Interview Questions for a Planning Engineer - Part II

Question 11: Have you heard about Kick-off Meeting?

Answer: Yes, I have handled a number of Kick-off Meetings on different projects & companies.  Kick-off meeting is normally the first meeting of all major Stakeholders including the Project Manager with his team and Owner’s representatives. Here, we discuss things like how we are going to execute through rolling wave planning normally.

These meetings can be conducted at new phase start during the execution of project also.

Question 12: Do you know about CPI?

Answer: Yes, it’s a Cost Performance Index and it evaluates the performance in the sense if the project is under-budget, over-budgeted or on track. The formula is for CPI is the ratio of earned value – EV over actual costs – AC that is CPI =EV/AC

Question 13: What do you know about SPI?

Answer: It is Schedule Performance Index and indicates the performance of project work is completed to baseline schedule. It is calculated by dividing the earned value by the planned value that is SPI = EV/PV

Question 14: What you know about Triple Constraints?

Answer: Cost, Time and Scope with quality as the fundamental theme.

Question 15: What are undesirable in any plan?

Answer: Constraints, SF (Start to Finish) relationship, Log lags or leads, Negative Float etc.

Question 16: How to avoid Negative Float in a Baseline Schedule?

Answer: Negative float indicates that the activity is already delayed. Normally, a constraints is the culprit of it. Remove all the constraints or use proper logic -relationships to deal with it.  Also check dangling or out of sequence activities.

During updating a schedule, a negative float for some activities is very common. You cannot avoid unless is going as planned.

Question 17: If you are reported 5 SPI, what is means? – Real Question was asked to me!

Answer: They planner has made a blunder during calculations.

Question 18: What is an S Curve?

Answer: Graphical representation of ‘anything’ like Manhours, Cost etc. plotted against time.

Question 19: What do you know about Reflection Schedule?

Answer: Reflection function is always underestimated but it is really great feature in Primavera P6 Professional.  A Reflection program is just a copy of the program to have a look at different scenarios after making desirable changes. Once satisfied just emerge in the native program.

Question 20: What is ACWP, BCWP & BCWS?

Answer: ACWP is Actual Cost of Work Performed, BCWP is Budgeted Cost of Work Performed & BCWS is Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled.