Top 10 Primavera Interview Questions with Answers

Primavera P6 is a whole suite for project management solutions, including project programme and portfolio management tools. These tools are among the most widely used for project planning, management, and execution among civil engineers.

Recruiter are looking for civil managers with knowledge of Primavera to supervise their client’s projects. Here we have listed Primavera interview questions that can be your guide.

10 Commonly Answered Interview Questions and Answers for Primavera in 2022

Read and understand the 10 interview questions on Primavera to ace your next interview.

 

1) Explain the critical path. How do you recognise it, and how can you change the duration of any task with negative slack?

Answer: The activities on the longest path with zero floats are often the critical path. Any delays with these tasks will extend the project's length. 

Critical activities are typically displayed in red or with zero floats in columns. You can change the duration or the relationship between the actions to shorten the period. 

However, the planning engineer should know the maximum resources (resource constraints) when crashing the critical path.

2) What would you say if your consultant or customer asked you to submit a matrix report?

Answer: It is a deficient request. I need to know the matrix you require—resource, cost, authorities, engineering/procurement, etc.—otherwise, the report would be lengthy and comprise more than 50 columns of P6.

3)What can be done to fix the project's time delay?

Answer: Fast Track: Reduce the time of the activities, reorder them, and reschedule them without affecting the project's overall duration. However, if fast-tracking is misused, it might cause quality problems. Crashing: Shortens activity durations reorder tasks, and retrains students, albeit at a cost. These additional expenses may include:

• Charges for subcontractors' acceleration
• Bonus
• Fewer productivity results from adding more people to the workforce, which results in additional costs

4) What distinguishes a network diagram from a bar chart?

Answer: The complexity and interdependencies of project activity are visually represented using bar charts and network diagrams. Network diagrams show the project's work as connections through the project's sequential flow of tasks from beginning to end. Gantt charts primarily show the breakdown of the job and the accompanying times. Both charts visually depict how the job is broken down, making it simple for managers and employees to spot conflicts and co-dependencies and assess the impact of systemic change.

5) Your schedule could be impacted by de-watering – what is your take on this?

Answer: This is determined by the building’s weight is equal to or greater than the lifting force. To lessen the lifting power of subsurface water, dewatering is necessary. 

Dewatering work could be accomplished when this force is less than the weight of the building. When it is advised to stop the dewatering, the planner should consult the project team and make the appropriate plans. Dewatering usually prevents backfilling and other exterior building activities.

6) What do you mean by an open-ended activity?

Answer: An open-ended activity can be completed on the final day of the project without causing the whole project to be delayed. The conclusion of an open-ended activity can be delayed (within the project life) to focus on more critical activities because it frequently has no successor activities (activities that begin only after the earlier ones).

7) Can you explain a constraint?

Answer: A constraint that decreases the speed at which a project can be completed. Resource availability is one constraint that might affect a project's timeline and effectiveness. Constraints generally shouldn't be added to the schedule until after the critical path analysis has optimised the timetable.

8) How do you calculate the length of an activity?

Answer: This also relates to the contractual milestones because it leads to meetings and follow-ups with contractors and other construction-related parties.

Experience allows one to estimate typical actions. Meeting with the project team and subject-matter specialists will allow you to estimate special activities. The primary limitation that could impact all other predictions is the project's overall time.

9) Any project plan has two different dates: an early start, an early finish and a late start, late end. Why does a late start always come after an early start and end with an early finish?

Answer: The term "late start" refers to the entire float of the project's activities, which permits the early-stage activities to run as late as possible. In contrast, most of the project's remaining key activities allow the late dates to slip by. 

10) How can you fill out and update your schedule with information?

Answer: Organize a planning workshop with all relevant subject-matter experts present, and prepare all the questions you'll need to create a strategy and timeline. Gather their information, make an initial high-level schedule, and fill in the WBS and activity lists. 

Later, the planner should create forms that the project team will fill out weekly.

So, these were some Primavera p6 interview questions which can be asked to both experienced and fresher candidates. 

Conclusion

To help you ace any interview, Skill-Lync provides job-relevant PG courses along with placement training. Our civil management courses will help you to widen your skill sets and equip you with the tools essential for a civil project manager. Through our placement training, we help you build a resume, portfolio and confidence through mock interviews.