What is Prince2 in Project Management?
Prince2 is the acronym used for the term Projects in Controlled Environments. It is an efficient and organized method of the project management process. It is also a certification programme for project managers and aspiring project practitioners. Prince2 primarily emphasizes on segregating the projects into various sub-categories that are both manageable and controllable. The entire project structure can be divided into themes and principles, and other categories. In this topic, we are going to learn about Prince2 in Project Management. For example, the themes could be the following:
Risks, Change, Progress, Business case, Organization, Quality, Plan.
Prince2 has been widely adopted in many countries and regions across the world. These countries are the United Kingdom, the western European countries and Australia. Its certification programmes are also available in many languages. Recently, there has been two updates and modifications to the Prince2 right since it was launched: Prince2:2009 in the year 2009 and Prince2:2017 in 2017. The need for the latter revision came up as an evolution of business methods, practices and reviews from Prince2 users in the reality-based project environment from the industries.
What are the key features of the Prince2 method?
- It focuses solely on business justification.
- A well-defined organization structure for the entire project handling team
- Planning approach keeping the interest based on product scope
- Lots of emphasis on segregating the project into different stages of management and control
- The flexibility that can be introduced at an appropriate level in the project
How can one be benefited from the Prince2 method of project management?
- This is ideal for those who are striving to enhance their skills in project management very sharply, with increased employment scopes.
- It gives one complete control of better utilization of resources
- Exposure to handle project risks and manage business more effectively
- Overall very helpful to project managers, directors, and organizations (IT or non-IT industries)
How can organizations be benefited from the Prince2 method of application?
- It is a game-changer for dealing with projects with an emphasis on what would be the delivery of the project (the Ws why whom, and when comes into the picture)
- A uniform and a standard approach
- A controlled start, middle, and end
- Periodic reviews of execution and further planning towards the goal
- The authentic justification that the project has a business assurance
It has been found out through a survey in 2007 that projects that are highly successful have been mainly under the hands of certified project managers. Also, of all the certification programs that enable a high performing project, Prince2 has been rated the most widely used approach.
Processes of Prince2
Let’s see what the 7 processes that we discuss and emphasize on Prince2 are
- For launching a project, we need to start it first. For this, the project team is set up that will have the project manager and executive personnel as key people. The project brief is made and presented to the team.
- Project initiation: All documents pertaining to the initiation of the project are brought out. The refined business case has been fixed.
- The next step is giving direction to the project. This says how the project board perceives and reflects on the project.
- Controlling the project stage, which takes care of the fact that how each stage should be controlled, includes ways through which work packages are distributed and authorized
- Managing the delivery of a project: It has the purpose of liaising the connection between the Team manager and project manager by putting forward official requirements of acceptance, execution, and delivery of the project.
- Managing boundaries across states, which says how to move from one stage to another and when
- Ending the project contains formal documentation of project closure, follow-up actions and benefit evaluations of the project
What are the different levels of certifications for Prince2?
- Prince2 Foundation: This asks for the prerequisite that the person undergoing this training has thoroughly been familiar with the Prince2 concept and has considerable knowledge about it. He is ready to work and perform among his project management team using this method.
- Prince2 Practitioner: This confirms that the taker or the practitioner has used the tools of the Prince 2 method systematically for doing simulation case studies in the past and correlating it with a reality-based scenario. It ensures that the individual can take up real projects and also work on them with the right guidance or standard direction.
- Prince2 Agile Foundation: This was very a recently launched certification course that not only confirms that the practitioner has sufficient knowledge of Prince2 methods but also he will be knowing or have worked on Agile earlier, and hence knowing how to integrate this with the Prince2 system.
- Prince2 Agile Practitioner: This certification is a very high-level display of skills confirming that the practitioner is able to discourse the highest level practices of project management approaches of Prince2 while integrating it with few concepts of agile like Kanban and Scrum.
Prince2 Techniques of Project Management: Project Assurance and Project Support
- Project Assurance: This tells the holder how the project has been overall progressing. This involves the interests of the key stakeholders: three board members of the project team. It takes care of the fact that the project undertaken is viable in terms of cost and benefits. Also, it is seen that the user’s requirements are adhered to and amalgamated into the project. Lastly, there is a technical assurance too that is carried out to ensure that project deliverables are providing solutions as per state during the planning phase of the project.
- Project Support: Every project needs a lot of side work to be done. This could be a routine of activities like keeping everyone updated, fixings meetings, checking the progress up-to-date, pilings things up, recording files, etc. Project managers many times do this work by themselves, especially if the projects are of small scale. It is also the key role of all support team members to envision and establish the scope of the project bringing the channels between customers and suppliers closer.
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