Project Manager
Interview Guide

PMP (Project Management Professional) from PMI is the most widely recognized PM certification globally. CSM (Certified Scrum Master) and CSPO are valuable for Agile environments. For tech companies, PMI-ACP (Agile Certified Practitioner) bridges both worlds. SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) certifications are valued for large enterprise Agile programs.

Project managers manage the process of delivering work: timeline, resources, budget, and risk. They focus on 'how' and 'when.' Product managers manage the product strategy: what to build, why, and for whom. They focus on 'what' and 'why.' In tech, PMs increasingly blend both roles, but traditional project management is more delivery and coordination focused.

For software development project managers, technical fluency is increasingly important. You need to understand sprint planning, technical debt, APIs, architecture trade-offs, and engineering constraints to manage effectively. You don't need to code, but you must be able to have intelligent conversations with engineers about scope, complexity, and risk.

Core metrics: schedule variance (SV), cost variance (CV), schedule performance index (SPI), cost performance index (CPI), and earned value management (EVM) for traditional projects. For Agile: velocity, sprint burndown, defect rate, lead time, and cycle time. For outcome-focused projects: business value delivered, customer satisfaction, and quality metrics.