PRINCE2 In Bite Sized chunks - The Prince2 Process Sequence

PRINCE2 In Bite Sized Chunks

The PRINCE2 Process Sequence

I am often asked how the PRINCE2 Processes "speak" to each other. My following summary will give you a new insite to PRINCE2 Processes, and how they work together.....Enjoy!!

It would be helpful if you thought of Processes as "Toolkits" or "Toolboxes" The Processes are used when they are needed - some once per project, some re-used several times, and one, Directing a Project, is used continuously.

1. PRINCE2 kicks off with the "trigger" from Corporate, of the Project Mandate.

2. The Starting Up a Project (SU), and Initiating a Project (IP) Processes are "in series" - the Management Products of each being taken to the Project Board for approval (Authorizing initiation and Authorizing a project).

3. The Process Managing Product Delivery, is used, along with the PID, to create the 2nd Stage Plan and End Stage Report containing the updated versions of the Project Plan, Business Case, and Risk Register.

4. These Management Products are presented to the Project Board (Authorizing a project), to agree that the whole project, in principle, should be agreed, and that it is sensible to invest in the 2nd Stage Plan (in the activity Authorizing a Stage or Exception Plan).

5. From there on, the "Engine Room" of Prince2 takes over - ONE anticlockwise revolution per Stage...SB is used the prepare for the End Stage Assessment (ESA), DP approves the Stage Plan, Sets Tolerance, and sets the frequency of each Highlight Report....

6. Controlling a Stage (CS) authorises Work Packages (WP), the Specialist Team Agrees them (all happens in Managing Product Delivery - MP), creates the Products, caries out the Quality Checks/Quality Reviews, issues Checkpoint Reports on WP progress - and eventually completes the Work Package then advising the Project Manager, who needs to agree the WP...

7. The Project Manager "Manages By Exception", issuing regular Highlight Reports, and this continues until the last WP in the Stage is completed.

8. This "triggers" the Project Manager to use Managing a Stage Boundary (SB), create the Next Stage Plan, update the relevant documents, and present the information to the Project Board at an End Stage Assessment (ESA). Then the whole cycle repeats...

9. In PRINCE2, all plans are documents, and the Plans Theme and the product-based planning technique is used whenever a Project Plan, Stage Plan, optional Team Plan, and Exception Plan (if needed), are required.

10. Whenever the Stage/Project is forecast to exceed Tolerance, the Project Manager enters it in the Issue Register, and raises an Exception Report to bring the matter to the attention of the Project Board (along with options to recover/minimise the situation), and the project Board makes a decision to ask for a plan on a particular option or order a premature close.

11. If the Project Board want an Exception Plan, the Project Manager will use SB to create it, and then update the remaining documents just like an End Stage Assessment.

12. BUT, the meeting to agree/not an Expection Plan is called an Exception Assessment (EXA). Once approved, the Exception Plan replaces the orginal Stage Plan that would have not completed within Tolerances, and the Project Manager authorises new/modified Work Packages against the new "Stage Plan"

13. The project is closed using the Closing a Project process, EITHER becasue the project has reached it's natural and successful conlusion, or because the Project Board/Corporate Management/Programme Management have sked the project manager to close the project prematurely.