Strategic Alignment ◾ 9
Practice Questions
INSTRUCTIONS: Note the most suitable answer for each multiple- choice
question in the appropriate space on the answer sheet.
1. Working as a portfolio manager in your food company, you are responsible
for the food additive portfolio. Each new food additive requires approval
from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Recently, the company built
a new plant to be able to manufacture chocolate that would not require
any sugar, but consumers would not notice any differences in avor. A FDA
inspector arrived at the plant before the product was produced and found
one of the manufacturing lines was not working as planned. This now
delays production of the new food additive, and another inspection will be
needed. In such a situation, the portfolio manager must:
a. Recommend that work on this new product be deferred
b. Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements
c. Work closely with the Quality Assurance Department to determine how
best to satisfy FDA’s requirements
d. Recommend the next steps to the Portfolio Review Board working in
conjunction with quality management
2. Assume you have been asked to assess whether there is a need to revise the
portfolio components. This request may be a result of:
a. New leader ship
b. Opportunities to be pursued
c. A change in the risk tolerance levels
d. The need to enhance ROI
3. Organizational performance can be characterized in several different ways
such as taking a goal approach, a system’s resource approach, or a constitu-
ency approach. Each organization uses different ways to describe it, but in
terms of portfolio management, it:
a. Serves as the basis for the portfolio management plan
b. Is documented in the portfolio strategic plan
c. Forms the governance structure
d. Is described in the portfolio charter