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PRINCE2 Training Ebook for your mobile
This is an excellent free PRINCE2 Training revision guide for your mobile.
PRINCE2 is a structured method for effective project management. It is the standard used extensively by the UK Government and is widely recognised and used in the private sector, both in the UK and internationally. Silicon Beach Training provides a range of PRINCE2 Training courses in Brighton, Sussex, including PRINCE2 Practitioner Training and PRINCE2 Foundation Training.
Did you know we also run regular ISTQB / ISEB Software Testing Training, ITIL Training and IOSH Health and Safety Training courses?
PRINCE2, the method, is in the public domain, offering non-proprietary best-practice guidance on project management. PRINCE2 is a registered trademark of the Office of Government Commerce.
This e-Book will take you through the PRINCE2 methods of managing a project from start to finish. A great PRINCE2 revision guide.
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In PRINCE2 2009 “Components” have been replaced by “Themes”. All of our PRINCE2 Foundation courses and PRINCE2 Practitioner courses are now delivered using the PRINCE2 2009 manual. To learn more about the changes in PRINCE2 2009, visit our PRINCE2 2009 Update and PRINCE2 2009 FAQ pages.
PRINCE2 Themes – Business Case
The purpose of the Business Case theme is to establish mechanisms to judge whether the project is (and remains) desirable, viable and achievable as a means to support decision making in its (continued) investment.
It is a PRINCE2 principle that a project must have continued business justification. The business justification is the reason for the project. Without it no project should start. If business justification is valid at the start of a project, but disappears once it is under way, the project should be stopped or changed.
In PRINCE2, the business justification is documented in a Business Case describing the reasons for the project based on estimated costs, risks and the expected benefits.
The reasons for undertaking the project must drive decision making. When projects face changes or risks, the impact analysis should focus on the Business Case, remembering that the project is only a means to an end and not the end itself.
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PRINCE2 Themes – Organisation
The purpose of the Organisation theme is to define and establish the project’s structure of accountability and responsibilities (the who?).
There are four layers of management in a project:
- Corporate or Programme Management
- Project Board
- Project Manager
- Team Managers
© Crown Copyright 2009. Reproduced under Licence from OGC
- Executive – a key decision maker who owns the business case
- Senior User – Provides user resources. Defines and verifies user requirements and expectations.
- Senior Supplier – Provides supplier resources.
- Project Assurance – Advises on selection of team members. Advises on stakeholder engagement.
- Project Manager – Prepares strategies. Reviews and updates project management team structure. Prepares role descriptions.
- Team Managers – Manage team members. Advises on team members and stakeholder engagement.
- Project Support – Provide administrative support to the project management team.
Some of the PRINCE2 roles cannot be shared or delegated. The Project Manager role cannot be shared or the decision making roles and responsibilities of the Project Board or Project Manager.
The Project Board is responsible for any publicity and dissemination of information about the project to the outside world.
Learn more about the Organisation Theme on our PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner Training Courses in Brighton, Sussex.
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PRINCE2 Theme – Plans
The purpose of the Plans theme is to facilitate communication and control by defining the means of delivering the products (the where and how, by whom, and estimating the when and how much).
Effective project management relies on effective planning as without a plan there is no control. Planning provides all personnel involved in the project with information on:
- What is required
- How it will be achieved and by whom, using what specialist equipment and resources
- When events will happen
- Whether the targets (for time, cost, quality, scope, risk and benefits) are achievable.
The development and maintenance of credible plans provides a baseline against which progress
can be measured. They enable planning information to be disseminated to stakeholders in order to secure any commitments which support the plan.
PRINCE2 approach to plans
The development following activities will be used to create all levels of plan:
- Design the plan
- Define and analyse the products
- Identify activities and dependencies
- Prepare estimates
- Prepare the schedule
- Document the Plan
- Analyse the risks
Plans are produced at three levels in a PRINCE2 project.
© Crown Copyright 2009. Reproduced under Licence from OGC
- Initiation Stage Plan – this plan covers the activities of the initiation stage for the project.
- Project plan – this is the high level overall plan that covers the full duration of the project.
- Stage plan– this is an extract of the project plan covering a specific stage with more detail.
- Team plan – this is an optional plan which would contain a more detailed breakdown of a section of the stage plan for use by a team when developing certain products.
- Exception plan – when a plan is predicted to no longer finish within the agreed tolerances, an exception plan is produced to replace that plan.
- Benefits review plan – covers activities during and after the project to determine achievement of benefits.
The Plans Theme is covered in more detail on our PRINCE2 Foundation course and PRINCE2 Practitioner courses in Brighton, Sussex.
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PRINCE2 Themes – Progress
The purpose of the Progress theme is to establish mechanisms to monitor and compare actual achievements against those planned; provide a forecast for the project objectives and the project’s continued viability; and control any unacceptable deviations.
PRINCE2 Processes and Themes are explained thoroughly on our PRINCE2 Training Courses in Brighton, Sussex.
Two of the principles of PRINCE2 are managing by stages and continued business justification. The Progress theme provides the mechanisms for monitoring and control, enabling the critical assessment of ongoing viability.
Another PRINCE2 principle is that projects are managed by exception, setting tolerances for project objectives to establish limits of delegated authority. Tolerances define the amount of discretion that each management level can exercise without the need to refer up to the next level for approval. The Progress theme provides the mechanisms to monitor progress against the allowed tolerances, and the controls to escalate to the next level should any forecast suggest that one or more tolerances will be exceeded.
Control of progress is all about decision making and is central to project management, ensuring
that the project remains viable against its approved Business Case.
Setting controls covers:
- Authorisations – The stage breaks for Project Board decisions
- Progress updates – the frequency of highlight, checkpoint and end stage reports.
- Exceptions and changes – tolerances that apply, exception and change report requirements
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PRINCE2 Themes – Risk Management
The purpose of the Risk theme is to identify, assess and control uncertainty and, as a result, improve the ability of the project to succeed.
Risk taking in projects is inevitable since projects are enablers of change and change introduces uncertainty, hence risk. Management of risk should be systematic and not based on chance. It is about the proactive identification, assessment and control of risks that might affect the delivery of the project’s objectives.
The project should establish and maintain a cost effective risk management procedure. The aim is to support better decision making through a good understanding of risks – their causes, likelihood, impact, timing, and the choice of responses to them.
Management of risk is a continual activity, performed throughout the life of the project. Without an ongoing and effective risk management procedure it is not possible to give confidence that the project is able to meet its objectives and therefore whether it is worthwhile for it to continue. Hence effective risk
management is a prerequisite of the continued business justification principle.
Risk management:
For risk management to be effective, risks need to be:
- Identified This includes risks being considered that could affect the achievement of the project’s objectives, and then described to ensure that there is a common understanding of these risks
- Assessed This includes ensuring that each risk can be ranked in terms of estimated likelihood, impact and immediacy, and understanding the overall level of risk associated with the project
- Controlled This includes identifying appropriate responses to risks, assigning risk owners, and then executing, monitoring and controlling these responses.
Risk Management procedure
© Crown Copyright 2009. Reproduced under Licence from OGC
PRINCE2 recommends a risk management procedure comprising the following five steps:
- Identify (context and risks)
- Assess (i.e. Estimate and Evaluate)
- Plan
- Implement
- Communicate.
The first four steps are sequential, with the ’Communicate’ step running in parallel because the findings of any of the other steps may need to be communicated prior to the completion of the overall process. All of the steps are iterative in nature in that when additional information becomes available, it is often necessary to revisit earlier steps and carry them out again to achieve the most effective result.
In addition to our PRINCE2 Courses in Brighton, Sussex, we can also arrange Risk Management course on a private basis on dates to suit.
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PRINCE2 Theme – Quality
The purpose of the Quality theme is to define and implement the means by which the project will create and verify products that are fit for purpose.
In addition to our PRINCE2 Foundation training and PRINCE2 Practitioner training courses in Brighton, Sussex, we can also arrange private Total Quality Management training.
The Quality theme defines the PRINCE2 approach to ensuring that the project’s products:
- Meet business expectations
- Enable the desired benefits to be achieved subsequently.
The ’product focus’ principle is central to PRINCE2’s approach to quality. It provides an explicit common
understanding of what the project will create (the scope) and the criteria against which the project’s products will be assessed (the quality). Without this understanding, the project would be exposed to major risks (such as acceptance disputes, rework, uncontrolled change, user dissatisfaction) that could weaken or invalidate the Business Case.
The Quality theme also covers the implementation of continuous improvement during the project – for example, looking for ways to introduce more efficiency or effectiveness into the management of the project and the project’s products. Capturing and acting on lessons contributes to the PRINCE2 quality approach, as it is a means of achieving continuous improvement.
PRINCE2 approach to quality
The specific treatment for quality in PRINCE2 is the focus on products from the outset, requiring systematic activities to:
- Identify all the project’s products (i.e. to the level at which the project intends to exert control).
- Define them in Product Descriptions – including the quality criteria by which they will be assessed; the quality methods to be used in designing, developing and accepting them; and the quality responsibilities of those involved.
- Implement and track the quality methods employed throughout the project.
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PRINCE2 Theme – Change
The purpose of the Change theme is to identify, assess and control any potential and approved changes to the baseline.
Change is inevitable during the life of a project, and every project needs a systematic approach to the identification, assessment and control of issues that may result in change.
As changes may arise from project team members, stakeholder requests, complaints or a wide range
of other factors, PRINCE2 provides a common approach to issue and change control.
Issue and change control is a continual activity, performed throughout the life of the project.
The aim of issue and change control procedures is not to prevent changes; it is to ensure that every
change is agreed by the relevant authority before it takes place.
Configuration Management
The starting point for all projects will be to identify whether there are any corporate or programme policies and processes that need to be applied, and incorporate them into the project’s own Configuration Management Strategy. The project’s Configuration Management Strategy should define:
- The configuration management procedure (e.g. planning, identification, control, status accounting, verification and audit)
- The issue and change control procedure (e.g. capturing, examining, proposing, decision making, implementing)
- The tools and techniques that will be used
- The records that will be kept
- How the performances of the procedures will be reported
- Timing of configuration management and issue and change control activities
- The roles and responsibilities for configuration management and issue and change control activities (including whether any corporate or programme management roles are to be involved).
Silicon Beach Training provide comprehensive hands-on PRINCE2 Foundation course, PRINCE2 Practitioner course and Change Management courses in Brighton, Sussex.
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