Tailoring PRINCE2 to the project environment

• What is tailoring?
• General approach to tailoring
  • Overview
  • Applying the principles
  • Adapting the themes
  • Applying the organizations terms and language
  • Adapting the management products
  • Adapting the roles
  • Adapting the processes
• Examples of tailoring PRINCE2
• Projects in a programme environment
  • Overview
  • Themes Business Case
  • Themes Organization
  • Themes Quality
  • Themes Plans
  • Themes Risk
  • Themes Change
  • Themes Progress
  • Processes
  • Management products
• Project scale
  • Overview
  • Simple project
  • Simple project Themes
  • Simple project Processes
  • Simple project Management products
• Commercial customer/supplier environment
  • Overview
  • Themes Business Case
  • Themes Organization
  • Themes Quality
  • Themes Plans
  • Themes Risk
  • Themes Change
  • Themes Progress
  • Processes
  • Management products
• Multi organization projects
• Project type
  • Lifecycle models
  • The evolving project
  • The feasibility project
• Sector differences
  • Overview
  • Senior Responsible Owner
  • OGC Gateway Review
• Project management Bodies of Knowledge

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 to the project environment

General approach to tailoring

© Crown copyright 2005 Reproduced under licence from OGC

Some projects may claim that they do not need ‘full PRINCE2®’ and therefore have only implemented portions of the method.
This can reveal a flawed understanding of PRINCE2 because the method is designed to be tailored.

So tailoring PRINCE2 appropriately is ‘full PRINCE2’.

Tailoring does not consist of omitting elements of PRINCE2.
The method is not a series of isolated silos whereby any element can be omitted with no effect on the others.
PRINCE2 is a web of interlinking elements: themes are used in processes; techniques are undertaken to bring themes to life; and individuals fulfilling project roles create management products.
If the practitioner omits an element, project management for the project is weakened.

Therefore tailoring is about adapting the method to external factors (such as any corporate standards that need to be applied) and the project factors to consider (such as the scale of the project).
The goal is to apply a level of project management that does not overburden the project but provides an appropriate level of control given the external and project factors.

The danger of not tailoring PRINCE2 is that it can lead to ‘robotic’ project management if every process activity is followed and every management product is produced without question.
This is a common trap in template-driven project management.

Tailoring, therefore, is about thinking how to apply the method and then using it with a lightness of touch.

The diagram shows how the environmental and project factors are evaluated in order to tailor the method.

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