What is PRINCE2

PRINCE2 (an acronym for PRojects IN Controlled Environments) is a de facto process-based method for effective project management.

Used extensively by the UK Government, PRINCE2 is also widely recognised and used in the private sector, both in the UK and internationally. The PRINCE2 method is in the public domain, and offers non-proprietorial best practice guidance on project management. 

The key features of PRINCE2 are a:

• focus on business justification
• defined organisation structure for the project management team
• product-based planning approach
• emphasis on dividing the project into manageable and controllable stages
• flexibility that can be applied at a level appropriate to the project.

Using PRINCE2 provides you with greater control of resources, and the ability to manage business and project risk more effectively. This will benefit:

• individuals seeking leading project management skills and greater employment prospects
• project managers
• directors/executives (senior responsible owners) of projects, and
• organisations

For individuals, PRINCE2 certification is an invaluable asset to your career as it increases employment prospects and helps you to do your job more effectively.
For organisations, PRINCE2's formal recognition of responsibilities within a project, together with its focus on what a project is to deliver (the why, when and for whom) provides your organisation's projects with:

• a common, consistent approach
• a controlled and organised start, middle and end
• regular reviews of progress against plan
• assurance that the project continues to have a business justification

PRINCE2 - A Structured Project Management Methodology

PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) is a process-based method for effective project management. PRINCE2 is a de facto standard used extensively by the UK Government and is widely recognised and used in the private sector, both in the UK and internationally.

Structured project management means managing the project in a logical, organised way, following defined steps. A structured project management method like PRINCE2 is the written description of this logical, organised approach.
We know from experience that projects which aren't organised and controlled properly usually go disastrously wrong. Some of the big ones hit the press.
London Ambulance and Channel Tunnel, for example, both experienced very public problems of systems not working properly and huge overspends. Structured project management methods have been developed to try to prevent such disasters.
The PRINCE2 Methodology says that a project should have:

• An organised and controlled start
  ie. organise and plan things properly before leaping in;
• An organised and controlled middle
  ie. when the project has started, make sure it continues to be organised and controlled;
• An organised and controlled end
  ie. when you've got what you want and the project has finished, tidy up the loose ends.

In order to describe what a project should do and when, PRINCE2 has a series of processes which cover all the activities needed on a project, from starting up to closing down.

PRINCE2 Project Management Roles

Project Manager

Organising and controlling a project means that we need to have someone responsible for doing the organising and controlling. This person is called the Project Manager.
The Project Manager will select people to do the work on the project and will be responsible for making sure the work is done properly and on time.
The Project Manager draws up the Project Plans that describe what the project team will actually be doing and when they expect to finish.

Customer, User and Supplier

The person who is paying for the project is called the customer or executive.
The person who is going to use the results or outcome of the project, or who will be impacted by the outcome of a project, is called the user.
On some projects, the customer and user may be the same person. The person who provides the expertise to do the actual work on the project (ie. will be designing and building the outcome) is called the supplier or specialist.
All of these people need to be organised and co-ordinated so that the project delivers the required outcome within budget, on time and to the appropriate quality.

Project Board

Each PRINCE2 project will have a Project Board made up of the customer (or executive), someone representing the user side, and someone representing the supplier or specialist input.
In PRINCE2, these people are called Customer, Senior User and Senior Supplier respectively.
The Project Manager reports regularly to the Project Board, keeping them informed of progress and highlighting any problems he/she can foresee.
The Project Board is responsible for providing the Project Manager with the necessary decisions for the project to proceed and to overcome any problems.

PRINCE2 Project Management Techniques

Project Assurance

Providing an independent view of how the project is progressing is the job of Project Assurance. In PRINCE2, there are three views of assurance: business, user and specialist. Each view reflects the interests of the three Project Board members.
Assurance is about checking that the project remains viable in terms of costs and benefits (business assurance), checking that the users' requirements are being met (user assurance), and that the project is delivering a suitable solution (specialist or technical assurance). On some projects, the assurance is done by a separate team of people called the Project Assurance Team, but the assurance job can be done by the individual members of the Project Board themselves.

Project Support

On most projects there is a lot of administrative work needed: keeping everyone informed, arranging meetings, keeping plans up-to-date, chasing things up, keeping files, etc. Project Managers often do all this work themselves, particularly on smaller projects, but if there are a number of projects going on at the same time a Project Support Office can be setup to help the Project Managers with this work.

PRINCE2 Scope

In today's projects, there are often different groups of people involved, including the customer, one or more suppliers, and of course the user. PRINCE2 is designed to provide a common language across all the interested parties. Bringing customers and suppliers together generally involves contracts and contract management. Although these aspects are outside of PRINCE2, the method recognises the need to provide projects with the necessary controls and breakpoints to work successfully within a contractual framework.

Controlling Change

Apart from describing the different people involved on a PRINCE2 project, and what they are each responsible for, the method also explains how to manage risk, how to manage quality, and how to control change on the project. Risk Management is about working out what could go wrong and planning what to do if it does. Quality Management is about checking the quality of work done on the project, either by testing it or reviewing the work in some way.
There are always lots of changes during the life of a project, people change their minds, other things happen which affect what the project is doing. PRINCE2 has a technique of controlling the way changes impact the project in order to prevent the project going off in the wrong direction.
So, PRINCE2 is a method for managing projects. It helps you work out who should be involved and what they will be responsible for. It gives you a set of processes to work through and explains what information you should be gathering along the way. But PRINCE2 doesn't do the work for you, it cannot guarantee that your projects will be successful. Good projects, which deliver quality results, on-time and within budget are dependent on the quality of people involved from Project Board down to individual team members.
Having read this brief introduction to project management and PRINCE2, the next thing to do is go on a training course and find out more!

PRINCE2 Processes - The PRINCE2 Process Model

PRINCE2 is a process-based approach for project management providing an easily tailored, and scaleable method for the management of all types of projects.
Each process is defined with its key inputs and outputs together with the specific objectives to be achieved and activities to be carried out.

Directing a Project

Directing a Project runs from the start-up of the project until its closure. This process is aimed at the Project Board. The Project Board manages and monitors via reports and controls through a number of decision points.
The key processes for the Project Board break into four main areas:

• Initiation (starting the project off on the right foot)
• Stage boundaries (commitment of more resources after checking results so far)
• Ad hoc direction (monitoring progress, providing advice and guidance, reacting to exception situations)
• Project closure (confirming the project outcome and controlled close).
• This process does not cover the day-to-day activities of the Project Manager.

Starting up a Project

This is the first process in PRINCE2. It is a pre-project process, designed to ensure that the pre-requisites for initiating the project are in place.
The process expects the existence of a Project Mandate which defines in high level terms the reason for the project and what outcome is sought. Starting up a Project should be very short.
The work of the process is built around the production of three elements:

• Ensuring that the information required for the project team is available
• Designing and appointing the Project Management Team
• Creating the Initiation Stage Plan.

Initiating a Project

The objectives of Initiating a Project are to:

• Agree whether or not there is sufficient justification to proceed with the project
• Establish a stable management basis on which to proceed
• Document and confirm that an acceptable Business Case exists for the project
• Ensure a firm and accepted Foundation to the project prior to commencement of the work
• Agree to the commitment of resources for the first stage of the project
• Enable and encourage the Project Board to take ownership of the project
• Provide the baseline for the decision-making processes required during the project's life
• Ensure that the investment of time and effort required by the project is made wisely, taking account of the risks to the project.

Managing Stage Boundaries

This process provides the Project Board with key decision points on whether to continue with the project or not.
The objectives of the process are to:

• Assure the Project Board that all deliverables planned in the current Stage Plan have been completed as defined
• Provide the information needed for the Project Board to assess the continuing viability of the project
• Provide the Project Board with information needed to approve the current stage's completion and authorise the start of the next stage, together with its delegated tolerance level
• Record any measurements or lessons which can help later stages of this project and/or other projects.

Controlling a Stage

This process describes the monitoring and control activities of the Project Manager involved in ensuring that a stage stays on course and reacts to unexpected events. The process forms the core of the Project Manager's effort on the project, being the process which handles day-to-day management of the project.
Throughout a stage there will be a cycle consisting of:

• Authorising work to be done
• Gathering progress information about that work
• Watching for changes
• Reviewing the situation
• Reporting
• Taking any necessary corrective action.

This process covers these activities, together with the on-going work of risk management and change control.

Managing Product Delivery

The objective of this process is to ensure that planned products are created and delivered by:

• Making certain that work on products allocated to the team is effectively authorised and agreed accepting and checking Work Packages
• Ensuring that work conforms to the requirements of interfaces identified in the Work Package
• Ensuring that the work is done
• Assessing work progress and forecasts regularly
• Ensuring that completed products meet quality criteria
• Obtaining approval for the completed products.

Closing a Project

The purpose of this process is to execute a controlled close to the project.
The process covers the Project Manager's work to wrap up the project either at its end or at premature close.
Most of the work is to prepare input to the Project Board to obtain its confirmation that the project may close.
The objectives of Closing a Project are therefore to:

• Check the extent to which the objectives or aims set out in the Project Initiation Document (PID) have been met
• Confirm the extent of the fulfilment of the Project Initiation Document (PID) and the Customer's satisfaction with the deliverables
• Obtain formal acceptance of the deliverables
• Ensure to what extent all expected products have been handed over and accepted by the Customer
• Confirm that maintenance and operation arrangements are in place (where appropriate)
• Make any recommendations for follow-on actions
• Capture lessons resulting from the project and complete the Lessons Learned Report
• Prepare an End Project Report
• Notify the host organisation of the intention to disband the project organisation and resources.

Planning

PRINCE2 recommends three levels of plan to reflect the needs of the different management levels involved in the project, stage and team.
Planning is a repeatable process and its activities are included within the seven main PRINCE2 processes, as appropriate. Information about plans and how to plan can be found in the Plans Theme section of the PRINCE2 Manual.

The activities of planning are :-

• Design the plan
  
• Define and analyse the products
  
• Identify the activities and dependencies
  
• Prepare estimates
  
• Prepare the schedule
  
• Analyse the risks
  
• Document the plan
  

PRINCE2 uses a technique known as ‘Product based planning’ which requires four activities :-

• Write the Project Product Description
  
• Create the product breakdown structure
  
• Write the product descriptions
  
• Create the product flow diagram
  

These four activities are performed within the ‘Define and analyse the products’ activity above.