Organization

• Introduction
  • Purpose
  • Organization defined
• Levels of organization
• The project management team
  • Project management team structure
  • Project Board
  • Project Assurance
  • Change Authority
  • Size of the Project Board
  • Project Manager
  • Team Manager
  • Project Support
  • Dealing with changes to the project management team
• Working with the project team
  • Balancing the project team and individual
  • Training needs for project teams
  • Part time teams
• Working with the corporate organization
  • Line management functional management
  • Centre of excellence
• Working with stakeholders
  • Types of stakeholder
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • The Communication Management Strategy
• 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

The project management team

Project Board

Together, the Executive, Senior User(s) and Senior Supplier(s) make up the Project Board.
The Project Board has authority and responsibility for the project within the instructions (initially contained in the project mandate) set by corporate or programme management.

PRINCE2 defines the duties of the Project Board as:

• Being accountable for the success or failure of the project in terms of the business, user and supplier interests
• Providing unified direction to the project. As one of the key responsibilities of the Project Board is to provide direction to the Project Manager, it is important that all members have a unified view as to what the direction should be
• Delegating effectively, using the PRINCE2 organizational structure and controls designed for this purpose
• Facilitating integration of the project management team with the functional units of the participating corporate or external organizations
• Providing the resources and authorizing the funds necessary for the successful completion of the project
• Ensuring effective decision making
• Providing visible and sustained support for the Project Manager
• Ensuring effective communication both within the project team and with external stakeholders.

Further guidance on these duties can be found in ‘Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2’.

A good Project Board should display four key characteristics:

Authority

The members of the Project Board should be senior enough within the corporate organization to make strategic decisions about the project.
As the Project Board is accountable for the project, the individuals chosen must have sufficient authority to make these decisions and to provide resources to the project, such as personnel, cash and equipment.
The managerial level required to fill the roles will depend on factors such as the budget, scope and importance of the project.

Credibility

The credibility of the Project Board members within the corporate organization will affect their ability to direct the project.

Ability to delegate

A key part of the Project Board’s role is to ensure that the Project Manager is given enough ‘space’ to manage the project by keeping Project Board activity at the right level.
Project Board members should not be involved in the detail of how the project is managed, nor in the specialist content of the project.

Availability

Project Board members who meet all the above characteristics are of little value to the project if they are not available to make decisions and provide direction to the Project Manager.

Project Board members are often from senior management positions, and their Project Board responsibilities will be in addition to their normal responsibilities.
The concept of management by exception allows the Project Manager to keep them regularly informed of project progress but only requires decision making at key points in the project.

The frequency and detail of communication required by the Project Board during a project should be documented in the Communication Management Strategy.
Project Board members may require more detailed or frequent information at the start of the project.
As the project progresses, and the Project Board becomes more comfortable with the progress being achieved, the requirement for frequent or detailed Highlight Reports may reduce.
It is important to review the level and frequency of reporting for each stage during the Managing a Stage Boundary process.

Although the Project Board is responsible for the project, the Executive (supported by the Senior User(s) and Senior Supplier(s)) is ultimately accountable for the project’s success and is the key decision maker.
The Project Board is not a democracy controlled by votes.

The Executive’s role is to ensure that the project is focused throughout its life on achieving its objectives and delivering a product that will achieve the forecasted benefits.
The Executive has to ensure that the project gives value for money, ensuring a cost-conscious approach to the project, balancing the demands of the business, user and supplier.

The Executive is appointed by corporate or programme management during the pre-project process of Starting up a Project.
The role of the Executive is vested in one individual, so that there is a single point of accountability for the project.
The Executive will then be responsible for designing and appointing the rest of the project management team, including the other members of the Project Board.
If the project is part of a programme, corporate or programme management may appoint some or all Project Board members.
Throughout the project, the Executive is responsible for the Business Case.

The Senior User(s) is responsible for specifying the needs of those who will use the project’s products, for user liaison with the project management team and for monitoring that the solution will meet those needs within the constraints of the Business Case in terms of quality, functionality and ease of use.

The role represents the interests of all those who will use the project’s products (including operations and maintenance), those for whom the products will achieve an objective, or those who will use the products to deliver benefits.
The Senior User role commits user resources and monitors products against requirements.
This role may require more than one person to cover all the user interests.
For the sake of effectiveness the role should not be split between too many people.

The Senior User(s) specifies the benefits and is held to account by demonstrating to corporate or programme management that the forecasted benefits that were the basis of project approval are in fact realized.
This is likely to involve a commitment beyond the end of the project’s life.

The Senior Supplier(s) represents the interests of those designing, developing, facilitating, procuring and implementing the project’s products.

This role is accountable for the quality of products delivered by the supplier(s) and is responsible for the technical integrity of the project.
This role will include providing supplier resources to the project and ensuring that proposals for designing and developing the products are feasible and realistic.

In most cases, the Senior Supplier also represents the interests of those who will maintain the specialist products of the project after closure, e.g. engineering maintenance and support.
Exceptions to this do occur, e.g. when an external supplier is delivering products to a customer who will maintain them in service/operation – in this instance the operations and maintenance interests are more likely to be represented by a Senior User.
In fact, the distinction is not really important; what matters is that operations, service and support interests are represented appropriately from the outset.

If necessary, more than one person may be required to represent the suppliers.

Note:

PRINCE2 2009 describes the roles and responsibilities of key positions in the Appendices.
[see Appendix C Roles and responsibilities]

Further details of project management team roles and their associated responsibilities are provided in the folder ‘roles and responsibilities’ as part of the product package. These include role description outlines, which should be tailored to the needs of the specific project and each specific appointment.

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