Program Management Professional Practice 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A program manager must report program health to executives. Which reporting approach is MOST appropriate?
- Detailed technical status reports from each project
- A consolidated dashboard showing benefits, risks, and milestones (Correct answer)
- Individual project earned value reports
- Weekly team meeting minutes
Correct answer: A consolidated dashboard showing benefits, risks, and milestones
Executives need a high-level consolidated view of benefits, risks, and schedule rather than detailed project-level data.
Question 2: Two component project managers have an unresolvable conflict over shared resources. The program manager should:
- Let the project managers resolve it themselves
- Arbitrate and make the final resource allocation decision (Correct answer)
- Escalate to the portfolio manager immediately
- Redistribute all shared resources equally
Correct answer: Arbitrate and make the final resource allocation decision
The program manager has authority over shared resources across components and is responsible for resolving cross-project conflicts.
Question 3: Which of the following is a characteristic that distinguishes a program from a collection of independent projects?
- Programs have larger budgets
- Programs deliver benefits through coordinated management of interdependent projects (Correct answer)
- Programs have more stakeholders
- Programs use more advanced project management tools
Correct answer: Programs deliver benefits through coordinated management of interdependent projects
The defining feature of a program is that coordinated management of interdependent components produces benefits not achievable by managing them separately.
Question 4: A program manager wants to ensure lessons learned are applied during the program, not just at closure. The BEST approach is to:
- Schedule a single lessons learned session at program end
- Conduct periodic retrospectives at phase transitions and share findings across components (Correct answer)
- Have each project maintain its own lessons learned log
- Delegate lessons learned documentation to the PMO
Correct answer: Conduct periodic retrospectives at phase transitions and share findings across components
Periodic retrospectives at transitions allow insights to be applied while the program is still running, improving ongoing performance.
Question 5: A component project is consistently underperforming and jeopardizing program benefits. After escalation fails, the program manager should:
- Continue monitoring and hope performance improves
- Recommend component project termination to the governance board (Correct answer)
- Absorb the project deliverables into another component
- Reduce the project's scope unilaterally
Correct answer: Recommend component project termination to the governance board
When escalation fails, recommending termination to the governance board is the appropriate program manager action to protect overall program benefits.
Question 6: A program manager is managing stakeholder engagement. Which tool BEST helps prioritize engagement efforts?
- SWOT analysis
- Stakeholder engagement assessment matrix (Correct answer)
- Risk probability and impact matrix
- Responsibility assignment matrix
Correct answer: Stakeholder engagement assessment matrix
The stakeholder engagement assessment matrix maps current versus desired engagement levels, helping focus efforts where gaps are largest.
Question 7: During program closure, the program manager should ensure that:
- All project teams are immediately reassigned
- Benefits have been transitioned and a sustainability plan is in place (Correct answer)
- All program risks are transferred to operations
- The program budget surplus is returned to the portfolio
Correct answer: Benefits have been transitioned and a sustainability plan is in place
Closure requires confirming that benefits are handed off with a sustainability plan so operational teams can maintain them after the program ends.
Program Management Professional Practice 4
A program manager must report program health to executives.
Which reporting approach is MOST appropriate?