PRINCE2

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PRINCE2 – Structure

PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) is a structured project management method [1] and practitioner certification programme. PRINCE2 emphasises dividing projects into manageable and controllable stages.

Contents

It is adopted in many countries worldwide, including the UK, Western European countries, and Australia. [2] PRINCE2 training is available in many languages. [3]

PRINCE2 was developed as a UK government standard for information systems projects. In July 2013, ownership of the rights to PRINCE2 were transferred from HM Cabinet Office to AXELOS Ltd, a joint venture by the Cabinet Office and Capita, with 49% and 51% stakes respectively. [4]

In 2021, PRINCE2 was transferred to PeopleCert during their acquisition of AXELOS. [5]

History

PRINCE was derived from an earlier method called PROMPT II (Project Resource Organisation Management Planning Techniques). In 1989 the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) adopted a version of PROMPT II as a UK Government standard for information systems (IT) project management. They gave it the name 'PRINCE', which originally stood for "PROMPT II IN the CCTA Environment". PRINCE was renamed in a civil service competition as an acronym for "PRojects INControlled Environments". PRINCE2 is the second edition of the earlier PRINCE method which was initially announced and developed in 1989 by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), a UK government support agency. [6] PRINCE2 was released in 1996 as a generic project management method. [7]

Since then, PRINCE2 became increasingly popular [8] and is now a de facto standard for project management in many UK government departments and across the United Nations system.

There have been three major revisions of PRINCE2 since its launch in 1996: "PRINCE2:2009 Refresh" in 2009, and "PRINCE2 2017 Update" in 2017. The justification for the 2017 update was the evolution in practical business practices and feedback from PRINCE2 practitioners in the actual project environment. [9] More recently, in 2023 AXELOS launched PRINCE2 7 - the 7th edition - which is described below.

Overview of PRINCE2

Seven aspects of project performance

These aspects are also called tolerances or performance goals. Tolerances define the delegated levels of authority which are set by a higher level of management to a lower level. The management level responsible must manage within the tolerances provided only as long as they are not forecast to be exceeded. Otherwise they are deemed to be an exception which requires escalating to the management level which delegated them. This way of managing is known as 'management by exception' and is one of the principles of PRINCE2. By managing in this way, it saves the time of senior management. In some organisations tolerances can be key performance indicators (KPIs). In the following table project level tolerances are summarised: [10]

Tolerance typeDefined in management productExample
ScopeProject/stage plan, work package descriptionThe printer must print documents in black/white, and should also print in colour.
TimescaleProject/stage plan, work package descriptionThe work must be delivered within 2-3 months.
RiskBusiness case, stage plan, work package descriptionPrinter might not work if it is exposed to water.
Quality Project product description, product description Printer should not suffer mechanical failure when printing between 2,000 and 10,000 pages.
Benefits Business case, stage planSales should enable a net profit of between £200,000 to £400,000.
CostProject/stage plan, work package descriptionThe cost of the project should be between £100,000 and £150,000.
SustainabilityBusiness case, stage plan, work package description, product descriptionToner for the printer must be carbon neutral.
Management levelDelegated tolerance levelEscalated issue/exception
Business layerProject tolerance—
Project boardStage toleranceProject exception
Project managerWork package toleranceStage exception
Team manager—Issue

Seven principles (why, or guidelines to follow)

PRINCE2 is based on seven principles and these cannot be tailored. The PRINCE2 principles can be described as a mindset that keeps the project aligned with the PRINCE2 methodology. If a project does not adhere to these principles, it is not being managed using PRINCE2.

  1. Ensure continued business justification: The business case is the most important document, and is updated at every stage of the project to ensure that the project is still viable. Early termination can occur if this ceases to be the case.
  2. Learn from experience: Each project maintains a lessons log and projects should continually refer to their own and to previous and concurrent projects' lesson logs to avoid reinventing wheels. Unless lessons provoke change, they are only lessons identified (not learned).
  3. Define roles, responsibilities, and relationships: Roles are separated from individuals, who may take on multiple roles or share a role. Roles in PRINCE2 are structured in four levels (corporate or programme management, project board, project manager level and team level). Project Management Team contains the last three, where all primary stakeholders (business, user, supplier) need to be presented.
  4. Manage by stages: The project is planned and controlled on a stage by stage basis. Moving between stages includes updating the business case, risks, overall plan, and detailed next-stage plan in the light of new evidence.
  5. Manage by exception: A PRINCE2 project has defined tolerances (6 aspects above) for each project objective, to establish limits of delegated authority. If a management level forecasts that these tolerances are exceeded (e.g. time of a management stage will be longer than the estimated time in the current management stage). It is escalated to the next management level for a decision how to proceed.
  6. Focus on products: A PRINCE2 project focuses on the definition and delivery of the products, in particular their quality requirements.
  7. Tailor to suit the project: PRINCE2 is tailored to suit the project environment, size, complexity, importance, time capability and risk. Tailoring is the first activity in the process initiating a project and reviewed for each stage.

Not every aspect of PRINCE2 will be applicable to every project, thus every process has a note on scalability. This provides guidance to the project manager (and others involved in the project) as to how much of the process to apply. The positive aspect of this is that PRINCE2 can be tailored to the needs of a particular project. The negative aspect is that many of the essential elements of PRINCE2 can be omitted sometimes resulting in a PINO project – PRINCE in Name Only

Seven PRINCE2 practices and the management products used to support each practice

PracticeManagement products which support the practice
Business case
  • Business case
  • Benefits management approach
  • Sustainability management approach
Organizing
  • Communication management approach
  • Project management team structure
  • Role descriptions
Quality
  • Product description
  • Quality management approach
  • Quality register
  • Product register
Plans
  • Plan (project, stage, team, exception)
  • Project product description
  • Work package description
Risk
  • Risk management approach
  • Risk register
Issues
  • Issue management approach
  • Issue register
  • Issue report
Progress
  • Digital and data management approach
  • Daily log
  • Lessons log
  • Checkpoint report
  • Highlight report
  • Lessons report
  • Exception report
  • End stage report
  • End project report

Seven processes (who does what and when from start to finish)

  1. Starting up a project, in which the project team is appointed including an executive and a project manager, and a project brief is produced.
  2. Initiating a project, in which the business case is refined and project initiation documentation is assembled.
  3. Directing a project, in which the project board directs the project manager and oversees the project.
  4. Controlling a stage, in which the project manager authorises work packages to team managers, manages issues and risks, and reports progress to the project board.
  5. Managing product delivery, which provides an interface between the project manager and the team manager(s) by placing formal requirements on accepting, executing and delivering project work. [11]
  6. Managing stage boundaries, in which the project manager prepares the information for the project board to decide whether to authorise the next stage or close the project.
  7. Closing a project, in which the project is the formally closed, follow-on actions are documented and assigned, lessons are learned, and benefits are evaluated.

People in PRINCE2

The 7th edition of PRINCE2 introduced a major new aspect to the method - the role of people. The purpose of a project is to deliver change, which will affect the people who perform business as usual (BAU) activities. How well the project delivers the change, depends on the capabilities of the project team, the strength of the relationships between them, and the people impacted by the change. For these reasons, PRINCE2 recommends that projects must incorporate change management to be able to successfully implement the change into the organization.

Integration with other techniques

The management products described by PRINCE2 are only used for the "high-level" management of the project. Within its tasks, task managers must still decide on their own project management framework. Some suggestions given in the PRINCE2 manual are product based planning, change control, quality review technique, Kanban boards, Gantt charts, PERT charts and critical path analysis.

PRINCE2 can also be used to manage projects that use agile software development methods. [12]

Quality review technique

The quality review technique ensures a project's products are of the required standard (i.e. meet defined quality criteria). This takes place in a quality review meeting, which identifies errors in the product. The quality review meeting will not attempt to solve the problems it identifies. The meeting brings together people who have an interest in the project's outputs (or products) and people on the project team able to address issues identified.

History of PRINCE2 editions

Below is a list of all the editions of PRINCE2. As of 1 January 2020, "PRINCE2 2017" was renamed "PRINCE2 6th Edition". Also, the previous edition, "PRINCE2 2009" was renamed "PRINCE2 5th Edition". There were no other changes except the name of the brand. The reason for the name change was to "ensure the format of the name is aligned with that used by other frameworks within the project management industry". [13] As list of all versions of PRINCE2 are printed in the cover of the PRINCE2 manual:

Release yearRelease nameRelease edition
1996PRINCE2 1996PRINCE2 1st Edition*
1998PRINCE2 1998PRINCE2 2nd Edition*
2002PRINCE2 2002PRINCE2 3rd Edition*
2005PRINCE2 2005PRINCE2 4th Edition*
2009PRINCE2 2009PRINCE2 5th Edition
2017PRINCE2 2017PRINCE2 6th Edition
2023PRINCE2 2023PRINCE2 7th Edition

(*nth names added for other editions in order for context, but they were not referred to these names originally. However, they are referenced as such in the PRINCE2 manual cover page.)

Differences between 2009 and 2017 versions[ clarification needed ]

2009 version2017 version [10] Type
Benefits review planBenefits management approachManagement product
Communication management strategyCommunication management approachManagement product
Risk management strategyRisk management approachManagement product
Quality management strategyQuality management approachManagement product
Configuration management strategyChange control approachManagement product

New aspects introduced in the 7th edition[ clarification needed ]

PRINCE2 7th edition
Performance target for sustainability
Renaming of some principles
Renaming of themes to practices
Change practice now called Issues
Configuration management strategy
Introduction of new management products: sustainability management approach, digital and data management approach, project log.

Advantages and criticisms

PRINCE2 provides a method for managing projects within a clearly defined framework, but project management is a complex discipline and using such a framework is no guarantee of a successful project.

Some of the advertised benefits of PRINCE2 are: increased quality of the finished products, efficient control of resources, avoidance of either "heroic" (under-regulated) or "mechanistic" (over-regulated) working, and increased confidence among the project team.

PRINCE2 is sometimes considered inappropriate for small projects or where requirements are expected to change, due to the work required in creating and maintaining documents, logs and lists. The deliverable structure may also lead to focus on producing deliverables for their own sake, to "tick the boxes" rather than do more useful work.[ citation needed ]

The general response of PRINCE2's authors to criticism has been to point out that the methodology is scalable and can be tailored to suit the specific requirements and constraints of the project and the environment. [14] This strong emphasis on tailoring has led some users to complain that PRINCE2 is unfalsifiable, i.e. it is impossible to tell whether PRINCE2 "works" or constitutes "best practice" if any problems encountered with a project can be blamed on inappropriate application of PRINCE2 rather than on PRINCE2 itself.

The experiences of the Blair administration in the UK between 1997 and 2007 (and of subsequent UK governments) arguably undermine PRINCE2's claim to be "best practice", given the string of high-profile failed IT projects charged to the taxpayer during that time, [15] [16] [17] and the controversy surrounding the financial relationship between the Blair government and PRINCE2's co-owners Capita. [18] [19] PRINCE2's training material addresses these failures, blaming them on inappropriate tailoring of PRINCE2 to the project environment, and advocating for more PRINCE2 training for government project managers to solve the problem.[ citation needed ]

Differences from PMP

Project Management Professional (PMP) from Project Management Institute may be seen as a competitor of PRINCE2. In general, the UK, Australia prefer PRINCE2, and the US and American countries prefer PMP. Asia, Africa and the Middle East area have no strong preference for PMP or PRINCE2. The important thing is that PMP (PMBOK) can be used with PRINCE2.

PRINCE2 and PMP acknowledge each other's existence in their advertising material and attempt to position themselves as complementary products – PRINCE2 as a "methodology" and PMP as a "standard" [20] – which can be used alongside each other. In practice, companies and practitioners choose one system or both depending on the project environment, their geographical location and costs involved.

See also

Related Research Articles

Project management is the process of supervising the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. The primary constraints are scope, time and budget. The secondary challenge is to optimize the allocation of necessary inputs and apply them to meet predefined objectives.

A project plan, according to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), is: "...a formal, approved document used to guide both project execution and project control. The primary uses of the project plan are to document planning assumptions and decisions, facilitate communication among project stakeholders, and document approved scope, cost, and schedule baselines. A project plan may be sumarized or detailed."

A software company is an organisation — owned either by the state or private — established for profit whose primary products are various forms of software, software technology, distribution, and software product development. They make up the software industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Project manager</span> Professional in the field of project management

A project manager is a professional in the field of project management. Project managers have the responsibility of the planning, procurement and execution of a project, in any undertaking that has a defined scope, defined start and a defined finish; regardless of industry. Project managers are first point of contact for any issues or discrepancies arising from within the heads of various departments in an organization before the problem escalates to higher authorities, as project representative.

This article covers the historical timeline of project management. There is a general understanding that the history of modern project management started around 1950. Until 1900, projects were generally managed by creative architects and engineers themselves, among those, for example, Christopher Wren, Thomas Telford and Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

In the PRINCE2 project management method, a product description (PDD) is a structured format that presents information about a project product. It is a management product (document), usually created by the project manager during the process of initiating a project in the initial stage of the PRINCE2 project management method. It is approved by the project board as part of the project plan documentation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dynamic systems development method</span> Agile project delivery framework

Dynamic systems development method (DSDM) is an agile project delivery framework, initially used as a software development method. First released in 1994, DSDM originally sought to provide some discipline to the rapid application development (RAD) method. In later versions the DSDM Agile Project Framework was revised and became a generic approach to project management and solution delivery rather than being focused specifically on software development and code creation and could be used for non-IT projects. The DSDM Agile Project Framework covers a wide range of activities across the whole project lifecycle and includes strong foundations and governance, which set it apart from some other Agile methods. The DSDM Agile Project Framework is an iterative and incremental approach that embraces principles of Agile development, including continuous user/customer involvement.

A product software implementation method is a systematically structured approach to effectively integrate a software based service or component into the workflow of an organizational structure or an individual end-user.

Project Management Professional (PMP) is an internationally recognized professional designation offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI). As of 31 July 2020, there are 1,036,368 active PMP-certified individuals and 314 chartered chapters across 214 countries and territories worldwide.

The project documentation (PID) is one of the most significant artifacts in project management, which provides the foundation for the business project.

Product-based planning is a fundamental part of the PRINCE2 approach to project management, and is a method of identifying all of the products that make up or contribute to delivering the objectives of the project, and the associated work required to deliver them. The documents which define the Project itself are also considered Products.

Software project management is the process of planning and leading software projects. It is a sub-discipline of project management in which software projects are planned, implemented, monitored and controlled.

Managing Stage Boundaries is one of seven processes that make up PRINCE2, a systematic approach to project management developed by the UK's Office of Government Commerce and used widely in UK government and industry. The fundamental principle of Managing Stage Boundaries (SB) is to ensure that, at the end of each stage, the project stays focused on delivering business benefit.

Software Quality Management (SQM) is a management process that aims to develop and manage the quality of software in such a way so as to best ensure that the product meets the quality standards expected by the customer while also meeting any necessary regulatory and developer requirements, if any. Software quality managers require software to be tested before it is released to the market, and they do this using a cyclical process-based quality assessment in order to reveal and fix bugs before release. Their job is not only to ensure their software is in good shape for the consumer but also to encourage a culture of quality throughout the enterprise.

A glossary of terms relating to project management and consulting.

Project assurance or programme assurance is a discipline that seeks to provide an independent and objective oversight of the likely future performance of major projects for those responsible for sanctioning, financing or insuring such undertakings. The discipline has emerged as a response to consistent problems in major projects and the need to provide confidence for project or programme stakeholders of technologically advanced, high capital or high risk projects.

Small-scale project management is the specific type of project management of small-scale projects. These projects are characterised by factors such as short duration; low person hours; small team; size of the budget and the balance between the time committed to delivering the project itself and the time committed to managing the project. They are otherwise unique, time delineated and require the delivery of a final output in the same way as large-scale projects.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to project management:

AXELOS is a joint venture set up in 2014 by the Government of the United Kingdom and Capita, to develop, manage and operate qualifications in best practice, in methodologies formerly owned by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC). PeopleCert, an examination institute that was responsible for delivering AXELOS exams, acquired AXELOS in 2021.

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of practices and a framework for IT activities such as IT service management (ITSM) and IT asset management (ITAM) that focus on aligning IT services with the needs of the business.

References

  1. ↑ "What is PRINCE2®?". AXELOS. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  2. ↑ "PRINCE2 Consulting Organisations List". Archived from the original on 3 November 2007. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
  3. ↑ David Hinde (2012). PRINCE2 Study Guide. John Wiley & Sons. p. 16. ISBN   978-1-119-97097-2.
  4. ↑ Reid, Amy (30 July 2013). "Capita acquires majority stake in ITIL and PRINCE2". Association for project management. International project management association. Archived from the original on 30 January 2016. Retrieved 22 February 2016. AXELOS has been revealed as the name of the new joint venture between Capita and the Cabinet Office set up to manage the best management practice training tools and accreditations, including PRINCE2, and ITIL. [...] Capita and the Cabinet Office have established a 51:49 per cent stake in the new organisation that will own the intellectual property (IP) of this portfolio of products [...]
  5. ↑ www.peoplecert.org https://www.peoplecert.org/news-and-announcements/peoplecert-completes-axelos-acquisition . Retrieved 11 July 2024.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ↑ "PRINCE2 Methodology Overview: History, Definition & Meaning, Benefits, Certification". 10 August 2011.
  7. ↑ Lewinson, Mary (10 August 2011). "PRINCE2 Methodology Overview: History, Definition & Meaning, Benefits, Certification" . Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  8. ↑ "How Many PRINCE2 Certified In The World? | PRINCE2 Worldwide Popularity | Infographic | Knowledge Train". www.knowledgetrain.co.uk. 19 May 2023. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
  9. ↑ "Introducing the PRINCE2 2017 Update" (Press release). Axelos. 11 December 2017.
  10. 1 2 "Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2, 2017 Edition". Axelos.
  11. ↑ PRINCE2 manual
  12. ↑ "PRINCE2 Agile®". www.axelos.com. Axelos. Archived from the original on 15 March 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  13. ↑ "PRINCE2 2017 is renamed PRINCE2 6th Edition | UK". www.prince2.com. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  14. ↑ "OGC Best Management Practice – PRINCE2". Archived from the original on 25 December 2008. Retrieved 22 April 2009.
  15. ↑ "The Blair IT projects". ZDNet.com.
  16. ↑ King, Anthony; Crewe, Ivor (2013). The Blunders of our Governments. Oneworld Publications. ISBN   978-1780742663.
  17. ↑ "The costly trail of British government IT and 'big bang' project disasters". theguardian.com. 19 August 2014.
  18. ↑ "Blair avoids MPs' questions on Capita". Telegraph.co.uk. 2 April 2006.
  19. ↑ "Capita chairman quits after criticism of loans to Labour". theguardian.com. 24 March 2006.
  20. ↑ "Project Management Professional (PMP) ® Handbook". Project Management Institute. Archived from the original on 22 November 2011. Retrieved 18 September 2009.
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