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GSOE9820 Interview
School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
Interview
Each student will be interviewed for 8 minutes by an academic staff member or a course
demonstrator and asked to discuss their group assignment. Students will need to justify the project
plan and discuss project success.
Why? The interview is a chance for students to show they understand the language and the vocabulary
of project management and can use them effectively. It provides a condensed assessment of
students’ understanding of their PMP, and how their contributions fit together with the other group
members to create an integrated project plan. Justification is a more challenging learning outcome on
the course, and is assessable in an interview format. See also the descriptions of Course Learning
Outcome CLO4 and CLO5.
Who? Students will be interviewed by one of the course demonstrators or staff members, who will be
familiar with the content of the relevant group’s PMP assignment. They are unlikely to be the
demonstrator who has been mentoring each group through the course content.
What? (content) The interviewer is emulating the role of a senior project stakeholder (such as the
sponsor), concerned about expending resources, and realising benefits. The student is emulating the
role of the project manager, explaining, and justifying how their plan is going to deliver.
The interviewer will ask a question about justifying the project plans, as seen in Assignment Task 2 or
3. If necessary, they will ask more questions or prompt responses. Approximately midway through the
interview the interviewer will change topic to ask about project success.
The student should respond to the questions to show they have the necessary understanding. An
interactive discussion between the student and interviewer is encouraged, however the student should
do most of the talking and the interviewer should listen carefully, and record grades. A grading rubric is
shown below.
When? The interviews will be held during week 9&10. There will be some flexibility for scheduling the
interview within these dates. Places will fill up and students who do not respond to availability surveys
announced on Teams may be scheduled randomly in available time. If a student does not take part in a
scheduled interview, they will not receive any marks, unless they have an approved Special
Consideration application.
How? (conduct) The clock starts immediately at the scheduled start time. Cameras and microphones
shall be turned on for both parties for the whole interview. The interviewer will ask the student to
identify themselves. The interview will not be recorded. It will last 8 minutes.
How? (preparation) The scheduled week 9 class is designed to help students prepare for the interview,
so they are encouraged to attend in person and participate.
Students are encouraged to practice discussing their project plan among themselves, to improve their
interviewing skills. Some practice questions for the interview are provided below. The questions in the
real interview will be similar, but not necessarily identical to these questions.
Page 2
Interview Practice Questions
Questions about justifying the project plan
1. What is your contingency for this risk event?
2. How did you analyse your stakeholders?
3. Where is the contingency plan costed in your budget?
4. Where are the tasks planned for deliverable X?
5. After the change request, what parts of the project did you have to change and how?
6. How has the change request impacted the risk profile of your project?
7. What part of the PMP did you work on? Explain this part. Explain what your team member(s) did
for a different part.
Questions about project success
1. What is your definition of success for your project? How does your plan achieve this?
2. What are the main needs of your stakeholders?
3. What is the biggest risk in your project plan, and how does it impact on project success?
4. What is your minimum viable product? What proportion of the overall project benefit does it
deliver?
5. What opportunities have you discovered that you could exploit to enhance your project
success? How would this happen?
6. At what checkpoints in your plan could your project be abandoned if was not delivering the
expected value to the stakeholders? How would you decide?
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GSOE9820 Interview
School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
Interview
grading rubric
Poor
(0-25%)
Insufficient
(25-50%)
Developing
(50-75)
Accomplished
(75-100)
Can you
justify your
plans? You...
[CLO 4] [50%]
are aware
what content
is in the PMP
and how it
relates to the
project
can explain the
content of
some individual
parts of the
plan work, e.g.
how they were
produced
can defend the
reasoning for
how some
specific parts
of your project
plan fit together
convincingly
defend how
your integrated
plan will deliver
the project in a
robust way
under changing
conditions
Can you
discuss project
success? You...
[CLO 5] 50%
easily define
success in
your particular
project and
provide some
original
reflection on
how it can be
maximised in
realistic
conditions
can explain
and discuss
the outcomes
that will make
your project
successful in
simple terms,
and what
may impact
this
can discuss
basic success
factors but
may still be
dogmatic (e.g.
"complete the
deliverables")
or not specific
to this project.
can state basic
PM success
factors such
as meeting
time and
budget
constraints