Project Management Interview Questions

  • According to the PMI, why is scheduling overtime “extremely bad technique?”
  • Can there be more than one Critical Path?  Why or why not?
  • Compare a WBS, Gantt, and PERT:
  • Does your organization use Earned Value, or something similar?
  • How are contractors and vendors handled in your organization?
  • How can a clearly defined project plan help handle “scope creep?”
  • How can an organization encourage the use of formal project management throughout the organization?
  • How can it be possible to have multiple critical paths?  How does this change the way that this situation is managed?
  • How can one “influence without authority?”
  • How can one best handle unrealistic schedules (or estimates) set by stakeholders, without project team involvement?
  • How can one determine the proper task sequence?
  • How can teams be encouraged to move through this development cycle?
  • How can the team norm development process be made more simple or go smoother?
  • How can you plan for unknown/unknowns?
  • How does your organization assign project roles and responsibilities?
  • How does your organization determine the proper sequence of events in a project?
  • How effective is your organization in managing several projects at the same time?  Why?
  • How is quality directly tied to project planning?
  • Ideally, how much time should a project manager or team member spend on updating and modifying a project file?  On what do you base this opinion?
  • In a normal for-profit business environment, what seems to be the best method to add additional flexibility to a project plan?
  • In today’s economic environment, what are the key advantages for organizations that formally practice project management techniques?
  • In what ways can project quality and product quality be built-in to the project plan?  How can this not only be encouraged, but also enforced?
  • In your opinion, what is the most difficult project constraint to address?
  • In your organization, how much effort is spent up-front planning a project?
  • In your organization, what differ