SPM Financials Configuration
About 8% of the CIS-SPM exam — see all 10 domains.
Financial planning across demands, projects, programs, and epics.
Cost plans. A cost plan estimates costs over fiscal periods, broken down by cost type/expense type (capex/opex, labor/non-labor). Total Planned Cost = sum of all cost plan line items. Labor costs can be generated automatically from resource assignments (rate × effort).
Benefit plans. A benefit plan captures expected and realized benefits over time, by category. Planned Benefit = sum of all benefit plan line items. Used for ROI/NPV-style comparison.
Budgets. A budget is money allocated to a demand/project for a fiscal period. The Flexible Budget Allocation capability (introduced ~Aug 2024 releases) lets portfolio managers approve budgets monthly, quarterly, or yearly, with detailed breakdowns by expense/cost type and a "Copy cost as budget" option to approve bottom-up from forecast.
Display modes & forecasting. SPM Financials display modes (e.g., Forecast mode) flex the view across budget, forecast, planned, and actual costs and show forward-looking spend by fiscal period.
Configuration topics likely tested: fiscal period/calendar setup, cost/benefit plan templates and breakdowns, rate cards/cost categories, budget approval workflow, actual cost capture, and the new Financials experience for projects/demands/epics.
Sample questions from this domain
Three of the 24 in this domain, with the reasoning. The full set is in the question bank.
A Cost Plan in SPM is used to:
- A. Allocate resources
- B. Define sprint length
- C. Plan estimated costs for an investment (e.g., project/demand) over time ✓
- D. Submit ideas
Why: Cost plans estimate an investment's costs over time. They do not allocate resources, submit ideas, or define sprints.
What does the functional currency setting establish in SPM financials?
- A. The sprint cadence
- B. The base/reporting currency in which financial amounts are normalized for consistent reporting ✓
- C. The resource schedule
- D. The idea category
Why: Functional currency is the base/reporting currency for normalizing financial amounts. It is unrelated to sprints, ideas, or schedules.
Expense Lines in SPM represent:
- A. Resource allocations
- B. Individual planned or actual cost entries that roll up to financial totals for an investment ✓
- C. Time sheet policies
- D. Idea votes
Why: Expense lines are individual cost entries (planned/actual) that aggregate to financial totals. They are not allocations, time policies, or votes.