Portfolio Delivery Cycle

What is the overall purpose of the portfolio delivery cycle?

• A To set the organisation's strategic objectives
• B To recruit project managers
• C To ensure successful delivery of the defined portfolio and the realisation of its intended benefits ✓
• D To define which initiatives should be in the portfolio

Answer: The delivery cycle is concerned with effectively managing and delivering the agreed portfolio so that planned outcomes and benefits are achieved.

Which of the following is a practice within the portfolio delivery cycle?

• A Management control ✓
• B Categorise
• C Prioritise
• D Balance

Answer: Management control is one of the delivery cycle practices; categorise, prioritise and balance belong to the definition cycle.

The 'benefits management' practice in the delivery cycle focuses on:

• A Hiring contractors for individual projects
• B Setting the corporate strategy
• C Categorising initiatives by type
• D Identifying, planning, tracking and realising the benefits expected from the portfolio ✓

Answer: Benefits management ensures that the benefits underpinning the investment in the portfolio are clearly defined, actively managed and actually realised.

What does the 'financial management' practice in the delivery cycle ensure?

• A That benefits are ignored in favour of costs
• B That suppliers set their own budgets
• C That only the cheapest projects proceed
• D That portfolio expenditure is planned, controlled and aligned with the organisation's financial management cycle ✓

Answer: Financial management ensures portfolio funding and spend are planned, monitored and integrated with the wider organisational financial processes.

The 'risk management' practice within the portfolio delivery cycle is mainly about:

• A Identifying and managing threats and opportunities at the portfolio level ✓
• B Transferring all risk to suppliers
• C Eliminating all risk from the organisation
• D Recording only project-level risks

Answer: Portfolio risk management takes an aggregated, organisation-wide view of threats and opportunities affecting delivery of the portfolio's objectives and benefits.

What is the focus of the 'resource management' practice in the delivery cycle?

• A Archiving completed documents
• B Ensuring the right resources, including people and funding, are available to deliver the portfolio ✓
• C Buying office furniture
• D Setting individual project schedules only

Answer: Resource management ensures that scarce resources are understood, planned and deployed effectively across the portfolio to enable delivery.