When a sponsor evaluates performance data from a product launch, they are operating at the Strategy or Initiative Horizon. The goal is to make investment decisions that maximize value based on new information about threats and opportunities. The three fundamental portfolio-level decisions are:

1. Start a new initiative: To capitalize on a newly identified opportunity.

2. Change resources for existing initiatives: To pivot, persevere, or re-scope an ongoing effort based on performance feedback. This could involve increasing, decreasing, or reallocating resources.

3. Cancel an existing initiative: To cut losses when an initiative is underperforming, is no longer strategically aligned, or is facing an insurmountable threat.

These actions represent the core choices in agile portfolio management.

A. These are planning and analysis activities that might support decision-making, but they are not the strategic decisions or outcomes themselves.

C. These are data-gathering and feedback collection techniques. They serve as inputs to the evaluation process, not the resulting portfolio-level decisions.

D. This option mixes a specific tactic (experiment), an analysis step (cost/benefit), and the choice of inaction (delay), rather than presenting a complete set of primary strategic actions.

1. International Institute of Business Analysis. (2017). Agile Extension to the BABOK® Guide (Version 2).

Section 4.5

"Determine the Change Strategy": This section describes how an organization makes "decisions about which initiatives to fund

the order in which to fund them

and the overall strategic direction for the change." This directly supports the actions of starting (funding)

changing (re-ordering/re-scoping)

and cancelling (defunding) initiatives.

Section 7.18

"Portfolio Kanban": This technique is used to manage the flow of initiatives. It explicitly includes decision points where stakeholders decide whether to approve (start)

hold

or cancel initiatives based on strategic goals

capacity

and performance feedback. This visualizes the decision-making process described in option B.

2. International Institute of Business Analysis. (2017). Agile Extension to the BABOK® Guide (Version 2).

Section 5.1.1

"Purpose" (The Initiative Horizon): This section explains that analysis at this level helps stakeholders "decide whether to continue funding the initiative

whether the initiative needs to change direction

or whether the initiative should be cancelled." This reinforces the core options of changing or cancelling an existing initiative based on feedback.