The Closing the Program questions on the PgMP^® certification exam, which constitute three percent of the exam, or five questions, emphasize the last phase in the program life cycle according to the Examination Content Outline, Program Closure. This phase formalizes the acceptance of products, services, or results that brings the program or one of its projects to completion. The program’s work is complete, and benefits from the program are accruing and will continue to do so in the future.

In The Standard for Program Management—Third Edition (2013), closing is covered in the Program Closure phase of its life cycle with the purpose to execute a controlled closure of the program. This phase concentrates on program transition as well as program closeout and includes program financial closure, program transition and benefits sustainment, program closure, and program procurement closure.

This phase tracks to the benefits transition phase in the program benefits management life cycle. At this time, the benefits from the project and non-project activities are consolidated, and the ongoing responsibility to sustain the benefits is transferred in accordance with the program transition plan. Many associated ongoing activities are involved with ensuring and sustaining benefits, and these activities differ in each organization. Benefit related questions primarily are covered in the Benefits section of this book

You should recognize that administrative closure is ongoing and should not wait until the program is complete. Each project within the program is closed at different times, as are the associated contracts. If a project is terminated for any reason, it may be closed earlier than scheduled or anticipated. Lessons learned are collected throughout the program life cycle. Closure activities, therefore, occur throughout the program and not just at completion of the program.

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

Program Closure Phase

• Program Transition
  • Meeting the program’s benefits
  • Completing transition work
  • Requiring a new program to oversee transition activities
• Program Closeout
  • Program financial closure
  • Sustainment budgets
  • Financial closing statements
  • Closed program budget
• Program Transition and Benefit Sustainment
  • Ensuring benefit sustainment
• Program Closure
  • Final reports
  • Knowledge transition
  • Resource disposition
  • Program closeout
• Program Procurement Closure
  • Closed contract reports
  • Lesson learned updates
  • Closed contracts
• Program Performance Analysis Report
• Stakeholder Support for Closure
• Execute Transition and Closeout of Program and Component Plans

Conduct a Post-Review Meeting

Report Lessons Learned and Best Practices

Intellectual Property Requirements

Communication of Program Results

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

1. You have been managing a major software program for six years under contract to a Fortune 500 company. You have been helping this company move to Cloud computing. Finally, you completed the last project in this program, and it is time to officially close the program. Although you have completed your program, your customer requires telephone and e-mail support in case an issue arises or a defect is detected. Such assurance is—
   1. An activity to be done as part of closing the program
   2. Outside the scope of the program
   3. An ongoing activity that is part of the program
   4. A standard best practice
2. You are managing a program for the first time in your telecom company. It is to convert all the existing phone lines in your city to ones that are underground to prevent outages during hurricanes and tornadoes, which are common to your region of the country. You realize that since you have seven projects in this program that various projects will close at different times during the life cycle of your program. These closing activities are—
   1. Limited to the project’s life cycle
   2. Covered as you close the program
   3. Followed by a certificate of program completion
   4. Limited to closure of each project
3. As the closing manager for a program that has been under way for five years in your company, you must ensure that all deliverables were completed and that program objectives and measurable program success criteria were met. You meet with the former program manager, the Governance Board, key stakeholders, and members of the core program team. To further confirm that all the work has been completed, you review the—
   1. Program work breakdown structure (PWBS)
   2. Program charter
   3. Benefits register
   4. Program management plan
4. You are a program manager, and one of your component projects is complete. You work with the project manager to ensure that all closure activities are finished. The project manager has numerous tasks to complete; at the program level, you need to—
   1. Review relevant contract documentation
   2. Confirm that the project’s benefits have been delivered
   3. Assess the project’s budget
   4. Confirm that project closure has occurred
5. You are in the closing phase of managing a major program in your company. Your program included 11 separate contracts and was a significant endeavor for your organization. Your Governance Board has asked your PMO to conduct an individual review to make sure all procurement closure activities are complete. It should focus on—
   1. Those contracts that were terminated for convenience or default
   2. The procurement management plan
   3. The contract management plan for each of the 11 contracts
   4. The procurement process for outstanding issues
6. You have been managing a program to deliver a new tractor that will use 75 percent less fuel. The program is ready to close, and activities then to sustain the benefits will be transitioned to the product support group. During this transition, you need to make sure—
   1. The operations group has been involved in the program as a key stakeholder
   2. Estimates of the cost to sustain the benefits are finalized
   3. Stakeholders have signed off on product acceptance criteria
   4. Component transition requests have been submitted
7. You establish a program support function to provide ongoing product support for the heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) program for the new class of amphibious warfare vehicles. Prior to transitioning your program’s work to this group, you need to ensure—
   1. Successful, on-time product delivery
   2. The Governance Board is consulted
   3. That attention is paid to benefits sustainment
   4. That all documented benefits are realized as planned
8. Finally, it is time to close your program. You need to now execute the transition plan to the operations group in your company. When you are executing your transition plan you focus on—
   1. Ensuring the program has satisfied all requirements
   2. Managing the redeployment of all project resources
   3. Conducting reviews of your suppliers
   4. Archiving lessons learned
9. You work with numerous contractors and suppliers on your program. Your company considers two of the contractors to be valued partners; however, three of the contractors have not worked on any previous programs or projects for your company. Furthermore, one supplier and two contractors have worked with competitors, and one contractor uses a competitor as a supplier. In closing your program, you need to ensure—
   1. Each contractor has signed a nondisclosure agreement
   2. A final performance review is held with each contractor
   3. A decision is made to determine whether any of the three new contractors should be added to the qualified supplier list
   4. All deliverables are completed satisfactorily
10. You are the Business Change Manager on a mobile workforce initiative to decrease the costs associated with office space. As a result of this initiative, 2,000 employees now work in their homes, thereby saving the company millions per year in lease fees. Now that the culture change has been complete, you are working to close this program. You realize program closure activities are distinct from those of other phases of program management because closure activities—
    1. Do not require involvement with sellers or suppliers
    2. Occur at the end of the program life cycle
    3. Are handled by someone who is appointed as the closing manager
    4. Occur throughout the program
11. Assume it is time to prepare your final report to close your new product development program. This means you need to describe in it—
    1. Actual work performed
    2. Contractors to be added to the qualified supplier list
    3. Program documentation archive plan
    4. Knowledge transition
12. Resource Disposition is an important aspect of program closure so the resources can be used elsewhere in the organization. Releasing resources is handled by—
    1. The program manager
    2. The program sponsor
    3. PMO Director
    4. Program governance
13. Lessons learned can be reported in various ways. For consistency and quality, each program should adopt a standard approach. In the closing phase of the program, the program manager should—
    1. Address the advantages and disadvantages of the methods used to gather and report on lessons learned
    2. Share lessons learned with team members
    3. Survey the customer and the team for overall program satisfaction
    4. Report these lessons learned to the chief knowledge officer
14. You have been appointed closing manager for a program that has been under way for eight years. You have met with the program manager to talk about lessons learned. You have also met with the core program team members and reviewed the lessons learned that were documented by each of the six projects in this program. Your next step is to—
    1. Select the key lessons learned and archive them
    2. Add any additional lessons learned to the program’s final report
    3. Index each project’s records
    4. Assign metadata tags to the records so they can be easily located using a content management system
15. As program manager, you follow a detailed closure process that was developed by the enterprise program management office (EPMO). You have customized this procedure somewhat to fit the unique requirements of your program. Project C is now in its closing phase. This means it is your responsibility to—
    1. Conduct a performance review with the project team members
    2. Reallocate resources to other program components
    3. Perform a final performance review
    4. Update personnel records
16. You are a program manager for an aerospace company that is developing the C888 aircraft. Each of the component projects is scheduled to end at a different time. Each time a project closes to initiate closeout activities, it is necessary to—
    1. Obtain stakeholder support
    2. Ensure all project procurements are closed
    3. Meet with your team to discuss lessons learned before team members are released
    4. Ensure operations management is ready to handle sustainment activities
17. You are managing the development of a series of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) products. Each product is being managed as a separate project. Because the products will be completed at different times, you have a product support group. Your team has also established a configuration management system as a subsystem of the overall program management information system (PMIS). Changes have been requested to the product that was delivered in Project A. These changes affect the product from Project B, which is in production. You focus on—
    1. Responding to customer complaints regarding the product already delivered from Project A
    2. Ensuring that support is properly scheduled for Projects A and B
    3. Ensuring that a policy of zero defects is implemented as part of the quality assurance and control activities
    4. Conducting a thorough audit and extensive testing of future products before they are delivered
18. Each project in your program, Program B, is developing a specific product. Together your program will have eight separate products once it is complete. You establish a product support group to provide ongoing support for all the products in your program. A critical success factor is to ensure that—
    1. Staff members are physically collocated with the project team
    2. Support is available on a 24/7 basis
    3. Support is properly scheduled when changes are made
    4. Knowledge transfer activities are performed
19. You are the program manager responsible for product development for your company’s Class C vehicles. You have six projects in this program. After five years, the program is finally in the closing stage. It is time to begin program financial closure when—
    1. Benefits are delivered
    2. A financial closing statement has been prepared
    3. All contractors have been paid
    4. Budget allocation reconciliation is complete
20. A critical part of program management is managing the intellectual property that is created. One of your senior engineers left the company three weeks before your program was complete. A key scientist departed a year early. For program success you need to ensure that—
    1. Lessons learned are readily accessible
    2. Program staff are not able to join competing firms at any time
    3. The organization conducts exit interviews with anyone who leaves the program
    4. Knowledge assets are transferred into the organization’s knowledge repository