1. What is the One Most Valuable Lesson You Have Learned from a Failed Project?

Managing Risks with proper mitigation and contingency plans from the beginning and keeping
tracks of all issues that can become possible Risks
Stopping too much of dependency on any one resource, be it people or infrastructure and have
alternatives/backups in place to avoid surprises
Biggest challenge is having requirements laid out clearly, scope finalised and change controlled
effectively or else the end results are never too pleasant
Learning to communicate bad news, even early, even if it means that project sponsors may not
be too happy to hear it, but giving right Heads UP on time is a PM's responsibility
Estimating and taking into control all issues within the Line of Control, and keeping a contingent
reserve in times of effort, resource, money to handle unknown give a larger scope for projects
to come back to track even after a prevailing failure
2. What are your best ways of managing outsource/offshore Projects?
Clear stated deliverables and acceptance criteria in SOW
Regular communication at different levels throughout the project from execution standpoint
Depending on the duration and stage of the project (based on milestone) - atleast one a month
a governance meeting ( some of them should be at client location)
A few ice break/ sessions between team ( when you have some onsite/ some offshore) to
understand cultural diversity
A process to recognize the teams effort/ contributions from time to time
Conduct a 1-1 with client partners when they visit offshore development centers.
3. How do you define "project success" - is it fulfilling project within scope/time/cost or is there more?
The project, fulfilled in terms of scope/time/cost, is just a technical aspect of project completion.
But I believe, the "project success" is..
Customer's need fulfilled or not?
Is Customer happy? In terms of business value.
Is project team happy? In terms of work satisfaction, work/life balance and rewards/recognition
Project completed as per plan?
Lesson learned documented? etc. etc...
Another couple aspects to consider are:
Building a metrics plan for measuring progress toward achieving the goals of the project - which
should be aligned to the business value they intend to achieve.
ensuring you perform the post project assessment - including the collection of lessons learned &
best practices - and take it one step further by ensuring they are shared with appropriate
audiences.
Ensure you can support the claim of success with actual data - and then help others learn to
replicate the results you achieve!
4. What are your favorite 5 minute team building exercises?
Why 5 mins and not 0 min! In my perspective, team building is not something you pause, decide
and do. It is an ongoing process, and one need not always go out of the way to do team building.
It all depends on inculcating the belief amongst the team that they stand for each other, and
making them realize and acknowledge that it is about the collective success and collective
failure, and not individualistic. If this bond can be built, there is no need to allocate any budget
for outing, pizzas ... and of course, no new hire as replacements. More often than not, it will be
a checkmate to Attrition!
5. Client reported severe defects in report & is unhappy that the problem is not fixed even after a week.
What action a PM will take to restore client's confidence and ensure this wont happen in future?
Analyze the report: Is the defect related to data or technical issue - performance, does not get
shipped out as per schedule etc. It is important to know what is the problem area - Root Cause
and share that with client
Along with and Depending on the RCA align with client the timelines to fix the issue.
and it is important to provide updates from time to time if this agreed deadline will be meet/ or
need more time
Meantime - Provide a work around solution to address the immediate requirement (if any)
Based on the RCA : Assess if such incident is likely to stick for other reports / activities and if so
Inform the client with the steps that will be taken/scheduled to mitigate that risk.