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

Tailoring PRINCE2

Adapting the themes

The following sections illustrate only a few of the ways the PRINCE2® themes can be tailored.

• If the project is a part of a programme, the Business Case theme may be managed at programme level
• A Business Case itself may be informal (some slides with bullet points) or formal (including a full-scale investment appraisal).
• The effort expended on the Business Case should be in proportion to the scale of the investment and risks involved
• Similar considerations apply to the Benefits Review Plan

• The PRINCE2 project management team structure is extremely flexible
• The Project Board should have at least two members - if one person can represent all three interests (business, user and specialist), the work can logically be managed as a line task and PRINCE2 is not required
• Where there are multiple important user or supplier interests, more than one Senior User and/or Senior Supplier may be appointed. The recommended maximum number of Project Board members, however, is five
• Where it is considered that all the user or supplier interests cannot be effectively represented on the Project Board, user and/or supplier advisory boards can be set up, chaired respectively by the Senior User and the Senior Supplier. The purpose of the advisory boards is to resolve a consistent approach to the project, which the Senior User/Supplier can subsequently represent at Project Board meetings. However, where there are multiple important interests involved in a project, it may be a clue that the effort should really be managed as a programme
• The Project Manager cannot also be a Project Board member
• There can only be one Project Manager in a PRINCE2 Project. However, in a commercial context, it is often the case that Project Managers are appointed both for the customer and the supplier. These circumstances can usually be handled in one of two ways:
• If the customer Project Manager acts as the PRINCE2 Project Manager, the supplier Project Manager assumes the PRINCE2 role of Team Manager
• If the supplier Project Manager acts as the PRINCE2 Project Manager, the customer Project Manager assumes the PRINCE2 role of business and/or user assurance.
• Project Assurance must be independent of the Project Manager and Project Support
• In a simple project, the Project Manager can also act as the Team Manager and Project Support
• Project Support may be provided from a programme office or a shared project office

• The Quality Management Strategy documents how the quality theme will be tailored for the project
• The Quality Management Strategy itself can be a concise, bullet point summary or based on a more formal template
• Product Descriptions are essential but the amount of information in them can be varied (from bullet points to more precise definitions)
• Quality inspections/reviews can be formal (structured meetings with detailed quality records) or informal (simple Daily Log entries)
• Again, the levels of formality required should be judged in relation to the investment and risk involved for the business.

• All the components of a PRINCE2 plan should be present in every plan (e.g. resources, assumptions, external dependencies, risks, controls etc.) but the level of formality can be varied
• The Project Board may prefer longer stages or shorter stages. Long stages entail a greater degree of delegation, fewer management overheads and they take up less of the Project Board members’ time [see 'The Complete Time Management package']. Short stages provide the Project Board with more control but at the expense of additional stage planning and Project Board involvement
• Sophisticated software scheduling tools can be used in planning and communicating complex projects
• For simple projects, simple tables or spreadsheets, listing the products with expected completion dates can act as perfectly effective schedules

• The Risk Management [see ‘The Complete Risk Management package’] Strategy documents how the risk theme will be tailored for the project
• Here again, the formality and effort involved in risk management should be in direct proportion to the level of business investment and risk involved in the project
• It is not always necessary to operate detailed contingency calculations or implement risk tolerances
• When other PRINCE2 themes are tailored down, perhaps because of the urgency to meet a real project deadline, the associated risks (whether to quality or business benefits) should be recorded and monitored

• The Configuration Management Strategy is frequently tailored to the host configuration management system
• Configuration management may be relatively simple, with manual document and version control and a relatively simple manual change control process
• On more complex projects, configuration management often requires a sophisticated configuration management database (CMdb), with ‘booking in and booking out’ safeguards to prevent corruption due to simultaneous activity on multiple changes
• Where a CMdb is used, the process implemented for business-level change control (problems/concerns, requests for change and off-specifications) needs to be integrated smoothly with the more detailed and rigorous configuration controls
• Many commercial contracts contain change control schedules which detail the process for managing contract changes. Again, the project’s business-level change controls (problems/concerns, requests for change, off-specifications) need to be tailored so that the contractual impact of changes is assessed and the contracted change control process is invoked when necessary
• Different Change Authority approaches can be implemented to suit particular projects. The Project Manager can act as the Change Authority at working level (but all issues that involve Project Initiation Documentation baseline changes must be escalated to the Project Board). An alternative is for the Project Assurance role to act as the Change Authority. Change Authority can also be populated from outside the project management team, e.g. at programme level
• Scope tolerances may be an important control, particularly when a ‘time-boxed’ approach is favoured (fixed timescale/variable scope - typical of an ‘agile’ or ‘iterative’ approach to computer applications development)

• Tailoring for the progress controls is documented in the controls section of the plans
• The frequency of Checkpoints (working-level progress reviews) can be varied. For example, in a time-critical accommodation move that has to be completed over a weekend, Checkpoints may be conducted every three hours, whereas for most projects the interval is typically weekly
• The frequency of Highlight Reports can also be varied. The Project Board may request a Highlight Report at any time if circumstances suggest they need an update
• Tolerances may be generous, e.g. for an experienced Project Manager and team who can confidently be left to get on with the work; or they can be tight - if the Project Board wants to monitor stage activity more closely
• Project Board meetings may be formal, face-to-face reviews, scheduled months ahead to make sure members are all available; or they may be video- or telephone conferences. The important factor here is that the decisions are well informed from the three different perspectives (business, user and supplier) and, if possible, collective. If Project Board members do not meet for the purpose, the risk of ill-informed decisions increases

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.