MSP-Practitioner MSP Practitioner, 5th edition Exam Questions and Answers

A Vision Statement is a succinct and compelling description of the desirable future state that the programme aims to achieve. It serves to inspire and align stakeholders around the intended outcomes and benefits. The MSP Practitioner outlines key characteristics of a Vision Statement, including that it must describe a desirable future and be concise to ensure clarity and focus.

Key benefits are often implicit within the Vision, providing a motivational overview without delving into detailed measurement or timelines.

However, the Vision Statement is NOT normally time-dependent. Time frames and milestones are introduced later in the programme planning stages, such as in the Business Case or Programme Plan. The MSP Practitioner explains:“Vision statement does not include time frames until programme is time bound in nature,”which means the Vision is more about 'what' will be achieved rather than 'when.'

This approach allows the Vision to remain stable even if timeframes or specific project plans evolve. The focus remains on the transformational goal, providing a constant reference point as the programme adapts to challenges and changes.

Therefore, including time-dependence in the Vision Statement could unnecessarily constrain the programme’s strategic focus or create misalignment if schedules shift.

Providing regular progress updates to the Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) is the responsibility of the Programme Manager, not the Programme Office. The Programme Office supports by maintaining information repositories, tracking risks and issues, and ensuring control frameworks are implemented. The MSP Practitioner clarifies:“Programme manager provides regular updates to SRO,”distinguishing the oversight and reporting role of the Programme Manager from the administrative and support role of the Programme Office.

The critical organizational elements in MSP include Corporate strategy, Delivery mechanisms for change, and the Business as usual environment. Delivery mechanisms for change refer to the structures and processes organizations use to implement and manage changes introduced by programmes. These elements are foundational to effective governance and ensure alignment with strategic objectives. Other options like Leading change and Stakeholder engagement are important but classified differently within MSP's framework.

Gateway reviews are not part of delivering the capability but are governance checkpoints that occur at specific programme milestones, including the beginning of the programme, key decision points, and closure.

The MSP Practitioner explains:“Gateway reviews happen at beginning of programme, Key decision points of programme and closure of programme.”These reviews are formal assessments to validate readiness, progress, and compliance with governance before major transitions, tranche approvals, or programme closure.

Delivering the capability primarily involves initiating projects, managing their delivery under governance frameworks, and ensuring alignment between project outputs and benefit realization. Governance during delivery includes managing risks, issues, and quality controls to ensure outputs are produced to specification.

Gateway reviews are designed to provide independent assurance and decision points but are external to the ongoing activities of capability delivery. Recognizing this distinction helps maintain clarity of roles and processes within programme management, ensuring focused effort on delivery while maintaining appropriate oversight.

Programme Management is defined as“the action of carrying out the coordinated organization, direction and implementation of a dossier of projects and transformation activities to achieve outcomes and realize benefits of strategic importance to business.”This definition emphasizes the coordinated approach to managing multiple related projects and transformation activities together, rather than in isolation, to ensure strategic objectives are met and benefits are realized. It distinguishes programme management from project management, which focuses on individual projects, and portfolio management, which handles selection and prioritization rather than delivery.

The false statement is that“Stakeholder profiles are created under stakeholder maps.”In fact, MSP treats the Stakeholder Map as a component or output of Stakeholder Profiling.

The MSP Practitioner explains:“Stakeholder map is created as part of stakeholder profile,”meaning the profile contains detailed information about individual stakeholders, their attributes, influence, and interests, while the map visually represents stakeholder relationships and influence patterns.

This distinction is important for effective stakeholder analysis and engagement planning, ensuring both granular detail and strategic overview are captured.

The process of how issues will be identified, captured, and assessed isnotrecorded in the Issue Register itself but is instead documented in the Issue Management Strategy.

The MSP Practitioner clarifies:“How to deal with issue is identified in issue management strategy,”meaning the register contains actual issues with details such as date raised, description, and categorization but not the procedural approach.

This distinction ensures that the register remains a real-time log of current issues while the management strategy defines policies and processes for consistent issue handling across the programme.

Maintaining this separation improves clarity and operational efficiency in issue management.

Outcomes are defined as the new operational state achieved after the transition of capability into live operations. They represent the changes in the organization’s way of working resulting from the combined effect of project outputs.

The MSP Practitioner states:“Outcomes are combined outputs or projects to bring a new operational state in organization,”emphasizing that outcomes go beyond deliverables to reflect actual changes in operations and behaviours.

This distinction is critical in MSP’s focus on transformational change, ensuring programmes deliver real, sustainable benefits rather than just outputs.

The four critical tests for benefits validation are Description, Observable outcomes, Attribution, and Measurement. "Attribution" assesses whether the programme is genuinely responsible for the benefit. The MSP Practitioner confirms,"Four tests of business validation are: Description, Observable outcomes, Attribution and Measurement,"emphasizing the importance of validating benefits to ensure they result directly from programme activities.

Capital costs are the costs of fixed assets and other tangible assets that are required for the programme. The MSP Practitioner states:“Cost of fixed assets and other assets that are found under 'Technology' head in blueprint is called Capital cost.”This typically includes equipment, buildings, and infrastructure necessary for the programme outputs.

The probability of success is higher when programme requirements are well-defined and clearly understood. MSP Practitioner states:“Probability is high when requirements are well defined and clearly understood. Clear specifications of output increases the probability of success.”Process changes affecting technology and structures typically have clearer specifications and boundaries, making successful delivery more likely compared to changes driven by complex behaviors or historical practices.

While identifying the correct people to communicate with is important, MSP does not list it as one of the four core elements of successful communication.

The MSP Practitioner outlines the four core elements as:

a) Stakeholder identification and analysis

b) Message Clarity and consistency

c) Effective system of message delivery

d) Feedback Collection system

These elements ensure messages are targeted, clear, consistently delivered, and that feedback is captured to improve communication.

Misidentifying core communication elements can weaken engagement efforts, so focusing on these pillars supports stronger communication outcomes throughout the programme lifecycle.

One of the key outputs of the 'Defining the Programme' process is establishing the Governance Baseline. This baseline sets out the governance framework, including roles, responsibilities, controls, and decision-making structures that will apply throughout the programme lifecycle. Defining the governance baseline early ensures clear accountability and oversight, which is vital for managing complexity and risk in transformational change.

The MSP Practitioner explains that during 'Defining the Programme,'“Governance is baselined”to create a robust foundation for programme control. This process involves formalizing the authority of the Senior Responsible Owner (SRO), the programme board, and other governance roles, ensuring they are empowered to manage and oversee programme activities effectively. It also includes establishing reporting lines, approval mechanisms, and quality assurance controls to maintain programme integrity.

Without a clearly defined governance baseline, programmes risk poor decision-making, ambiguity in responsibility, and inconsistent oversight, which can lead to scope creep, misalignment with strategic goals, and failure to realize benefits. The governance baseline serves as a reference point against which programme performance and compliance can be measured, enabling corrective action when deviations occur.

In summary, the Governance Baseline is a critical control output that defines how the programme will be directed and controlled, safeguarding successful delivery and alignment with corporate strategy throughout the programme’s life.

Transformational Flow in MSP defines the route a programme follows through its lifecycle—from initial conception, through delivery of new capabilities, transitioning to desired outcomes, realizing benefits, and finally closing the programme. It guides the programme’s progression through each phase to ensure the transformation is successful. This concept is central to MSP's approach to managing transformational change and is explicitly described as providing the route through the lifecycle of a programme, from conception to delivering new capability.

The Blueprint document defines both the as-is and to-be (future) states of the organization. It provides a detailed description of the current operational environment and the changes required to achieve the programme’s desired outcomes.

The MSP Practitioner explains:“Blueprint defines as-is and future state of organization,”serving as a key governance document to guide design and delivery of the transformation.

By articulating the current state clearly, the Blueprint helps identify gaps, dependencies, and change requirements, ensuring that the programme’s outputs align with the intended future state, thus supporting successful transformational change.

All the options listed are correct. Benefits Management in MSP ensures the programme is aligned with strategic goals, understands both positive and negative impacts, and integrates closely with the transformational flow to realize benefits effectively. The MSP Practitioner confirms:"All of the options are correct,"underscoring the comprehensive nature of benefits management across the programme lifecycle.

Recruitment Policy isnotconsidered a critical organizational element in MSP, whereas Delivery Mechanism for Change, Business as Usual, and Corporate Strategy are recognized as essential elements.

The MSP Practitioner states:“All other are critical organizational elements,”highlighting that MSP focuses on how organizations govern and implement change (delivery mechanisms), maintain ongoing operations (business as usual), and set strategic direction (corporate strategy).

Recruitment policies, while important HR tools, are not part of the critical organizational elements that MSP emphasizes in programme governance and transformational change management.

All three—Governance, Boundary, and Management—are defined as Information Baselines in MSP. An Information Baseline refers to essential information repositories and frameworks that support programme control and management.

The MSP Practitioner states:“All are defined information baselines,”meaning that governance baselines set controls and accountability, boundary baselines define scope and limits, and management baselines cover operational details such as risks and issues.

Together, these baselines form a comprehensive information foundation, enabling effective oversight, coordination, and decision-making throughout the programme lifecycle.

Understanding and maintaining these baselines ensures transparency, consistency, and effective control over complex transformational programmes.

Learning from Experience isnotclassified as a Governance Theme but rather a Programme Management Principle in MSP.

The MSP Practitioner clarifies:“Learning from experience is Programme management principle,”which means it influences how programmes are managed but does not constitute a governance theme.

Governance Themes focus on structural elements such as Leadership and Stakeholder Engagement, Quality Management, and Organization, which provide the framework and controls for programme delivery.

Understanding this distinction aids in correctly applying MSP components to programme design and governance structures.