Project Management using

PRINCE2
Overview and discussion of the
PRINCE2 methodology
Overview

• PRINCE2 overview
o Process diagram
o The main processes of PRINCE2
o The key themes of PRINCE2
o Tools and techniques used by PRINCE2

• PRINCE2 - case studies (2)

• Key documents used in PRINCE2

o Project Brief and Project Initiation Document
o Project, Communication and Quality Plans
o Monitoring: Highlight and Exception reports
o Final project reports and lessons learned
PRINCE2 overview - PRINCE2 processes

Corporate or programme management

Directing a project

Starting up a Initiating a Controlling a Managing Closing a

project project stage stage project
boundaries

Managing
product
delivery
The PRINCE2 processes

Projects managed using PRINCE2 make use of the following

processes:

• Starting up a project (project definition and viability)

• Initiating a project (planning, preparing and ensuring
viability)
• Controlling a stage (day-to-day management)
• Managing product delivery (monitoring product progress)
• Managing stage boundaries (ensuring smooth progress
between different stages)
• Planning (project, communication and quality planning)
• Closing a project (reviewing how the project went)
PRINCE2 - the key parties involved
Project Board

Senior Executive Senior user

supplier

• The project board is the body that liaises with the

corporate managing, takes ownership of the project, and
that provides the project manager with help and advice
PRINCE2 - the key parties involved

Project Manager

Team Team Team

manager manager ... manager
(1) (2) (k)

The key members of the project team are:

• Project manager (ensures product delivery is
managed)
• Team manager (ensures that assigned to the team
are completed)
• Team member (undertakes the development of the
product(s)
PRINCE2 - Directing a project

The key aims and objectives of the directing a project process

are:

• Allow the project board to ensure the project is on tack, and

progressing towards completion
• Provide the project manager with help and guidance during
the project
• Liaise with corporate management

Directing a project is a process the mainly runs during:

• Initiation (ensuring the project is set up properly)
• Stage boundaries (ensuring that transition is possible)
• Ad-hoc direction (if urgent attention is required)
• Project closure (ensuring smooth hand-over)
Directing a project - Project Board

• The benefit of PRINCE2 is that is avoid micro-management

(i.e. the project board leave the project manager to drive the
product delivery)

• To allow this the project board monitors projects through the

use of various reports
o Highlight report (a brief report on progress)
o Exception report (prepared when something goes wrong)
o End stage report (overview of progress during the current
stage, and outlining the next stage)
Starting up a project

Most projects (and especially IT projects) fail because there

was a lack of understanding, no clear business case or plan for
the project.

• PRINCE2 avoids this by having a specific stage that

o Produces a clear outline of what the project is about
(project brief)
o Provides an underlying motivation for the project
(business case)
o Ensuring that an appropriate project team is in place
(project manager, team manager(s) etc.) that has the
necessary skills to complete the project
o Ensuring that an initiation stage is planned
Initiating a project

The starting up process ensures we have a sound project idea

and underlying business case, as well as the appropriate team.

The initiation process takes this and develops the following:

• A clear project plan (how the project will be split into stages)
• Refines the project brief and business case
• Ensures that there is a clear communication plan showing
communication between the project board, project manager,
team manager and team members
• Ensure the necessary resources are agreed and in place
• Risk analysis performed and contingency plan in place
• Define a base-line (cost and time) against which progress is
measured
Controlling a stage

It is all well and good developing a plan, but for it to be effective

there must be some control

The controlling a stage process (project manager's main day to

day duties) involves:

• Authorising work to be done (with team manager)

• Monitoring the progress of work packages
• Watching for change (proactive)
• Reporting (highlight, checkpoint and exception (where
necessary) reports are prepared)
• Taking corrective action (where, and when necessary)
Managing product delivery

• The key outputs of a PRINCE2 project are products

• Part of controlling a stage is organising the work to be done,

and ensuring that it does get done - this is the role of the
managing product delivery process

o Ensuring work is authorised and accepted by a team

o Ensuring that the products completed meet the necessary
acceptance criteria
o Ensuring work is completed
o Checking work against schedules
o Approval of products 
Managing stage boundaries

• In order to complete a project successfully it is a good idea

to split it down into stages. 

• As an example a software development project may be split

down as follows:
o Start-up
o Initiation
o Analysis
o Design
o Implementation
o Testing
o Evaluation
o Project closure
Managing stage boundaries

The managing stage boundaries process ensures a smooth

transition between different stages:

• Assure the project board that all deliverables of the current

stage are completed
• Ensure that the project board has access to all necessary
information to ensure the viability of the project
• Provide the project board with all necessary information to
approve the current stage (complete) and the next stage
(ongoing)
• Update the lessons learned, risk and issue logs (as
necessary)
Planning

• A project can quickly go wrong if there are insufficient plans

in place, or if sufficient plans are not monitored and updated
as necessary

• The planning process of PRINCE2 is used during a number

by a number of other processes:
o Starting up
o Initiation
o Managing product delivery
o Managing stage boundaries

• Planning is a key process is any project, so we will take a

deeper look at the PRINCE2 planning process
Planning

The key aims of the planning process in PRINCE2 are to:

• Ensure that a sensible and workable project plan is set up

• Ensure the project plan is further elaborated in the form of a

stage plan for each stage of the project

• Update project and stage plans at regular intervals to reflect

project progress, or change
Closing a project

• Bringing a project to a controlled closure is a key aspect of

PRINCE2

o Check to what extent the aims and objectives of the

project have been met
o Ensure that the customer is satisfied that their
requirements have been met
o Acceptance of products by corporate management
o Elicit any follow-on actions
o Capture and evaluate lessons learned
o Prepare an end-project report
o Close the project down 
PRINCE2 themes

• As well as the key processes PRINCE2 uses to manage

project there are also a number of themes:

o Business case (why the project is needed)

o Organisation (define project structure, responsibility &
accountability)
o Quality (define and implement procedures for evaluating
whether a product is fit for purpose)
o Plans (facilitating communication and control)
o Risks (assess, identify and control uncertainty)
o Change (identify, assess and control change)
o Progress (monitor and compare actual against planned
achievement) 
Business case theme
• One of the principles of PRINCE2 is that any project should
have a solid justification (business case)

• This business case must be continually monitored and if

such a business case dissolves then the project should be
closed

• A key principle of PRINCE2 is that no project should start

without a business case being present

• At the starting up stage a business case is prepared as part

of the project brief 

• It is the underlying business case that drives decision

making
Organisation theme

• Within PRINCE2 projects there are four known layers of

management
o Corporate or programme management (people who
asked for the project to be undertaken)
o Project Board (look after the project on behalf of
corporate management
o Project Manager (responsible for managing the
deliverables)
o Team managers (responsible for managing the delivery
or work assigned) to them
Organisation theme - roles and
responsibilities
• Project board
o Provide the project manager with help and guidance as
well as deciding whether the project is still viable
• Project manager (PM)
o Organises and controls the project
o Chooses who will work on the project
o Makes sure work is completed on time and to agreed
standards
•  Team manager
o Responsible for completing the work
o Ensures that the team produces the required products to
the required standard
o Agrees the work to be done with the PM
Quality theme

• Projects managed using PRINCE2 have a set of customer

requirements and acceptance criteria

• The quality theme is responsible for ensuring that the

products produced meet agreed standards

• The theme aims to ensure that the products produced:

o meet the required customer/business expectations
o enable the desired benefits to be achieved (reason for
doing the project in the first place)

• The underlying principle of the quality theme is that we

understand what will be created, and the criteria against
which it will be measured
Plans theme

• Planning is a key feature of any project

o Failing to plan is planning to fail
o Without proper plans in place there is no way to control
project progress
•  Effective plans detail:
o What products are required
o How the products can be developed, and what resources
are required
o Timelines of when products should be developed
o Dependencies between products
• Effective plans provide the project team with a baseline
against which progress can be measured 
Risks theme

• If risks are not properly controlled then a project can fail

• The risk theme aims to assess and control uncertainly - risks

are inevitable, but if they are managed well then a project
can still succeed

• A PRINCE2 project should define and deploy a cost-

effective risk management strategy

• A good strategy should understand

o causes of risks
o likelihood of a risk occurring
o consequences of a risk occurring
o timing & response
Risk theme - PRINCE2 risk procedure

PRINCE2 recommends the following steps are included as part

of a project risk management procedure:

• Identification
• Assessment/analysis
• Planning for risk
• Implementation of risk management response
• Communication to the project team

• Risk management is an ongoing procedure, and PRINCE2

advocates the use of a risk & issue log for monitoring and
controlling risks
Change theme

• A common problem with IYT-based projects is that scope is

poorly defined, and changes made are not properly
managed.

• PRINCE2 has a change theme that is responsible for:

o Identifying, assessing and controlling change (through a

formal change request mechanism) 
o The idea of the change control mechanism is not to
prevent change, but rather ensure that it is effectively
managed
Change control - Configuration
Management Strate 
As part of change control PRINCE2 advocates the set-up of a
configuration management system:

• configuration management procedure

• issue and change control procedure
• tools & techniques used
• records to be kept
• roles & responsibilities of those involved in configuration
management, issue & change control 
Progress theme

• For monitoring and control to be effective there must be a

way of assessing progress

• The PRINCE2 progress theme is designed to allow actual

progress to be compared against base lines.

• Progress theme allows actual progress to be compared

against a baseline (within allowed tolerance levels)
PRINCE2 - tools & techniques

• One of the major advantages of the PRINCE2 methodology

is that it allows flexibility with respect to tools used

• PRINCE2 only requires the use of two specific techniques

o Product-based planning
o Quality review

• The 2009 version suggests a number of additional tools and

techniques that could be used, but this is up to the project
team
Product-based planning

•  All PRINCE2 projects are viewed from the perspective of the

products that they will produce

• The technique of product-based planning is key to the

successful design of project, stage and team plans

• Key techniques used in the product-based planning technique

include:
– Product Breakdown Structure (PBS)
– Product Flow Diagram (PFD)
– Product Description
Product Breakdown Structure
Product Breakdown Structure –
Management Products (PB, PID)
PBS - rules
Product Flow Diagram (PFD)
Product Flow Diagram – some
examples
Quality review

  • PRINCE 2 is based upon the notion of “control”

• One area that this is exercised is that of Quality

• The Quality Review technique aims to ensure that there is a

process in place for monitoring and controlling the quality of
the products produced

• The main objectives of the quality review technique are:

• Assess the conformity of a product against set criteria
• Provide a platform for product improvement
• Involve all people who have an interest in the product in
checking quality
• Spread ownership of the project
 Quality review - roles
• There are a number of key roles in Quality Review:
• Review chairperson (overall control of review)

• Producer (person responsible for creation)

• Reviewer (review product against set criteria)

• Scribe (administration and note taking)

PRINCE2 - case studies

Here are a couple of motivating stories that shows you what

can happen if you effectively manage projects:

• NASA Mars space probe (1999)

• UK passport office (1999)
Key documents used by PRINCE2

• Project documents
o Project Brief
o Project Initiation Document (a collection of documents)

• Planning documents
o Project plan
o Stage plan
o Communication plan
o Quality plan

• Monitoring and controlling documents

o Highlight report
o Exception report
o Checkpoint report
Project brief

• Project definition - explaining what the project should

achieve

• Outline business case - motivation for the project (making

the project viable)

• Project product description - customers quality expectations,

users acceptance criteria

• Project approach - how the business option will be delivered

• Project Management team structure - organogram

• Role descriptions  - what each project role will involve 

Project Initiation Document (PID)

• Project definition - what the project needs to achieve

• Project Approach - how the business option is delivered

• Business case - motivation for project

• Project team structure - organogram

• Role descriptions - what each project member is responsible

for

• Quality Management strategy - what techniques and

standards are used for product approval
Project Initiation Document

• Configuration Management strategy - how, and by who, the

projects products will be controlled and protected

• Risk Management strategy - how risks will be identified,

monitored, controlled etc.

• Communication Management strategy - type and frequency

of communication 

• Project Plan - outline of how and when objectives will be

achieved

• Project controls - project level controls

Project Plan

• Plan description - description of what the plan encompasses

• Plan prerequisites - anything that must be in place for the

plan to succeed

• External dependencies - any external dependencies that

might affect the plan

• Planning assumptions - any underlying assumptions on

which the plan is based

• Lessons incorporated - relevant lessons learned from

previous projects
Project Plan

• Monitoring and control - details of how the plan will be

monitored and controlled

• Budgets - covering time and cost (including risk and change)

• Tolerances - Time cost and scope 

• Product descriptions

• Schedules