The PRINCE2 Organization Theme
What does the Organization Theme cover?
- The purpose of the knowledge contained in this Organization Theme
- Some Organization definitions, what a project is, what a program is
- The three stakeholder categories
- The four levels in a project & three levels in a Project Management Team
- The duties and roles of the Project Board
- The Project Manager Role, a description, and the skills required
- Introduce other project roles such as Change Authority, Team Manager & Project Support
- Working with the Project Management Team and the stakeholders
- The Communication Management Approach document, the reason for this document and its typical contents
- And, finally, the responsibilities of the different roles in the Organization Theme.
What happens in the real world?
In some cases, the tasks of defining the Project Organization and Roles and Responsibilities are rushed and other activities, such as starting to develop the products ASAP, are seen as more important. As a Project Manager, you depend on other people to make decisions, to provide you with information and to carry out activities. Therefore, it is important to get this on paper and agreed; otherwise you might find yourself chasing ghosts during the project.
One of the first tasks a Project Manager should do on a project is to get a good idea of who is who in the organization and of their roles & responsibilities. Start with the Executive, who might even need to be reminded that they are responsible for the project, not the Project Manager.
The management might put pressure on the Project Manager to start producing products ASAP, as they want to start using or selling the products that will be produced by the project and they are unaware of the importance of what happens in the SU or IP processes.
The Project Manager can use some of the following ideas to help document the project organization:
- Look at Roles & Responsibilities profiles in similar projects in the organization
- Meet with the Executive to discuss their responsibilities and design the Project Board
- Prepare a workshop-type meeting with the Project Board and use the knowledge in this Theme to define the most appropriate questions to ask, e.g., How should communication be done during the project? and Who is responsible for defining the benefits?
- Confirm that each person has the necessary authority, knowledge and availability, and agree on their written role and responsibilities
The Organization Knowledge provided by PRINCE2
The purpose of the knowledge in this Theme is to help define and establish the project’s structure of accountability and responsibilities, in other words, identify the “Who” of the project.
A PRINCE2 project is based on a customer/supplier environment. One party is the customer who will specify the results and most likely pay for the project and the other party is the supplier who will provide the resources, do the work and deliver the results.
What do you think makes a successful project team?
PRINCE2 states that a successful project team should:
- have Business, User and Supplier representation
- have defined responsibilities for directing, managing, & delivering the project
- have regular reviews of the project to check that all is on track
- have an effective strategy to manage communication flows to and from stakeholders
In summary, each project needs to have direction, management, control and communication.
The Organization Theme provides the knowledge to help define and establish the project’s structure of accountability and responsibilities
Project Definition: What is a Project?
A common definition of a Project is: “a designated set of tasks needed to accomplish a particular goal.” PRINCE2 defines a project as a temporary organization that is the created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to an agreed Business Case.
Program Definition: What is a Program?
A Program is a temporary flexible organization structure created to coordinate, 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.
For example, a company might create a program to implement Six Sigma in each department and country in an organization. The strategic objective here is to improve quality by x% using Six Sigma. The program may launch many different projects to achieve this, which could be per department or country, and all will be controlled by the program.
Corporate Organization: What is a Corporate Organization?
A Project can be part of a program. If it is outside a program, we say that the project exists in the company organization, as some companies may not have a program environment setup. PRINCE2 uses the term Corporate Organization to refer to the organization leadership.
Some types of organizational structures are traditional (e.g., divided into departments), or project-focused to variations in between.
Roles and Jobs Definition
PRINCE2 places Project responsibilities into roles, not persons. These roles can then be assigned to persons. In this way, one person can have more than one role. For example, in large projects, the Project Support role can be assigned to one or more persons.
In small projects, the roles of Project Manager and Project Support can be assigned to the same person.
Care must be taken to assign roles that the person can perform well and that there are no conflicts. For example, the person who has the role of Project Manager cannot have the role as Project Assurance.
A PRINCE2 project should always have three primary categories of stakeholders and these also have to be represented in the Project Board.
These are Business, User and Supplier.
Business Interests
The Executive Role on the Project Board looks after the Business interests. There must be a Business Case, otherwise the project cannot start.
User Interests
Users benefit from the delivered products, as they will use the products. Users can also operate, maintain or support the projects outputs. Users need to be represented on the Project Board to make sure that the correct products are produced and to the agreed quality level.
The Senior User role will represent the User interests on the Project Board. In a PRINCE2 project, a user is also referred to as the customer and the will most likely pay for the project.
Exercise: Look at this situation:
Who do you think should be the Senior User and therefore represent the users on the Project Board?
The company is a technology research company. The project is to develop a product for an outside company, such as a new stereo headphone for a mobile phone manufacturer.
In this case, the Senior User could be someone from the Sales Department or an Account Manager, as they wish to make sure the products will meet the customers’ expectations and sell in future. It could also be someone from the Customer themselves.
Supplier Interests
The Supplier provides the resources and the skills to create the products. In an organization, this could be either internal or external. For example, an internal IT department or external IT company. The Supplier interests are represented on the Project Board by the Role Senior Supplier. This Senior Supplier role can be assigned to an external or internal person or persons.
The four levels of Organization
It is important that you understand the difference between the Project Management structure and Project Management Team. The Project Management structure has 4 levels and the Project Management Team has 3 levels.
The 4 levels of a Project Management structure are:
- Corporate or Program Management
- Directing a Project
- Managing
- Delivering
Three levels in a project team
The 3 levels in the Project Management Team are:
- Directing a Project
- Managing
- Delivering
The only difference is that the Project Management structure has the level “Corporate or Program Management.” This is why we say that the Corporate or Program Management sits outside the Project Management Team.
Now let us look at each level, starting with Corporate or Program Management.
Level: Corporate or Program Management
This level is outside the Project Management Team and the top level of the Project Management structure. The Corporate or Project Management is responsible for commissioning the project and identifying the Executive. They decide at the start of the project how the Project Board will keep them updated during the project and will also define the project tolerances that the Project Board will work within.
Level: Directing
The Project Board is responsible for Directing a Project and is accountable for the success of the project and they do the following:
- Approve all resources and major plans, e.g., Project Plan, Stage Plans
- Authorize any deviation if tolerances are forecast to be exceeded or have exceeded
- Approve the completion of each stage and authorize each new stage
- Communicate with other Stakeholders, which include Corporate or Program Management
The process Directing a Project describes the work of the Project Board.
Project Management Team Structure – simple overview
Level: Managing
The Project Manager is responsible for the day-to-day management of the project. The Project Manager’s primary responsibility is to ensure that the project produces the required products in accordance with the goals, which are time, cost, quality, scope, risk and benefits.
Level: Delivery
The Team Members are responsible for delivering the projects products to a certain quality, and within a specific timescale and cost. A Team Manager can have the authority and responsibility of creating plans and managing a team to create and deliver the required products.
The process Managing Product Delivery is where the teams produce the products for the project.
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