01. A biotech firm's portfolio governance board meets monthly, but decisions stall and the same issues keep resurfacing.
Which changes would most improve the board's governance effectiveness?
(Choose two.)
a) Lengthen the meetings and review every single project in full each month.
b) Replace decisions with information-sharing and let consensus form gradually over successive meetings.
c) Bring exception-based information that frames the decisions the board needs to make.
d) Give the board clear decision rights and a defined escalation path.
e) Invite every project manager so that each unit is represented directly in the room.
02. A directive PMO in a fast-growing software scale-up requires all initiatives, including two-week experiments, to pass a twelve-gate stage-approval process, and delivery teams have begun routing around the PMO.
What is the underlying governance failure?
a) Delivery teams have not been trained on the stage-gate process, so they bypass the steps they do not understand.
b) The governance model is not scaled to initiative risk and size, imposing heavyweight control on low-risk work.
c) The stage gates are not automated in a workflow tool, so each approval is slow and manual to process.
d) The PMO lacks the executive sponsorship it needs to enforce the twelve gates, and so cannot compel compliance.
03. A global aerospace supplier's PMO is losing mid-career talent to competitors and has no internal bench ready to fill senior PMO roles. The head of the PMO is asked to build a sustainable talent pipeline rather than react to each vacancy.
Which approaches together build a durable PMO talent pipeline? (Choose three.)
a) Pair emerging talent with mentors and structured development experiences.
b) Fill senior openings through external hiring and skip building an internal bench.
c) Identify high-potential practitioners early and give them progressively broader responsibility.
d) Freeze internal moves and progression until the current attrition subsides.
e) Define competency requirements for each PMO level so growth targets are explicit.
04. A healthcare network's PMO produces accurate portfolio reports, yet the delivery teams treat the PMO as an outside auditor and share information reluctantly. The PMO lead concludes the problem is relational, not technical.
Which shift is most likely to change how teams engage with the PMO?
a) Ask the sponsor to remind teams that reporting is mandatory, and require monthly submissions to the PMO.
b) Route team communication through a single PMO liaison, and have that liaison manage requests to reduce friction.
c) Reposition the PMO as a partner that helps teams succeed, and have PMO staff spend time embedded with delivery teams.
d) Add a data-quality clause to the reporting standard, and audit submissions for accuracy and completeness.
05. A logistics company's newly appointed PMO lead has strong project delivery credentials but has never operated at the executive table. In the first quarter, steering committees stall on the PMO's proposals, and the lead's carefully built delivery plans gain little traction with the C-suite.
Which competency gap most likely explains the difficulty?
a) Tooling proficiency and configuration skill in the enterprise portfolio management platform.
b) Technical scheduling and critical-path expertise that the lead could deepen further.
c) Detailed knowledge of each project's task-level status and daily progress.
d) Strategic and political leadership skill to engage executives on business value.
06. A mid-size insurance carrier stands up a supportive PMO whose mandate is enablement, not control. The PMO lead is defining the day-to-day competency profile for the two practitioners who will curate reusable templates, coach delivery teams on applying them, and keep the lessons-learned repository current.
Which competency emphasis best fits these roles?
a) Direct management of project managers' assignments and delivery outcomes, so the PMO owns portfolio results.
b) Deep tooling administration, so the practitioners own the enterprise scheduling system's configuration and upkeep.
c) Facilitation and knowledge-sharing skill, so the practitioners can enable teams to adopt practices voluntarily.
d) Authority to enforce compliance with the templates, so the PMO can audit teams that deviate from them.
07. A newly established PMO at a mid-size utility is defining the operating cadence for its services.
Which practices support a sustainable service-delivery rhythm?
(Choose two.)
a) Match reporting and review frequency to each stakeholder group's decision needs.
b) Respond to each ad-hoc request immediately and reprioritize the cadence around it.
c) Hold the same weekly review for projects of differing risk and value.
dā) Publish a service catalog with agreed timelines so demand becomes predictable.
e) Fix the reporting cadence early at the initial project launch phase.
08. A nonprofit's PMO depends on an executive sponsor who has grown passive: attending meetings but no longer clearing obstacles, championing the PMO to peers, or backing its decisions when challenged. The PMO lead wants to re-engage the sponsor without appearing to nag.
Which actions would most effectively renew active sponsorship? (Choose two.)
a) Reduce the PMO's overall ambitions and scope so it no longer needs active sponsorship.
b) Connect the PMO's current work to an outcome the sponsor is personally accountable for.
c) Quietly find a different sponsor and transfer the relationship to them without telling the current one.
d) Escalate the sponsor's passivity to the board, framing it as a performance concern.
e) Clarify with the sponsor the specific, high-value actions only they can take and why those matter now.
09. A PMO director in a regional bank meets weekly with a project manager who is technically strong but avoids surfacing bad news to steering committees. The director asks open questions, has the PM reflect on what held them back, and lets the PM propose their own next step rather than prescribing one.
Which development approach is the director using?
a) Coaching.
b) Performance appraisal.
c) Formal mentoring.
d) Directive instruction.
10. A professional-services firm's PMO director is coaching a project manager through a difficult stakeholder conflict. The director wants the coaching relationship to build the PM's own capability rather than create dependence.
Which behaviors reflect effective coaching by the PMO director? (Choose two.)
a) Asking questions that help the PM reach their own insight about the conflict.
b) Prescribing the exact script and the words the PM will use in the next conversation.
c) Giving space for the PM to try their approach and reflecting on it together afterward.
d) Formally grading the individual project manager against a competency rubric.
e) Stepping in to resolve the stakeholder conflict directly and settling it on the PM's behalf.