Practice Test 1 ◾ 159
157. Assume you work in a weak matrix structure in your pharmaceutical com-
pany in which most of the program and project managers are coordinators,
and most of the staff that supports them are in functional organizations. On
some high priority programs, staff may be dedicated to the program full
time for a short time period; however, operational work often takes prece-
dence especially in manufacturing. The demand for some of the pharma-
ceutical products often outpaces the available supply, and shelf life is short.
These uctuations of resources then:
a. Require use of resource soothing
b. Led to the development of resource heuristics as to how best to manage
the portfolio
c. Require sign- offs from functional managers on the portfolio charter con-
cerning resource availability
d. Impact the availability of the work managed within the portfolio
158. Review the following graphic. Assume now your portfolio is only 12% likely
to meet is target of $41,000. Your Portfolio Review Board is dissatised in
your management of the value of the overall portfolio. You explain the cur-
rent mix of components is too risk adverse, and additional investment is
required. The Board Chair then wants the needed investment to have a 75%
likelihood, and you state it is:
100%
75%
50%
25%
12%
0%
Cumulative Frequency
Cost K$
$30.00 $38.75 $47.50 $58.25 $65.00
$41 $50
a. $100,000
b. $50,000
c. $125,000
d. $65,000
160 ◾ PfMP® Exam Practice Tests and Study Guide
159. Assume you are the portfolio manager for a telecommunications company.
Your company was about to launch a new and easy to use smart phone
with more features than any existing phones on the market at a lower price.
However, although the phone was due to market in ve days, the Federal
Communications Commission issued today a regulation that would make
your new phone not available for use in airplanes. Thus additional work
must be done, and your executives are wondering whether a new phone
should be developed for this new feature. You are ensuring that if a new
phone is developed, or if the almost completed product is not to be mar-
keted, there is still alignment to the organization’s strategy. As you complete
an analysis of alternatives, you also should ensure results of the analysis are
reected in the:
a. Benets realization plan
b. Portfolio process assets
c. Portfolio roadmap
d. Portfolio performance plan
160. Working to prepare the communications plan, a best practice to follow is to
use the roadmap. By doing so, it:
a. Shows the overall portfolio timeline, useful for determining the frequency
of reporting
b. Provides information about interdependencies that may affect objectives
c. Emphasizes milestones and the timing of key benets
d. Shows applicable constraints
161. Because your company’s Portfolio Review Board consists of the Directors of
its ve business units and is chaired by the CEO, the meetings tend to be
contentious as there is limited funding available to authorize all the pro-
posed programs and projects. Dissension also is the norm if resources are
reallocated from one business unit to another. As a result, the CEO:
a. Strives to use consensus to make decisions, but this approach rarely is
effective
b. Decided to use an outside facilitator when meetings are held
c. Uses multi- voting and makes the nal decision
d. Often uses a Delphi approach
Practice Test 1 ◾ 161
162. As you focus on managing the value pf the portfolio, you nd that portfo-
lio variance/ alert reports are helpful. Assume you have been using a ‘trafc
light’ format as it is easy to prepare, but an objective is to:
a. Add in blue to show completed components
b. Show dependencies between components with a different color
c. Set it up to show the organizational value areas in the company
d. Use a standardized format across components
163. You want to ensure that the Portfolio Review Board is able to make key
decisions at each meeting. As the portfolio manager, you and your staff are
responsible for scheduling the meetings, providing the agenda, taking min-
utes, tracking open issues, and documenting and communicating decisions
that are made to key stakeholders. Before each meeting, you feel it is a best
practice to:
a. Evaluate if the benets of the portfolio are aligned with organizational
strategy
b. Provide information about the status of each component of the portfolio
c. Use a balanced scorecard approach to show contribution to strategy
d. Provide a ‘trafc light’ approach to show components by category
164. One key artifact to review as the portfolio communications management
plan is prepared is the:
a. Portfolio management plan as it shows all elements in it have communi-
cations requirements
b. Portfolio performance plan as it sets forth needed reports and their
frequency
c. Portfolio strategic plan since it shows the need for strategic alignment
d. Portfolio benets realization plan to determine reports on progress in
benet realization, transition, and sustainment
165. Each year, you update the portfolio roadmap so people within the organiza-
tion can see component status, interdependencies, constraints, and business
value, among other things. This year, however, two major programs in the
portfolio were cancelled as they were government contracts, and the govern-
ment lacked funds to complete them. Your management then had to reduce
stafng. These two programs had dependencies with other components in
the portfolio. This means that:
a. The other components may need to be cancelled
b. The proposed benets from the other components require analysis to see
if they can be realized and sustained
c. The value measurement criteria for portfolio components require updates
d. The overall value of the portfolio is affected adversely
162 ◾ PfMP® Exam Practice Tests and Study Guide
166. While your organization maintains a decision register after each meeting of
the Portfolio Review Board, this register only notes decisions that are made
when a component is added to the portfolio or if the Board terminates a
component. If the component is terminated, the reason for the termination is
not listed. Also if a proposed component is not approved, the reason is not
listed. It is evident this register is lacking in its usefulness, which means it
requires updating as it is:
a. In the portfolio management plan
b. A portfolio process asset
c. An organizational process asset
d. Part of the governance model
167. While there are a number of recommended contents of the portfolio strate-
gic plan, a guiding principle is to:
a. Document assumptions and constraints
b. Recognize stakeholder risk tolerances
c. Recognize the portfolio will evolve through progressive elaboration
d. Dene the portfolio vision and objectives to align with organizational
strategy
168. Various people are responsible for communications to different stakeholder
groups, both internal and external to the organization. These delegations of
authority are:
a. Organizational process assets
b. Contained in the portfolio performance plan
c. A section in the portfolio communication management plan
d. Portfolio process assets
169. Each time the Portfolio Governance Group meets the goal is to review the
existing components and any that are proposed to ensure the portfolio has
the best mix to attain strategic objectives. As the portfolio manager, you
nd these meetings, if facilitated accordingly, are effective decision- making
sessions. However, you tend to have open issues after every meeting. These
open issues:
a. Should be tracked in an issue register
b. Are managed as described in the charter
c. Are considered portfolio process assets
d. Require an owner to manage them until they are closed
Practice Test 1 ◾ 163
170. After the stakeholder analysis is complete, a best practice is to put stake-
holders into a matrix to develop a communications management strategy. A
simple but useful approach is to set it up to show:
a. Level of authority and level of interest
b. Level of authority and level of involvement
c. Level of inuence and level of impact
d. Level of inuence and level of interest
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