Strategic Planning & Analysis Flashcards
7 cards from real CSM practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Strategic Planning & Analysis flashcards as text
Which strategic analysis tool categorizes external factors into Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal dimensions?
Answer: PESTEL Analysis
PESTEL Analysis examines six macro-environmental factors that can affect an organization's strategy.
In the context of strategic planning, what does 'competitive parity' mean for a software organization?
Answer: Matching competitors' capabilities to avoid disadvantage
Competitive parity means achieving at least the same level of performance as competitors so the organization is not at a strategic disadvantage.
A software manager uses scenario planning primarily to:
Answer: Prepare strategies for multiple plausible future environments
Scenario planning helps managers prepare contingency strategies by exploring multiple plausible futures rather than relying on a single forecast.
Which metric best measures the financial viability of a strategic software initiative by comparing expected benefits to costs over time?
Answer: Return on Investment (ROI)
ROI compares the financial gain from an initiative to its cost, making it the standard metric for evaluating financial viability.
What is the primary purpose of a balanced scorecard in software management strategy?
Answer: Align business activities to vision across financial, customer, process, and learning perspectives
The balanced scorecard translates an organization's vision into a set of performance measures spanning four perspectives to ensure holistic alignment.
When conducting a gap analysis in strategic planning, what does the 'gap' represent?
Answer: The difference between current state and desired future state
A gap analysis identifies the distance between where an organization currently is and where it wants to be strategically.
Which approach is most aligned with a 'blue ocean strategy' in software product management?
Answer: Creating an uncontested market space with a unique product offering
Blue ocean strategy focuses on creating new market space rather than competing in existing, contested markets.