Strategic Alignment ◾ 11
6. Capability and capacity analysis are two techniques that complement one
another to help determine the portfolio structure as there may be limiting
factors for the number of components an organization can execute. These
limiting factors include:
a. Capability factors such as resource availability
b. Capability factors such as lack of key skill sets
c. Capacity factors such as nancial and asset considerations
d. Capability factors such as nancial and asset considerations
7. Your asphalt company recognizes that several of its products are obsolete,
and it also realizes it is losing market share as a result. It also has outdated
practices, and it is unclear as to whether resources are allocated effectively.
Your job as the portfolio manager is to ensure resources are allocated to
those components that will provide the most business value. This means as
a rst step you should focus on:
a. Establishing competency proles of staff member expertise
b. Creating an up- to- date list of components
c. Determining based on market analysis new products for the company to
pursue
d. Evaluating nancial capacity for new components and additional
resources
12 ◾ PfMP® Exam Practice Tests and Study Guide
8. Multiple weighted criteria are useful ranking approaches especially since in
most organizations greater attention is given to certain components than to
others. Consider the following example and assume only one component
can be added to the portfolio when the Portfolio Review Board meets.
Criteria Weight
Project A Project B Program A
Operational
Activity
Points
Weighted
Points Points
Weighted
Points Points
Weighted
Points Points
Weighted
Points
ROI 3 4 5 3 4
New
Business
4 2 3 5 3
Potential
Savings
3 5 4 2 4
First to
Market
5 4 3 5 4
Total 15 15 15 15
Your recommendation is to select:
a. Project A
b. Project B
c. Program A
d. Operational Activity
9. Assume you are leading a team to recommend the factors to use to con-
sider the appropriate mix of components in the organization’s portfolio as it
implements a prioritization process. You are to present your recommenda-
tions to the Executive Committee on Friday. One factor you and your team
consider to be especially important is:
a. Complexity
b. Risk versus reward
c. Customer satisfaction
d. Extent of organizational change
Strategic Alignment ◾ 13
10. Recently, your city declared bankruptcy. As the portfolio manager work-
ing for the Mayor, you knew this approach was needed given the declining
economy, the debt it had occurred, and its inability to raise money through
the sale of bonds. To recover, drastic strategic changes are needed. As the
portfolio manager, you are conducting interviews and holding focus groups
with stakeholders, including City employees, citizens, and consumer and
social activist groups. As you do so, you nd:
a. It is helpful to group stakeholders by category
b. Many were not prepared for this change
c. There is a loss of condence in the executive leader ship team
d. There are only a limited number of people who truly understand the sig-
nicance of this bankruptcy
11. With management by projects and programs the norm and not the exception
in many organizations, assume the Board of Directors of your cereal com-
pany decided to become a project- based organization two years ago and not
work in functional silos. This approach was a cultural change that has taken
time to fully embrace, and a portfolio management committee also has
been set up. To assess its progress it is conducting an Organizational Project
Management Maturity (OPM3) assessment. One reason to do so is to:
a. Determine the organization’s overall level of maturity in project, program,
and portfolio management
b. Focus on continuous improvement
c. Ensure processes in place are repeatable and easy to follow
d. Link project, program, and portfolio principles with organizational
enablers
12. Assume you are striving to create an up- to- date list of all approved portfolio
components to have an organized portfolio your giant aerospace company
can use for ongoing evaluation, selection, and prioritization. Resources are
limited, and must be allocated to those programs and projects that will pro-
vide the greatest business value. To create such a list a best practice is to:
a. Follow the portfolio performance plan
b. Review organizational process assets
c. Select evaluation criteria
d. Review the portfolio charter
14 ◾ PfMP® Exam Practice Tests and Study Guide
13. While your organization has been doing portfolio management by following
a standard process for several years, it has not prepared a portfolio strategic
plan. Assume you were asked to prepare one by the Portfolio Review Board.
First, you should:
a. Review the organization’s mission statement
b. Determine the values the organization follows in decision making
c. Conduct a strategic alignment assessment
d. Conduct a capability and capacity analysis
14. Your IT Company is determined to change its image from one that delivers
services late, over budget, with the need for rework as it has been blamed
for failure to deliver successfully a government- required system. It is instead
going to focus on providing external PMO support and will slowly complete
its remaining IT products. Assume you are leading this strategic change
since you are the portfolio manager. You want to determine how best to
implement this change so you decide to:
a. Conduct a gap analysis
b. Conduct a readiness analysis
c. Assess the risks for each factor that may impede the change and deter-
mine a mitigation strategy
d. Perform a strategic assessment against the existing portfolio
15. Your company is determined to be the market leader in TVs that combine
the best features of LCD and Plasma and enable video streaming without the
need to use a computer, tablet, or smart phone. To succeed, your Board of
Directors authorized your CEO to acquire other companies that offer similar
types of TVs, and through these acquisitions your company also acquires
intellectual property to ensure the advanced technology can be developed.
Thus far, three companies have been acquired with this strategic change. As
the portfolio manager, you need to update the portfolio management plan
because of changes in the:
a. Benets
b. Constraints
c. New strategic objectives
d. Management approach
16. One way to show the high- level strategic direction of the portfolio is to
prepare a:
a. Communications management plan
b. Master schedule
c. Portfolio roadmap
d. Portfolio management plan
Strategic Alignment ◾ 15
17. The roadmap forms the initial basis to establish dependencies, which are:
a. Part of each component
b. Especially important for standalone projects to show why they are being
pursued
c. Within the portfolio and between organizational areas
d. The basis for prioritization mapping
18. As you work to implement portfolio management in your consulting rm,
which has lacked it since it was established ten years ago, you recognize a
prioritization model is essential. The consulting rm’s approach was to focus
on win rate rather than capture ratio, and it typically lacks needed resources
to handle the work and has been unable to focus on customer relationship
management. This prioritization model is:
a. Part of the portfolio process assets
b. Contained in the portfolio strategic plan
c. Contained in the portfolio management plan
d. Part of the portfolio structure
19. It is a best practice for the portfolio manager as he or she prepares the port-
folio strategic plan to:
a. Involve stakeholders at all levels in the process
b. Communicate its importance throughout the organization
c. Integrate and respond to changes in the portfolio
d. Ensure funds are available to allocate to each category in the portfolio
20. An example of a simple prioritization model is one in which the criteria are:
a. Easily quantiable
b. Both qualitative and quantitative
c. Focused on benets realization and sustainment
d. Focused on both short- and long- term goals
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