PMI^® in the PgMP^® Examination Content Outline has established a Program Life Cycle consisting of:

• Initiating
• Planning
• Executing
• Controlling
• Closing

In this life cycle, Initiating represents 6% of the questions or 10 questions on the exam.

We have elected to provide 20 questions for you for practice in this book, even though the sample 170-question exams will contain 10 questions.

The questions on the exam concentrate on additional methods to gain greater support and approval for the program. They focus on the need to ensure that the program’s values and objectives are aligned with those of the organization as documented in the program mandate.

In The Standard for Program Management—Third Edition (2013), initiating is covered in the “Program Management Supporting Processes” in the program definition phase in its program management life cycle. It focuses on further definition of the program’s purpose, securing financing, and showing how the program will deliver its desired benefits. A program manager is assigned, a program charter is prepared, the financial framework is prepared, and the program roadmap is defined in greater detail. Once the charter is approved, its authorization leads to program commencement.

Questions may address the roles and responsibilities of the program manager and the core team as well as possible program organizational structures. Other questions may address the contents and purpose of the charter, when the business case should be updated, and a high-level program scope statement that then sets the stage for a more detailed scope statement in the planning phase of the life cycle. As well, questions may involve developing a high-level milestone plan by using the goals and objectives of the program to ensure the program is aligned with stakeholder expectations, especially those of the sponsor. A program resource accountability matrix is another potential area for questions during this phase as roles and responsibilities are identified for the program’s core team. The importance of a program kickoff meeting with stakeholders is another area of emphasis.

Following is a list of the major topics covered in Initiating the Program. Use this list to focus your study efforts on the areas that are most likely to appear on the exam.

Program Initiation

• Purpose
• Scope, resource, and cost estimates
• Initial risk assessment
• Updating the business case

Key Roles

• Assignment of program sponsor
• Assignment of program manager
• Identification of key decision makers/stakeholders

Program charter

• Purpose
• Initiate and design the program and benefits
• Justification
• Vision
• Strategic fit
• Outcomes
• Scope
• Benefit strategy
• Assumptions and constraints
• Risks and issues
• Timeline
• Resources needed
• Stakeholder considerations
• Measurement criteria for component success
• Program governance

Program roadmap elaboration

• High-level scope statements
• High-level milestone plan

Program cost estimates

Program financial framework

• Purpose
• Funding structure
• Funding source
• Funding goals
• Payment schedules
• Funding methods
• Updates to the business case

Resource accountability matrix

• Core team
• Differentiate between program and project resources

Program kickoff meeting with stakeholders

INSTRUCTIONS: Note the most suitable answer for each multiple-choice question in the appropriate space on the answer sheet.

1. Although your program is part of a portfolio with four other programs and 14 separate projects, it has no direct relationship or interdependencies with any of these other initiatives. However, the success of your program will depend on which two areas for which all these other initiatives are competing?
   1. Physical space and technology assets for team members
   2. Funding and executive sponsorship
   3. Funding and available resources
   4. Available resources and technology assets
2. You have recently joined a corporation that is a leader in the development of products for the automotive industry. You are pleased to be selected as a program manager, because you know that this company has established a culture of management by programs. The company operates within a program management structure, and each program manager is responsible for products in certain years. To best align your program with your stakeholders’ expectations, this means that—
   1. You should develop a high-level milestone plan
   2. In performing a stakeholder analysis, you need to consider the other program managers
   3. The way the organization is structured means that there is no need to compete for resources
   4. The roadmap is essential
3. Assume that in your automotive company, you will be appointed as the program manager for the 2016 new line of hybrid cars that only will use gasoline if the vehicle has traveled more than 300 miles. This program is a major change for your company as it has not entered the hybrid market until this past year, and the new line of vehicles is to have an average of 75 miles per gallon. The current hybrid gets 30 miles per gallon. You are going to produce at a minimum five different vehicles: a coupe, a sedan, a luxury SUV, a minivan, and an inexpensive SUV. Finally, your program charter was approved, and you were officially named as the program manager. You were fortunate to work with your sponsor in developing the charter, and you also—
   1. Used input from all stakeholders
   2. Relied extensively on historical information
   3. Convened a panel to assist in its preparation using the Delphi technique
   4. Sent a draft of the charter to the proposed members of the Governance Board for their input
4. Assume you are working for a dry foods company. For the past five years, all of your projects in this company have met their goals of being on schedule, within budget, and meeting specifications. You are a successful project manager, and you have identified a potential new line of business for your company, which you feel will enhance its sales. You met with your Portfolio Review Board and presented a business case for this new line of work, which would move your firm into the chocolate market building on research that shows that a small amount of dark chocolate can be extremely healthful. You now have a business mandate to proceed into more in depth work to determine whether or not the program should proceed to the planning phase. You now are considering questions such as: “is the program financially smart?”, “do the program’s benefits align with those of the organization?”, and “can the company afford the program?”. Answers to these questions basically serve to translate strategic objectives into:
   1. The program management plan
   2. The program’s roadmap
   3. A high-level program scope statement
   4. An accountability matrix
5. You are responsible for a program to develop the next-generation cellular phone. The program includes a number of key products and is set up according to the “father-son” model. Because programs are responsible for delivering benefits, you want to ensure that the targeted benefits are measurable. You now are working in the Program Initiation phase; one purpose is to—
   1. Establish and staff the infrastructure that the program will use
   2. Set up the program control framework for planning, monitoring, and controlling the program
   3. Expand on the roadmap that provides a chronological representation of the program’s direction
   4. Complete the program team staffing
6. You have recently been assigned as the program manager on a global drug development project. You have read and thoroughly understand the program’s business case and overall objectives. However, you are curious as to the key program outcomes that are required to achieve the program vision. These outcomes are stated in the—
   1. Program mandate
   2. Preliminary project scope statement
   3. Technical and economic feasibility study
   4. Program charter
7. Assume you now have obtained approval of your charter for your program in your automotive company for the development of the new line of hybrid vehicles. This program will be extremely complex given its development of the five vehicles and also the goals and objectives to be met. You realize as well that you are going to have a number of issues and risks to resolve. However, you are pleased you are the program manager and that the charter has been issued. Your next step is to—
   1. Perform a more detailed analysis of the identified risks in the charter to help in deciding how best to respond to them should they occur
   2. Determine the key benefits to be realized by the program
   3. Describe the program outcomes required to achieve the program’s vision
   4. Conduct a program kickoff meeting with key stakeholders
8. You are the program manager responsible for building a dam that will provide flood control and generate electricity for millions of residents. The dam will have five turbines generating electricity. The program sponsor, the local provincial government, has only enough money to install three turbines. The income generated from those three turbines will then be used to fund the remaining two turbines. As part of your planning, you estimate that in month 26, Turbine No. 4 will be fully operational, and in month 38, Turbine No. 5 will come on line. You and the team document this in the—
   1. Benefits realization plan
   2. Roadmap
   3. Benefits analysis phase
   4. Constraints and assumptions
9. You are a program manager working for a conference planning company. Your program has been launched as a component of your company’s portfolio. Your organization has been in existence for 10 years; therefore, as you prepare your program charter and roadmap, you should consider the—
   1. How the program will deliver the desired benefits
   2. How program components will be unified
   3. Authority tolerance levels
   4. Program budget baseline
10. Your company, a major dairy cooperative, has embraced portfolio management. Previously, some projects continued indefinitely, even after their sponsors had left the company, and no one could remember why they had been initiated. Now all programs and projects are part of the portfolio, which is where investment decisions are made. In response to a growing consumer demand for organic foods, the company is attempting to capitalize on this demand by entering the organic foods market. You are appointed as program manager. Your program is the result of—
    1. Business intelligence
    2. The need to remain competitive with others in the field
    3. A program mandate
    4. A recommendation from your major customer
11. You have been appointed program manager for a Motor Carrier Safety Administration program to develop new regulations that avoid the need for highway weigh stations yet ensure that weight restrictions are followed. You must complete the program in two years, and the administration must approve the regulations in one year. You have not started the planning process. At this time, your first step is to—
    1. Secure program funding
    2. Assign project managers to each project in the program
    3. Plan the program’s TO-BE state
    4. Manage each of your stakeholders
12. You work for a company that produces and distributes catalogs focused on luxury items such as jewelry, home furnishings, clothing, and accessories. In addition to the major undertaking of catalog production, several projects are under way to make the catalogs available online; ease of ordering and faster delivery time are key objectives. Many people in the company support the catalog production initiatives as well as some of the Web-based initiatives. The company should—
    1. Aggressively pursue the Web and discontinue its print production of the catalogs
    2. Assign a program sponsor for these initiatives
    3. Appoint a project manager to report directly to the CEO to coordinate activities
    4. Implement critical chain scheduling to avoid potential bottlenecks in resource allocation
13. Your city is in the early stages of determining whether or not it should construct a new shopping mall. Already, there is a major shopping mall at the northern part of the city, but its location is inconvenient for many residents of the city given the extensive traffic. In the southern part of the city, there is a small mall that lacks large department stores. The city is considering a program to develop a mall in the center of the city, and if it is approved, you will be the program manager. You believe approval is basically guaranteed, and you are looking forward to this challenge. Your funding will largely come from—
    1. The parent organization
    2. Bonds
    3. Equity partners
    4. Payment from future lease income
14. As the portfolio manager for an aerospace and defense contractor, you recommend that programs be initiated when your company decides to bid on contracts. Given the business development process and the need to focus on capture management, the pre-proposal phase may last several years, especially on major government defense projects. As you work to initiate the program, which of the following is critical—
    1. Statement of Work
    2. Contract program work breakdown structure (PWBS)
    3. Program financial framework
    4. Program outcomes
15. You are working in your city to have a new shopping mall that is centrally located. Your charter is under development, and if it is approved, you will be the program manager. You have not managed a program as complex as this one as in the past; instead, you worked on smaller programs or projects. This program is to have at least seven different projects, and they have been identified so far in the charter. You believe you should prepare—
    1. A description of the other projects you believe you should add
    2. A business case for a Program Management Office to support this program
    3. A description of the methods you plan to use to procure external resources
    4. A high-level milestone plan
16. Assume you are working for an international training company. It has decided to add several new lines of courses because it tracks its courses now to the Project Management Institute’s publications and standards. You will be the program manager for these new courses, and you plan to have a team of people located in different countries to support you as you will want to translate each course into at least four other languages and pilot test them in other parts of the world. After your program is initiated, you then will work to authorize the various projects within it. Furthermore, it is important to have a high-level plan for the program’s components. This plan is—
    1. Used to start initiating the program
    2. Part of program authorization
    3. Stated as part of the program charter
    4. Set forth in the preliminary program scope statement
17. While fax machines are basically considered to be outdated, a number of people still use them to send and receive information. Your company is considering a new line of fax machines as it has specialized in them and wants to make sure fax remains as a way to distribute information. This new line of fax machines would make it easy to send information from one’s computer or a tablet to the fax machine and not have to rely on printed documents. It also would enable transmission of printed materials at a far faster speed with immediate confirmation that the recipient received it. As you determine funding methods for your program, you should first consider—
    1. Performing a program financial analysis
    2. Various funding methods
    3. Payment schedules
    4. Program funding source
18. As you prepare your program charter for your new program for your international training company, you have a vision of continuing as the industry leader. However, this is an internal initiative, and funding is a key concern, especially given the economic downturn, and many people do not sign up for the existing courses until the last minute. You are working to initiate the program. This means which of the following people should be identified by this time?
    1. Program manager and program sponsor
    2. Program manager and core program team members
    3. Program manager and program management office (PMO) director
    4. Program manager and program control officer
19. Your government agency has been considering adding a new program to its existing portfolio of the development of national parks in your country. You have heard about this possible program through a friend, who is on the agency’s Portfolio Review Board. Once you learned about this possible program, you went to others on the Review Board and requested to be the program manager for it and were pleased to be assigned to manage it. One reason you were selected early is so you can—
    1. Authorize the program
    2. Provide expert judgment
    3. Prepare the strategic directive
    4. Guide the initiation process
20. You are one of the core team members developing the program charter for the next generation of medical imaging technology. There is significant market opportunity, but the competition is strong, and the wrong technical approach could set the company back several years. To ensure that the program charter is viable, a best practice is to—
    1. Conduct a SWOT analysis
    2. Conduct an assumptions analysis
    3. Use the nominal group technique
    4. Use an influence diagram