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[Vinay Sharma]

How do you estimate a project?

There are many techniques available for estimating a project:- Function points Use Case points WBS etc etc.

What is CAR (Causal Analysis and Resolution)?

The basic purpose of CAR is to analyze all defects, problems, and good practices/positive triggers in projects, perform a root cause analysis of the same, identify respective corrective and preventive actions, and track these to closure. The advantage of CAR is that root causes are scientifically identified and their corrective and preventive actions are carried out. CAR needs to be performed at project initiation, all phase and project ends and on a monthly basis. Fishbone diagram is one of the ways you can do CAR.

What is DAR (Decision Analysis and Resolution)?

Decision Analysis and Resolution is to analyze possible decisions using a formal evaluation process that identifies alternatives against established criteria. Example in a project you are said to use third party tools so you will not depend on only one tool but evaluate three to four more tools so that in case of problems you have alternatives. This is called as DAR

What is a fish bone diagram?

Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa invented the fishbone diagram. Therefore, it can be also referred as Ishikawa diagram. Fishbone diagram is an analysis diagram, which provides a systematic way of looking at effects and the causes that create or contribute to those effects. Because of the function of the fishbone diagram, it may be referred to as a cause-and-effect diagram. The design of the diagram looks much like the skeleton of a fish. Therefore, it is often referred to as the fishbone diagram. Fishbone diagram helps in categorizing potential causes of problems or issues in an orderly way and in identifying root causes. Below is a sample fish bone diagram, which shows why a project dead line was not met. The middle arrow is the main problem “Deadline not met”. Then we start analyzing other problems, which has led to this problem. Example There is client problem -- as he is always changing the requirement -- this is caused because the company did not sign the SRS --- and this happened as proper project management procedures where not at place. So to solve this problem we either appoint a project manager or give training on project management to senior team members.

What is Pareto principle?

Pareto principle also paraphrased as 80/20 principle is simple effective problem tackling way in management. It says that 20% of your problems lead to other 80 % of problems. So rather than concentrating on the 80% of problem if you concentrate on 20% of problems you can save lot of trouble. So in pareto you analyze the problems and only concentrate on 20% of your vital problems. In projects, the first 10% and the last 10% of project form the vital part of project.

How do you handle change request?

Normally change request are handled by preparing an Impact analysis document and then doing re-estimation. Example you have an on going project, which has a customer table. Now customer wants to also have addresses assigned to it. Therefore, you normally raise a change request and then do an impact analysis of the same. Depending on the impact, you estimate and let know the client about the financial aspect of the project. Once client sign off or the upper management agrees to the change request you move ahead with implementation.

What is internal change request?

Internal change request are not normally billable change request, it has no financial gains from the client. Example your architecture division of your company has said in mid of the project that the architecture has to be modified. Definitely this has nothing to do with the client, but you make changes to the project so this is called as Internal change request.

What is difference between SITP and UTP in testing?

UTP (Unit Test Plan) are done at smallest unit level or stand-alone mode. Example you have Customer and invoicing module. So you will do test on Customer and Invoice module independently. But later when we want test both customer and invoice in one set we integrate them and test it. So that’s is SITP (System Integration Test Plan) UTP can be done using NUNIT. Unit testing is done normally by developers and System testing is done normally by testing department in integration mode.

People in your project do not peform , what will you do?

In such kind of question, they want to see your delegation skills. The best answer to this question is a job of a project manager is managing projects and not problems of people, so I will delegate this work to HR or upper authority....

What is black box testing and White box testing?

Black box testing is also termed as functional testing. It ignores how the internal functionality of a system works and depends only what are the outputs on specified inputs. Source code availability is not an important in back box testing. Black box testing is mostly to ensure that it meets the user functionality. According to IEEE, standards following are characteristics of Black box testing:- “ Testing that ignores the internal mechanism of a system or component and focuses solely on the outputs generated in response to selected inputs and execution conditions,” “Testing conducted to evaluate the compliance of a system or component with specified functional requirements.” One of the way of doing black box testing is Manual testing what the tester performs. For instance, you can install the application on a machine and tester starts testing is a type of black box testing. In our case the tester is completely unaware of the how the program logic flows and how its coded etc. White box testing is opposite to Black box it requires internal know how of how the logic flows. As this testing needs know how of the internal structure it can only be done programmers. Unit testing is one of the ways of doing White box testing in which programmers use NUNIT or JNUIT to test each class individually. White box testing can be done by programmer by either stepping through the code or testing the classes and components in isolation.

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Posted By Vinay Sharma to Withvinay.com Powered By :- Vinay Sharma at 11/21/2011 07:36:00 PM