Walk me through how you run change control on a project.
What the interviewer wants to hear
- All changes raised formally through a change request
- Assess impact on scope, schedule, cost, quality and risk
- Decision by the right authority, such as a change control board
- Update baselines, plans and communicate the decision
- Keep a change log and keep the process light for small changes
Model answer
Any change to agreed scope, schedule, cost or another baseline is raised as a change request, whoever asks for it. I then work with the team to analyse the impact on scope, time, cost, quality, risk and resources, and suggest options, such as doing it now, later or not at all. The decision goes to the right authority, which may be me for small items within agreed thresholds, the sponsor, or a change control board for larger ones. Once a decision is made, I update the baselines and plans, tell the affected people and record everything in the change log. I keep the process proportionate, because a heavy process for tiny changes pushes people to bypass it. On agile projects, the Product Owner handles backlog changes, but changes to fixed dates, budgets or contracts still need formal control.
Can you answer it under time pressure?
Take a timed medium round and get scored on every answer.
More medium Project Manager questions
- How do you prevent and handle scope creep?
- How would you handle a team member who is underperforming?
- How do you estimate effort and timelines for a project?
- How do you deliver bad news, like a delay, to your sponsor?
- How do you manage dependencies on other teams that you do not control?
- Explain earned value management and how you use it on a project.
- How do you decide which contract type to use with a vendor?
- How do you plan and run a project kickoff meeting?
- How do you build and control a project budget?