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PRINCE2 Walkthrough Initiation and planning 

 February 27, 2023

By  Dave Litten

PRINCE2 Walkthrough Initiation and planning

PRINCE2 –  The Initiation Stage

Within PRINCE2, the next steps cover traditional planning techniques, first identifying the activities needed to create each product, then estimating such activities, creating the schedule or sequence of such activities (usually shown as a network diagram or Gantt Chart view).

Then going on to identify risks, their associated response activities, and finally adding the narrative of the PRINCE2 plan document.

Because of this, new PRINCE2 Product Descriptions along with their quality criteria will be created along with a Configuration Item Record (CIR) for each product. This record forms part of the data and the status for each product held within configuration management.

Also at this point the Project Product Description may now needs to be further refined, for example, as better data is understood for the acceptance criteria of the project end product.

The PRINCE2 detailed Business Case can now be developed as it will use timescale and cost information derived from the Project Plan.

This detailed Business Case will be used throughout the project in particular at the end of each management stage where it is updated and used as a basis to proceed or otherwise by the project board.

A new PRINCE2 management product is now created based upon some information contained within the business case, and it is called the Benefits Review Plan. As the name suggests, this contains a description of each future benefit, its timing, measurement, and the resources required to carry this out.

The Benefits Management Plan is kept separate from the Project Initiation Documentation as it will be used after the project has finished to continue and track the remaining benefits until their eventual realization.

PRINCE2 – creating the project initiation documentation (PID)

All of the above can now be assembled and forms the PRINCE2 Project Initiation Documentation. The project manager will now request that the project board authorize the project.

They will use this named activity within the PRINCE2 Directing a Project process (DP), and this will always be the first end stage assessment within any PRINCE2 project (as the initiation stage is always the first management stage in a PRINCE2 project).

However, there is a parallel activity that also needs to take place if this project is to proceed any further, and that is to prepare a Stage Plan for the next stage. The PRINCE2 Managing a Stage Boundary (SB) process is used for this purpose, and will use the product based planning technique.

As this is the end of the initiation stage then the End Stage Report will also need to be created along with an optional Lessons Report.

Authorizing the PID will occur within the Authorize the Project activity and authorizing the PRINCE2 next Stage Plan will occur at the Authorize a Stage or Exception Plan activity.

Both of these are activities within the Directing a Project process, and will normally take place at the same meeting which is the end stage assessment.

At this end stage assessment, as is typical, the project board has the option to approve the next Stage Plan, prematurely close the project, or request that the project manager reworks some aspect of the documentation.

Assuming all is well, the PRINCE2 Project Board will set stage tolerance for the next stage, advise the project manager of the frequency and detail to be included in the regular Highlight Reports and approve the next Stage Plan.

This will now trigger the project manager to give out the first Work Package within this newly approved stage.

It is highly likely that the number and detail of Work Packages within a PRINCE2 management stage and any associated Team Plans have already been thought through during the planning of the relevant stage.

But whether they have or not, the PRINCE2 method defines that the specialist team should not start work on any product creation until a Work Package containing such work has been authorized by the project manager and accepted by either the team manager or the team members themselves.

The PRINCE2 Team Manager role may optionally be given to an appropriate individual within the specialist team (if the specialist team is a third party, then it may well be that their project manager takes on the role of Team Manager – but remember, there can only be one Project Manager).

The team manager may optionally produce a Team Plan which would show that one or many Work Packages can be delivered within the constraints laid down.

Every Work Package must contain at least one PRINCE2 Product Description. The project manager may optionally set tolerances at the work package level.

Once the Work Package has been agreed and accepted then work can start on the creation of the specialist products contained within the Work Package. At any given point during a stage there may be one or several Work Packages, possibly given to different teams, being worked on at the same time.

Alternatively Work Packages may be given out one after another. This is clearly a very flexible system and the manner and formality will depend on the nature of the specialist work within the stage. It is an example of where PRINCE2 can be tailored for a specific project or stage.

Probably 90% of the project budget is spent within the PRINCE2 Managing Product Delivery (MP) process, since this is where the specialist products are created. The ‘execute a work package’ activity is where the specialist products are created and their quality checks carried out, followed by their approval by the appropriate authority or individual.

The team manager or the team members themselves will produce regular Checkpoint Reports providing information on the status and future forecast of the creation of specialist products.

These are sent to the project manager, and may be in the form of a report or a meeting. The project manager will use the PRINCE2 activity of Review Work Package Status to determine the progress or otherwise of the creation and the approval of these specialist products.

Since the PRINCE2 Stage Plan has been approved by the Project Board, then the project manager must look at progress within the stage itself. If the project manager determines that the stage is forecast to remain within tolerance bounds, then he or she may take some form of corrective action to minimize any such deviations within tolerance.

This may entail giving out new or modified Work Packages to the specialist team.

In addition to this the project manager will need to review the stage status and use the PRINCE2 activity of report highlights, which will generate a Highlight Report to be given to the project board so that they understand the current status and forecast future of progress within the stage.

The project manager will update the Stage Plan with actual progress, and modifying future actions to ensure that the stage plan is forecast to complete within tolerance.

Look out for part 4 of my PRINCE2 RoadMap article series…

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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