Home » Blog » PRINCE2 & Project Management » PRINCE2 update to PRINCE2 2009

All of our public PRINCE2 Training courses are delivered using the new PRINCE2 2009 manual. If you’re moving from using PRINCE2 2005 to PRINCE2 2009, you’ll need to know what’s changed, so we’ve summarised the main differences below:

So what’s the big deal with the PRINCE2 2009 update. The simple answer is … there isn’t one.

The differences between PRINCE2 2005 and 2009 are relatively cosmetic and certainly will not require people who have passed the exams under 2005 conditions to re-sit the exam. Your qualification will be maintained, but you will need to re-register (as has always been the case) for Practitioner certification every 3-5 years.

So what are the key differences?

• Seven underlying Project PRINCIPLES have been formally introduced to the PRINCE2 methodology. These principles are not new to PRINCE2, but they are emphasised far more in the new structure.
• The eight components have been reduced to seven and are now known as THEMES. Configuration management has been dropped, but that is not to say that we no longer do CM, it has been absorbed into the Change THEME.
• The eight processes have been reduced to seven – Planning has been dropped, but that is not to say that we don’t do planning any more, the process has been absorbed into the Plans THEME
• The Product Based Planning technique has been fully absorbed into the Plans Theme
• The Quality Review technique has been fully absorbed into the Quality Theme
• The Change Control technique has been fully absorbed into the Change Theme
• The Risk, Quality and Issue ‘logs’ have all become ‘Registers’ and are all created during the Initiating a Project process
• A Product Description of the final product of the project is now an integral part of the Project Brief, and details the Acceptance Criteria for the project.
• The Risk Theme proposes a new set of countermeasures
• The Controls component has been replaced with a Progress Theme – the controlled Start and Close elements having moved to their respective processes.
• Initiating a Project process is now far more geared towards ensuring that the correct ‘project strategic environment’ is established for the project before the PID is approved

And then there are the exams….

What are the key differences?

• The foundation exam is still 75 multiple choice questions, but the structure of them has changed to match the style of the new 2009 manual.
• The exam is ‘closed book’ and is 1 hour long.
• Each exam will have 5 ‘new questions’ which are monitored by APMG for future papers. There are therefore 70 live questions and the pass mark is 50%. Delegates will not be told which 5 questions are ‘new’ an there marks will be based only upon the 70 ‘live questions.
• The Practitioner exam will still be a scenario based ‘Objective testing’ format which is a complex form of multiple choice and will consist of nine topics.
• The exam is ‘open book’ format, but the only open book allowed is the PRINCE2 manual.
• The Practitioner exam is 2.5 hours long, therefore approximately 15 minutes / topic allows 15 minutes for reading time of the scenario and supporting information.
• Each topic will carry 12 marks, therefore maximum marks of 108. The pass mark is 55%. You do NOT need to pass every topic to pass the exam.

Silicon Beach Training offer PRINCE2 Foundation, PRINCE2 Practitioner and PRINCE2 Practitioner Conversion courses on a public basis.

If you have any questions about the new PRINCE2 2009 format or would like to arrange training, please call us on 01273 622272 or e-mail info@siliconbeachtraining.co.uk

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PRINCE2 & Project Management, PRINCE2 2009, PRINCE2 Foundation Training, PRINCE2 Practitioner, PRINCE2 Practitioner Training., PRINCE2 Training

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This entry was posted by Colin Welch on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 11:22 am and is filed under PRINCE2 & Project Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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