CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF PRINCE2

PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) is a project management and governance framework that is used in more than 150 countries.⁷ It provides senior management with ongoing assurance that their funded projects are generating the expected level of business value.

The PRINCE2 framework has the flexibility to be applied to projects of any type, size, duration, complexity, and scope, and is applicable to both Information Technology (IT) and non-IT projects.

PRINCE2 is based on the understanding that well-managed projects need:

• to start with a justified business case and an organized plan for delivering the identified business value.
• to progress in a way that enables the project delivery team to generate the required outputs with ongoing assurance to senior management that:
  • work is progressing
  • changes, issues, and risks are being managed
  • agreed timelines, budgets, and quality metrics are being achieved and
  • the business case for the project work continues to be justified.
• to complete the project with confirmation of the achieved business value, documented records of the project work (and closure), and feedback to the organization on lessons learned to benefit future projects.

The PRINCE2 framework achieves this with an integrated approach of:⁸

Seven principles that guide all of the project work:

1. Continued business justification – is there a justifiable reason for starting the project that will remain consistent throughout its duration?
2. Learning from experience – PRINCE2 project teams should continually seek and draw on lessons learned from previous work.
3. Defined roles and responsibilities – the PRINCE2 project team should have a clear organizational structure and involve the right people in the right tasks.
4. Management by stages – PRINCE2 projects should be planned, monitored, and controlled on a stage-by-stage basis.
5. Manage by exception – PRINCE2 projects should have defined tolerances for each project objective to establish limits of delegated authority.
6. A focus on products – PRINCE2 projects focus on the product definition, delivery, and quality requirements.
7. Tailoring to suit the project environment – PRINCE2 is tailored to suit the project’s environment, size, complexity, importance, capability, and risk.⁹

Seven themes of project management disciplines that need to be enforced throughout the project lifecycle:

1. Business case: What value would delivering the project bring to the organization?
2. Organization: How will the project team’s individual roles and responsibilities be defined in order for them to effectively manage the project?
3. Quality: What quality requirements and measures are there and how will the project deliver them?
4. Plans: What steps are required to develop the plans and PRINCE2 techniques that should be used?
5. Risk: How will project management address the uncertainties in its plans and the project environment?
6. Change – How will project management assess and act on unforeseen issues or requests for change?
7. Progress: How will the ongoing viability and performance of the plans determine how (and whether) the project should proceed?¹⁰

Seven processes that comprise the full project lifecycle with detailed checklists of recommendations for each process:

1. Starting up a project.
2. Directing a project.
3. Initiating a project.
4. Controlling a stage.
5. Managing product delivery.
6. Managing stage boundaries.
7. Closing a project.

All of these are adaptable to suit any project environment.

The PRINCE2 framework also defines specific project roles and responsibilities that are necessary to implement these principles, themes, and processes effectively, specifically:

• The Project Board, a group that is responsible for the overarching management of the project and ensuring that the project is continuing to deliver its intended business value for the organization. Minimally, the Project Board comprises three key participants:
  • The Executive, who represents the senior management interests of the organization and has the ultimate decision-making responsibility for the project.
  • The Senior User(s), who represent the target audience that will be using the outputs from the project work and are responsible for making key decisions regarding the capabilities that the project team delivers.
  • The Senior Supplier(s), who represent the internal or external team that is delivering the required outputs. Where work is being undertaken by multiple teams, e.g. an internal development team and an external software vendor, the Senior Supplier role may be filled by a key representative from each team.

  Other Project Board members are included as required to represent key functions across the organization, e.g. Quality Assurance, Customer Support.

• The Project Manager, who is responsible for the project delivery in accordance with the terms established by the Project Board, including allocating work; providing status updates; managing issues and risks; monitoring time, budget, scope, benefit, and quality tolerances; and raising exceptions.

There are other roles identified in PRINCE2, e.g. the team manager. These will be elaborated upon further in the PRINCE2 Agile implementation sections of this book.

In addition to the principles, themes, processes, and roles described, PRINCE2 identifies a number of project artifacts that need to be developed to authorize the project to begin and to ensure effective ongoing project management, including the project brief, the project initiation documentation (PID), the project product description, the benefits review plan, stage plans, highlight reports, checkpoint reports, exception reports, the configuration item record, the issue register, and the risk register. These will also be elaborated upon in the implementation sections.

To ensure that PRINCE2 is executed effectively, there is a structured PRINCE2 qualification scheme that provides globally recognized confirmation of three levels of PRINCE2 knowledge: Foundation, Practitioner, and Professional.¹¹

Figure 2 provides an overview of the PRINCE2 project governance structure, including the relationship between the Project Board, the project manager and the project delivery team.

Figure 2: Overview of the PRINCE2 project governance structure

In reviewing this diagram, it is important to note the cloud that represents the project delivery team and the delivery process in PRINCE2. The PRINCE2 framework provides the expectations for what the project team will deliver, when it will be delivered, to what level of quality, and at what cost; it does not, however, specify how these required outputs are developed. That is the responsibility of the project delivery team under the guidance of the project manager.

The flexibility in delivery of PRINCE2 allows it to be applicable across a broad range of project types, durations, sizes, and levels of complexity. This flexibility is also the reason why PRINCE2 can readily incorporate, and integrate with, each of the Agile methods described in the following chapter.

Further detail about PRINCE2 and the PRINCE2 qualification is provided on the official PRINCE2 website at www.axelos.com/best-practice-solutions/prince2, with additional resources on PRINCE2 provided in the Bibliography.

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⁷ Foreword, PRINCE2 Agile, Keith Richards, AXELOS (2015): www.axelos.com/store/book/prince2-agile.

⁸ As described on the AXELOS Official PRINCE2 website at www.axelos.com/best-practice-solutions/prince2/what-is-prince2.

⁹ Those readers who are familiar with Agile methods will see the alignment between PRINCE2 principles, such as Learn from Experience, and proven Agile practices.

¹⁰ Those readers who are familiar with Agile methods will also see the alignment between PRINCE2 themes, such as Managing Quality and Risk, and proven Agile practices.

¹¹ See www.axelos.com/qualifications/prince2-qualifications/prince2-agile.