Directing Projects with PRINCE2

• Introduction
• Overview of PRINCE2
  • Key definitions
  • Structure of PRINCE2
  • The role of senior management in PRINCE2
  • Overview of PRINCE2
• Project Board duties and behaviours
  • Overview
  • Be accountable for the project
  • Provide unified direction
  • Delegate effectively
  • Facilitate cross functional integration
  • Commit resources
  • Ensure effective decision making
  • Support the Project Manager
  • Ensure effective communication
• Starting up a Project
  • Purpose
  • Context
  • Confirm the understanding of the project mandate
  • Appoint the Executive and Project Manager
  • Capture previous lessons
  • Design and appoint the project management team
  • Prepare the outline Business Case
  • Prepare the Project Brief
  • Prepare the Initiation Stage Plan
  • Summary
• Authorize initiation
  • Purpose
  • Context
  • Approve the Project Brief
  • Approve the Initiation Stage Plan
  • Communication
  • Suggested Project Board agenda
  • Summary
• Authorize the project
  • Purpose
  • Context part 1
  • Context part 2
  • Context part 3
  • Communication
  • Review the End Stage Report for initiation
  • Approve the Project Initiation Documentation
  • Approve the next Stage Plan
  • Suggested Project Board agenda
  • Summary
• Authorize a Stage or Exception Plan
  • Purpose
  • Context part 1
  • Context part 2
  • Review End Stage Reports
  • Approve Stage or Exception Plans
  • Assess project viability
  • Suggested Project Board agenda
  • Summary
• Give ad hoc direction
  • Purpose
  • Context
  • Respond to requests
  • Respond to reports
  • Respond to external influences
  • Focus of individual board members
  • Communication
  • Summary
• Authorize project closure
  • Purpose
  • Context
  • Confirm handover and acceptance
  • Approve the End Project Report
  • Approve the Benefits Review Plan
  • Communication
  • Suggested Project Board agenda
  • Summary
• Reviewing benefits
  • Purpose
  • Context
  • Hold benefits reviews
  • Close the Business Case
  • Communication
  • Suggested agenda for benefit reviews
  • Summary
• Tailoring PRINCE2
  • Purpose
  • Introduction
  • Environmental factors
  • Project related factors
  • What does tailoring involve?Adapting the themes

Key sections

• Introduction
• Business case
• Organization
• Quality
• Plans
• Risk
• Change
• Progress
• Introduction to processes
• Starting up a projectDirecting a project
• Initiating a project
• Controlling a stage
• Managing Product Delivery
• Managing a Stage Boundary
• Closing a Project
• Tailoring PRINCE2 to the project environment
• Directing Projects with PRINCE2

Authorize a Stage or Exception Plan

Context – part 1

Once the Project Initiation Documentation and the Project Plan have been approved, the project proceeds as a series of management stages, with Stage Plans acting as notional contracts between the Project Board and the Project Manager.

Although Project Board members should continue to provide ad hoc direction as necessary (see the section covering ‘Give ad hoc direction’), the aim, for the most part, is for them to ‘manage by exception’.

This means that the Project Board’s contribution is focused on key control points (stage boundaries – see diagram 1) when:

© Crown copyright 2005 Reproduced under licence from OGC

Diagram 1

• Progress in relation to the current stage contract and the overall project is reported and reviewed (in an End Stage Report)
• A Stage Plan ‘contract’ for the next stage is established

Diagram 2 illustrates the typical profile of Project Board activity in a PRINCE2® project.

© Crown copyright 2005 Reproduced under licence from OGC

Diagram 2

Note that the effort is heavily ‘front-loaded’, with peak activity during project initiation.
Thereafter, there should be smaller peaks at stage boundaries and minor blips during the stages (perhaps for reacting to Highlight Reports or Issue Reports).
There is also likely to be another peak as the project’s products are handed over for use.
This pattern will of course be different if the handover of products for operational use is phased in some way.

Projects that do not have front-loaded involvement of the Project Board tend to have a profile showing greater and more haphazard involvement at later stages through an increased need for Project Board interventions or consultations.

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.