Introduction

• Forewood
• Introduction
  • Introduction part 1
  • Introduction part 2a
  • Introduction part 2b
  • Introduction part 2c
  • Introduction part 3
• Principles
  • Principles
  • Continued business justification
  • Learn from experience
  • Defined roles and responsibilities
  • Manage by stages
  • Manage by exception
  • Focus on products
  • Tailor to suit the project environment
• Themes
  • What are the themes?
  • Applying 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

Defined roles and responsibilities

A PRINCE2® project has defined and agreed roles and responsibilities within an organization structure that engages the business, user and supplier stakeholder interests.

Projects involve people.

No amount of good planning or control will help if the wrong people are involved, if the right people are not involved, or if people involved do not know what’s expected of them or what to expect of others.

A project is typically cross-functional, may involve more than one organization, and may involve a mixture of full-time and part-time resources.
The management structures of the parties involved in the project are likely to be different - with different priorities, objectives and interests to protect.
The day-to-day line management structures may not be designed for, or suited to, project work.

To be successful, projects must have an explicit project management team structure consisting of defined and agreed roles and responsibilities for the people involved in the project and a means for effective communication between them.

All projects have the following primary stakeholders:

• ‘Business’ sponsors who endorse the objectives and ensure that the business investment provides value for money
• ‘Users’ who, after the project is completed, will use the products to enable them to gain the intended benefits
• ‘Suppliers’ who provide the resources and expertise required by the project (these may be internal or external).

Therefore, all three stakeholder interests need to be represented effectively in the project management team - two out of three is not enough.
If the project costs outweigh the benefits, the project will fail.
Equally, if the outcome of the project does not meet the users’ or operational needs, or cannot feasibly be delivered by the suppliers, failure is inevitable.

The defined project management team structure unites the various parties in the common aims of the project. For all those people involved, a defined project management team structure provides the answer to the question, ‘What is expected of me?’

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