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PRINCE2 2009 - Directing Projects with PRINCE2 part 12

Project Board duties and behaviours

Ensure effective decision making

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Project Board members must ensure effective decision making.
It is the Project Board that makes the key decisions in the project. Decision making is the means by which control is exerted, and PRINCE2® provides an optimized framework for this purpose.

Progress control

Second only to setting direction, the Project Board is primarily a progress control function. Progress is authorized by means of approving the Project Plan and Stage Plans. Approval should be given collectively by Project Board members to ensure that all stakeholder interests are understood and safeguarded.

Plans are approved and progress is assessed and reaffirmed at Project Board reviews, the main ones being at stage boundaries. Clearly, it is preferable for Project Board members to meet – physically if at all possible but, failing that, using video or telephone conferences.

Project Board reviews are all based on essentially the same simple agenda, as shown in the example below. It can be seen that the reviews should always focus on plans, approving them and assessing progress in relation to them.

Example of a typical Project Board agenda

Look back:Review status in relation to the current Stage Plan (or Exception Plan)
Look forward:Preview the next Stage (or Exception) Plan
Assess overall project viability:Consider the current status of the Business Case, Project Plan and issues/risks
Make a decision:Decide whether to give authorization to proceed by approving the next Stage Plan (or Exception Plan)

The agenda is organized this way so that Project Board members are fully briefed on the current context of the project work before stepping back from the detail (in agenda item 3) to assess the position in relation to the overall Project Plan and, most importantly, the Business Case.

Risks, issues, changes and exceptions

Decisions on minor risks, issues and changes can usually be delegated to the Project Manager. On complex projects, or if there is a high volume of change at the working level, the Project Board may alternatively delegate day-to-day decisions in this area to a Change Authority specially established for the purpose. However, some decisions must be reserved for the Project Board. Who makes decisions on what category of risks, issues and changes should be agreed when initiating the project and documented in the Project Initiation Documentation.

There is an opportunity for this at Project Board reviews (agenda item 3). However, decisions about risks, issues and changes are frequently made in the course of the Directing a Project process activity of giving ad hoc direction (see the section covering ‘Give ad hoc direction’) as and when required during the stages.

When issues result in an exception, the Project Board should, again, express its decision in terms of approving a plan; in this case an Exception Plan. The generic agenda outlined in the example below remains valid for Project Board reviews prompted by exceptions.

This agenda and the pattern of Project Board decision making are further expanded in the discussion of detailed Project Board activities in the sections covering ‘Starting up a Project’ and ‘Reviewing benefits’.

Quality control

The Project Board contributes to quality control by approving:

  • The overall Project Product Description (including customer quality expectations and acceptance criteria)
  • The Quality Management Strategy (including key quality responsibilities)
  • The individual Product Descriptions for key project deliverables

PRINCE2 provides a useful technique to confirm whether a product fulfils its requirements through quality reviews. Project Board members may or may not be the best-qualified people to participate in such reviews. What matters is that Project Board members ensure that the right people are involved in quality reviews and other quality-related responsibilities.

Senior Users need to know that people with the right practical experience are being involved at the working level and in quality inspections/reviews. Similarly, Senior Suppliers need to know that the right specialist technical expertise is being brought to bear. The focus of the Executive’s concern is the quality of adherence to good project management practice and standards, including PRINCE2.

This is not to say that Project Board personnel cannot act as quality reviewers, rather that they should do so only where they bring relevant skills, knowledge or experience - and not simply in their capacity as Project Board members. Consequently, they are more likely to be involved in reviewing the project’s management products, such as plans, than the specialist technical products.

In whatever context, PRINCE2 aims to bring the right people together and provide them with the right information so that they can make the right decisions.

At the Project Board reviews held at stage boundaries, the Project Manager will use information in the Quality Register to reassure Project Board members that the agreed quality measures have been implemented and the right people have been involved.

Project Assurance

Delegating to Project Assurance personnel who are responsible for monitoring the business, user and supplier interests at working level is another means by which Project Board members can ensure that decisions are well-informed. Project Assurance can be implemented in a variety of different forms, e.g. with part-time or full-time personnel or with occasional, independent project health checks.

Irrespective of the form it takes, a delegated Project Assurance function carries no accountability for the project. It is important that the Project Board’s accountability (for the project) and the Project Manager’s responsibilities (for the stages) are not undermined.

Project Assurance is simply another opportunity to make the right people and the right information available for decision making.

Informal contributions to decision making

Another consistent feature of PRINCE2 is that the formal reviews (Project Board end stage assessments and quality reviews) are regarded as incentives for the Project Manager and the team to get things agreed informally beforehand.

At Project Board reviews, particularly, there should be no surprises. There is rarely enough time at a Project Board review to examine the plans in detail but Project Board members will nevertheless want to be confident about what they are signing up to. It follows that the Project Manager will wish to discuss and resolve as many of the important or contentious aspects of plans beforehand - and it is important that Project Board members provide effective channels for this to happen. These may be channels for direct contact or, if Project Board members really are too busy, reliable arrangements for Project Assurance personnel to act as intermediaries.

Advisory boards

In larger, more complex projects, there may be several discrete user stakeholders and/or supplier interests - too many to accommodate in a manageable Project Board. A device often used in these circumstances is to introduce user and/or supplier advisory boards, chaired respectively by the Senior User or the Senior Supplier (see the diagram).

As with a delegated Project Assurance role, advisory boards do not carry any accountability for the project, but they provide valuable support and guidance for Project Board members by helping to define the approaches preferred by that stakeholder group.

If advisory boards are used, it can be useful to delegate user assurance to the user advisory board and supplier assurance to the supplier advisory board.

All references above are in Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 unless stated otherwise.

PRINCE2® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.

This product contains EVERYTHING in the publications:

Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 - 2005 edition
Managing successful Projects with PRINCE2 – 2009 edition
Directing Projects with PRINCE2.
plus:
The Complete Project Management package.

And much more besides - at a fantastic price.