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

Give ad hoc direction

Respond to reports

During the delivery stages, the Project Board should ‘manage by exception’.
Members will be kept up-to-date by Highlight Reports from the Project Manager.
These are designed to be concise, but they can contain as much information as the Project Board requires.

Be aware that too frequent or too lengthy reports may well constrain a busy Project Manager’s ability to lead and communicate.

Highlight Reports are intended for information only - to keep Project Board members in touch with progress and build confidence that the work is on track.
Nevertheless, they will often prompt questions in the minds of Project Board members:

• There may be early indications of progress difficulties
• There may be outstanding or persistent issues
• There may be requests for change that are of interest – or a build up of simple changes
• There may be new risks

Project Managers often complain about the time they have to spend on reporting, given the apparent lack of interest/response to the reports.
Responding to Highlight Reports provides evidence of a Project Board member’s interest in and commitment to the work - and their understanding of the framework of plans and controls.
There may also be some simple opportunities for Project Board members to provide valuable assistance at the working level.

Highlight Reports are often also used to communicate progress outside the project management team, e.g. to stakeholders and interested line managers.
This is an efficient way of avoiding the need for additional reports but it can encourage interventions or even direction from outside the project management team.

When this occurs it needs to be managed sensitively, both by the Project Manager and Project Board members.
The Project Manager should refer any suggested changes of approach or direction, or complaints about project progress, to the appropriate Project Board member (or to someone assigned a Project Assurance role).

Project Board members (and others with responsibilities in the project) should always make clear to other stakeholders how the project management team works and where accountabilities lie.

In contrast to Highlight Reports, Exception Reports always require a response from Project Board members.
They are alerts to the need for replanning.
In all likelihood the Project Manager will have consulted Project Board members informally about the contents beforehand.

Exception Reports are evidence of good project management - irrespective of any failings that may have caused the exception - especially if the report is constructive, with good options for corrective action.

What Project Board members want to know from an Exception Report is:

• What is the nature of the exception?
• What is the impact of the exception on the products and plans?
• What would happen if the Project Manager just carried on with the stage?
• What options have been considered for resolving the exception? Why is the recommended option preferred?
• What is the potential impact on the Business Case?
• Was the exception anticipated as a project risk? What is the impact of the exception on project risks?
• What triggered the exception? Are there any significant lessons to be learned from the exception? Root causes? Corrective actions?

The Executive’s concern is that the exception is managed properly.
The Senior User will wish to know whether the exception resulted from user-related issues and, if so, how best to help resolve them and capture the lessons.
Similarly, the Senior Supplier will be concerned to resolve any specialist technical issues and ensure that related lessons are identified, recorded and analysed.
As always, Project Board members should make every effort to support the replanning exercise.

The Project Board can respond to an Exception Report in one of three ways:

• Adjust the tolerances, or use their influence to remove the cause of the exception, so that work can proceed based on the original Stage Plan
• Ask the Project Manager to prepare and submit an Exception Plan (see Chapter 7)
• In a situation where the Business Case is no longer viable, request that the project is prematurely closed (see the section covering ‘Authorize project closure’)

If there is a series of manageable exceptions, the Project Board may need to reconsider the stage tolerances and provide the Project Manager with more discretion.

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.