MSP Foundation

Candidate Syllabus
Axelos.com

October
2020

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MSP Foundation Candidate Syllabus

Table of Contents

1 INTRODUCTION 3

2 EXAM OVERVIEW 4

3 MSP FOUNDATION SYLLABUS 5

Copyright © Axelos Limited 2020.

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EN_MSP_FND_2020_CandidateSyllabus_v2.0
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MSP Foundation Candidate Syllabus

1 Introduction

The MSP Foundation qualification is intended for:

• Programme managers and aspiring programme managers
• Project managers/senior project managers
• Business change managers
• Other key staff involved in the design, development and delivery of projects, including project board
members (e.g. executive), project assurance, and project support
• Operational line managers/staff (e.g. process owners) operating within a programme environment
• Other key staff involved in the design, development and delivery of programmes, including: programme
board members (e.g. senior responsible owner), programme assurance, and programme management
office personnel
• Portfolio management staff
• Specialist programme staff.

The MSP Foundation Examination is intended to assess whether the candidate can demonstrate sufficient recall
and understanding of the MSP programme management framework (as described in the syllabus below) to be
awarded the MSP Foundation qualification.
The MSP Foundation qualification is a prerequisite for the MSP Practitioner Examination, which assesses the
ability to apply understanding of the MSP programme management framework in context.
There is no prerequisite for the MSP Foundation qualification.

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MSP Foundation Candidate Syllabus

2 Exam Overview
Material allowed None This is a ‘closed book’ examination. No materials, other than the
examination materials provided, are permitted.
Exam duration 60 minutes Candidates taking the exam in a language that is not their native or
working language may be awarded 25% extra time, i.e. 75 minutes in
total.
Number of marks 60 marks There are 60 questions, each worth 1 mark. There is no negative
marking.
Pass mark 36/60 60% or higher – a raw score of 36 marks or above
Level of thinking Bloom’s levels “Bloom’s level” describes the type of thinking needed to answer the
1&2 question. For Bloom’s level 1 questions, candidates need to recall
information about the MSP framework. For Bloom’s 2 questions,
candidates need to show understanding of these concepts.
Question types Standard Classic, The questions are all ‘multiple choice’.
Missing Word & For the ‘Standard Classic’ questions, candidates have a question and
List four answer options.
For the ‘Missing Word’ questions, there is a sentence with a word
missing and candidates must select the missing word from four options.
For the ‘List’ questions, there is a list of four statements and
candidates must select the two correct statements.
Please see the sample paper for an example of the exam format and content.

Example ‘Standard Classic’ question: Example ‘Missing Word’ question:

What is the purpose of the XXX theme? Identify the missing word in the following sentence.

a) To do Q There are [ ? ] levels of delegated authority that

b) To do P define the associated ‘lines of defence’.
c) To do R a) two
d) To do S b) three
c) four
d) five
Example ‘List’ question:
Which TWO statements about XXX are CORRECT?

1. It does Q Example ‘Negative Standard Classic’ question:

2. It does P Which role should NOT be shared with the role of
3. It does R Senior Responsible Owner?
4. It does S
a) Role Q
a) 1 and 2 b) Role P
b) 2 and 3 c) Role R
c) 3 and 4 d) Role S
d) 1 and 4
NOTE: Negative questions are only used as an
NOTE: Two of the list items are correct. exception where part of the learning outcome is to
List style questions are never negative. know that something is not done or should not occur.

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3 MSP Foundation Syllabus

The table below gives a summary of the concepts that are tested in the exam, and the main parts of the manual
in which these are described (in parentheses) The book references refer to the section, but not the subsections
within it, unless stated.

Learning Assessment Criteria Bloom’s No.

Outcome Level Marks
1. Understand 1.1 Recall the definition of: BL1 2
key concepts a) A programme (1.2, glossary)
relating to b) The 3 lenses of MSP: principles, themes, and the processes across the
programmes programme lifecycle (2, 3, 11, glossary)
and MSP c) Enterprise agility (1.2.3, glossary)
1.2 Describe: BL2 3
a) The characteristics of a programme (1.2.1-4)
b) The common reasons why programme management is used (1.3)
c) The common challenges that MSP is designed to address (1.4)
d) The programme environment (1.5, fig 1.2)
2. Understand 2.1 Explain the MSP principles: BL2 7
how the MSP a) Lead with purpose (2.1)
principles b) Collaborate across boundaries (2.2)
underpin the c) Deal with ambiguity (2.3)
MSP framework d) Align with priorities (2.4)
e) Deploy diverse skills (2.5)
f) Realize measurable benefits (2.6)
g) Bring pace and value (2.7)
3. Understand 3.1 Explain: BL2 3
the MSP themes a) The purpose of the programme strategy (3.4)
and how they b) The purpose of programme governance (3.1)
are applied c) The purpose of programme plans (3.5)
throughout the d) The Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle and its applicability to risks and
programme issues (3.3, fig 3.2)
3.2 Organization theme (chapter 4)
3.2.1 Explain the purpose of the ‘organization’ theme (4.1) BL2
3.2.2 Describe the key relationships between the ‘organization’ theme BL2 1
and the principles (tab 4.1)
3.2.3 Explain the purpose of the key documents required to support the BL2 1
‘organization’ theme:
a) Programme strategy: governance approach (including organization
structure) (4.3, 4.5, 4.6, tab 4.3)
b) Programme strategy: stakeholder engagement approach (4.11, tab
4.3)
c) Stakeholder engagement and communications plan (4.12, tab 4.3)
3.2.4 Define key concepts related to the ‘organization’ theme: BL1 1
a) Stakeholder (4.10, glossary)
b) Stakeholder engagement (4.10, glossary)
c) Programme risk appetite (4.4, glossary)
3.2.5 Describe the purpose and responsibilities of the following roles: BL2 2
a) Sponsoring group (sponsoring group member) (4.5.1, tab 4.4)
b) Programme board (4.5.2)
c) Programme office (programme office lead) (4.5.3, tab 4.4)
d) Senior responsible owner (SRO) (4.6.1, tab 4.4)
e) Programme manager (4.6.2, tab 4.4)
f) Business change manager (BCM) (4.6.3, tab 4.4)

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Learning Assessment Criteria Bloom’s No.

Outcome Level Marks
3. Understand 3.3 Design theme (chapter 5)
the MSP themes
3.3.1 Explain the purpose of the ‘design’ theme (5.1) BL2
and how they
are applied 3.3.2 Describe the key relationships between the ‘design’ theme and the BL2 1
throughout the principles (tab 5.1)
programme
(continued) 3.3.3 Explain the purpose of the key documents required to support the BL2 1
‘design’ theme:
a) Programme strategy: design approach (5.3, tab 5.4)
b) Vision statement (5.4, tab 5.4)
c) Benefits map (5.5.2, tab 5.4)
d) Benefit profile (5.5.4, tab 5.4)
e) Risk register (5.6, tab 5.4)
f) Target operating model (5.7, 5.7.1, fig 5.8, tab 5.4)
3.3.4 Define key concepts related to the ‘design’ theme: BL1 1
a) Benefit (5.5, glossary)
b) Dis-benefit (5.5, glossary)
c) Vision (5.4, glossary)
d) Programme risk (5.6, glossary)
3.3.5 Describe: BL2 1
a) The types of benefits (5.5.1)
b) The path to benefits (5.5.2, fig 5.2)
c) The types of programme risk (5.6.1)
d) Risk prioritization (5.6.2)
e) The need to document current state, future state and gap analysis
(5.7.2)
3.4 Justification theme (chapter 6)
3.4.1 Explain the purpose of the ‘justification’ theme (6.1) BL2
3.4.2 Describe the key relationships between the ‘justification’ theme BL2 1
and the principles (tab 6.1)
3.4.3 Explain the purpose of the key documents required to support the BL2 1
‘justification’ theme:
a) Programme mandate (6.3, tab 6.3)
b) Programme strategy: funding approach (6.4, tab 6.3)
c) Programme brief (6.5, tab 6.3)
d) Business case (6.6, tab 6.3)
e) Financial plan (6.7, tab 6.3)
3.4.4 Define key concepts related to the ‘justification’ theme: BL1 1
a) Budgets (6.7.1, glossary)
b) Cash flow (6.7.2, glossary)
c) Financial contingency (6.6.3, glossary)
3.4.5 Describe: BL2 2
a) The justification for a programme including financial and non-
financial appraisal methods (6.6.1, 6.6.1.1, 6.6.1.2)
b) The key considerations when validating a business case (6.6.4)

3.5 Structure theme (chapter 7)

3.5.1 Explain the purpose of the ‘structure’ theme (7.1) BL2
3.5.2 Describe the key relationships between the ‘structure’ theme and BL2 1
the principles (tab 7.1)

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Learning Assessment Criteria Bloom’s No.

Outcome Level Marks
3. Understand 3.5.3 Explain the purpose and characteristics of the key documents BL2 1
the MSP themes required to support the ‘structure’ theme:
and how they a) Programme strategy: delivery approach (7.3, tab 7.3)
are applied b) Delivery plan; including the factors to be considered when planning
throughout the programme delivery (7.5, tab 7.3)
programme c) Benefits realization plan (7.8, tab 7.3)
(continued) d) Programme strategy: resourcing approach (7.9, tab 7.3)
3.5.4 Define key concepts related to the ‘structure’ theme: BL1 1
a) Pace (7.4, glossary)
b) Organizational capacity (7.4.1, glossary)
c) Organizational ability (7.4.1, glossary)
d) Multimodal delivery (7.6, glossary)
e) Tranche (7.5, glossary)
f) Landing point (7.5, glossary)
g) Incremental progression (7.5, glossary)
h) Dependency (7.7, glossary)
i) Iterative project lifecycle (7.6, glossary)
j) Linear project lifecycle (7.6, glossary)
k) Hybrid project lifecycle (7.6, glossary)
l) Continual improvement (7.6, glossary)
3.5.5 Describe: BL2 1
a) The need to identify and manage dependencies, including the types
of dependencies (7.7)
b) The use of the appropriate modes of delivery (7.6)
3.6 Knowledge theme (chapter 8)
3.6.1 Explain the purpose of the ‘knowledge’ theme (8.1) BL2
3.6.2 Describe the key relationships between the ‘knowledge’ theme and BL2 1
the principles (tab 8.1)
3.6.3 Explain the purpose of the key documents required to support the BL2 1
‘knowledge’ theme:
a) Programme strategy: knowledge & learning approach (8.3, tab 8.2)
b) Programme strategy: information approach (8.6, tab 8.2)
3.6.4 Define key concepts related to the ‘knowledge’ theme: BL1 1
a) Knowledge (8.1, glossary)
b) Community of practice (8.4, glossary)
c) Lessons learned (8.5, glossary)
d) Retrospective (8.5, glossary)
3.6.5 Describe: BL2 1
a) The use of knowledge management and lessons learned in effective
programme management (8.4, 8.5)
b) The use of information management, including three pillars of
information security, in effective programme management (8.7)
3.7 Assurance theme (chapter 9)
3.7.1 Explain the purpose of the ‘assurance’ theme (9.1) BL2
3.7.2 Describe the key relationships between the ‘assurance’ theme and BL2 1
the principles (tab 9.1)
3.7.3 Explain the purpose of the key documents required to support the BL2 1
‘assurance’ theme:
a) Programme strategy: assurance approach (9.3, tab 9.4)
b) Assurance plan (9.5, tab 9.4)
3.7.4 Define key concepts related to the ‘assurance’ theme: BL1 1
a) Assurance (9.1, glossary)
b) Three lines of defence (9.4, glossary)

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Learning Assessment Criteria Bloom’s No.

Outcome Level Marks
3. Understand 3.7.5 Describe: BL2 1
the MSP themes a) The nature of assurance activities, including the drivers for assurance
and how they (9.5.1, tab 9.2)
are applied b) How to plan successful assurance activities, including the success
throughout the factors for assurance (9.5.3, tab 9.3)
programme c) The need for assurance at multiple levels, including the three lines of
(continued) defence (9.4, 9.4.1, 9.4.2, 9.4.3)
3.8 Decisions theme (chapter 10)
3.8.1 Explain the purpose of the ‘decisions’ theme (10.1) BL2
3.8.2 Describe the key relationships between the ‘decisions’ theme and BL2 1
the principles (tab 10.1)
3.8.3 Explain the purpose of the key documents required to support the BL2 1
‘decisions’ theme:
a) Programme strategy: decision-making approach (10.3, tab 10.3)
b) Programme strategy: issue resolution approach (10.4, tab 10.3)
c) Programme strategy: risk response approach (10.5, tab 10.3)
d) Decision register (10.3, tab 10.3)
e) Issue register (10.4, tab 10.3)
3.8.4 Define key concepts related to the ‘decisions’ theme: BL1 1
a) Decision point (10.3, glossary)
b) Risk owner (10.5, glossary)
c) Issue (10.4, glossary)
d) Issue owner (10.4, glossary)
3.8.5 Describe: BL2 2
a) The importance of data gathering and reporting (10.6, 10.6.1, 10.6.2)
b) The role of options analysis to support decisions (10.7)
c) The generic responses to threats and opportunities (10.5.1, tab 10.2)
4.Understand 4.1 Explain the purposes of the processes within the MSP lifecycle: BL2 7
the MSP a) Identify the programme (12.1)
processes and b) Design the outcomes (13.1)
how they are c) Plan progressive delivery (14.1)
carried out d) Deliver the capabilities (15.1)
throughout the e) Embed the outcomes (16.1)
programme f) Evaluate new information (17.1)
g) Close the programme (18.1)
4.2 Explain the objectives of the MSP processes (a-g above) (12.2, 13.2, BL2 4
14.2, 15.2, 16.2, 17.2, 18.2)
4.3 Explain the context of the MSP processes (a-g above) (12.3, 13.3, BL2 3
14.3, 15.3, 16.3, 17.3, 18.3 (excluding tab 12.1, tab 13.1, tab 14.1, tab
15.1, tab 16.1, tab 17.1, tab 18.1))

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