Top 20 Project Manager Interview Questions and Answers

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Here is a list of  20 Project Manager Interview Questions compiled from project management concepts and personal experience in managing projects. The project management techniques don’t change from person to person but each project manager will have their own approach. The answers presented in this blog are more from an individual’s perspective in the role of a project manager more from personal experience.

Your opinion or assessment of the same scenario might be different and we would like to to know about your insights and impression. So do leave a comment on this page after reading this blog.

1. Why do we need Project Integration Management?

In many matrix organization project managers are part of the function of Project/Program Management vertical and each function falls under different verticals. Hence Project Manager may not have the complete authority to handle different functions.  In this scenario, the Project Manager brings complete clarity on the scope of each function, the sequence of interdependency between functions, expected timeline for each function with a complete resource plan as part of the Project Integration Management plan.

2. What is RAID in project management?

RAID is an acronym for  Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies. The Project Manager must be always aware of the risks in the action taken, and hence should be careful to execute those actions with minimal risks or risks that can be mitigated and eliminated. Assumptions about the estimates or actions should be clear, if not they will backfire. Issues and dependencies have their own bearing on the actions and tend to limit. Hence it becomes crucial for the project manager to be aware of RAID and its impact on the project’s outcome.

3. What are the 3 challenges you have faced as a Project Manager?

Planning for future Projects:

To prepare the project plan or charter for the project which commences a year later is a big challenge in this dynamic era as there could be multiple unforeseen things that could happen in the lag time. Hence project manager should conduct detailed risk analysis regularly and review/revisit the project plan even before the commencement of the project. The Project Manager should list down all the unknows risks and known assumptions, dependencies, issues with required mitigation action items that need to be reviewed regularly.

Complex Scope with multiple dependencies:

Complexity is measured by the degree of uncertainty.  Unknowns are a bigger risk for any project delivery as in most case unknows stays as unknowns until it occurs. Due to this uncertainty, the project manager is unable to come up with an apt plan. By the time unknowns becomes known, the project team will be able to decide based on risk management in absorbing the impact without affecting the final delivery plan.

Difficult Stakeholders:

Project Management is all about communication which is the most crucial part of the Project Manager. Handling people requires different skills/art than handling resources with no emotions. Studying/understanding the stakeholder, their role and their decision-making power in the project will be critical in the success of the project. Unless enough attention is paid to understanding our key stakeholders, the Project Manager may end up spending more time on communication.

4. Why do we need a schedule plan?

Schedule Plan is the critical artifact in the project management which is used to track, monitor and control the project. Without the schedule plan, one will not be able to visualize which tasks are on the way and which one to be completed on what sequence. One can represent schedule plan in multiple ways and there are many tools available to represent the same

1. Simple excel

2. Gantt Chart

3. Network diagram

5. What are the benefits of Risk Management?

Risk Management is required to take control of project deliveries proactively. With efficient risk management, one can identify the project's strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities. As we pre-empt all these in advance that helps to respond better if they arise.

Risk Management involves 4 activities.

1. Risk Identification

The first step in risk management is identifying the risks. Risks can be from any source eg. Natural disasters, Unexpected events, Unknowns in the projects, Complex nature of the project, Market dynamics, Economic changes, etc. All identified risks are to be documented for further reviews (Risk Register).

There are multiple techniques to identify risks.

1. Brainstorming
2. Delphi technique
3. Root Cause Analysis
4. SWOT
5. Assumption Analysis

2. Risk Assessment

All identified risks are to be assessed thoroughly to assess the probability of occurrence, possible impact on a project with respect to objective, cost, schedule, and quality.

3. Risk Control

Based on the analysis that was done on all identified risks, mitigation plans to be defined with the right owner for the same. The objective of the action plan is to reduce the impact, shift the impact/risk or resolve/nullify the risk.

4. Risk Review

And all these 4 activities are reoccurring and based on the nature of the project the duration can be planned how often these activities to be repeated.

6. How do you decide which project is a priority when you handled multiple projects in parallel?

Decision making is another key critical skill which is required for Project Manager especially when a different project is from different project sponsor or customers. Every project's primary goals and objectives could vary from one another so as the nature of the contract.

Prioritization based on urgency and Importance

There could be one or two fixed factors of the project which might be Schedule, Time/Cost or defined Scope while the other be variable.  Hence during the prioritization that factors the decision making.

7. What will be your leadership style?

Naturally, everyone inherits the leadership style of one or more from the below

1. Autocratic Leadership
2. Strategic Leadership
3. Coaching Leadership
4. Democratic Leadership
5. Charismatic Leadership
6. Transformational Leadership

Mostly no one will exhibit the same style of leadership all the time as we can’t say one type of leadership style will work all types of management. One may need to adopt different styles or a mix of styles based on the nature of the project and the stakeholders. There are only a few types mentioned above however there could be more.

8. How would you handle a difficult stakeholder involved in your project?

Identify the stakeholders – the primary stakeholders who will define the success of the project. Based on that I will allocate time to spend with them, meaning if there are 10 stakeholders it's not possible to spend time with all of them equally. So decide on the key stakeholders. I will come out with my own stakeholder management plan which addresses critical questions like - What are their expectations on the project, to what extent they would like to be involved in the project, how often would they like to meet and receive updates?

Assuming the difficult stakeholder is my key stakeholder who is going to define the success of my project, what are the expectation, how much time can be given to the project or what extent or detail and depth the stakeholder would like to know from me. So know your stakeholder is my first strategy.

Some stakeholders will provide us the space to make our own decisions, while some stakeholders would want them to be kept in the loop and seek approval for each and everything that goes on in the project. To such stakeholders, I will enageg in a detailed meeting to understand their requirements and expectations and level of engagement in the project, and I will follow-up by posting the minutes of the meeting. Whenever I  face some changes in the plan or commitment, I ensure to keep them informed.

Those customers that trust me to some extent and they don’t want to be involved at all – their only focus being success or delivery of the project based on timeline and budget and leave the rest to me, I keep it simple and don’t call for a weekly meeting as they do get annoyed. I  present the weekly summary or executive summary kind of report once in a week or 2 weeks or even a month depending on the need of the hour. And when there is a difficulty or change in the existing plan, then I will request a call and explain the situation and offer different options: this is the problem statement and this is the solution conceived. So let's decide on the course of action.

9. When do you consider that your project is off track and what will be your steps to ensure that it finishes within the given timeline?

Check first why the project went off track – is it because of external dependency or internal,  Issues or unknown risk. Bottomline is to understand what the customer wants to achieve as the project outcome.

At any given point in time, in my management strategy, the project cannot delay by a week because I am a person who will review my project on a weekly basis. So when I know that the project is pushed for 5 days, the first thing I will check is – can the 5 days be absorbed in the remaining timeline. This is my first option.

In case, it cannot be absorbed or it will be a risk to absorb, the next option will be to deploy additional people provided we have additional fund – buffer budget.

The third option is to carefully examine if there are non-critical things that can be descoped. I will review the remaining scope with the customer clearly stating that the project is off the track, and with the time left what are the critical things that can be identified and taken up for completion and seek their help to prioritize. So reprioritizing the remaining items, I will ensure the critical things are taken care of.

In case there is no buffer budget, then another strategy is to convert to smarter tasks, let us say 10 tasks are remaining. I will convert it into 7 smart tasks – to come out with a better solution based on my experience because the project plan was derived at the beginning of the project, and assuming if we are half-way through the project, our experience will be much better in the project given the time spent. So we will review the remaining action items or tasks to check if the tasks can be redefined or redesigned in such manner the effort can be reduced.

10. How will you manage the team members who are not working to their full potential?

Not all the resources are the same in terms of potential. The output determines productivity. The resources that deliver consistently within the given timeline are high achievers and utilize the full potential. And this takes time to study the team members’ competence and capabilities and accordingly work will be assigned, and those team members who don’t work to the full potential will be informed through appropriate channels about performance or the lack of and counseled to step up. identify those resources. If the person is continuously struggling to complete a day’s work, I will monitor for 1 week and for the next 2 weeks reduce the workload, and also help them to train on the areas of the sphere of work that the person is struggling.  Is it lack of skills or lack of understanding of scope or needs some tools to execute the work effectively or some problem in the infrastructure, I will review and rectify whatever and wherever necessary. So it's trying to understand the team members’ problems and addressing with proper solutions. Either I can propose or provide them the opportunity to explain their pain points and together arrive at a solution.

11. Which communication style do you prefer using in your projects?

The meeting is my first mode of communication of everything. Any type of stakeholder I prefer face to face meetings and then document and send as minutes by mail. I don’t want to take any decisions through mail or made over a mail. We must involve all the stakeholders for decision making in the meeting, try to understand why the decision has to be taken and the various options available before making the decision. Everyone involved should know the rationale behind the decision and then communicate by email to the entire team to be of aware of the decision made and its  consequences

12. What will you do if any of the customers are not happy with the quality or results of the product by the end of the project?

The specification is never clear at the start and any project is evolutionary in nature. Is there a problem in the quality or has the customer’s expectation has changed over a period of time. In case the quality that was agreed and delivered at the end doesn’t match, then I will do the gap analysis, explain to the customer my approach. The first thing I will check is how to reduce the impact because of the quality issue. For example, some features may not function as desired, which I will disable as a temporary fix till a solution can be worked upon. Then assure the customer about the recovery from the situation and I will come out with a recovery plan for it.

13. What were the communication challenges on your last project?

If there are ten different stakeholders, and a meeting is scheduled – let's say for some key decisions, not all the ten will attend. The decision might be made by those present in the meeting. The one who missed might have their strong opinion on the matter.  The challenge is to align all the stakeholders to keep them on the same page.

The other challenge is that different people prefer different modes of communication.  Some wish to know and be updated about all the information. Some prefer the summary.

Different geographical locations, the context which explained will not be understood as intended due to cultural conflicts. The message tends to get distorted and even misleading. What's acceptable to us may not acceptable to the other end due to cultural incompatibility where a yes may not be perceived as ‘yes’. Let's say, I am a techno-functional background project manager and the person at the other end might be operational, the context and terminology  I use may not be understood by the operational manager. It can be my limitation or the other person’s but it is certainly a limitation. So I don’t make any assumption when the customer or others involved in the meeting say. So I always ensure if I have understood correctly by reiterating to clear the doubt and get clarity. This is more so the case with a new customer – geographical location, and it takes time to understand their culture and communication method.

14. How have you handled disgruntled employees?

It is important to understand why the employee is disengaged. Is there anything assigned that is not aligned with core interest?  Or personal career aspiration. If that’s the case I will try to sync it up and consider moving to other teams where the employee’s expertise can be utilized to the fullest. Or I will put the employee in some technical training or close gap identified in the employee’s core competency, or lack of knowledge because of which the employee is disengaged.  Or if there is any conflict within the team being the reason for the employee’s disconnect, I will try to understand and resolve by engaging more and restore normalcy.

15. What is your delegation style?

Delegation depends upon the situation. Normally I communicate whats that we want to achieve and let the team decide based on their passion and prowess., skills and competency I will let them choose what they want and how they want to do. So, overall the big picture will be explained clearly which part who will do and how it will be done will be left to my team to drive. We have capable project leaders and team leaders who know their team and skill-matrix, and there is always higher accountability when you let them choose than thrust on them.

16. What’s your leadership style?

I prefer transformational leadership. Again, in leadership style, there is no hard and fast rule. There are three styles I wish to identify and follow them on the merit of the situation and people with whom I have to work. With youngsters, I may have to do a lot of coaching and handholding hence the leadership style would be mentoring or coaching style. When I have to deal with an experienced crew like managers then I guide them but leave the floor open for them to make their move. I don’t like to drive them or dictate. Sometimes, the strategic style also works fine.  Sometimes I apply coaching style, sometimes strategic but mostly it's transformational.

17. How do you go about managing the performance of your team?

I always have a clear objective with measurement criteria. I will define the criteria which makes everyone to assess themselves rather than me assessing them.  I will define the objectives and measurement criteria clearly.  And also the timeline to achieve.  Its always time-bound objectives.

18. Can you give me a few examples of a time when you made a tough decision, and it backfired?

 Yes. There was one incident when the customer asked to include “additional scope” which was not agreed upon scope while drawing the contract.  My commercial team and the top brass did not want me to take up further work. The customer put me under a lot of pressure that I had to agree because I know that additional scope is critical and will impact the customer. It has to be delivered. I know  I can reject the change request still I accepted because it's very critical for the customer which I understood from the business case. Then I agreed to deliver. Part of my delivery team was not happy because they thought I had overruled and committed. They were totally unhappy with my move. The sales team was pleased because I made their customer happy but the internal stakeholders or my team wasn’t keen about engaging more – which is actually scope creep as this would set a bad precedent and the customer might come again with some other change request. Finally, I had to request the heads of all departments concerned to be considerate and cooperate in making the project live. Because it was a short duration I had to deliver and the team was under a lot of pressure and during production.

We had to secure the approval from multiple teams and at that time it became more visible that this was out of scope and as extra work was done for the customer at the same cost and I didn’t receive any support. I really struggled a lot to pacify all the team heads concerned to be considerate and cooperate in making the project live.

19. Describe two areas in your current project, where there is a high level of uncertainty. How do you tackle these uncertainties?

I like to work with uncertainties, the reason being uncertainty is a big challenge.

For any customer, it is critical for them to go live on a particular date. So based on that “go-live” date, we work backward so that the customer is also working along with us and the engagement with the customer is good to deliver the project on time

#1 uncertainty: In the current deliveries, we don’t know when the customer will do the UAT. The customer will never commit the timeline by when they will perform  UAT. But we are bound to give the complete project plan or delivery plan. We knew for sure that the customer will not be committed. So every time, we kept that as an assumption as to when the customers will do the UAT at a certain point in time in the plan.  When the UAT phase is close by,  the customer will provide a list of their   UAT testers to us to provide the platform, access, and other necessary controls to conduct UAT. This itself is a challenge and then secure their time to get the UAT done is another.

#2 uncertainty: the scope will not be clear. The customer can never provide the requirement completely. During the initiation phase, the customer would have communicated the basic requirements that are usually light and positive flow scenarios.  But as the project progresses, we will come to know multiple operational scenarios. We come up with a plan factoring that only 50% of the scope is certain. With that assumption only, we start the project.  We know for sure that at least 30% of scope will get added – additional scope.  So we anticipate the customer is going to come up with an additional 3 or 4 use cases,  or we interview the customer to preempt the flow.

20. How did your last project end?

Overall it was good. I could have done better provided I had some background about customer, profile, and history. I had to learn about my stakeholders all along the way.  If I have to redo this kind of project,  I will understand my stakeholders and business first before I get into any meeting.  That’s the lesson learned; to get to know your customers and business well before engaging with any time of communication with them. 

Also,  I should have helped in the scope definition better because the scope was getting defined all along the way.   Though it was our flagship project and despite knowing the cutover date,  the scope still wasn’t clear till the delivery phase. The customer couldn’t get the scope right because of their own difficulties and I could have helped them to define their scope by knowing them better.

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