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 the project

Communication

For a project of any appreciable size, the Initiating a Project process involves many decisions and a considerable amount of work.
It makes no sense for Project Board members to stand back and wait for completed Project Initiation Documentation to be submitted.
The Project Manager and others involved in planning must have confidence that the evolving plans are based on an accurate understanding of the Project Board’s wishes and objectives.
It is essential that Project Board members are available for consultation, and that members’ informal approvals of the emerging strategies and plans are carefully considered.
The aim should be that there are no surprises when the Project Initiation Documentation is finally assembled and submitted.

If Project Board members fail to communicate effectively - with each other and/or with the Project Manager and others involved in planning - initiation can be fraught with false starts, disagreements, waste and rework, getting the project off to a poor start, with obvious effects on morale.

It is really only after the project has been authorized that the Project Board members can begin managing by exception.

Workshops or ‘kick-off meetings’ can be very useful during project start-up and initiation.
They help with team-building and exchanging viewpoints, not least about the best way to tailor PRINCE2®.

Documentation templates may be useful as a means to record information and decisions thoroughly and consistently, but they cannot simply be ‘filled out’ to create a plan.

Sound initiation requires extensive communication, and workshops are a speedy and efficient use of time.
Project Board members should give priority, wherever possible, to attending.
Project initiation (or definition) workshops may be focused on defining the roles and responsibilities of participants in the project management team and/or on project scope and approach (where PRINCE2’s product-based planning technique can be exceptionally useful for communication purposes).

Project Board members should resist the temptation to pressurize the Project Manager into submitting plans quickly - unless there are really legitimate reasons for doing so.
Projects are frequently labelled ‘urgent’ simply as a form of motivation to get things done quickly or to please the customer with a rapid response.
All too often this leads to:

• Poor planning
• Unrealistic expectations
• Project activities rushed in an attempt to meet the planned timescales
• Quality problems
• High volumes of change
• Failure

If the pressures on time [see 'The Complete Time Management package'] really are valid, say to meet a legislative deadline, Project Board members should encourage the Project Manager to highlight the attendant risks in plans and, where possible, formulate effective countermeasures.
This approach results in a more mature dialogue with customers and users and a potentially better business relationship.

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