106 · Question #103
Which of the following is a main element of the management control practice?
The correct answer is D. Tailored investment criteria. Tailored investment criteria (D) is a main element of management control because this practice governs how the organization evaluates, selects, and prioritizes investments - and those criteria must be customized to reflect the organization's specific strategic objectives and risk
Question
Which of the following is a main element of the management control practice?
Options
- ACollaborative working between the Portfolio Office and the organizations communications experts
- BA consistent approach to benefits categorization
- CGuidance and templates for business case preparation
- DTailored investment criteria
How the community answered
(55 responses)- A2% (1)
- B4% (2)
- C5% (3)
- D89% (49)
Explanation
Tailored investment criteria (D) is a main element of management control because this practice governs how the organization evaluates, selects, and prioritizes investments - and those criteria must be customized to reflect the organization's specific strategic objectives and risk appetite. Without tailored criteria, portfolio decisions lack a consistent, organization-specific basis for control.
Why the distractors are wrong:
- A (Portfolio Office collaborating with communications experts) belongs to organizational governance and stakeholder engagement, not management control.
- B (Consistent benefits categorization) is a feature of the benefits management practice, which focuses on defining and tracking value realization.
- C (Business case guidance and templates) sits within the portfolio definition or investment appraisal activities, not management control itself.
Memory tip: Link "management control" to criteria - you can only control what you measure against a standard. The word tailored signals that one-size-fits-all rules are insufficient; control requires criteria shaped to your organization's unique strategic context.
Topics
Community Discussion
6
Yusuf A.Jun 22, 2026The answer is D, tailored investment criteria. My senior walked me through the MoP practices last week and she was clear that management control is really about making sure the right decisions get made with the right yardsticks, and investment criteria that are shaped to fit the organization are a core part of that. Options A and B threw me off at first because they sound important, but collaborative comms work sits more under stakeholder engagement and benefits categorization lives under the benefits management practice. Option C is tempting too since business cases feel very control-y, but templates and guidance for those belong to a different practice focused on business case development. Once you map each distractor back to its actual home practice it becomes a lot cleaner.
Oleksandr P.Jun 22, 2026Yusuf, you are right that tailored investment criteria belongs to management control, though it is worth adding that standard business case templates and guidance also sit within management control under MoP, not in a separate standalone practice, which makes option C the trickiest distractor to rule out on exam day.
Luis F.Jun 26, 2026I was totally going to pick C because business case templates felt like something you'd need to control and manage a portfolio, but then I remembered that management control is really about setting the right financial thresholds and criteria for evaluating investments, which points straight to D. Tailored investment criteria is what actually gives the portfolio board the power to approve, reject, or adjust initiatives based on the organization's specific risk appetite and strategic priorities.
Oleksandr P.Jun 26, 2026Tailored investment criteria is correct because management control in MoP depends on investment decision-making criteria that are shaped to fit the portfolio's strategic context, risk appetite, and funding constraints rather than applied as a one-size-fits-all standard. The other options belong to different practices, benefits management and portfolio office for A, B, and C respectively.
Prof. SaraJun 26, 2026D is correct, and here is the key distinction worth burning into memory. Management control is fundamentally about governance and decision authority, so tailored investment criteria fit squarely there because they define HOW the portfolio gates spending and approvals, while options A, B, and C belong to the communications, benefits management, and portfolio office practices respectively.
Yusuf A.Jun 29, 2026That governance framing finally clicked for me after my mentor pointed out that investment criteria are basically the rules the portfolio uses to say yes or no to initiatives, so of course that lives in management control rather than in how you communicate, track benefits, or run the portfolio office day to day.