PRINCE2 Organization Theme
The purpose of the organization theme is to define and establish the project’s structure of accountability and responsibilities (the who).
PRINCE2 is based on a customer/supplier environment. It assumes that there will be a customer who will specify the desired result and probably pay for the project, and a supplier who will provide the resources and skills to deliver that result.
Every project needs affective direction, management, control and communication. Establishing an effective project management team structure and strategy for communication at the beginning of a project, and maintaining these throughout the project life, are essential elements of a project’s success.
One of the principles of PRINCE2 is that all projects must have a defined organisational structure to unite the various parties in the common aims of the project and to enable effective project governance and decision making.
- A successful project management team should:
- Have business, user and supplier stakeholder representation
- Ensure appropriate governance by defining responsibilities for directing, managing and delivering the project and clearly defining accountability at each level
- Have reviews of the project roles throughout the project to ensure that they continue to be effective
- Have an effective strategy to manage communication flows to and from stakeholders
The PRINCE2 organization defined
Project
PRINCE2 defines a project as a temporary organization that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to an agreed business case”
It needs to be flexible and is likely to require a broad base of skills for a comparatively short period of time.
Programme
A project can be run as a standalone entity or can be part of a programme of related projects.
A program is a temporary flexible organisational structure created to cordon eight, direct and oversee the implementation of a set of related projects and activities, in order to deliver outcomes and benefits related to the organization’s strategic objectives.
It is likely to have a longer life than a single project. A project which forms part of a programme may be impacted by the program structure and reporting requirements.
Corporate organization
A project may or may not form part of the programme. It will, however, exist within the wider context of a corporate organization.
Corporate organisational structures can vary from “traditional” functional structures, where staff are organized by type of work (for example, marketing, finance, sales etc. Where there are clear reporting lines) corporate organizations, which work with project teams as a norm, to variations in between.
PRINCE2 Roles and jobs
In order to be flexible and meet the needs of different environments and different project sizes, PRINCE2 does not define management jobs to be allocated to people on a 1 to 1 basis. It defines roles, each of which is defined by an associated set of responsibilities.
Roles might be shared or combined according to the project’s needs but the responsibilities must always be allocated. When combining roles, consideration should be given to any conflicts of responsibilities, where the one person has the capacity to undertake the combined responsibilities, and whether any bottlenecks might be created as a result.
The three PRINCE2 project interests
The PRINCE2 where principle of defined roles and responsibilities states that a PRINCE2 project will always have three primary categories of stakeholder, and the interests of all three must be satisfied if a project is to be successful.
These three primary interests make up the project board. PRINCE2 recommends that for completeness the project board should include representation from each of the business, user and supplier interests at all times.
PRINCE2 business interests
The products of the project should meet a business need which would justify the investment in the project. The project should also provide value for money.
The business viewpoint therefore should be represented to ensure that these two prerequisites exist before a project commences and remain in existence throughout the project.
The executive role is defined to look after the business interests.
PRINCE2 user interests
PRINCE2 makes a distinction between the business interests and the requirements of those who will use the projects outputs. The use of viewpoint should represent those individuals or groups for whom some or all of the following will apply:
They will use the outputs of the project to realize the benefits after the project is complete
They will operate, maintain or support the projects outputs
The outputs of the project will impact and
The user presence is needed to specify the desired outputs and ensure that the project delivers them. The senior user role will represent this stakeholder interest on the project board.
PRINCE2 supplier interests
The creation of the projects outputs will need resources with certain skills. The supplier viewpoints should represents those who will provide the necessary skills and produce the project product.
The project may need to use both in house and external supplier teams to construct the project product. The senior supplier will represent the stakeholder interest on the project board.
The level of overlap between the interests of the business, user and supplier will change according to the type of corporate organization and project.
For example, if a project uses an In-house supplier, the business and supplier interests will be more likely to have overlapping interests than if an external supplier is used.
Note the term “customer” is also used in PRINCE2, normally in the context of a commercial customer/supplier relationship.
“Customer” can usually be interpreted as a collective term for the business and user interests. However, one example of an exception to this broader role would be where an organization is developing a new product to bring to market.
In this case, the business interest is aligned with that of a supplier and “customer” equates simply with “users”. Where the user interests is external to the organization sponsoring the development, as in this example, it still needs to be represented in some way – perhaps by the sales/marketing function.
As well as the primary categories of business, user and supplier interests which should be represented on the project board, there will be a wider range of stakeholders which may affect, or be affected by, the project.
The stakeholders may be internal or external to the corporate organization and may support, oppose all be indifferent to the project. Effective engagement with the stakeholders is key to a project success.
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