PMP Interview Questions and Answers Set 6

51. Elaborate on the Project Management Life Cycle process?

The Project Management Life Cycle is a series of various activities/tasks that are crucial for accomplishing project objectives or targets. This helps in structuring the efforts and simplifying them into a series of logical and manageable steps. The Project Management Life Cycle consists of four simple phases which are listed below:
Initiation: It’s the first and most vital step in the life-cycle of your project where the initial scope of the project gets defined and resources are committed. This process group ensures the success of your project.
Planning: In this process group, an appropriate level of detail is jotted for the project to plan time, cost and resources. It estimates the work needed and manage risk effectively.
Executing: This process group consists of the processes which are used to complete the work defined in the project management plan. It’s about achieving the project’s objectives. It also involves tracking, reviewing and regulating the performance of the project. Also, you need to identify potential problems quickly and take corrective actions.
Closure: This process group is an important part of project management, performed to finalize all project activities to complete the project. This means finishing all activities across all the process groups, disbanding the project team and signing off the project with the customer using the project closure report.

52. Do you have budget management experience?

Budget management is a crucial aspect of project management. Therefore, this question is very important in a project manager interview, if the candidate will be managing a budget if he is selected for the position. Depending on the roles and responsibilities of the project manager in a company, budget management might not be required from project manager. Especially, in vendors, budget management is required while it might not be required from project managers working in service providers.

53. What are the most important skills that a Project Manager should possess?

Most important skills that a Project manager must possess are:

Communication
a.Leadership
b. Team Management
c. Negotiation Power
d. Personal Organization
e. Risk Management

54. How will you start your job as a new project manager?

When you start your job a project manager first few things that you need to take care of are:

• Listen, observe and learn
• Understand your client’s needs and wants
• Know your team and their personalities
• Take the opportunity to learn some new skills
• Help out around the workplace
• Try to master the tools your company possesses

55. How will prioritize tasks in your project?

Prioritizing tasks in a project is very important and especially if it is an extensive one. It helps in ensuring successful and timely completion of your project. In order to prioritize the tasks you should follow the below pointers:

List the tasks and responsibilities

• Distinguish between urgent and important
• Assess the value of each task
• Order the tasks by estimated efforts
• Stay flexible and ready to adapt
• Know when to say NO

56. What is your leadership style?

Leadership is a quality that every project manager must possess. Every leader has his own leadership style to guide his team. The leadership style refers to a leader’s characteristic behaviour while directing, motivating, guiding, and managing his team to bring the best out of them. In a project, they hold the responsibility to motivate others for better performance, creation, and innovation.

There are basically four types of leadership styles and your leadership style should be situational, depending on the type of team you are working with and the importance of the tasks involved in the project. Below are the four leadership styles:

• Delegate
• Supportive
• Directing
• Coaching

• What type of work do you enjoy the most?
• How much you want to and are allowed to show your creativity?
• Under what type of deadlines do you work best?
• How comfortable are you with trying new things on a project?
• Do you prefer to always receive full credit for your work?
• Are you okay with working as part of a team, or do you prefer to work alone?

60. What are the processes and process groups in the project management framework?

A process in the project management framework is a defined way of doing tasks that are involved in the successful completion of a project. These processes define the actions to be taken along with their sequence. There are around 49 processes in the project management framework embedded in various process groups. Process groups are a collection of processes that are applicable through various stages of a project.