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

Introducing PRINCE2

© Crown copyright 2009 Reproduced under licence from OGC

PRINCE2 is a non-proprietary method and has emerged worldwide as one of the most widely accepted methods for managing projects.
This is largely due to the fact that PRINCE2 is truly generic: it can be applied to any project regardless of project scale, type, organization, geography or culture.

PRINCE2 achieves this by isolating the management aspects of project work from the specialist contributions, such as design, construction etc.
The specialist aspects of any type of project are easily integrated with the PRINCE2 method and, used alongside PRINCE2, provide a secure overall framework for the project work.

Because PRINCE2 is generic and based on proven principles, organizations adopting the method as a standard can substantially improve their organizational capability and maturity across multiple areas of business activity – business change, construction, IT, mergers and acquisitions, research, product development and so on.

What does a Project Manager do?

In order to achieve control over anything, there must be a plan.
It is the Project Manager who plans the sequence of activities to build the house, works out how many bricklayers will be required and so on.

It may be possible to build the house yourself – but being a manager implies that you will delegate some or all of the work to others.
The ability to delegate is important in any form of management but particularly so (because of the cross-functionality and risks) in project management.

With the delegated work under way, the aim is that it should ‘go according to plan’, but we cannot rely on this always being the case.
It is the Project Manager’s responsibility to monitor how well the work in progress matches the plan.

Of course, if work does not go according to plan, the Project Manager has to do something about it, i.e. exert control.
Even if the work is going well, the Project Manager may spot an opportunity to speed it up or reduce costs.
Whether it is by taking corrective action or implementing measures to improve performance, the aim of PRINCE2 is to make the right information available at the right time for the right people to make the right decisions.

Project manager controls are described as part of the Progress theme.
[see Progress - The PRINCE2 approach - Delegating authority - Project Manager controls]