7 Principles of PRINCE 2

7 PRINCIPLESof PRINCE 2

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Every project must have a business case that justifies why the project is needed and what benefits it will deliver.

There are 3 things to remember about the business case in Prince 2:

1. The project can not begin without a business case.

2. The business case should be reviewed periodically throughout the project. I do this by evaluating the business case after each completed project stage.

3. If the business case changes the project should be stopped and re-evaluated again to see if should continue.

CONTINUED BUSINESS JUSTIFICATION



LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCEEveryone in the project is responsible for learning from experience. To ensure success learning from experience should happen at 3 key points.

1. When the project starts

2. At the end of every delivery stage

3. When the project closes

The purpose is to learn lessons to improve the chances of the project being successful.



DEFINED ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

There are 3 primary stakeholders on a Prince 2 project:

1. Business

2. User

3. Supplier

Due to projects being temporary and cross-functional having well defined roles and responsibilities are critical to the success of the project. With these roles clearly defined it can be adapted to different size projects and environments by combining and sharing roles.



MANAGE BY STAGESTo ensure projects continue to be worth doing the project board approves continuation and the commitment of resources on a stage by stage basis. The three things to remember are:

1. Planning only what is foreseeable and sensible (known as the Planning Horizon)

2. Project is run on a stage by stage basis

3. Decision points between stages for the project board to approve



MANAGE BY EXCEPTIONThere are 3 levels within a Prince 2 project:

1. Project

2. Stage

3. Work Package

For each level there are different tolerances set that project team members are allowed to work within without asking for approval to continue. For example a work package may be planned to take 4 days to complete and have a 25% tolerance level. That means the work package can take 5 days without anyone on the project needing to get permission to work the extra day.



FOCUS ON PRODUCTSInstead of being focused on the activities Prince 2 is focused on the outputs, the products. The three things to remember about products are:

1. Product descriptions are used for each product

2. Each description is agreed and approved

3. The complete set of products form the scope of the project



TAILOR TO SUIT THE PROJECT ENVIRONMENT

Prince 2 can be used for any size or nature of a project, however in order to be successful it must be tailored to each project. This prevents:

1. Disproportionate effort

2. Inappropriate approach

3. Reduced chances of project success



7 PRINCIPLESof PRINCE 2



Leadership & Management

7 Principles of PRINCE 2