Middle manager interviews are best placed in the schedule after the project manager and developers have been interviewed. Managers are at least one step removed from the day-to-day operations of a project, but they frequently are aware of the functioning of the whole organization and of differences between projects in a way that project managers are not.
Topics appropriate to ask middle managers about include, for example, review processes, verification processes, inter-group coordination, and training.
Middle managers should also be asked something about middle management’s role in process improvement at the project level, but it should be understood that they might not know many specifics. Still it is useful to suggest to them that it is their job to become aware of project-level problems early. Therefore, they probably should be asked such questions as, "Do you understand the processes in use at the project level?" "Can you identify differences in use by various projects?" "Do middle managers understand the problems on the project as seen by the developers?" "Have they addressed these problems?" "If so, how?" "Did it help?" "If not, why not?" (In a majority of cases, middle managers are aware of problems and have tried to do something, although they may not have realized that what they have tried to do has not worked, or they may not yet have had time to put a plan in place.)
The normal flow of a group middle manager interview is to begin with a free-form question that asks them to discuss their jobs. Then the assessment team can proceed to "open-ended" process-related questions. The objective is to gently probe for their responses to problems within the organization that have been turned up by other interviews. The interview session concludes with a return to open-ended questions relating to organizational areas that the middle managers believe can be improved.
Although middle managers are interviewed as a group, it is probably best not to assemble too large a group. Typically middle managers try to "one up" each other, and the results are not always productive.
Executives who are not comfortable being asked direct questions may wish to make presentations to the team. However, someone should point out to them that their perspective is important to the assessment in that it can provide a clear picture from the top of the organization.
During an assessment of Company Y, four directors were interviewed. One had just shifted from marketing to become the head of a troubled project. When the interview began and the four were asked about their jobs, this director launched into a marketing performance. Because this interview took place toward the end of the assessment, though, the team was already aware that the project had real problems, in configuration management above all. After the director finished his performance, the Lead Assessor asked him about configuration management, at which point the director sobered up and began more seriously to address the problems on the project. He provided invaluable information that would have been unavailable had it not been for the persistence and tact of the Lead Assessor.