Program and Portfolio Management
Question Bank
Course Introduction
Program and Portfolio Management explores the principles, frameworks, and best practices involved in managing multiple projects and programs within an organization. The course covers techniques for aligning project outcomes with organizational strategy, balancing resource allocation, and managing risks across a portfolio of initiatives. Students will learn how to prioritize projects, measure performance, and ensure the coordinated delivery of business value through effective governance and leadership. Emphasis is placed on strategic decision-making, stakeholder engagement, and the use of tools and methodologies such as program management frameworks and portfolio analysis to optimize organizational outcomes.
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Project Management Achieving Competitive Advantage 5th Edition by Jeffrey K. Pinto
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Chapter 1: Introduction: Why Project Management
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Sample Questions
Q1) A business reality that makes effective project management critical is the fact that:
A)Products are becoming increasingly simple.
B)Inflation is rampant.
C)Product life cycles are compressing.
D)Product launch windows are widening.
Answer: C
Q2) Project members may be from:
A)Different departments.
B)Other organizational units.
C)One functional area.
D)All of the above.
Answer: D
Q3) Why are projects important?
Answer: Today's businesses face a set of pressures that make projects crucial in helping an organization achieve its strategic goals.These pressures include shortened product life cycles,narrow product launch windows,increasingly complex and technical products,the emergence of global markets,and an economic period marked by low inflation.
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Chapter 2: The Organizational Context: Strategy, Structure, and Culture
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Q1) The information systems department prides itself on being on the edge of high-tech course offerings.They were the first department to create online classes and the first to battle all of the issues associated with these offerings.When Wally interviewed for the new assistant professor position,he knew that his subcutaneous chip was only a hiring decision away.Corporate culture in this department is probably most affected by:
A)The environment.
B)Technology.
C)Geographical location.
D)Critical incidents.
Answer: B
Q2) One purpose of a mission statement is to:
A)Establish a sense of what the organization hopes to accomplish.
B)Explain the company's reason for existence.
C)Support the tactical plans of the organization.
D)Explicitly enumerate the projects in the company's portfolio.
Answer: B
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Chapter 3: Project Selection and Portfolio Management
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Q1) A firm is BEST served if its project portfolio:
A)Has a number of low-cost experimental prototypes.
B)Devotes significant resources to hit product "home runs."
C)Aims to take the marketplace by storm regardless of future trends.
D)Represents narrowly concentrated efforts.
Answer: A
Q2) What is project portfolio management and what are its objectives and initiatives?
Answer: Project portfolio management is the systematic process of selecting,supporting and managing a firm's collection of projects.Projects are managed concurrently under a single umbrella and may be either related or independent of each other.Portfolio management entails decision making,prioritization,review,realignment,and reprioritization of a firm's project.
Q3) The concept of project portfolio management holds that firms should:
A)Regard all projects as unified assets.
B)Manage projects as independent entities.
C)Focus on short-term strategic goals.
D)Focus on long-term constraints.
Answer: A
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Chapter 4: Leadership and the Project Manager
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Sample Questions
Q1) The project manager's responsibility to maximize the overall value for project stakeholders best describes the ________ orientation of normative ethics.
A)process
B)outcome
C)character
D)financial
Q2) The majority of a champion's time is spent performing the traditional project management duties of leadership,administration,obtaining resources,and coordination and control.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The group maintenance behavior of gatekeeping helps to:
A)Increase and equalize participation.
B)Reduce tension and hostility.
C)Regulate behavior.
D)Increase comprehension.
Q4) What are the temporal skills discussed in the text and what impact would they have on a project manager's success?
Q5) What are any three types of project champions and how are they different?
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Chapter 5: Scope Management
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Sample Questions
Q1) What takes place at the project closeout step?
Q2) Provide an example of work breakdown structure and indicate what purpose WBS serves.
Q3) Which step in project management requires project managers to consider the types of records and reports they and their clients will require at the completion of the project?
A)Project closeout
B)Completion phase
C)Reporting
D)Planning
Q4) Develop a responsibility assignment matrix for your semester project.Provide a brief (two or three sentence)description of your project and its current state.
Q5) ________ is NOT one of the components of the triple bottom line of sustainability.
A)Profitable sustainability
B)Economic sustainability
C)Environmental sustainability
D)Social sustainability
Q6) What is configuration management and why is it important?
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Page 7
Chapter 6: Project Team Building, Conflict, and Negotiation
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following phenomena would be most likely to occur if the project team did NOT have clear and commonly understood project goals?
A)The motivation level of team members would increase.
B)Conflict among team members would increase.
C)The level of trust among team members would increase.
D)The interdependency among team members would increase.
Q2) The two sets of factors that contribute to cross-functional cooperation influence:
A)Criticality and accessibility.
B)Functionality and outcomes.
C)Cooperation and outcomes.
D)Cooperation and criticality.
Q3) Conflict is not a state,but a:
A)Way of life.
B)Condition.
C)Process.
D)Certainty.
Q4) What is negotiation? Why is it important in project management?
Q5) What are three practical steps that project managers can take so that teamwork can emerge?
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Chapter 7: Risk Management
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Q1) The house had almost been framed when an F-5 tornado ripped across the plains and turned the house back into a lumber pile,albeit not stacked as neatly as it was originally.The homeowner's fears of:
A)Technical risks had come true.
B)Operating risks had come true.
C)Acts of God had come true.
D)Environmental risks had come true.
Q2) If a project requires a large up-front investment of capital,it exposes the firm to commercial risk.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Contingency reserves require a construction company to hold back some funds in an account just in case something happens that increases the overall project cost.
A)True
B)False
Q4) How does risk level vary with project life cycle stages? Where is the period of highest risk impact? Why?
Q5) How do mentoring and cross-training mitigate risk?
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Chapter 8: Cost Estimation and Budgeting
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Q1) Explain the difference between normal and expedited costs,fixed and variable costs,and recurring or nonrecurring costs.Create a 2 × 2 × 2 matrix and provide one example each (8 total examples)of each combination of these costs.
Q2) Which of these indirect costs is typically classified as a selling or administrative cost?
A)Secretarial support
B)Utilities
C)Insurance
D)Depreciation
Q3) Which statement about the use of learning curves is BEST?
A)Learning curve effects stay constant across projects.
B)A job that is substantially re-engineered will have no disruption of its learning curve.
C)It may be more likely to see learning curve effects in construction than in research and development.
D)Every worker performing an identical task will exhibit the same learning effect.
Q4) What are the major issues with cost estimation of software projects?
Q5) Provide examples and discuss the differences between direct and indirect costs.
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Project Scheduling: Networks, Duration
Estimation, and Critical Path
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Q1) What is the late finish time for Activity D given the activity times and precedence requirements shown in the table? \[\begin{array} { | l | l | l | }
\hline \text { Activity } & \text { Time } & \text { Predecessor } \\
\hline \text { A } & 5 & -- \\
\hline B & 7 & -- \\
\hline \mathrm { C } & 8 & \text { A } \\
\hline \mathrm { D } & 7 & \text { A } \\
\hline \mathrm { E } & 4 & \mathrm {~B} \\
\hline \mathrm { F } & 8 & \mathrm { C } , \mathrm { D } \\
\hline \mathrm { G } & \mathrm { 9 } & \mathrm { E } , \mathrm { F } \\
\hline \mathrm { H } & 7 & \mathrm { G } \\
\hline
\end{array}\]
A)14
B)13
C)12
D)11
Q2) What is the background of CPM and PERT? What are the differences between the two techniques?
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Chapter 10: Project Scheduling: Lagging, Crashing, and Activity Networks
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Q1) What are the three principal methods for accelerating a project and under what circumstances might these methods yield little gain?
Q2) Use the Gantt chart and the activity list to determine which resource is used the least. \[\begin{array} { | l | l | l | l | }
\hline \text { Activity } & \text { Resources } & \text { Activity } & \text { Resources } \\
\hline \mathrm { A } & 1 & \mathrm { F} & 2 \\
\hline \mathrm { B }& 1 & \mathrm { G } & 3 \\
\hline \mathrm { C } & 4 & \mathrm { H } & 4 \\
\hline \mathrm { D } & 2 & \mathrm {~J} & 3 \\
\hline \mathrm { E } & 2 & K & 5 \\
\hline
\end{array}\]
A)Resource 1
B)Resource 3
C)Resource 4
D)Resource 2
Q3) What are the strengths and weaknesses of AOA and AON techniques?
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Page 12
Chapter 11: Advanced Topics in Planning and Scheduling:
Agile and Critical Chain
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Q1) Traditional,highly structured approaches to planning and managing projects are recognized as being less effective for ________ than Agile Project Management.
A)construction projects
B)software development
C)wedding planning
D)university baccalaureate degrees
Q2) Compose a haiku using three or more of the key terms in Agile PM.
Q3) Goldratt's solution to the variables involved in project scheduling involves the aggregation,or collectivizing,of all project risk in the form of uncertain duration estimates and completion times.Provide practical examples of how this aggregation works to the benefit of the overall project.
Q4) A system-wide constraint is called a:
A)Rope.
B)Resource.
C)Drum.
D)Chain.
Q5) What is Agile PM and what makes it ideal for many software development projects?
Q6) What takes place in the Scrum process?
Q7) What are some arguments against the XP technique of pair programming?
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Chapter 12: Resource Management
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Q1) In a resource constrained project,the work must be finished by a certain time,or date,as efficiently as possible.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Use this activity precedence table to create a resource loading profile.Activity lengths are given in days and an 8-hour day is assumed.
\[\begin{array} { | l | l | l| }
\hline \text { Activity } & \text { Time } & \text { Predecessor } \\
\hline \text { A } & 2 & \\
\hline B & 3 & \text { A } \\
\hline \mathrm { C } & 6 & \mathrm {~B} \\
\hline \mathrm { D } & 5 & \mathrm {~A} \\
\hline \mathrm { E } & 3 & \mathrm { C } \\
\hline \mathrm { F } & 2 & \mathrm { D } \\
\hline \mathrm { G } & 2 & \mathrm { E } , \mathrm { F } \\
\hline
\end{array}\]
Q3) What are the trade-offs among schedule slippage,resource utilization,and in-process inventory for a project manager in a multiproject environment?
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Page 14
Chapter 13: Project Evaluation and Control
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Sample Questions
Q1) The critical success factor that relates to the underlying purpose for the project is the:
A)Project mission.
B)Technical acceptance.
C)Technical tasks.
D)Client consultation.
Q2) Describe the "flow" of the earned value management system utilized by Northrum Grumman.
Q3) Planned value is:
A)The total budget for the project.
B)A cost estimate of the budgeted resources across the project's life cycle.
C)The real budgeted value of the work that has actually been performed to date.
D)The cumulative total costs incurred in accomplishing the various project work packages.
Q4) What is earned value management and how can it be used to monitor project status?
Q5) What are any four benefits to using milestones as a form of project control? What advantage do they hold over pure S-curve analysis?
Q6) What are drawbacks to a pure S-curve analysis?
Q7) Define human factors and discuss their impact on project success?
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Chapter 14: Project Closeout and Termination
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Q1) What are the keys to begin harvesting the benefits of a project? What are the major components of a meaningful project assessment system and how does an assessment system help the project organization?
Q2) An internal intellectual issue that arises when a project is terminated is:
A)Agreement with suppliers on outstanding commitments.
B)Closing down facilities.
C)Identification of remaining deliverables.
D)Determinants of requirements for audit trail data.
Q3) An important guideline to follow in a lessons-learned meeting is to:
A)Make sure to properly assign blame for all that went wrong.
B)Make sure that events receive necessary spin.
C)Fix the problems.
D)Describe occurrences as subjectively as possible.
Q4) Of the project closeout management steps listed,the first is to:
A)Hand over the project.
B)Finish the work.
C)Gain acceptance for the product.
D)Review how it all went.
Q5) Sketch the Seven Elements of Project Closeout Management model and discuss what takes place at each step.
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