I have about 10 years experience in TCS in mainframe projects. Most of my experiences are in Banking and Financial services projects for US based clients. Out of this ten years I spent about 5years at client site. Mostly worked as an onsite coordinator acting as on-point contact for the clients at the onsite.For the past one year I was working as a PM for the client PFG managing about 20 TMs at offshore. During my last project, my key resposibility involves -Setting up the project -organize the team -Identifying the deliverables -Arrange and attend the conference calls with client. -Handling Change requests. -Handling Issues and risks. -Project planning using a project planingg tool developed by TCS. -We have an SDLC phased project planning tool -Monitoring and controlling Various SDLC Phases like, -Define Involves feasibility study. And cost-benefit analysisOut come of this phase is, wether to proceed with the project or not. PM,SME and BA are involved in this Phase. If we are going ahead with the project, then we will come out with ball park estimate.The outcome of this phase is project chrter. -Analysise SMEs,PM, and BA are involved. Out come is Timeline,DC,Funding,Forecast, and Sow. -Design Create Design Document, PM,offshore TL and onsite TL will be involved. Outcome is approved Design Document. -Build Coding components, Unit testing, And System testing. Out come of this phase is code,test cases, test results. -Test SIT,UAT. Out come of this phase is user acceptance. -Rollout Rollout into production. -After Support Production support for warranty period. Apart from the mentioned activities, other organization related Day to day activities involves, a)People management - Allocation, Realease, Apprisals, Personal mentoring etc.. b)Project management - Monthly billing, Realization, Keeping onsite-offshore leverage (onsite offshore ratio of 75%), Keeping Junior/Senior ratio. c)Proccess management - Time sheet compliance, Preparing PMR document and Weekly status report. Check process compliance, doing Review and FI for the deliverables. d)Client visits - Walkthru arround the floor, introducing the team mambers, Presentation about the project by PL, GL presentation. 1. Have you faced any issues with scheduling and how did you solve the issue? Yes,In my prevoius projects, some time the Buisiness users will promise to complete the UAT by certain date. Based on the UAT completion date we will finilize the Implementation date. But due to some high priority work BUs Postpones the UAT. In that case we can't implement the changes on schedule. In that case we will escalate the issue to the buissiness partners and try to work out new schedule. 2. How do you do risk assessment for a project ? We asses Risks based on various categories such as Technology,Stategic, Management,Process, People,Implementation etc, Then prioritize the risks based on probability of accurance and the impact and create mitigation plan for high priority risks. 3. What are the typical risks you have identified in your project, how did you identify them ? and how did you respond to them ? Ex: Link failures in earlier days, Natural calamities, communication gap due to Offshore onsire time difference We will identify the risks based on various factors, such as Past experiences, Enterprise environmental factors, Organizational process assets, project scope statements etc. Then we document the risks in the risk register. We have various options for risk responses, Such as acceptance Mitigation,Avoidance,Transfer, Acceptance: Recognize the risk but take no action, if the impact is Minimal. OR Retain the risk with a fallback plan. Mitigation: Reduce the risk by modifying the probability,Impact, Project management plan, technology, or Environment. Avoidance: By taking alternative approch. Transfer : Insurance or Contract. 4. Have you faced any funding issues ? How did you handle the situation ? No, I have not faced any funding issues so far. If there is a funding issue, we need to work towards project closure. 5. How do you do causal analysis ? We will find the root cause of the problem using causal analysis. In which we will list down the potential case for the problem like Time,material, machine, environmental factors, Personal etc..Then Zero down to the root cause, and make sure that the problem never happens again and update the lessons learned document. 6. Has any of your projects failed ? if yes, what are the lessons learnt?. Yes I faced few Implementation failures in previous projects. In that case, we do a causul analysis to find out the root cause for the problem, fish-bourne technique to find root cause. 7. How do you work in onsite/offshore model ? What are typical issues you are expecting ?. Do you have any experience of these issues and how did you handle them ?. Typical issues are,Time differences, Unclear Requirements due to communication gaps. -When do you consider the project is succcessful ? If all the work required in the scope statement is completed within the estimated time and budgeted cost. -How to handle a situation with exccessivve work for you and your team members ? This situation means, project in not progressing according to the project plan. try to deal the situation internally by putting extra effort for a period of time. If things are not improving again, then communicate the situation to the client. Expalin the situation to the client and ask permission for re-estimation and change the project plan accordingly. -Risk Vs Issue. Risk is a potential problem that may occur in the future. issues are problems that we are having at present and needs immediate attention. -Budgeting. Budgeting is a proccess which involves, estimation, sizing, setting milestones, and calculation of doller cost. And getting the funding approval from the client. -Conflict resolution: Set up a meeting with the conflicting parties, List out out positives and negatives of each parties arguments. And come out with a balanced solution for the best interest of the project without taking sides. If the parties are still not agreeing, then taken firm decission, but ensure that the TMs should not feel the PM is biased. -Matrix Organization. Every TM should have a clear roles and responsibilitis. And having better mode of communication. Do You have any questions ? I understand that most of our business partners are based in united states. So how do you expect us to handle the 12-hrs time difference between US and India ? This was an Issue during my stay in Morgan stanley. Finally we settled for 11am-8pm shifts from India. Causal Analysis: The basic principle of causal Analysis is to find the cause that you can treat rather than treating the symptoms. A root cause is the basic reason why something is happenes and can be quit distant from the original effect. The cause-effect diagram is a simple hirarchial tool that is used to breakdown cause into a tree structure, allowing as to follow induvidual stream of possible causes. High Quality Projects. -All the project Assumptions should be doocumented and approved by the Bussiness unit. -Find out all the project dependencies ASSAP -List out the project Constrains -Identify the Risks, and do the appropriaate risk plannings. -All the project deliverables should be ddefined clearly and approved by the stakeholders. SLA- 3 levels, sev-1 (30mins), sev-2(3hrs), sev-3(filler tasks)