M4.1 module quiz
Ten questions. 80% to pass (8 of 10). Open book, unlimited retakes.
Answers are collapsed under each question. Answer first, then check.
Q1
An org has run three optimization sprints in 18 months, each recovering 15% and each decaying within two quarters. Its stage is:
A. Walk
B. Crawl
C. Run
D. Pre-Crawl
Show answer
Correct: A. The decay pattern defines Walk: the org can optimize but has no Operate cadence, so savings erode. The move to Run is a weekly cadence, not a bigger sprint.
Q2
Maturity is assessed:
A. Per organisation as a whole, moving one single stage at a time throughout
B. By total cloud spend volume
C. Per capability, so an org can be Run on scheduling and Crawl on unit economics
D. Once at assessment, then fixed
Show answer
Correct: C. Treating maturity as a single org-wide stage produces plans that try to lift everything at once. Per-capability assessment produces a plan with an order.
Q3
A Crawl-stage org is characterised by:
A. Visibility only, with no repeatable optimization motion
B. No cloud spend at all
C. Automated remediation already running across the estate
D. Chargeback already in place
Show answer
Correct: A. The dashboards exist and nothing acts on them, which is why the four move-up actions are about establishing a motion rather than about better reporting.
Q4
What most reliably distinguishes Run from Walk?
A. The total savings figure achieved to date across the org
B. A weekly Operate cadence that compounds rather than decays
C. The number of tools deployed
D. Executive sponsorship secured
Show answer
Correct: B. Savings achieved is a Walk metric too. The distinguishing property is whether last quarter’s savings are still there this quarter.
Q5
The 90-day horizon is used for move-up plans because:
A. It matches the organisation’s own fiscal reporting quarter precisely
B. Cloud providers reprice on a quarterly cycle
C. Enterprise contracts renew every quarter
D. It is long enough for a cadence to establish and short enough to stay concrete
Show answer
Correct: D. A 12-month plan becomes aspiration; a 30-day plan cannot establish a habit. Ninety days is the window where a cadence proves itself.
Q6
A cross-stage anti-pattern is one that:
A. Only appears at the Crawl stage
B. Is specific to certain cloud providers only
C. Gets worse at higher maturity rather than better
D. Only affects very large orgs
Show answer
Correct: C. Which is the counter-intuitive part: some failures are invisible at Crawl because the org is not doing enough for them to bite, and they scale with the practice.
Q7
The fix for an anti-pattern is characteristically:
A. Training the team
B. Exhortation and broad cultural change work
C. Better tooling
D. Structural: change what the process makes easy
Show answer
Correct: D. Telling people to tag better has a known success rate. Changing what happens when they do not is what actually moves the number.
Q8
A Run-stage practice that is “aspirational Walk with Run rhetoric” shows up as:
A. High reported savings figures each quarter, quoted upward to leadership
B. Regular executive reporting
C. A cadence that exists on paper and is skipped when quarter-end pressure arrives
D. Multiple dashboards in use
Show answer
Correct: C. The test is what happens in the busy week. A cadence that survives only in quiet quarters has not been established.
Q9
What most often pulls a Run org back?
A. Cloud provider price increases mid-year
B. Losing the person who owned the cadence
C. New providers added
D. Audit findings raised
Show answer
Correct: B. A practice that depends on one person is a practice with a single point of failure, and the move from Run to sustained Run is largely about removing that.
Q10
The first move-up action from Crawl is usually:
A. Buying commitments early
B. Implementing chargeback
C. Deploying an anomaly detector across the estate first
D. Establishing attribution good enough to name an owner
Show answer
Correct: D. Nothing else works without it: an optimization nobody owns does not get done, and a budget with no owner does not get defended.
What’s next
Back to The FinOps maturity ladder.