Planning and Organizing Flashcards
Describe a time when you had a huge task, how you planned and organized it and how you got it done.
Planning and Organizing. To prioritize and order tasks effectively, to employ a systematic approach to achieving objectives, to make appropriate use of limited resources.
NYU Program? No project plan existed. The only documents I had was the SOW which had very high level deliverables and outcomes documented. So I used that as outline and ordered the deliverables/outcomes based on priority and natural flow of the project, based on my prior project experience. With this work, I had a number of questions about expectations and details of what we needed to deliver. Then I requested a meeting with the sales team to review the questions that I had come up. This was a chance to make sure any discussions that were had with the client but didn’t get documented were flushed out, understood, and where necessary adjusted. I then decomposed the outline into tasks and timelines which I imported into our PPM tool: SN. My goal was to demonstrate to the client the power of this tool and make it easy for them to see status at any point in time. I then reviewed it all with our program leader and got his input about dates/times to schedule kickoff calls. The result was clarity and visibility into the status of the program at all. This clarity and visibility allowed me to spot troubled parts of the project very early on which allowed me time to assess the situation, meet with relevant individuals, discuss backup plans, and when necessary raised the issue with the program leader and in rare occassions, the program steering committee. The lesson I learned from this was that planning AND monitoring are equally important. Without monitoring, plans can easily fall apart. Without planning, monitoring doens’t scale at all.
Describe the biggest event that you ever planned. How did you go about it? What particular steps did you take? What was the outcome?
Planning and Organizing. To prioritize and order tasks effectively, to employ a systematic approach to achieving objectives, to make appropriate use of limited resources.
Biggest event: town parade in HS. Biggest project: NYU or SWA.
One aspect of management/supervision involves making changes in office policies or procedures. Tell me about a change that you initiated and how you handled it.
Planning and Organizing. To prioritize and order tasks effectively, to employ a systematic approach to achieving objectives, to make appropriate use of limited resources.
Travel approval for NYU project. Get approval before hand rather than afterwards.
When beginning a new position, what are the first things that you normally do to orient yourself? Tell me about how you approached your first few days when you began your last job.
Planning and Organizing. To prioritize and order tasks effectively, to employ a systematic approach to achieving objectives, to make appropriate use of limited resources.
New at Eleos: Ask lots of questions. Take notes, document follow up tasks, make note of acronymns or unfamiliar topics. Network and ask to shadow other employees in certain meetings or when working on certain tasks. Volunteer to take tasks that those I’m shadowing would have to do but for which I could help with (take meeting notes, schedule next meeting, create draft of a document).
What factors do you consider when deciding whether or not to delegate a task.
Planning and Organizing. To prioritize and order tasks effectively, to employ a systematic approach to achieving objectives, to make appropriate use of limited resources.
Who should own this task long term? Is this a training opportunity? What is my motiviation for not delegating?
Give an example of how you delegated responsibility for a recent assignment. Tell us what assignment you chose and why, how you delegated the assignment and to whom, and what you did to monitor it.
Planning and Organizing. To prioritize and order tasks effectively, to employ a systematic approach to achieving objectives, to make appropriate use of limited resources.
Onboarding new testers. Delegated creating an onboarding deck. I delegated it to one of the individuals whom I was considering for a team lead position. I monitored by reviewing the deliverable, making notes, and then meeting with the individual and asking them questions and for a few changes. I was then able to delegate the actual onboarding to this same individual since he was now familiar with the deck. I monitor by asking new employees that go through onboarding how it went and what could be improved. I ask older employees what topics/areas they wish was covered in onboarding.
Give me an example of a time when you set a goal and were able to meet or achieve it.
Planning and Organizing. To prioritize and order tasks effectively, to employ a systematic approach to achieving objectives, to make appropriate use of limited resources.
Developing U420 course for Upstate. Had to create syllabus, course schedule, tests, assignments, lab, and then execute. Some had to be created at beginning of the semester (syllabus, lab project, assignments). Others could be created the week before (i.e. the tests, assignment answer key).
Tell me about a time when you had too many things to do and you were required to prioritize your tasks.
Planning and Organizing. To prioritize and order tasks effectively, to employ a systematic approach to achieving objectives, to make appropriate use of limited resources.
Developing U420 course for Upstate. Had to create syllabus, course schedule, tests, assignments, lab, and then execute. Some had to be created at beginning of the semester (syllabus, lab project, assignments). Others could be created the week before (i.e. the tests, assignment answer key).
Think about a complex project or assignment that you have been assigned. What approach did you take to complete it?
Planning and Organizing. To prioritize and order tasks effectively, to employ a systematic approach to achieving objectives, to make appropriate use of limited resources.
SN at LU. Touch ALL IT processes. Asked for volunteer for steering committees that oversaw various processes. I picked a chairperson who I thought would do a good job and met with them individually asking them to take on the responsibility. The committees were responsible for meeting with stakeholders, identifying requirements, making decisions, tracking progress, and reporting out status to the overall steering committee of which I was the chair.
Tell me about a challenge that you successfully met.
Planning and Organizing. To prioritize and order tasks effectively, to employ a systematic approach to achieving objectives, to make appropriate use of limited resources.
SN at LU. Touch ALL IT processes. Asked for volunteer for steering committees that oversaw various processes. I picked a chairperson who I thought would do a good job and met with them individually asking them to take on the responsibility. The committees were responsible for meeting with stakeholders, identifying requirements, making decisions, tracking progress, and reporting out status to the overall steering committee of which I was the chair.
Describe your most significant success & failure in the last two years.
Planning and Organizing. To prioritize and order tasks effectively, to employ a systematic approach to achieving objectives, to make appropriate use of limited resources.
Success - hired, onboarded, trained, 20 new testers. Failure -
