PRINCE2 Primer

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PRINCE2 Primer

• Jeff Janke, MBA, PMP
• Los Alamos, New Mexico

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Problems in River City

• Todays presentation is not just about PRINCE2
  it is about success and especially failures!
• Well, ya got trouble, my friend. Right here, I
  say trouble right here in River City.
• Project failure rates are high
• PRINCE2 study found 16 of projects successful
  53 challenged and 31 failed
• Other studies result in similar stats

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INCORRECT LIFE CYCLE
Project Planning Scheduling Control James P.
Lewis, 1995, p 11
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What is a Project?

• A management environment that is created for the
  purpose of delivering one or more business
  products according to a specified Business Case
• A temporary organization that is needed to
  produce a unique and predefined outcome or result
  at a pre-specified time using predetermined
  resources PRINCE2 text

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Characteristics of a PRINCE2 Project (6)

• A finite and defined life cycle
• Defined and measurable business products
• A corresponding set of activities to achieve the
  business products
• A defined amount of resources
• An organization structure with defined
  responsibilities, to manage the project
• Management of risk
• PRINCE2 text

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Reasons for Failure according to PRINCE2

• Insufficient attention to checking that a valid
  Business Case exists for the project
• Insufficient attention to quality at the outset
  and during development
• Insufficient definition of the required outcomes,
  leading to confusion over what the project is
  expected to achieve
• Lack of communication with stakeholders and
  interested parties, leading to products being
  delivered that are not what the customer wanted
• Inadequate definition and lack of acceptance of
  project management roles and responsibilities,
  leading to lack of direction and poor decision
  making
• Poor estimating or duration and costs, leading to
  projects taking more time and costing more money
  than expected
• Inadequate planning and coordination of
  resources, leading to poor scheduling
• Insufficient measurables and lack of control over
  progress, so that projects do not reveal their
  exact status until too late
• Lack of quality control, resulting in the
  delivery of products that are unacceptable or
  unusable

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Benefits of using PRINCE2

• A method that is repeatable
• A method that is teachable
• Building on experience
• Ensuring that everyone knows what to expect,
  where, how and when
• Early warning of problems
• Being proactive, not reactive, but also able to
  accommodate sudden, unexpected events

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What is PRINCE2?

• PRINCE2 (Projects in Controlled Environments) is
  a project management methodology for the
  organization, management and control of projects.
  It was initially developed in1989 by the Central
  Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) as
  a UK Government standard for information
  technology (IT) project management however, it
  soon became regularly applied outside the purely
  IT environment.
• PRINCE2 was released in 1996 as a generic
  project management methodology. PRINCE2 has
  become increasingly popular and is now the de
  facto standard for project management in the UK.
  Its use has spread beyond the UK to more than 50
  other countries.

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History of PRINCE2
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PRINCE2 CONTEXT

• PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGIES (mostly IT)
• IDEAL (Initiation, Diagnostics, Establishing,
  Action Learning)
• Method 123
• PMBoK (Project Management Body Of Knowledge)
• PMSM (Project Management Scalable Methodology)
• PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments)
• PRODIGY (Prescribing RatiOnally with
  Decision-support In General practice studY)
• Many Others!

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PRINCE2 Does Not Cover---

• Earned Value (BCWP)
• Scheduling methods, Gantt charts, critical path,
  etc.
• Procurement contracts, etc.

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PRINCE2 Is

• Strong on managing product configuration
• Big on upfront planning to increase chances of
  success
• Descriptive not prescriptive
• A Book, Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2
• For all projects, not just IT
• Management by Exception (MBE)
• ISO Compliant

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PRINCE2 Set-up

• 8 Processes
• 8 Components
• 3 Techniques

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8 PRINCE2 Processes

• Starting Up a Project (SU)
• Directing a Project (DP)
• Initiating a Project (IP)
• Managing Stage Boundaries (SB)
• Controlling a Stage (CS)
• Managing Product Delivery (MP)
• Closing a Project (CP)
• Planning (PL)

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8 PRINCE2 Components

• Business Case
• Organization
• Plans
• Controls
• Management of Risk
• Quality in a project environment
• Configuration management
• Change Control

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3 PRINCE2 Techniques

• Product-based Planning (4)
• A Product Description of the final product of the
  project
• A Product Breakdown Structure
• Product Description of each product
• A Product Flow Diagram

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3 PRINCE2 Techniques

• Change Control (of specialist products, not
  management products)
• If a product is to be changed, Its Product
  Description should be checked for any necessary
  changes
• Once a product has been approved, the Project
  Manager should not authorize any work that would
  change it without the approval of the Project
  Board

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3 PRINCE2 Techniques

• Quality Review
• Is a structured and organized procedure designed
  to assess wither a product is fit for purpose
  or conforms to requirements
• Objectives
• Responsibilities
• The PRINCE2 approach to quality
• Meeting the customers' quality expectations
• Implementing project and stage quality plans

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Another view of PRINCE2
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Management Products vs. Specialist (Technical)
Products
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The Tip of the Iceberg a few more things about
PRINCE2 to pass on today

• The Business Case
• The Project Organizational Structure
• Tolerances Reporting
• The Logs

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BUSINESS CASE

• Owned by the Executive (usually composed by PM)
• Composition
• Reasons
• Options (including recommendation of chosen
  option)
• Benefits expected (expressed measurable terms)
• Risks (summary of key risks)
• Costs (extracted from Project Plan)
• Timescale (summary of Project Plan)
• Investment appraisal
• Evaluation
• Derivation
• Project Mandate/ Project Brief (reasons)
• Project Plan (costs and timescale)
• The customer

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Project Organization

• Project Management Structure has 4 layers
• Corporate or Program management
• Direction of the project (Project Board)
• Day-to-day management of the project (Project
  Manager)
• Team management and product delivery (Team
  Managers)
• PRINCE2 defines roles that can be shared,
  allocated, divided, or combined
• Project Manager role cannot be shared, allocated,
  divided, or combined

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Tolerances (5)

• Cost
• Schedule
• Scope
• Quality
• Benefits

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Logs (5)

• Daily Log Project or Team Managers diary used
  to capture events not caught by other PRINCE2
  documents output of SU4, Preparing Project Brief
• Risk Log output of IP1, Planning Quality
• Issues Log output of IP5, Setting up Project
  Files issues may be raised by anyone associated
  with the project, at any time
• Lessons Learned Log at a minimum, updated at
  the end of each stage
• Quality Log document quality checks created
  during IP1, Planning Quality

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PRINCE2 Certification

• Foundation course is three days with a one-hour
  multiple choice exam
• Practitioner course is two days with a
  three-hour hand-written case study exam

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More information on PRINCE2

• http//www.ogc.gov.uk/prince2/
• http//www.prince2.org.uk/web/site/home/home.asp
• http//www.prince2.com
• http//butrain.bu.edu/prince2Practitioner.html
• http//pmi.org/info/search_result.asp?queryPRINCE
  2image1.x23image1.y7
• If you are interested, there are many papers and
  presentations comparing PRINCE2 to the PMBoK

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• THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENDANCE AND FOR YOUR
  INTEREST IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT!