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Differences Between PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner Qualification

Written by Andy Trainer – Wed 24 Apr 2013

We often receive the same question about our PRINCE2® Training Courses here at Silicon Beach: "what's the difference between the PRINCE2 Foundation and the PRINCE2 Practitioner qualification?"

With that in mind, we thought we'd put together a handy table outlining the main differences, as well as our thoughts on which people and positions that are best suited to each course.

Hopefully, it will make your decision that little bit easier when booking your PRINCE2 Training, although if you're still struggling to decide, our sales team are always on hand to help!

So what are the main differences?

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PRINCE2 Exam Format Change

Written by Andy Trainer – Wed 05 Dec 2012

APMG, the accrediting board for PRINCE2® have announced a format change to both the PRINCE2 Practitioner and Practitioner Re-Registration exams.

These changes have come about as result of a candidate survey which highlighted some issues with the timings of each exam. If you would like to learn all you need to pass your PRINCE2 exams, try our PRINCE2 Training Courses.

The fully changed formats for each are as follows:

Practitioner Exam

• 8 questions
• 10 question items per question, each worth one mark, total 80 marks
• 2.5 hours (150 minutes) duration, no additional reading time
• 44+ marks to pass (55%)
• Open book exam (official PRINCE2 manual only)
• Trainer pass mark - 53 out of 80 (66%)

Practitioner Re-Registration Exam

• 3 questions
• 10 question items per question, each worth one mark, total 30 marks
• 1 hour (60 minute) duration, no additional reading time
• 17+ marks to pass (55%)
• Open book exam (official PRINCE2 manual only)
• Trainer pass mark - 20 out of 30 (66%)

These changes will take immediate effect from January 1st 2013 and will entirely replace the 'old' format of the exams.

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Managing Small Projects in PRINCE2

Written by Andy Trainer – Tue 13 Nov 2012

Applying PRINCE2® to smaller projects can be difficult because it was originally designed to cope with the larger, more encompassing side of Project Management.

As such, when undertaking smaller projects, some Project Managers have a tendency to disregard PRINCE2 principles and take a more holistic approach. More often than not, this will be of detriment to the overall success of the project, as regardless of size it is still important to adhere to accepted processes within Project Management.

On our PRINCE2 training courses, our trainers go out of their way to make sure that everyone learns how to tailor PRINCE2 to their own project environment.

The 2009 'refresh' of PRINCE2 sought to give scope for the tailoring of PRINCE2 processes to projects of various sizes. As such, in this post we will discuss how to adapt key aspects of PRINCE2 to apply to small-scale projects and why this is so important. But first we'll discuss the way in which you shouldn't be managing small-projects.

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PRINCE2 Crossword Revision

Written by Andy Trainer – Fri 15 Jul 2011

Read (and memorise as many as you can!) all of the following statements about PRINCE2®. 

Then download our PRINCE2 crossword and see how many you've remembered!

• A project is a unique series of actions designed to accomplish a unique goal.
• The Project brief is the first key document in PRINCE2’s prescribed method for starting up a project.
• A project is defined as a temporary organisation, created to deliver one or more business products based on and agreed Business Case.
• The Project Manager will spend most of their time on the Controlling a Stage process which describes the day to day monitoring and control activities for the project.
• The Project Initiation document collates most of the documents from the SU (Starting up a Project) and IP (Initiating a Project) processes.
• The Project Initiation Documents, including the Project Plan are part of the Initiating a Project process which examines the justification for the project.
• The pre-project process that gathers the necessary data to start a project is the Start up a Project process.
• The process that provides a controlled way to complete a stage and plan the next one is Managing a Stage Boundary.
• Information is provided to the Project Board at the end of each stage about the current status of a project as part of the Managing a Stage Boundary process.
• The project’s Products are delivered as part of the Managing Product Delivery process.
• There can be up to four outputs from the Managing Product Delivery process.
• Delivery of the products and preparation for project closure are part of the Closing a Project process.
• All the products defined in the Project Plan are listed in order of importance in the Product Breakdown Structure.
• The Team Manager creates a Team Plan to plan the project team’s activities.  This is agreed with the Project Manager.
• Information from upper management, outlining what is required from the project is contained in the Project Mandate.
• The time from the start of the project and the close of the project and acceptance of the product is known as the Project Lifecycle.
• The Project Board must be given an Exception Plan if a stage is expected to go out of the agreed tolerance.
• The method and frequency that information is exchanged is defined in the Communication Management Strategy.
• The Project Board approves the completion of a stage and authorises the start of the next stage during the Directing a Project process.
• The Project Manager creates a regular Highlight Report for the Project Board to provide information on the process of each stage.  This is produced on a time-driven frequency, e.g.: every two weeks.
• The Project Board’s 2nd control point and 2nd activity is Authorising the Project.
• Work Packages are allocated to the Team Leaders by the Project Manager.
• The Team Manager provides Checkpoint Reports to the Project Manager, based on the regular team meetings.
• A grouping of a certain set of techniques used in the development of the product is known as a Technical Stage.

Once you've finished the PRINCE2 Crossword download the PRINCE2 Crossword Solution to check your answers.  Remember, no cheating!!

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PRINCE2 Crossword

Written by Andy Trainer – Fri 15 Jul 2011

As much as we love PRINCE2®, we will admit that the PRINCE2 manual can be a bit dry!

We've put together a PRINCE2 Crossword to Download to help enliven your revision a bit!

BEFORE YOU COMPLETE THE CROSSWORD: Read through the statements in this PRINCE2 Crossword Revision post.

You can also download the solution to check your answers at the bottom of the revision post (but no cheating please)!!

We're committed to making learning PRINCE2 as easy and enjoyable as possible - so before you attend one of our PRINCE2 courses we provide a comprehensive pre-course workbook which contains loads of quizzes and guidance to make preparing for the course as interactive as we can.

Why not also try our Interactive PRINCE2 Quiz (you'll need Flash for this).

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