MSP-Practitioner Sample Questions Answers

The Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) is accountable for confirming programme closure. This responsibility involves assessing whether the programme’s Business Case objectives and benefits have been satisfactorily met or if the programme is no longer viable.

The MSP Practitioner states:“SRO will confirm programme closure if business case is satisfied or unviable.”The SRO ensures that all closure criteria, including benefit realization, risk mitigation, and stakeholder expectations, are addressed before formally closing the programme.

While the Programme Manager manages the operational closure tasks and the Sponsoring Group provides governance oversight, ultimate closure accountability rests with the SRO to ensure a controlled and successful programme conclusion aligned to strategic goals.

The Business Change Manager (BCM) supports by confirming benefits status but does not hold closure authority.

This clarity in accountability prevents premature or inappropriate programme termination and ensures a thorough and accountable close-out process.

The Quality and Assurance Strategy is a governance document that outlines how quality management and assurance processes will be applied throughout the programme. Governance documents establish controls and frameworks for programme management, ensuring standards and compliance are maintained.

The MSP Practitioner clarifies that strategies—such as Quality Management Strategy—are integral governance documents that help define expectations, responsibilities, and quality assurance mechanisms. While the Blueprint and Project Dossier are boundary and management documents respectively, and the Risk Register is a management tool, governance documents like the Quality and Assurance Strategy provide oversight and control mechanisms essential for programme success.

This strategy ensures that quality is embedded in programme processes and deliverables, aligning with best practices and stakeholder expectations, which is vital for confidence and assurance in transformational change initiatives.

A key attribute for a Programme Manager is a good knowledge of project management approaches. This expertise enables the Programme Manager to oversee and coordinate multiple interrelated projects, ensuring they deliver outputs that collectively realize programme objectives.

The MSP Practitioner states:“Programme Manager should have good project management skills,”emphasizing that while strategic leadership and stakeholder engagement are important, the ability to manage the complexities of project delivery is fundamental to the Programme Manager role.

While change management skills and access to key stakeholders are important complementary abilities, the core responsibility of managing project delivery across a dossier of projects necessitates strong project management knowledge. The Programme Manager acts as the bridge between strategic programme objectives and tactical project execution, requiring detailed understanding of project methodologies, risk management, scheduling, resource coordination, and quality assurance.

This knowledge supports effective integration, issue resolution, and benefits delivery, positioning the Programme Manager as a central figure in programme success.

An Emergent programme is characterized by its evolution from a set of concurrent, individual projects that arise independently but require coordination to ensure they align with organizational strategy. The MSP Practitioner defines Emergent programmes as:“Programmes evolved from concurrent, individual projects with need to ensure compliance to organization strategy.”This reflects programmes that may not have been planned from the start as a programme but are brought together to align with strategic goals and provide greater control and coherence.

A vision-led programme is one that is undertaken to fulfil political ideas and priorities, such as electoral promises. These programmes are driven by a clear vision for change that aligns with political or societal goals rather than just compliance or operational needs. Public programmes started to fulfil electoral promises fit this definition of vision-led programmes as they reflect a vision for future societal outcomes.

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.

Analysis of the options available isnottypically included in the Programme Brief but is developed during the preparation of the Business Case.

The MSP Practitioner clarifies:“Analysis of options starts while preparing business case,”meaning the Programme Brief sets out the scope, risks, costs, and key resources but does not contain detailed option appraisal.

This distinction helps ensure the Programme Brief remains a focused and concise document outlining programme intent and governance, while the Business Case undertakes the detailed financial and strategic evaluation required for decision-making.

The false statement is that“End of tranche review drives benefits management.”In MSP, benefits management drives end of tranche reviews rather than the other way around.

The MSP Practitioner clarifies:“Benefits management drives end of tranche reviews,”meaning that benefits realization considerations inform tranche planning, execution, and review processes.

This approach ensures that benefit delivery remains central to programme governance and decision-making, promoting alignment of delivery with strategic value.

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.

Among the options, "Remaining aligned with corporate strategy" is identified as a core MSP programme management principle. The principles underpin the mindset and behaviors needed for successful programmes. Other options, like Quality and assurance management and Leadership and stakeholder management, fall under governance themes or transformational flow rather than principles.

Approval to proceed is a critical input for the 'Managing the Tranches' process. Without formal approval, the programme cannot move into tranche delivery phases. The MSP Practitioner specifies:“Without approval to proceed, programme will not enter this process.”This highlights the formal gating and control process essential for structured programme progression.

The statement that“Programme control defines reporting mechanism”is not true. While programme control encompasses refining delivery, managing ambiguity, and justifying programme continuation, defining the reporting mechanism is typically a management or communication function rather than a control function.

The MSP Practitioner clarifies:“Programme control deals with improving delivery, reducing ambiguity & bringing certainty and justifies continuance of programme,”focusing on the governance and decision-making controls rather than specific reporting structures.

Effective programme control ensures programmes remain viable and aligned with strategic objectives through structured oversight and governance processes.

Training, moving, and supporting operational units fall under business change and transition costs. These costs are related to the activities required to move from the current state to the future state, including training staff and supporting new operations. The MSP Practitioner clarifies:“Training and moving an operational unit is related to transition,”distinguishing these from capital costs (assets) and programme management costs.

The principle“Remaining aligned with corporate strategy”requires programmes to be both robust and flexible, enabling them to adapt to frequent and sometimes radical strategic shifts. The MSP Practitioner clarifies that“Programmes need to adjust to strategic changes of organization so they should be robust and flexible to achieve that.”This principle ensures programmes remain relevant and aligned throughout their lifecycle despite changes in organizational priorities or external conditions, enabling successful transformation delivery.

Basic governance arrangements, including programme controls, are established during the 'Identifying the Programme' phase. These initial controls set the foundation for how the programme will be governed, including accountability structures, reporting lines, and approval mechanisms.

The MSP Practitioner states:“Basic governance arrangements to be used in Defining a programme are prepared in identifying a programme,”emphasizing the importance of establishing governance early to guide subsequent programme phases effectively.

Establishing these controls upfront ensures clarity, reduces ambiguity, and provides a framework within which the programme can operate with discipline and alignment to strategic goals.

The Sponsoring Group, not the SRO, is accountable for confirming the Programme Mandate. The MSP Practitioner clearly states:"The Sponsoring Group is accountable for confirming the mandate,"which means the SRO oversees delivery but does not hold responsibility for initial mandate confirmation. Meanwhile, the Programme Manager has ownership of the Vision Statement and Blueprint, aligning with delivery responsibilities.

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.

Dependency management isnotconsidered a principal control for managing the tranches but rather a governance control related to delivering the benefits.

The MSP Practitioner explains:“Dependency management is governance control for Delivering the benefits,”which means while dependencies between projects and benefits must be managed, they are not direct tranche controls.

Principal tranche controls focus on approving and reviewing Business Cases and conducting Benefit Reviews to ensure each tranche delivers value and remains aligned with strategic objectives.

Recognizing this distinction helps ensure the programme maintains effective controls focused on stage delivery and benefit realization without conflating governance functions.

The principle“Envisioning and communicating a better future”specifically addresses the need for creating a clear, compelling Vision. The MSP Practitioner states:“Envisioning and communicating a better future categorically takes the need of creating an effective Vision statement.”This principle ensures that the programme has a forward-looking, inspirational view of the outcomes and benefits, which guides all programme activities and stakeholder engagement efforts. The Vision helps to align everyone involved and drives commitment towards the desired future state.