PgMP : Program Management Professional : Part 20
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A program manager evaluates conflicting stakeholder demands associated with cost, schedule, and intended benefits. The implementation team has a strong interest in cost and schedule, and a limited interest in the benefits being produced. The client is only focused on benefits.
Which of the following actions should the program manager take?
- Focus on the internal stakeholders to ensure cost and schedule objectives are achieved.
- Balance stakeholder needs through the use of trade-offs among the stakeholder groups.
- Focus on the external stakeholders to ensure the intended benefits are achieved.
- Conduct a stakeholder meeting to allow everyone to state their priorities.
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Component project managers create project management plans for all component projects in a program. The program manager notices that some project managers prefer one status report template, while others prefer another.
How should the program manager decide which template is appropriate?
- Review the issue with the program management office (PMO) to determine which template to use.
- Review the issue with the project managers and come to mutual agreement on which template to use.
- Meet with the program governance board to select an appropriate template.
- Allow the component project managers to use their preferred templates.
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The new performance financial system is delivered to all business entities on time following a one-year implementation program. After six months of utilization the global finance department, one of the main beneficiaries of the program, determines that quality and level of granularity of the financial data is not sufficient for them to analyze the key performance indicators (KPIs) defined. Additionally, the global finance department is missing the analytical tools required to understand the causes of discrepancies.
To address these shortcomings, the global finance department submits a request for a follow-up initiative through the process defined by which of the following documents?
- Benefits sustainment plan
- Benefits governance plan
- Benefits realization report
- Benefits transition plan
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A large international manufacturing company is centralizing its IT which is currently spread over 16 countries. The transition means physically regrouping the infrastructure and aligning processes and organizations. The high-level scope of this transformation encompasses three main areas:
1. The technology area–assessing which technology/tooling should be retained for the target data center.
2. The policies and procedure area–aimed at establishing a common set of processes supporting the new way of delivering services.
3. The HR area–assuring the new organization best fits the diversity of the countries and functional domains, while offering equivalent compensations for comparable functions.You have selected your team and you are preparing the business case to support 1) the team selections you made and 2) your recommendation to proceed to the program’s next phase.
Which document should be present in your business case?
- A detailed plan showing dependencies among the constituent projects
- A comprehensive analysis of the different compensation packages offered in the 16 countries
- An inventory detailing all physical and logical components in place and the employees in scope
- A cost/benefit analysis of the different scenarios, presenting their respective contributions
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A program manager is working on benefits. The program team created and updated a benefits register earlier in the program.
The benefits register should include which of the following?
- List of planned benefits, earned value (EV), and responsible person
- List of planned benefits, measurement method, and component mapping
- List of planned benefits, benefit creator, and realization date
- List of planned benefits, stakeholders, and risk level
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A program in a matrix organization includes subprojects for specific required technologies. The program manager assembles a team of project managers to lead each of the component projects. Each component project requires unique technical skills and expertise. To ensure that there are no budget overruns, the program manager leverages the existing time reporting process.
What is a critical component of the Program Schedule Management Process?
- A list of all the projects that team members are working on
- Activity or component start and finish dates, as well as intermediate milestones
- Time management training programs for all team members, as well as the project managers
- Skill levels of the various project team members, as well as the project managers
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Company A recently signed a contract with a strategic business partner, Company B, to jointly roll out a new technology. Company B is excited about the joint marketing opportunity. Company A’s component Quality Assurance team has expressed concerns to you, the program manager, that the product is being rolled out prematurely and has identified potential issues with backend support systems. QA, however, assures you that a manual work around is possible, but not ideal. Company B requests an enhancement to the new product. In a meeting with Company B, you determine that additional funding will be required and resources allocated and scheduled.
What is your MOST appropriate next step?
- Secure funding from another project that was cancelled.
- Use an integrated change control process.
- Use the available management reserve.
- Advise Company B that funding and resources are not available.
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In the last year, all program phase gate reviews received excellent feedback and exceeded stakeholder expectations. Recently, the customer decides that there is no need to continue phase gate reviews.
What should the program manager do next?
- Ask the stakeholders what they want and proceed with their recommendations.
- Agree with the customer and initiate change control procedures.
- Continue periodic gate reviews to maintain program effectiveness for benefits realization.
- Replace program reviews with periodic communications of the program’s status.
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A program to implement a company’s new system is nearing completion and the program manager attempts to close the program. However, despite training provided to the operational staff on the new system, there is concern that the defined expected benefits will not be fully realized.
To prevent this concern in the future, which of the following should occur?
- Collaboration with the operational staff to develop the benefits sustainment plan
- Communication of the new capabilities’ benefits to the operational staff
- Development and execution of a benefits transition plan to prepare the operational areas
- Identification of the risk in the program risk register and development of a plan to address the risk
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A program manager joins a team to fix a troubled enterprise-wide customer relationship management (CRM) system. Analysis indicates that duplicate customer information data is resulting in redundant client information. The program manager accesses the knowledge repository for similar programs to gather historical data and trends. A corrective action is identified, and a change in process is implemented to regain data integrity.
What should the program manager do with the knowledge gained from this activity?
- Include the lessons learned in the weekly program report
- Update the communications management plan
- Update the lessons learned database
- Communicate the corrective action to the program sponsor
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External resources are required for a program. The program manager receives bids from multiple vendors and presents the top vendor to the program governance board. One program governance board member asks the program manager to select a vendor that was dismissed early in the selection process because they were not on the approved vendor list. The program manager learns that this program governance board member has a personal connection to this vendor.
What should the program manager do?
- Add the vendor to the approved list
- Report an ethics violation
- Agree to engage the vendor due to the program governance board member’s program influence
- Initiate a new vendor selection bid process
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To meet growth expectations and its board’s mandate, an organization drafts a new business strategy to meet future challenges and put the business on track. Key to the new strategy is upgrading the IT infrastructure and strategic direction by transitioning from an on-premise to a cloud-based computing platform that will optimize costs and offer scalability, performance, and high availability.
To appropriately plan for program success, what should the program manager do to engage stakeholders?
- Outline how stakeholders will be engaged using the stakeholder register and stakeholder map.
- Understand the organizational culture and politics, the overall program impact, and program-related stakeholder concerns.
- Identify and clearly outline stakeholders’ key requirements and expected benefits to create a framework that addresses ongoing program activities and stakeholder needs.
- Capture stakeholder issues and concerns in the issue log to help the program team understand stakeholder feedback and manage them to closure.
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Throughout a multiyear program, component projects are transitioned to the customer. During the project acceptance phase, a potential risk is identified and brought to the program team’s attention.
What should be done with the identified potential risk?
- Incorporate it into the risk register and perform a thorough analysis.
- Mitigate the risk before it is incorporated into the risk management plan.
- Document the risk in the program transition plan and identify it as a potential issue.
- Document it in the issue log and immediately notify the steering committee.
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A program manager initiates a developmental program. Significant resources and funding are required for early activities until the program cost and budget estimates are complete.
What should the program manager do to understand the financial environment?
- Map costs to the expected benefits realization.
- Establish intermediate budget based on historical information.
- Establish program financial framework.
- Obtain intermediate funding from the executive sponsor.
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The program charter for a new, five-component program has been approved.
What should the program manager use to communicate the program’s intended direction and the linkage between organizational strategies and planned work?
- Program roadmap
- Program charter
- Program business case
- Program management plan
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A program manager, who reports to a company’s CIO, is responsible for managing a strategic initiative program. During a program review meeting, the CIO informs the program manager about potential budget cuts that would impact program resources, and urges the program manager to begin delivering benefits more quickly to continue the program.
What should the program manager do first?
- Update the benefits management plan, and send it to stakeholders for review.
- Document the impact on the program, then present the findings to the steering committee to determine next steps.
- Conduct a risk assessment associated with an accelerated schedule, update the risk register, and request steering committee approval.
- Revise the program schedule to adapt to an accelerated delivery of benefits, and present it to the steering committee for approval.
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During program execution, how does a program manager ensure that benefits are being realized in accordance with program governance?
- By reviewing the benefits management plan
- By updating the benefits register
- By conducting benefits analysis and planning
- By reviewing the program business case
Explanation:
Reference: https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/learning/thought-leadership/benefits-realization-management-framework.pdf (2)
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The program manager takes over a poorly performing program. After a review of the documentation and interviews with the program sponsor, stakeholders, and program constituents, the program manager realizes that the program is not aligned with the corporate/organizational goals. The program manager must realign the constituent projects and components to meet the program’s needs.
What action should the program manager take to realign the program?
- Assess the program schedule and determine how to maintain all projects and components within the program.
- Discuss the situation with the program stakeholders and let them decide which projects to accelerate and which to close.
- Discuss the situation with the program sponsor(s) and let the sponsor(s) make the decision as to which projects to accelerate and which to close.
- Develop a change request to present to the governance board, accelerate some projects, close some projects, and reassign some resources.
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A rapidly expanding IT company wants to mature its delivery methodology. It creates a benefits management plan that identifies formal program management governance as a key area that would add value.
What benefits would structuring work into programs bring to this organization?
- Delivery of initiatives and objectives through the alignment of portfolios
- Bundling of components or work to gain efficiencies unachievable if managed separately
- Increasing efficiencies by adhering to defined constraints to achieve specific activities
- Coordination of portfolio and project work by linking principles and practices
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A request for proposal (RFP) yields a bid with a better delivery schedule and a lower cost, but originates from a vendor not on the prequalified vendor list. During the final review of the RFPs, the program manager is informed that the new bidder is a relative of the project manager. Although the bid meets all company policies, the program manager is concerned about a conflict of interest.
What should the program manager do?
- Select the best bid from the prequalified vendor list.
- Accept the bid from the new vendor and document the decision.
- Advise the sponsor of a possible conflict of interest prior to awarding the bid.
- Add the new vendor to the prequalified list and replace the project manager.
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