PfMP Practice Test 1 — 10 Questions

Question 1

A project within the portfolio is consistently over-budget. What is the portfolio manager's responsibility under the governance framework?

Accepted Answer

Assess the project's ongoing business value and take corrective action or initiate termination.. Under portfolio governance, a consistently over-budget project triggers a value reassessment: the portfolio manager must evaluate whether the project still delivers strategic benefit and either authorize corrective action or recommend termination. This is the portfolio manager's core decision right — balancing investment against strategic return. Ignoring, subsidizing, or transferring the project bypasses governance.

Answer

Ignore the issue as long as other projects are under-budget.

Answer

Pay the overage from the portfolio contingency reserve.

Answer

Transfer the project to a different department.

Question 2

You are a portfolio manager for a retail company. A key supplier, who is also a stakeholder in your portfolio, has repeatedly failed to meet delivery deadlines, impacting portfolio performance. After discussions, the supplier requests a meeting to discuss potential changes to the contract. What should you do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Review the portfolio stakeholder engagement plan to determine the appropriate approach for engaging with this supplier.. The portfolio stakeholder engagement plan provides guidance on how to interact with key stakeholders like suppliers. Reviewing it first ensures that any meeting or negotiation is conducted in line with the overall engagement strategy, protecting portfolio interests while addressing the supplier's concerns appropriately.

Answer

Immediately agree to all requested contract changes to preserve the relationship.

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Terminate the contract immediately due to repeated failures.

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Escalate the issue to the portfolio governance board without meeting the supplier.

Question 3

A portfolio manager is preparing a quarterly performance report for the Portfolio Governance Board. The portfolio includes 12 components with varying risk profiles. The manager wants to provide a balanced view of performance that highlights both value delivery and risk exposure. Which approach BEST meets this objective?

Accepted Answer

Provide a bubble chart plotting each component's expected value against its risk score, with bubble size representing investment.. A bubble chart plotting value against risk, with investment as bubble size, provides a balanced, multidimensional view of the portfolio. It allows the governance board to quickly identify components that are high value/low risk versus those that are high risk/low value, and to see where the most money is concentrated. This supports informed trade-offs and targeted oversight, meeting the objective of presenting both value delivery and risk exposure.

Answer

Report the aggregate portfolio NPV and the total number of risks across all components.

Answer

List each component's schedule and cost performance indices in a table.

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Summarize the portfolio's benefit realization rate and the number of issues logged this quarter.

Question 4

During a quarterly portfolio review, the portfolio manager discovers that a component with a strong business case is no longer contributing to the organization's revised strategic objectives. The sponsor insists the component should continue because it is already funded. What should the portfolio manager do first?

Accepted Answer

Perform a strategic alignment assessment and present the findings to the portfolio governance body for a decision.. The portfolio manager's role is to monitor and assess how components align with current strategic objectives, then recommend action through governance. When strategy changes, the portfolio manager must evaluate the affected component against those objectives and present evidence to the governance body, which holds decision authority. Acting unilaterally or continuing automatically both violate that governance-based alignment process.

Answer

Immediately terminate the component to protect portfolio alignment.

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Continue funding the component because the sponsor has already committed the budget.

Answer

Ask the project manager to revise the component's business case to match the new strategy.

Question 5

What is the primary function of the portfolio charter?

Accepted Answer

To establish the portfolio's strategic intent and governance.. The portfolio charter is the foundational document that formally authorizes the portfolio and articulates its strategic intent, scope, governance structure, and alignment with organizational strategy. It defines how the portfolio will be managed, who owns it, and what outcomes it must deliver. It is not an execution-level document.

Answer

To assign individual tasks to developers.

Answer

To serve as a project management plan.

Answer

To document vendor invoices.

Question 6

You are conducting a portfolio risk review with your team. The portfolio board has asked you to identify inputs that are essential for effective portfolio risk management. Which two of the following are considered key inputs to the portfolio risk management process? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Portfolio management plan. The portfolio management plan and portfolio risk register are essential inputs to portfolio risk management. The plan provides the governance framework and risk approach, while the register documents current risks and responses. Together, they enable systematic identification, analysis, and response planning.

Answer

Portfolio performance reports

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Individual project schedules

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Resource breakdown structure

Question 7

You are optimizing a portfolio and find that several components have low strategic value but high ROI. What is the recommended strategy for these components?

Accepted Answer

Evaluate for re-alignment, re-scoping, or termination.. Components with low strategic value but high ROI represent a misalignment between financial return and organizational strategy. The recommended approach is to evaluate them for re-alignment (to better fit strategy), re-scoping (to increase strategic value), or termination if they cannot be aligned. This balanced evaluation ensures that portfolio resources are optimized without prematurely discarding financially beneficial components.

Answer

Terminate these components immediately.

Answer

Continue funding to capitalize on the high ROI.

Answer

Transfer these components to a different portfolio.

Question 8

Midway through the fiscal year, a portfolio manager discovers that two executive sponsors who were classified as 'supportive' in the portfolio stakeholder register have stopped attending the quarterly portfolio value reviews. Their components are now the only ones with unresolved resource conflicts. Which interpretation BEST guides the portfolio manager's next engagement action?

Accepted Answer

The sponsors have likely reverted to a neutral or resistant engagement level, so the portfolio manager should re-engage them individually to understand the cause.. Engagement levels in the portfolio stakeholder register are dynamic, and behavior such as missing governance reviews is evidence of change. Since these sponsors own components with unresolved resource conflicts, the portfolio manager must re-engage them individually, diagnose the cause, and update the engagement approach so that portfolio decisions can proceed with adequate sponsor involvement.

Answer

The portfolio manager should ask the Portfolio Governance Board to replace the sponsors with more engaged executives.

Answer

The portfolio manager should document the attendance gap in the portfolio status report and continue with the existing engagement plan.

Answer

The sponsors are no longer key stakeholders and should be removed from the portfolio stakeholder register.

Question 9

You are managing a portfolio for a large construction firm. The strategic plan includes a goal to increase sustainability by reducing carbon emissions by 30% over five years. A proposed portfolio component is a new bridge construction project that uses traditional methods with high carbon emissions but promises high profitability. The project sponsor argues that profitability should take precedence. How should you handle this conflict?

Accepted Answer

Escalate the conflict to the executive committee with an analysis of the trade-offs between profitability and sustainability.. The correct action is to escalate the conflict to the executive committee with a trade-off analysis. This situation involves competing strategic objectives—profitability and sustainability—that cannot be resolved solely at the portfolio level. By providing a thorough analysis of the implications, the portfolio manager enables senior leadership to make a decision that balances strategic priorities and maintains portfolio alignment.

Answer

Reject the project outright because it does not meet the sustainability goal.

Answer

Approve the project with a condition that the sponsor finds a way to offset carbon emissions later.

Answer

Recommend the project for approval because profitability is a key strategic objective.

Question 10

Which document is used to track the progress of a portfolio against its strategic objectives?

Accepted Answer

Portfolio performance report.. The Portfolio Performance Report is the document that consolidates portfolio-level metrics, progress against strategic objectives, and benefit realization status. It is the primary artifact for tracking how the portfolio as a whole is performing against its strategic goals. Other options are operational or HR documents unrelated to portfolio strategy tracking.

Answer

Vendor contract list.

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Project status memo.

Answer

Employee evaluation form.