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Authorize a Stage or Exception Plan 

 February 27, 2016

By  Dave Litten

Stage Plan and potential Exception Plan authorizations

The project board use this activity for one of two situations, either to approve the next Stage Plan as the current stage reaches completion, or to approve an Exception Plan if at some point during the current stage, the project manager had forecast that tolerance will be exceeded.  Of course, the project board may choose to prematurely close the project.

In making this decision, the project board will want to look back and ensure the current stage has proceeded satisfactorily, look up, and ensure that the Project Plan and Business Case remain viable, and look forward, by approving the next stage plan.  The important principle here is that the next stage is not started until the project board have authorised it.

Remember, that the project board only have the authority to set the stage level tolerances, and if at any point project tolerances are forecast to be exceeded, then the project board must escalate this to corporate all programme management for their decision on what to do next.  The project board may appoint project assurance to carry out some of the reviewing of draft documentation including the Stage Plan or an Exception Plan prior to them Authorising a Stage or Exception Plan.

Authorize a stage plan or exception plan

This activity of authorizing a stage plan or exception plan is therefore either used for an end stage assessment or for an exception assessment.  The project board must review and approve the following:

  • Check that any deviations and current forecasts for the project are satisfactory, and if needed review the Lessons Report.  The project board must check that the aggregated risks are still acceptable and that risk responses are realistic and incorporated within the appropriate plan. These tend to be more important for an exception plan than for the next stage plan (as things are going well in the latter).
  • Some projects will hand over products to the customer or users during the project rather than just at the end of the project.  If so, then the project board must satisfy themselves that product hand over occurred in line with the Configuration Management Strategy, and that user, operational, and maintenance acceptance has occurred. There may also be some follow-on action recommendation, and the project board will want to ensure that the appropriate groups have accepted such responsibilities.
  • Whether the project board are being asked to confirm a Stage plan or Exception Plan, then product based planning will have occurred and they should review and approve any new or modified Product Descriptions.  Also the four Management Strategy documents, Project Plan, Business Case, and Benefits Review Plan will have been updated as appropriate, and the project board must review and approve these.

The Stage Plan or Exception Plan

The project board have the following choices in making a decision for the remainder of the project:

  • Approve the stage plan or exception plan, ensure resources are available, set tolerances for the next stage, advise the project manager how often they want to receive the Highlight Report for the next stage, and authorize the project manager to proceed based on the approved stage plan or exception plan.
  • They may reject some of the documentation including the stage plan or exception plan and ask the project manager to make alterations or corrections, and come back to them for an approval.
  • They may instruct the project manager to initiate premature closure of the project.

Finally, the project board must communicate the status of the project to corporate or programme management is and any other interested parties as laid out within the Communication Management Strategy.

If it is a Stage Plan that has been approved, then this will be used by the project manager to manage the next stage.

If it is an Exception plan that has been approved, then this would take over from where the previous stage plan left off (the point where the exception occurred), and continue until the end of this (next) stage.

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Dave Litten


Dave has spent 25 years as a senior project manager for USA multinationals and has deep experience in project management. He now develops a wide range of Project Management Masterclasses, under the Projex Academy brand name. In addition, David runs project management training seminars across the world, and is a prolific writer on the many topics of project management.

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