Silicon Beach Training Blog | Posts Tagged project management

PRINCE2 2017: What you Need to Know

Written by Elizabeth Sandwell – Mon 26 Jun 2017

PRINCE2 2017 - Everything you need to know!

The world’s most practised project management methodology, PRINCE2 is changing from this July. It’s been a long time coming - with the last update being implemented eight years ago in 2009. AXELOS announced the changes at the beginning of January and they appear to have been met with a good reception! The methodology has been substantially modernised to meet the latest project management ideologies which have permeated businesses in recent years.

But why is a PRINCE2 2017 update happening?

AXELOS, the accrediting body, has been monitoring feedback from all over the world and keeping up with any changes that happen over time. They are keen to acknowledge and respond accordingly. As such, they came to the conclusion that the syllabus and exams should be updated to make the courses more practical, authoritative and relevant.

The PRINCE2 2017 Syllabus: What is going to change?

To the edge - what's it all about?

Written by John A G Smith – Fri 05 Aug 2016

There are many different ways to manage something and the methodologies of PRINCE2®, Agile, SCRUM and ITIL® help. In this post our expert John A G Smith explains how a system or 2 can keep our world spinning on the correct axis!

It’s all about systems. Whether you’re looking at something as small as an individual business task or as large as a whole company, they’re all systems. We’re surrounded by the things. We live on a planet within the solar system. Our shower is supplied by a hot water system. I’m writing this on a computer system. Indeed we are each our own individual system: the human body.

Image - Panel 6 Solar Systemm, Ralph Buckley

So what, I hear you say, is a system? And what qualifies each mentioned above as one of them?

It is generally accepted that a system has five components: Inputs, outputs, processes, stores and a boundary.

Learn Facilitation Skills not B A Ping Pong!

Written by John A G Smith – Tue 12 Jul 2016

Facilitation is a skill crucial in guiding a meeting to make a decision or think of a solution without providing it. Our writer John A G Smith uses his experience to explain why learning Facilitation Skills is so much better than 'B.A. Ping Pong'?!

The Rules of B. A. Ping Pong

It’s a game that every Business Analyst has played. Many do not even have a name for it and, of those that do, it’s usually unrepeatable in polite company. I call it ‘B. A. Ping Pong’ … although maybe that should be ‘wiff waff’?

Image courtesy of Wikimedia

The rules are very simple and any Business Analyst can play. Here’s how it works:

Prince 2 a means to an end or the beginning of a journey?

Written by John Smith – Mon 09 May 2016

As a project management consultant I have bumped up against a number of PM methods … or ‘methodologies’ as we are being more and more encouraged to call them. I’ve used PRISM, PROMPT, PMI PMP and PRINCE but, of them all, my favourite is PRINCE2 … ‘the project method is formerly known as PRINCE’.

Image by Yves Lorson from Kapellen, Belgium - Prince

But I have a problem. When I hear a new project manager say, “I’ve just been appointed to run my first project so I’ve got to go on a PRINCE2 course,” I shudder. There are a couple of reasons for this perverse behaviour and it’s nothing to do with the temperature.