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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?

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Yeah, not so much.

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.

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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:
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.”

22. What is MVP, MMP,MMR?

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

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Interview questions

provide more insight on the

customer needs

23. 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.

24. 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

25. 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.

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

27. 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.

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Interview questions

28. 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.

29. 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.

30. 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 It is a list of items to be completed
completed for developing the product during each sprint

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

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 Each new sprint has backlogs added by
until the project is complete the team

31. 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

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Interview questions

 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

32. 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.

33. 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.

34. 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

35. 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.

36. 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.

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Interview questions

37. 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.

38. 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.

39. 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

40. 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

41. 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
 Performing continuous monitoring and providing complete visibility

42. 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.

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Interview questions

43. 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.

44. 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.

45. 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

46. 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.

47. How is Estimation Done in a Scrum Project?

 The estimation of user stories is done based on their difficulty
 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…)

48. 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

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Interview questions

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.

1. How is Estimation Done in a Scrum Project?

What s the value stream
What is the DoD
How do we make releases
Different types of Safe whether enterprise
RAID – examples and how do we mitigate
Difference between bug and Defect
How we do estimaton
How is the capacity calculated
Estimation

26. How does a Scrum Master track Sprint progress?

 Daily Scrum meetings
 Scrum retrospectives
 Sprint planning
 Escaped defects
 Defect density
 Sprint burndown
 Team velocity

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

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Interview questions

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 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

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Interview questions

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
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

23
Interview questions

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.
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?

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Interview questions

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.
 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?

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Interview questions

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.
 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.
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.

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Interview questions

 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.
 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:

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Interview questions

 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 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.

Preparing for Agile Scrum Master Certification? Here're 40 Scrum Master Certification
Sample 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?

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Interview questions

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

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
It is a flexible method to build a software method for software
development
It follows a rigid sequence of
It is highly collaborative, thus yielding quality output steps, 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
Changes can be made even after the initial planning has started, development
is completed requirements cannot be
changed
Development is completed as a
Development is a collection of many projects
simple project or deliverable
The testing phase follows the
Testing is performed in the same iteration
build 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

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Interview questions

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
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.

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Interview questions

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.

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.

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Interview questions

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 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

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Interview questions

 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?

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 It is an implementation of the

33
Interview questions

in nature Agile methodology

Used in teams that need to
Suited for projects involving a small team of experts handle constant changing
requirements
The project head takes care of all tasks and is vital to No leader. Issues are handled by
the project the scrum master and the team
Teams can react to change
Changes cannot be handled frequently
quickly
Sprints provide workable builds of
Requires frequent delivery to the end-user the final product to the user for
feedback
Face-to-face interactions between cross-functional Daily stand-up meetings help
teams with 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?
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.

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Interview questions

 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?
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.
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.

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Interview questions

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.
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?

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Interview questions

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?
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.

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Interview questions

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.

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

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Interview questions

 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.
 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

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Interview questions

 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?
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?

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Interview questions

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.
 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:

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Interview questions

 🎓 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?”
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

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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 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

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Interview questions

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.

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:

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Interview questions

“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 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

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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.

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.

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Interview questions

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.

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

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Interview questions

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)
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

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Interview questions

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 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.

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Interview questions

 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 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.

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Interview questions

 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
 Program Managers will use these to update the Program
Board
Program Board
 Accepted Features
 New Feature Delivery Dates

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Interview questions

 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.
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.

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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 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

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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.

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

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Interview questions

many cases, 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

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Interview questions

Test Lead schedules a defect triage meeting and sends out a formal
meeting invite to the required team.
 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
For some using JIRA would be more convenient
complicated for few due to grouping
than Bugzilla
users and granting permissions
Bugzilla allows you to show/hide the
JIRA enables conditional configuration based
whole custom field or specific values
only on Type fields and Project.
based on the value of some other field
Bugzilla’s has a powerful advanced JIRA lacks advance-level search options. JIRA
search option has a flexible JQL language (JIRA Query

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Interview questions

Language). It enables you to build arbitrary

boolean expressions.
Unlike Bugzilla, JIRA enables you to define
Unlike JIRA, Bugzilla allows users to
multiple workflows which are applied based on
select the initial status of a new issue.
the issue’s Project and Type.
Bugzilla has only one link type: JIRA has configurable link types with user-
Blocks/depends and a Bug ID custom defined semantics. JIRA enables to link an issue
field to any 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.

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

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Interview questions

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

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Interview questions

a team 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\

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

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Interview questions

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.

2. Ensure quality & continuous on time delivery via CI & CD model adhering
DevOps.
What is continuous delivery in DevOps CI CD?

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Interview questions

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,

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Interview questions

negotiation, and management skills. 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

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Interview questions

Sample Answer
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

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Interview questions

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
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.

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Interview questions

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 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

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Interview questions

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?

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

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Interview questions

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 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

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Interview questions

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
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?

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Interview questions

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.

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

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Interview questions

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?
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.
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?

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Interview questions

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?
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?

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Interview questions

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.
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

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Interview questions

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?
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.

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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.
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

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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.
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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Also Explore >> Operations Courses

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.

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Interview questions

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:
 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

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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

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 management, and they should be prepared to put in extra efforts to bring the
project back to track.

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Interview questions

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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Interview questions

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.

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To tackle such questions, it is important for a candidate to describe the past

communication issues they faced.
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

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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.
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

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5. Tell Me the Best Way to Allocate Resources.

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

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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.

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

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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.”

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.

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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.”

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

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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.”

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.

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.

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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.

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

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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.

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
of negotiation. In negotiations, there are different possible outcomes:

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

outcome.

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

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

but
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
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.

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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
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!

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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.

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

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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.

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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.
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!

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3. Execution Stage
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.

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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
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.

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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
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.

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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
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.

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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.
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

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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.
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

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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 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.

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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 every team member is needed so your enterprise

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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.

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5 steps to a great resource planning process

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.

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4. Develop a resource schedule and allocate resources

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

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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 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.

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a.

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.

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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.
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?

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.

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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 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

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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?

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5. What resources do you have at your disposal that your competitors do

not?
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

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“branded” threats 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

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seen in the United States 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

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take a broader, bird’s eye view of your business and the position it occupies
in your industry.
 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

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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.
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

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Seasonal menu keeps things fresh and interesting


Potential growth via food delivery apps/technology

Threat examples
 Intensifying competition from established chain restaurants
 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.

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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 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.

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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.
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.

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

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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.

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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 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:
Online Press
Guests Program Logistics
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

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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)
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

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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.

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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Interview questions

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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Interview questions

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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Interview questions

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

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

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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

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:

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Interview questions

 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 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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informed.

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Interview questions

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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.
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
subprojects how individual projects affect a related group of projects.
Communicate project Making sure stakeholders and team members have up-to-
information date 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
versions were created in an earlier version of Project.
Embed Excel data in You can insert Excel data into Project as a linked object that
Project is updated dynamically when you change the source file.
Sync with a SharePoint task SharePoint can help you share project information without

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list using Project Server.

Up to speed with Project The ultimate tools for project collaboration: Project Server
Web App and its companion Project Web App.

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

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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.

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

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Interview questions

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

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

virtual whiteboards.

management
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,

describes how the change control system will be implemented.

program,
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

the project will be administered and disseminated.

management

▶ 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

outside of the performing organization.

describes

▶ 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

and managed.

plan
that describes how project resources are acquired, allocated, monitored, and

▶ Risk management plan. This plan is a component of the project, program, or portfolio
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

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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

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
include financial and nonfinancial benefits.

the
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,
start-up situations.

and

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

processes for the project.

sponsor
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

the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.

project

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

significant
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

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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 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.
If you want to build your career as a Project Management professional, then visit
Mindmajix - A 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.

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Interview questions

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.
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.

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Interview questions

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?
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.

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Interview questions

 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?
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.

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Interview questions

 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.

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

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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.

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.

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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.

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

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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)
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

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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 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.

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 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 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.

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 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

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

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 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.

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.

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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.
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.

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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.

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

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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 project will cost until after it is completed, or simply completing the next
item that has to be done without a strategy, is insufficient.

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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

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many cases, 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

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Test Lead schedules a defect triage meeting and sends out a formal
meeting invite to the required team.
 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
For some using JIRA would be more convenient
complicated for few due to grouping
than Bugzilla
users and granting permissions
Bugzilla allows you to show/hide the
JIRA enables conditional configuration based
whole custom field or specific values
only on Type fields and Project.
based on the value of some other field
Bugzilla’s has a powerful advanced JIRA lacks advance-level search options. JIRA
search option has a flexible JQL language (JIRA Query

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Interview questions

Language). It enables you to build arbitrary

boolean expressions.
Unlike Bugzilla, JIRA enables you to define
Unlike JIRA, Bugzilla allows users to
multiple workflows which are applied based on
select the initial status of a new issue.
the issue’s Project and Type.
Bugzilla has only one link type: JIRA has configurable link types with user-
Blocks/depends and a Bug ID custom defined semantics. JIRA enables to link an issue
field to any 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.

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

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Interview questions

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

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Interview questions

a team 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\

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

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Interview questions

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.

5. Ensure quality & continuous on time delivery via CI & CD model adhering
DevOps.
What is continuous delivery in DevOps CI CD?

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Interview questions

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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