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

Raising exceptions

The output from reviewing progress is a decision as to whether the Work Package, Stage Plan or Project Plan remain, or are forecast to remain, within agreed tolerances:

Having agreed Work Package tolerances with the Team Manager, the Project Manager should be kept informed of progress through regular Checkpoint Reports.
If a Work Package is forecast to exceed its tolerances, the Team Manager should inform the Project Manager by raising an issue.
The Project Manager will advise of any corrective actions required.

If the stage is forecast to exceed its tolerances, the Project Manager should produce an Issue Report to capture and analyse the details of the deviation and then provide an Exception Report for the Project Board.
Based on information in this report, the Project Board may request that the Project Manager produces an Exception Plan to replace the plan that was forecast to exceed tolerance.
The Project Board may also remove the cause, accept and adjust tolerance, or request more time to consider or reject the recommendations in the Issue Report.
If an Exception Plan is requested, the Project Board will conduct an exception assessment, similar to the end stage assessment, to review and approve the Exception Plan.

Project-level exceptions

If the forecast is for project tolerances to be exceeded, the Project Board no longer has the authority to manage the project and must refer the matter to corporate or programme management for a decision.
The Project Board may request the Project Manager to produce an Exception Plan for the project.

For more information on issue and change control procedures see the section covering ‘Change’.

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