CPL Communication & Stakeholder Management 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A program manager discovers that two key stakeholders have conflicting priorities that are causing delays. What is the BEST first step?
- Escalate immediately to the program sponsor
- Facilitate a joint meeting to surface and align conflicting interests (Correct answer)
- Side with the stakeholder who has more authority
- Document the conflict and wait for it to resolve naturally
Correct answer: Facilitate a joint meeting to surface and align conflicting interests
Facilitating a joint session allows competing interests to be heard and negotiated before escalation becomes necessary.
Question 2: Which stakeholder analysis technique maps individuals by their level of influence and level of interest to guide communication strategies?
- RACI matrix
- Power/Interest grid (Correct answer)
- Salience model
- Stakeholder register
Correct answer: Power/Interest grid
The Power/Interest grid segments stakeholders into four quadrants to determine appropriate engagement strategies for each group.
Question 3: During program execution, a previously unsupportive stakeholder suddenly becomes highly engaged. What should the program manager do?
- Ignore the change since the stakeholder was previously uncooperative
- Update the stakeholder register and reassess the engagement strategy (Correct answer)
- Remove the stakeholder from the communication plan
- Report the behavior change to the governance board
Correct answer: Update the stakeholder register and reassess the engagement strategy
Stakeholder positions evolve, so the register and engagement plan must be updated to reflect new attitudes and leverage new support.
Question 4: What is the PRIMARY purpose of a communications management plan in a program?
- To document meeting minutes for all program meetings
- To define what information is distributed, to whom, when, and by which method (Correct answer)
- To track stakeholder satisfaction scores over time
- To serve as a contract between the program team and stakeholders
Correct answer: To define what information is distributed, to whom, when, and by which method
A communications management plan ensures that the right information reaches the right people at the right time through appropriate channels.
Question 5: A program manager needs to report bad news about a schedule slip to senior executives. Which communication approach is MOST appropriate?
- Send an email to avoid direct confrontation
- Delay reporting until a recovery plan is ready
- Present the issue proactively with impact analysis and mitigation options (Correct answer)
- Only report if the slip exceeds the threshold defined in the communications plan
Correct answer: Present the issue proactively with impact analysis and mitigation options
Proactive, transparent communication that pairs problems with proposed solutions maintains credibility and enables informed decision-making.
Question 6: Which type of communication is MOST effective for conveying complex technical risks to non-technical program stakeholders?
- Detailed technical reports with full data sets
- Visual dashboards and plain-language summaries with risk ratings (Correct answer)
- Verbal briefings with no supporting documentation
- Internal memos restricted to technical team members
Correct answer: Visual dashboards and plain-language summaries with risk ratings
Visual, plain-language formats make complex information accessible to audiences who lack technical backgrounds and improve decision quality.
Question 7: A program's steering committee receives inconsistent status updates from different component project managers. What governance mechanism BEST resolves this?
- Ask each project manager to self-define their reporting format
- Establish a standardized reporting template and cadence across all components (Correct answer)
- Eliminate status reporting to reduce administrative burden
- Assign the governance board to collect data directly from the project teams
Correct answer: Establish a standardized reporting template and cadence across all components
Standardized reporting templates ensure consistent, comparable data flows to the steering committee for informed program-level decisions.
CPL Communication & Stakeholder Management 2
A program manager discovers that two key stakeholders have conflicting priorities that are causing delays.
What is the BEST first step?