Progress

• Purpose
• Progress defined
  • What is progress?
  • What are progress controls?
  • Exceptions and tolerances
• The PRINCE2 approach
• Delegating authority
  • The four levels of management
  • Project Board controls
  • Project Manager controls
• Use of management stages for control
  • Overview
  • Number of stages
  • Length of stages
  • Technical stages
• Event driven and time driven controls
  • Overview
  • Baselines for progress control
  • Reviewing progress
  • Capturing and reporting lessons
  • Reporting progress
• Raising exceptions
• Responsibilities

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

The PRINCE2® approach

Event-driven and time-driven controls

Reviewing progress

As part of Controlling a Stage, the Project Manager will regularly review the progress of work through Checkpoint Reports and maintain a set of project registers and logs.
The Project Manager will use this information to update the Stage Plan with actual progress achieved.

The frequency of checkpoint reporting required may change according to the needs of individual Work Packages.

It is also useful to look at trends to get a view of the overall ‘health’ of the stage.
For example, the stage may seem to be progressing well in terms of the products being completed against the schedule.
However, the Issue Register may reveal an increasing number of issues which are not being resolved and which may be a cause for concern.
Similarly, a high number of outstanding items against a product in the Quality Register may show design issues with that product.

The following management products assist the Project Manager in reviewing progress:

This is a useful tool for recording actions.
Project actions may arise from many sources, including checkpoints, quality reviews, end stage assessments or ad hoc conversations.
There is a danger that actions may get ‘lost’ if they are only recorded in minutes or progress reports.
Small actions may simply be recorded on the Daily Log and marked off when completed.
Actions involving significant effort may need to be incorporated into the Stage Plan.
If such actions cannot be incorporated into the plan within tolerances, then an issue should be raised to examine their impact on the stage and project.
The Daily Log can also be used to record informal issues and any other notes or observations that are not captured by any other registers or logs.
The Daily Log is a useful way of recording individual observations that on their own may seem insignificant, but when collated may alert the Project Manager to a new issue or risk.

This will contain details of all formal issues raised during the project, which could take the form of requests for change, off-specifications or problems/concerns.

Reviewing the Issue Register may uncover progress issues - for example, a sudden increase in the number of requests for change, or an increasing number of overdue corrective actions.

This provides a snapshot of the status of products within the project, management stage or a particular area of the project.
It can reveal progress issues as it shows the planned and actual dates for key points in the production, review and approval of the products to be delivered by the plan.
The Product Status Account is derived from the Configuration Items Records.

This is a record of all planned and implemented quality activities.
The Quality Register can reveal progress issues as the Project Manager can assess whether any quality activities are outstanding or whether there are any useful trends in the quality results - for example, an increasing number of products failing quality review or an increase in the average number of quality review actions.

This is a record of all identified risks.
The Project Manager should review the Risk Register as part of reviewing stage status.
As risks are driven by uncertainty, the number of risks should generally decrease as the project progresses and the level of certainty increases.
The Risk Register should be reviewed to determine whether the aggregated risks may impact on progress for the remainder of the stage and project, e.g. there may be a large number of risks with similar proximity in time, indicating a period where progress may be affected.

Measuring the progress of a management stage involves looking backwards, at the progress made against plans, and forwards, at what still needs to be completed with what time [see 'The Complete Time Management package'] and resources.

There are many techniques available to measure project progress, including:

This is a graphical chart showing key planned and actual milestones in a stage.

This is a graph showing cumulative actual figures (for example, costs or hours) plotted against time.
The curve is usually shaped like the letter ‘S’, reflecting the fact that a project typically consumes fewer resources and costs at the start and end of the project, and more in the middle.
The steeper the curve, the more resources required.
When planned and actual figures are shown on the same chart, this can be used to identify potential overspend or forecast areas where tolerances may be exceeded.

This is a technique to measure the scope, schedule and cost performance compared with plans, by comparing the completed products and the actual cost and time taken against their schedule and cost estimates.
PRINCE2’s product-based approach to planning provides the prerequisites needed for earned value management.

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