PRINCE2 Processes and Themes
So – how do they work together in PRINCE2?
I am often asked that while there are helpful diagrams showing how the PRINCE2 Processes work together, why are there different diagrams for PRINCE2 Themes?
Here is a quick review of the 7 PRINCE2 Processes.
Starting Up a Project and Initiating a Project is done in series, with a quick dip into Directing a Project to get authorization for entering the initiation stage.
The Initiating a Project process is used in the first PRINCE2 stage, which is always called the Initiation Stage. All remaining stages are ‘delivery stages’.
The Final stage is not a separate stage; it is just that after all the specialist products have been completed, the Closing a Project process is used within that same last stage.
Controlling a Stage and Managing Product Delivery are used in parallel within each PRINCE2 delivery stage.
The Managing a Stage Boundary process is used just before the end of a particular stage. This simplified graphic will help make that clear:
Controlling a Stage is the process the Project Manager uses within each delivery stage.
There must be at least ONE delivery stage, but there may be many. The actual number depends upon the project’s nature, size, risk, and complexity.
Managing a Stage Boundary is the process used at the end of EVERY stage to prepare for an End Stage Assessment. It covers the creation of the next stage plan, updating relevant documents within the project initiation documentation (PID) and creating the End Stage Report.
Managing a Stage Boundary is also used to prepare an Exception Plan for an Exception Assessment because tolerance has been forecast to be exceeded, and the Project Board(using the Directing a Project process) have requested an Exception Plan.
This, of course, would happen during a stage.
- Project tolerances are set by corporate or programme management
- The project board sets stage tolerances
- The Project Manager can optionally set Work Package tolerances
The Team Manager may create a Team Plan as part of accepting the Work Package.
The Project Manager creates the Project Plan in the Initiating a Project process (within the Initiation stage).
It contains all the information from the start of the first delivery stage (the next stage) up to and including the end of the final delivery stage.
PRINCE2 states that as you reach the end of ANY stage, a Stage Plan is created, ready for the Project Board to review at the end stage assessment.
How Do Processes and Themes interrelate?
There is no complete diagram in the PRINCE2 Manual, so this is my interpretation and certainly captures most of the critical relationships.
Your mindset should be, “While using this process, what management products do I need to create, and therefore, to which Themes should I reference?”
First, let us look at the significant products that would be referenced for the Starting Up a Project and Initiating A Project processes, you can see that Themes such as Plans, Risks, Business Case, Change, and Quality quickly come to mind.
Suppose the project is to build a house. Stage 4 is to landscape the garden area. In the Project Plan, I will have estimated at a high level the duration, resources and costs for landscaping as a small part of the complete house build.
My Project Plan has been approved, and I am delivering the project in the series sequence of PRINCE2 delivery stages….
As I reach the end of Stage 3, I create the Stage 4 Plan. I take the high-level tasks from the Project Plan and, for the first time, create it in sufficient detail to manage it daily during Stage 4.
New or modified Product Descriptions and Configuration Item Records will also be generated. This is my stage 4 Stage Plan.
The Stage Plan for Stage 4 will need to be approved by the Project Board (along with the updated PID contents and my End Stage Report showing current progress and forecast information for the remainder of the project.
The preparation for all this is done in the Managing a Stage Boundary process. It is then brought before the Project Board in the Authorize a Stage or Exception Plan activity within the Directing a Project process.
Now, for the first time in my Stage 4 Plan, I can create product descriptions and activities for the water feature, the grassed area, the planted trees, the garden pathway, etc.
Why? Because I needed to learn more details and had yet to make my mind up when we created the top-level Project Plan. So, planning in detail at the start of a project can be a waste of time and often leads to setting the wrong expectations and leading to rework later in the project when details are known.
So, in this way, PRINCE2 allows its Plans to be refined as the project progresses through its stages – just like in the real world.
By the way, I have decided to outsource the garden water feature to a specialist local designer/provider. One of the Work Packages detailed in the Stage Plan for Stage 4 will now be presented to the external supplier for their agreement (cost, time, materials, resources, and so on).
They then sit down with their experts and do a complete costing. This is optional, but they are producing your Team Plan (they would see it as ‘their project plan’), and their manager would be your ‘Team Manager.’
I have just described the ‘Authorize a Work Package’ activity in Controlling a Stage and the ‘Accept a Work Package’ activity in the Managing Product Deliver process (where the specialist teams live and work!)
View the PRINCE2 processes as your ‘toolkit’, showing the sequence and relationships with each other.
View the Themes as ‘reference manuals’ on your top shelf over your desk, illustrating the seven critical approaches used in a PRINCE2 project.
As you might imagine, there is much interaction between the processes and themes. Don’t worry about ‘memorizing’ the activity names – since you will have access to the PRINCE2 Manual throughout your Practitioner exam…
PRINCE2 Theme References
What is apparent is that almost all the Themes are used in each process!
There is a temptation to think about the individual roles in each process, and frankly, you could argue that all the Themes are used (or are helpful to reference) in ALL the PRINCE2 Processes!
But I’ve pared that down a little. For example, NO planning is done in the Directing a Project, nor in Controlling a Stage process.
In Managing Product Delivery, if used by a third party, they may have their business case, but it is not the Business Case owned by the Project Board Executive.
Closing a Project. No planning is needed here (the Benefits Managing Approach does not use product-based planning, nor does it need to follow the same structure as a ‘standard’ PRINCE2 Plan.
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