Controlling A Stage

I'm sure if you've referred to the PRINCE2 Manual, that the process "Controlling a Stage" is a key part of understanding the method. Reading through the detail, it is fairly clear that this is a well thought-through and structured process. As you dive into the detail of each sub-process, again, the thinking is clear and the details make good sense.

The problem may be however, in the diagram of the Controlling a Stage process. It is obviously drawn to fit on the page and does not give a clear understanding of how the sub processes work together. It occurred to me, that since this process is obviously all about the day-to-day management of a stage, then the flow and sequence of the sub processes could be better understood when starting from the perspective of a project manager.

In essence, the project manager needs gather information to determine what has actually been done (or not done!) - and then to consider what yet remains to be done. In summary - gathering data and forecasting.

The next step, is to take action. The diagram shown below captures a simplified form of the Controlling a Stage process:-

First check out the purple boxes, these represent a simplified form of the sub-processes. All the other boxes refer to either basic information needed, or created/updated, or, the pink boxes, relating to Issues. 

Starting from the left-hand side, the first action of the project manager is to capture actual data, and I've shown a completed Work Package as one example. Of course, it is never as simple as this in the real world, other information that will help project manager determine the true status so far are, the Risk Log, the Quality Log, Checkpoint Reports,etc.

The project Manager will want to refer to the main plans and the Business Case also...

Of special interest, are the arrival of issues. These can arrive from anyone at any time, and it is important that they are logged, categorised, and an analysis carried out of their impact. The result of this impact analysis will almost certainly change " the road ahead".

The project manager enters all actual information into the Stage Plan, and will almost certainly be some form of planning tool to assist with this, and to help forecast the remainder of the stage work to be carried out, and the products yet to be created and approved.

The next step is to look at the remainder of the stage, and the project. As above, information from the Logs, Stage Plan, Project Plan, and Business Case, will assist in determining what remains to be done and checking that appropriate plans, products, resources, and activities are in place.

That summarises the " thinking" part of a project managers control - now it is time to take action! This is the information on the right-hand side of life simplified diagram.

If everything is going well, then the project manager has the option of " doing nothing"!

But life is not normally like that...

When the project board approve the next stage plan, they will set the Tolerance for the stage and tell the project manager how often they wish to receive the regular Highlight Reports. Therefore, a regular job of the project manager is to gather sufficient information, then create and send the highlight report to the project board.

Work packages should be sent on a regular basis as needed during the stage, to the specialist team or team manager. These need to be first agreed with the specialist team concerned before work can start. Once underway, regular Checkpoint Reports are given to the project manager to help determine the status of product creation and approval.

It is rare that progress during the stage ever goes exactly to plan, and it is quite normal for a project manager needing to take some form of corrective action. This may be done as a simple verbal instruction to issue a new or modified work package to the team. Such corrective actions will only ever be taken when the stage is forecast to remain within Tolerance.

As part of the stage day-to-day management, the project manager will be constantly ensuring that tolerance will not be exceeded. However, the first moment that tolerance is forecast to be exceeded, the project manager must create an Exception Report and send it to the project board for their consideration and future action.

This last step is using the "Management By Exception" element of PRINCE2.

Well, that sums it up, when you now refer to the detail in the PRINCE2 Manual - hopefully it will make good sense!