PfMP Practice Exam Questions and Answers

Managing Strategic Change is an integral part of any portfolio in order to remain aligned with the strategic objectives. Your portfolio has undergone a major strategic change and you are currently interviewing senior executive stakeholders and analyzing requirements and expectations for strategic change in order to re-align the portfolio. Which of the following tools and techniques are you currently using?

Stakeholders in your company are skeptical of the changes that will occur as portfolio management is being implemented. While some are supportive, most are not as they believe their work may be terminated. As the portfolio manager, you prepared a list of stakeholders, which is included in the:

Even though you do not work in an industry that is heavily regulated by your government, such as in new product development, health, or safety, recently your government issued a mandate that senior management of all corporations must certify the accuracy of reported financial statements to prevent any accounting fraud. These controls are to be implemented in the next fiscal year. This obviously is not in your portfolio strategic or management plans but is an example of a(n):

Assume your company recently diversified, and in addition to producing its recognized brand of ice cream products, it now also is producing cereal and nutritional products. Assume you have been using the Efficient Frontier to manage portfolio value. With diversification to these new products:

You are managing a portfolio in a functional organization and resources are shared between operations and projects. You are continuously performing capability and capacity analysis in order to optimize the portfolio. Which of the following capability and capacity analysis is used to limit the number OR size of components the organization can execute?

A portfolio manager on one of the major sub-portfolios in your portfolio has tendered his resignation and gave you a 2 months notice. This unexpected change will require you to take immediate action with the governance board. Which of the following processes will be handling this situation?

You are managing a portfolio for your company and are trying to balance the tasks that will be done internally based on the availability and the ones that will be outsourced. Managing supply and demand is a recurring activity in the portfolio life cycle and results in changes in resource utilization and resource efficiency. What is the expected outcome from managing supply and demand?

You are managing a complex portfolio with high risk levels due to emerging technological breakthroughs and a short benefit window to market your product. You know that managing risk is key to success and you are coaching your team on the same. You are currently in the process of developing the risk management plan. Which of the following activities will you be performing?

Over the years, your organization has grown significantly as it has entered new markets while maintaining its presence in its traditional product line of security systems. The company now has eight different business units rather than three, which was the case only two years ago, and it set up funding originally such that it was only allocated to one business unit and could not be transferred to others. At the recently held Portfolio Oversight Committee meeting, five business units did not add components, but some were completed. The other three added a number of programs and projects, which were authorized. Now funding for these new components is an issue. This means:

You are in the process of planning the portfolio for a major client and wanted to put an extra effort on planning for managing the performance as the portfolio has a lot of technical aspects and correct performance management is key to success. What tools and techniques can you use for this purpose?

Stakeholders expectations and requirements change throughout the portfolio life cycle. New stakeholders can be added or removed and requirements need to be continuously solicited in order to keep the portfolio aligned with stakeholders expectations. What is the process for soliciting requirements called?

Having worked in portfolio management before, you are pleased you were selected to implement it and be the portfolio manager for your motorcycle company, well known throughout the world. As it is a new function, you worked with the Enterprise Program Management Office to ensure you had a complete inventory of the work in progress. Now as you prepared your various portfolio management artifacts, and have a Portfolio Review Board meeting upcoming in two weeks, sponsors will be proposing new components. This means:

One of your team members came to you asking about the risk "Watch List"; he heard this term in a meeting on risk analysis and did not know what it meant. What will your advice to your team member be?

Moving from project management to program management and now being appointed as the first portfolio manager in your cyber warfare company, you know you always wondered what happened to the various reports you had to prepare, and the metrics you had to collect. You are working now to determine critical metrics for portfolio management and decided to involve as many people as possible through questionnaires and surveys. You also held some focus groups. The purpose is to:

Your company's water treatment center serves three cities. Tests are conducted each day to see if the water is safe to drink. On Thursday, E coli were found in the water, but the water authority did not notify the citizens in the three cities. Instead, the citizens learned on Friday, the water was now safe to drink. The citizens are in an uproar, and your company is to blame. It is obvious one of the problems is the aging infrastructure and limited resources. To best optimize the portfolio, your CEO asked you to:

Working to ensure the portfolio management process is one that is followed and is embraced has been a major challenge. As the portfolio manager, assume you set up meetings with the Portfolio Governance Group bi-weekly since there is constant change in your telecom company. You also want the portfolio process to be transparent. To do so, a useful tool to communicate status is:

A portfolio manager needs to continuously balance the need and requirements with the available resources and needs to maintain a balanced portfolio and portfolio resources in order to optimize delivery. Capability and Capacity analysis is performed in 4 of the portfolio management processes and it serves a slightly different purpose in each and every one of them. When it relates to managing the supply and demand , what is the purpose of using this analysis?

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:

You are managing a complex portfolio with high risk levels due to emerging technological breakthroughs and a short benefit window to market your product. You know that managing risks is key to success, and you are coaching your team on the same. While planning for risk management, multiple investment choice tools are used as part of the quantitative and qualitative analyzes. Which of the following tools determines the effects of portfolio velocity?

You have just finished the development of the Portfolio Communication Management Plan. The portfolio team is looking for portfolio value assessment, status reports, and portfolio forecast with variance to plan. Where should they find this information?

You are managing a large portfolio and know that you will need to constantly show the progress and status of the portfolio in meeting. For this you have developed a robust roadmap using BI tools. The portfolio roadmap is an important document used throughout the portfolio life cycle; when it comes to developing the portfolio communication management plan, which of the following options is correct

In a portfolio, data is an abundant asset, and managing the information aiming for a a better decision making is critical. For this you use a variety of Quantitative and Qualitative analysis methods. These methods are performed in 4 of the portfolio management processes and serve a slightly different purpose in each and every one of them. When it comes to the optimizing portfolio, what is the purpose of using this analysis?

You are the portfolio manager for a large county that comprises much of a major city in your country. The city also has a portfolio manager, and often you meet to discuss proposed initiatives to see if there are any dependencies. In your county, you established an approach to evaluate portfolio components to make judgments regarding their alignment and priority. In doing so, which of the following was especially helpful:

Your company acquired another company. The sponsor asked you to check the other company's current inventory of work and see what could be added to your current portfolio. You have a meeting coming up to show the sponsor the portfolio dependencies. Which document should you be showing him?

Assume you are the portfolio manager for the Federal Railroad Administration. Funding is provided annually according to the Government's budget process. Any monies that are not spent at the end of a fiscal year are lost, and there are some restrictions in place concerning whether funds can be transferred to different programs, projects, or operations work in the agency. Therefore, to maximize the use of funding you require:

Portfolios have a lot of components in them and are executed along an extended lifecycle. For this, as a portfolio manager, you continuously monitor and control the progress and status. What input can you use to help you with this?

As a portfolio manager, you realize the importance of communication for the success of a portfolio. You are now developing the portfolio management plan and are looking for the portfolio current risks status including high risks. Which of the following contains what you are looking for?

You are currently creating portfolio scenarios (what-if analysis) by reviewing components against prioritization criteria and using analysis techniques (e.g., options analysis, risk analysis, SWOT analysis, financial analysis). You are doing this in order to

You have been recently assigned to a critical portfolio in your company and wanted to start right away and decided to begin with aligning the strategic management of the portfolio to the organizational strategy and objectives. For this you will use

As you work to determine which of four possible components to optimize the portfolio, assume you are using the internal rate of return as the key crite rion to make your recommendation. Only one new component can be added based on financial constraints. Each of the four potential components has benefits that support the strategic plan. Based on the following data, you recommend:

Assume you are managing a high visibility project in your company that once it is completed will transform it into new markets and be the leader in the soft phone field. You are keeping the project a secret from external stakeholders, and you and your team have signed Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). However, the executives and those on the Portfolio Review Board want status information on this project every two weeks. You provide it:

A new portfolio is initiated with you as the portfolio manager, you started by developing the portfolio strategic plan and are currently reviewing the Organizational Process Assets; which of the options can be a part of this input?

A big strategic change occurred at the organization level and has impacted multiple portfolios in the organization including yours. The sponsor has asked you to analyze the change and update the needed documents. You managed this change and are currently updating the Portfolio Management Plan. Which of the following are part of this update

One of your components within the portfolio has been struggling and has undertaken a lot of issues. A recent measurement has shown that its CPI is 0.4 and SPI is 0.3. What is the best course of action you should take as a portfolio manager

Performance reporting is important in a program and usually, the portfolio manager aggregates performance information from the portfolio components in order to present the related reports. Which of the following measures can be used in performance reporting?

You are managing a large portfolio and know that you will need to constantly show the progress and status of the portfolio in meeting. For this you have developed a robust roadmap using BI tools. The Portfolio Roadmap is an important document that is referenced throughout the portfolio life cycle. Which of the following is correct regarding the Portfolio Roadmap purpose and focus?

You are managing a large portfolio and know that you will need to constantly show the progress and status of the portfolio in meeting. For this you have developed a robust roadmap using BI tools. When it comes to Portfolio dependencies, which of the following is true regarding the roadmap?

When managed correctly, the balanced scorecards can change the way an organization does business. Balanced scorecards keep focus on results. Which of the following are factors that can be targeted by the Balanced Scorecards method?

Portfolio Prioritization Model is included in the Portfolio management plan and guides the ongoing decisions as to which portfolio components should be added, terminated, or changed; which of the following is correct regarding the Prioritization Model purpose and content?

In a portfolio, data is an abundant asset, and managing the information aiming for a better decision making is critical. Which of the following help you with managing the portfolio value?

As part of the periodical strategic management cycle, the portfolio management team is revising the portfolio and re-doing the strategic management part. Currently, they are assuming and evaluating different combinations of components in order to come up with multiple approaches and take a decision on the portfolio structure. What is currently being performed?

Aligning the portfolio with the strategic objectives starts by developing the Portfolio Strategic Plan. You are currently developing this plan and are looking for a document that provides you long-term direction. What are you looking for in this case?

The portfolio management process ensures the components are aligned to goals. However, it is driven by:

Your company's new CEO has set an aggressive target and informed everyone that the target needs to be met by all means in order for the company to be able to realize benefits and avoid bankruptcy. What is the best management approach that the portfolio manager should take in this case?

Because of the ongoing and iterative nature of portfolio management, the processes in it are continually repeated as new components are added, and others are completed or terminated. Revisions are constant given complexity, risks, and the rate of change. As you work to optimize the portfolio, it is helpful to:

Assume the organization's strategy has undergone a significant change, and as a result the mix of components in the portfolio also will change. As the portfolio manager, you need to update your charter in order to reflect:

The portfolio management information system (PMIS) is often a collection of spreadsheets rather than automated tools. An effective PMIS enables the portfolio manager to define, analyze, design, produce, and manage systems to support a successful portfolio. Which of the following is a trait of a PMIS?

While the Governance Board has a variety of significant roles in portfolio management, especially in terms of the recommendations it makes, c they involve:

Establishing a portfolio management process starts with the development of the organizational portfolio management implementation plan. Which of the following helps while developing this plan?

Since you work for a global aerospace and defense organization, it decided to pilot the implementation of portfolio management in its cargo aviation business unit. You were asked to lead this initiative and realized before you could proceed, you should find out information about all the existing projects, programs, and operational activities. This task took three months to complete, but with this list, you now can use it to set up categories for the work that is under way and to also define criteria to use to propose new components. As a result you should:

The portfolio strategic plan should contain a prioritization model or approach that guides the ongoing decisions as to which portfolio components should be added, terminated, or changed, as well as prioritizes and balances the component mix over time. A simple prioritization model may be provided which contains

When initiating portfolio components and terminating other, you come up with updates to budget, funding and resources allocations. Where should these updates be recorded?

While Optimizing your portfolio, you need to present to the governance board how your components will be ranked and balanced in a quantifiable way. How will you do this?

Managing risk is key to the success of any initiative. Risk is considered to be inherent in any activity we do in project management and at any level. As part of managing risks, the portfolio manager applies multiple analyzes and uses tools to help dealing with risks. What does the portfolio manager use to visualize risks impact on portfolio strategic objectives such as profitability?

The portfolio manager defines the portfolio based on a listing of already existing work in the organization and selects the right components in order to be able to prioritize them. What do you use for defining the portfolio based on the listing of work?

Which of the following depicts the use of the burn-down and burn-up charts?

Embracing a management-by-projects culture means there tends to be far more projects to pursue than available resources. An approach then is required to guide decisions as to components in the portfolio. A best practice to follow is to:

You have a portfolio component that is using earned value analysis. It is at the 15% point of completion, and it is evident that it cannot be completed as planned. Adding resources will not solve the problem, and at the last Portfolio Review Board meeting, the Board members decided to terminate this component based on its various risks. They then decided the resources allocated to this component could be transferred to other portfolio components enhancing their early completion and avoiding risks from competitors. As the portfolio manager, you:

You are approaching a major checkpoint and right before the review meeting, one of the key stakeholders asked you to add a small component which is of high interest to her and requires minimal effort and spans a short duration. What should you, as a portfolio manager do?

Assume you are the portfolio manager for a company that specializes in software, including portfolio management software. It has many components under way to enhance the existing product line but also to move the company into Cloud computing. You regularly prepare reports on the portfolio status but lately have had a large number of stakeholders request ad hoc reports. You decided to survey your stakeholders to learn about their information needs. You next decided to hold some one-on-one interviews with several interested and influential stakeholders in terms of communications requirements. From these interviews you are concerned that some stakeholder groups may be missing so you decided to:

You are managing a portfolio linked to multiple business units and you set clear roles and responsibilities from the beginning to avoid delays and to enhance the decision making process. An unanticipated issue occurred last week, which relates to one of your team members missing to check the market fluctuating currency. In which of the following documents should you look to know which member was responsible of this?

Due to market technological changes, your company got impacted and was urged to revise its portfolios. You are currently revising your portfolio to determine the required changes in the component mix. Which of the following options helps in comparing the current portfolio mix to the new strategic direction in order to determine the needed changes?

As the portfolio manager you have worked to consider the complexities involved of the interdependencies in your programs, projects, and ongoing work. As your portfolio process has been implemented for three years, a key challenge is that senior executives tend to change priorities often even though programs and projects are being implemented. Often these programs and projects are cross-functional, and the result is your process is not coordinated. You recognize there is a need to change, and you met with the Chair of the Portfolio Review Board and have her support for a transparent approach for portfolio standards and prioritization. You should:

The interest, influence, and communication needs of business operational stakeholders who are looking to ensure alignment between portfolio components, while minimizing negative impact and maximizing positive benefits of all portfolio-managed changes to their business operations, relate to which type of stakeholders?

Communication is one of the largest activities that the portfolio manager does along the portfolio lifecycle. As an experienced portfolio manager, you know that communication and information needs vary between portfolios, programs and projects. How do you define the difference in those three levels of Project Management?

One of your portfolio team members is confused on the reason behind using the three processes: Define Portfolio, Optimize Portfolio, Authorize Portfolio and Manage Portfolio value. For him, we can skip a couple of processes. He came to you for advice. What should be your response to him?

Which of the options is considered part of Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEFs)

Due to strategic changes, one of the sub-portfolios in your portfolio has been decided to be canceled because it no longer meets the new market demands. What is your next step as a portfolio manager?

Programs and projects in your company, one of the largest banks in the world, are required to submit metrics as to their individual progress each month. To simplify the collection and reporting process, you held interviews with members of the Portfolio Review Board to see their areas of greatest interest and also with program and project managers to determine how difficult it would be to collect the data. You then selected 10 possible metrics to the Board, with a goal that five would be regularly reported. It is important to note that:

One of your components' managers came to you stating that she cannot find a key stakeholder by email and if she cannot find him, a major decision will be delayed, thus affecting the entire portfolio. What should you, as a portfolio manager do?

Managing Strategic Change is an integral part of any portfolio in order to remain aligned with the strategic objectives. Your portfolio has undergone a major strategic change and you are currently determining the volume of work required to do in order to re-align the portfolio. What are you currently using?

Values assist in guiding actions, evaluations, and decisions. Assume your organization is considering entering into a consortium to produce a heliumcontrolled car. Once the helium is supplied, additional amounts will not be needed. The car is to be personally appealing with a focus on an inexpensive cost to increase marketability. The consortium will enable each firm to capitalize on the expertise of the other firms in it, but the customer will view it as a separate entity. If your organization enters into the consortium, it must justify the value to the portfolio of doing so. In addition to ensure benefits are realized a focus is needed on:

An organization decided to increase its business by 80% and approach new different clients. This strategy is followed because previously this organization was depending with its sales on only one client. With this new approach, you can describe the organization as being

Managing risk is key to the success of any initiative. Risk is considered to be inherent in any activity we do in project management and at any level. You are currently assessing risk against multiple criteria and classifying them as part of developing the risk management plan. Which of the below reflects what you are doing?