Sasken Technologies Project Lead Interview: Rounds, Questions and Preparation

What the job involves

A Project Lead in Indian IT services coordinates small to mid-sized software delivery projects for clients, often in embedded, telecom, or product engineering domains. Day to day, they plan sprints, assign tasks, track progress, manage client communication, and ensure quality and timely delivery within budget. They also mentor junior engineers and act as the bridge between the technical team and project managers or clients.

Role and Technical Knowledge

1. 1

   What are the key differences between Agile and Waterfall, and when would you choose one over the other for a client project?

   Mention that Agile suits evolving requirements and frequent releases, while Waterfall works for fixed-scope, regulated projects. Give a brief example from embedded or telecom domains.

2. 2

   How do you estimate the effort for a software module you have never worked on before?

   Talk about breaking work into smaller tasks, using historical data or analogous estimation, involving senior engineers, and adding a buffer for risks.

3. 3

   What is a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and why is it important for a Project Lead?

   Explain that WBS decomposes deliverables into manageable chunks, helps assign responsibilities, track progress, and avoid missing tasks.

4. 4

   Explain the bug life cycle and how you would ensure defects are fixed without delaying the release.

   Cover states from New to Closed, severity vs priority, triage meetings, and setting a defect threshold for release with client agreement.

Practical Scenarios

1. 5

   Your team is behind schedule by two weeks due to an unexpected dependency. How do you handle it?

   Show steps: assess impact, inform stakeholders early, re-plan with options like adding resources, reducing scope, or negotiating deadline, and document changes.

2. 6

   A client keeps changing requirements mid-sprint. What do you do?

   Suggest a change control process, evaluate impact on timeline and cost, discuss with client for prioritization, and possibly move changes to next sprint.

3. 7

   Two senior developers on your team have a conflict that is affecting delivery. How do you resolve it?

   Listen to both sides separately, focus on project goals, mediate a solution, and if needed escalate to HR or higher management while maintaining confidentiality.

4. 8

   You notice a critical bug just before a client demo. What is your immediate action plan?

   Prioritize fixing if feasible, prepare a workaround or fallback demo, inform the client transparently, and conduct a post-mortem to prevent recurrence.

Behavioural and HR

1. 9

   Tell me about a time you led a team or coordinated a group project in college. What was your approach?

   Use STAR method: describe situation, task, actions like assigning roles and tracking progress, and result with a measurable outcome.

2. 10

   How do you handle pressure when multiple deadlines are approaching?

   Mention prioritization using urgency and importance, delegating when possible, communicating with stakeholders, and staying calm.

3. 11

   Why do you want to work as a Project Lead in an IT services company rather than a product company?

   Highlight exposure to diverse clients and domains, fast-paced learning, and the satisfaction of delivering end-to-end solutions for various industries.

4. 12

   Where do you see yourself in three years in this role?

   Show ambition to grow into a senior project manager or delivery head, while emphasizing learning, certifications like PMP or Scrum Master, and contributing to company growth.

Tools and Process

1. 13

   Which project management tools have you used or studied, and how would you use them for tracking?

   Mention JIRA, Trello, MS Project, or Azure DevOps. Explain creating tasks, assigning, tracking burndown charts, and generating reports.

2. 14

   What are the key metrics you would track to measure project health?

   Cover schedule variance, cost variance, defect density, sprint velocity, and customer satisfaction. Explain why each matters.

3. 15

   How do you ensure quality in a project when the team is distributed across locations?

   Talk about defined coding standards, peer reviews, automated testing, regular sync-ups, and using collaboration tools for transparency.

4. 16

   What is your understanding of risk management in a project? Give an example of a risk and its mitigation.

   Define risk as uncertain event, mention identification, assessment, and response planning. Example: resource attrition, mitigation by cross-training.