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Initiating: business case, charter and stakeholders interview questions

Interview questions on “Initiating: business case, charter and stakeholders”: warm-ups, then what each harder question tests and how a good answer starts.

12 questions: 4 warm-ups and 8 with model answers · Levels: Fresher to staff

Warm-up questions

Short questions with short answers, each answered in full.

Fresher to mid

How do NPV and payback differ?

Answered in the lesson Business cases and choosing between projects
Fresher to mid

What separates an assumption from a constraint in a charter?

Answered in the lesson Writing a project charter with clear objectives
Fresher to mid

What does a power-interest grid tell you, and what does it leave out?

Answered in the lesson Identifying and analysing stakeholders
Fresher to mid

How do responsible and accountable differ in a RACI chart?

Answered in the lesson RACI charts, decision rights and escalation

Questions with model answers

What each question tests, the first step of a good answer and the follow-ups to expect.

Mid to senior

Two options exclude each other. Option A costs 150 and has an IRR of 68 %; option B costs 900 and has an IRR of 25 % but the higher NPV at your 10 % required rate. The sponsor wants A "because it has the best return". How do you respond?
What it tests

Knowing that IRR ignores scale, that NPV at the required rate decides between options that exclude each other, and explaining it to a sponsor with the numbers.

First step

Agree on the goal first: the most value for the organisation at the rate it requires. Then show both NPVs side by side, because IRR says how fast money grows, not how much value an option adds in total.
Follow-ups
- What if the organisation cannot raise the extra 750?
- When can IRR give two answers?
- How sensitive is the choice to the discount rate?
From the lesson Business cases and choosing between projects
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In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 2 minutes
Senior to staff

A project has spent 8 million of its 10 million budget, its revised estimate to finish is 6 million more, and its benefits have fallen because a competitor launched first. The steering group says it must finish because so much is spent. What do you advise?
What it tests

Applying the sunk-cost principle, comparing only the costs and benefits still ahead, and presenting stop, change or continue as options with numbers.

First step

Set the 8 already spent aside, because no choice brings it back. Compare the 6 still needed with the benefits that finishing would still bring, and lay out the options: finish, cut scope, pivot or stop.
Follow-ups
- The remaining benefits are worth about 5. What now?
- How do you say this to people who championed the project?
- What should the business case have contained to catch this earlier?
From the lesson Business cases and choosing between projects
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 2 minutes
Mid to senior

You are drafting a charter for a 4 million project. You learn that the director named as sponsor can authorise only 1 million; the rest needs the commissioner. The director says to start anyway and sort out the money later. What do you do?
What it tests

Knowing that a charter's authority comes from someone who controls the money, and fixing the sponsorship before work starts without losing the director's support.

First step

Thank the director, then point out the gap plainly: work started on authority nobody holds can be stopped at any moment, and people's time spent on it is lost. Offer two routes: the commissioner becomes the sponsor with the director as the day-to-day lead, or the charter is cut to a first phase that fits within 1 million.
Follow-ups
- The commissioner is too busy to be involved. Does that change your answer?
- What could the first phase within 1 million contain?
- How do you record this in the charter so it does not happen again?
From the lesson Writing a project charter with clear objectives
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 3 minutes
Mid to senior

A sponsor's only objective for a new staff portal is "make HR easier". When you suggest targets, the sponsor says numbers will box the team in. How do you turn this into objectives the project can be judged by?
What it tests

Turning a vague goal into objectives with a target, a deadline and a source, and handling a sponsor's worry about being held to numbers.

First step

Ask what "easier" would look like to the people involved: fewer forms, faster answers, fewer calls to HR. Find where those things are already counted today, and propose two or three objectives built on those counts, framed as the sponsor's own intent made visible rather than as a trap.
Follow-ups
- There is no baseline figure today. What do you do?
- How many objectives should a charter carry?
- What if the measure can be gamed?
From the lesson Writing a project charter with clear objectives
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 3 minutes
Mid to senior

Two weeks before a new payroll system goes live, the internal audit team says it was never consulted and asks for the launch to be held until it has tested the controls. What went wrong, and what do you do now?
What it tests

Recovering from a missed stakeholder with power: engaging them at once, finding the smallest safe path to launch, and fixing the identification process that missed them.

First step

Meet the audit team within a day, without arguing about the past. Ask exactly which controls they must test and how long each test takes, and bring the evidence the project already has, so the hold can be as short and as targeted as possible.
Follow-ups
- The sponsor wants to launch anyway. What do you advise?
- How would you have found the audit team at the start?
- What do you change in the register and the plan?
From the lesson Identifying and analysing stakeholders
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 2 minutes
Senior to staff

A department head whose budget your project draws on opposes it and skips every meeting you invite them to. Their deputy attends but cannot decide anything. How do you plan your engagement with this person?
What it tests

Analysing a high-power, resistant stakeholder, finding the cause of the resistance and planning one-to-one engagement and escalation without damaging the relationship.

First step

Stop relying on group meetings. Ask for a short one-to-one meeting, framed around their concerns, not your project, and listen for the cause: lost budget, extra work for their staff or a past project that failed them. Record their current level as resistant and the level you need, at least neutral.
Follow-ups
- They refuse a one-to-one meeting too. What next?
- When do you involve the sponsor?
- What would you write in the register about this person?
From the lesson Identifying and analysing stakeholders
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 2 minutes
Mid to senior

A new booking system serves both the outpatient and the radiology departments of a hospital. Each director insists on being accountable for the go-live decision, and neither will accept being consulted. How do you resolve it?
What it tests

Applying the one-A rule to a contested decision, separating ownership of the decision from a voice in it, and taking an unresolved conflict to the right level.

First step

Meet each director separately and ask what they need to be sure of before go-live. Usually each wants a veto on their own department's readiness, which can be given as a named readiness check without making them both owners of the one decision.
Follow-ups
- Neither director will move. Who decides?
- Could the decision be split into two rows?
- How do you record the outcome?
From the lesson RACI charts, decision rights and escalation
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 2 minutes
Senior to staff

On your programme every change, even a 10 thousand purchase or a renamed report, waits for a steering committee that meets once a month. Teams sit idle for weeks. What do you change, and how do you get the committee to agree?
What it tests

Designing decision rights with thresholds by impact, delegating small decisions without losing control, and persuading a governance body to delegate.

First step

Collect the last three months of decisions with their cost, their effect on milestones and how long each waited. Most will be small; show the committee how many weeks of waiting they caused, then propose thresholds that keep every large decision with the committee.
Follow-ups
- How do you choose the threshold values?
- How does the committee keep control of delegated decisions?
- A delegated decision goes wrong. What then?
From the lesson RACI charts, decision rights and escalation
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 2 minutes

The lessons of this module

Business cases and choosing between projects Free lesson, Pro answers: 10 minutes
Writing a project charter with clear objectives Free lesson, Pro answers: 10 minutes
Identifying and analysing stakeholders Free lesson, Pro answers: 10 minutes
RACI charts, decision rights and escalation Free lesson, Pro answers: 10 minutes

All Project Management & Agile interview questions · The Project Management & Agile track

Warm-up questions

How do NPV and payback differ?

What separates an assumption from a constraint in a charter?

What does a power-interest grid tell you, and what does it leave out?

How do responsible and accountable differ in a RACI chart?

Questions with model answers

Two options exclude each other. Option A costs 150 and has an IRR of 68 %; option B costs 900 and has an IRR of 25 % but the higher NPV at your 10 % required rate. The sponsor wants A "because it has the best return". How do you respond?

A project has spent 8 million of its 10 million budget, its revised estimate to finish is 6 million more, and its benefits have fallen because a competitor launched first. The steering group says it must finish because so much is spent. What do you advise?

You are drafting a charter for a 4 million project. You learn that the director named as sponsor can authorise only 1 million; the rest needs the commissioner. The director says to start anyway and sort out the money later. What do you do?

A sponsor's only objective for a new staff portal is "make HR easier". When you suggest targets, the sponsor says numbers will box the team in. How do you turn this into objectives the project can be judged by?

Two weeks before a new payroll system goes live, the internal audit team says it was never consulted and asks for the launch to be held until it has tested the controls. What went wrong, and what do you do now?

A department head whose budget your project draws on opposes it and skips every meeting you invite them to. Their deputy attends but cannot decide anything. How do you plan your engagement with this person?

A new booking system serves both the outpatient and the radiology departments of a hospital. Each director insists on being accountable for the go-live decision, and neither will accept being consulted. How do you resolve it?

On your programme every change, even a 10 thousand purchase or a renamed report, waits for a steering committee that meets once a month. Teams sit idle for weeks. What do you change, and how do you get the committee to agree?