Prince2 is a long-established project management methodology that is widely used in the UK public sector and has developed into a de facto application in the private sector. Developed in 1989, Prince2 is a structured project management methodology that its owner, OGC (the UK Department of Commerce), is constantly refining based on user feedback and surveys. Originally developed for the IT industry, prince2 has evolved into a management method that is common to projects of all sizes and in various fields. Prince2 is world-famous and widely used. The prince2 manual has been translated into several languages.
The use of prince2 is free; although the name and content are copyrighted, users can refer to the method in their projects without having to be limited to specific consultants and related services.
The basic principles of prince2
The risk for many projects is that once a project enters its own life cycle, they cannot adapt to changes in the environment and therefore cannot deliver the desired results. When the reasons for the project's original establishment no longer exist, they often continue with the project, wasting resources. Prince2 always maintains a clear direction based on a series of principles, thus ensuring that the final delivered results truly meet the needs of the customer.
· prince2 uses a series of procedures to describe what happened to a project and when. These processes cover all activities from the beginning of the project to the end of the project, and can be scaled down and adjusted according to the needs of the individual.
· These processes are based on a series of components of the project. These components describe aspects of the project's composition, such as business case, quality management, risk management, and change control, to ensure that the final product "meets the requirements."
· In a client/supplier environment, stakeholders and senior management are involved in significant decisions to ensure that the project continues to meet the desired objectives.
· "Exception management" is an important principle of prince2. It ensures that no matter how busy senior management is, they can really get involved in the project, which is a problem that project managers have always faced. Prince2's detailed process provides an organizational structure, with the project manager responsible for day-to-day management and the relevant stakeholders effectively involved in the decision-making process to provide recommendations.
· Prince2 provides an interface that connects to large-scale project management and is designed to meet currently recognized quality management standards.
Other commonly used planning methods can complement prince2 by helping the project manager organize his/her management work, providing an added value to the project environment and avoiding the project running in a vacuum during the delivery of the expected business benefits.
Prince2 process
prince2 provides an insightful, adjustable model of the process. The 8 management processes and their respective sub-processes provide a solid working structure and communication channel for all parties involved in the project. These processes can be added or subtracted according to the needs of the project, and the degree of formality of the output results can vary.
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The important role of the main process of prince2 can be summarized as follows:
Project guidance (DP) is a very important process that defines the responsibilities of the Project Management Committee. It ensures that the Project Management Committee is ultimately accountable for the business case and, if necessary, makes recommendations to project managers and senior management.
The project preparation (su) process can determine its degree of formality according to the needs of the project. The process clarifies a fundamental question: "Is our project practical and worthwhile?" ”
Project Initiation (IP) is the first real project process. It provides a solid foundation for the project and reaches a common understanding with the Project Management Committee on objectives, risks and expected quality of the product.
The Phase Control (CS) phase contains the day-to-day management activities of the project manager.
The Product Delivery Management (MP) process covers the work of manufacturing and preparing the actual product according to the quality standards in the product description.
Stage boundary management (SB) plays an important role in assessing the value of the project's current status and helps determine whether the business case is still viable.
Project closure (cp) ensures that project closures, necessary follow-up plans and post-project reviews are effectively controlled.
A project plan (pl) describes the repeated steps for planning and rescheduling a project. By applying product-based planning techniques, we ensure that the plan can be developed according to the required results. Project Planning Project Guidance Project Preparation Project Initiation Phase Control Stage Boundary Management Project Closure Product Delivery Management
constituent
The prince2 process runs through many important aspects of project management.
Prince2 believes that the business case is the delivery of the project and the economic justification for the implementation of the project. The business case generates a correlation that is consistent with the company's strategy and is constantly updated throughout the project lifecycle. Prince2 divides the project into different phases for periodic review of the business case and any changes. The responsibility for the business case rests above the organizational structure, reflecting its importance in prince2.
Prince2 prescribes a flexible organizational structure consisting of a variety of clear roles that may be assigned to one person, multiple people, or shared by all. By securing representatives of business interests, suppliers and users on the project management committee, prince2 provides a vital link between project managers and key stakeholders. The project director, who represents the commercial interests and the client side, is the head of the project management committee and is designated in prince2 as the person ultimately responsible for the business case. Project managers can thus obtain the support of the relevant management to overcome difficulties, while also enabling senior management to keep an eye on the feasibility and correct direction of the ongoing project. The task of project assurance is to check the process of the project according to the three parties of interest in the project management committee - business, users and suppliers - and make the necessary changes in a timely manner to ensure that the quality of the final product meets the customer's expectations.
"Exception management" is promoted in prince2 through the use of multiple means of control. By defining permissible deviations, prince2 gives the project manager the flexibility to handle the problem on his or her own, and provides him/her with a way to escalate the issue and seek the help of the project management committee when the problem exceeds the prescribed permissible deviation. Prince2 also gives the Project Management Committee control to ensure that the project follows a process agreed upon in consultation and that the necessary corrective actions are taken in a timely manner. Through the use of the plan at all levels, baselines are established by consensus, whereby important events can be reviewed.
Quality is a key concept of prince2. The prince2 quality path runs through all processes, ensuring that the final result is consistent with the specified quality standards, and the finished product is inspected through inspection or review. Configuration management is considered a major aspect of quality control and facilitates the management of product versions. Since all projects face changes that affect their development trends, such as changes in corporate strategy or other events outside the project, prince2 attaches great importance to risk management, creating an important interface for change control. Prince2 provides the technology to control such changes, through close cooperation between risk management, quality management and change control, to ensure that external or internal factors that have an impact on the quality of a project or product can be identified and analyzed so that appropriate precautions can be taken, which ensures that these precautions are determined based on the impact of risk on the quality of the final product.
In addition to processes and components, prince2 offers additional technologies such as product-based planning and quality reviews. But it does not say which appropriate technologies to choose for a particular project, leaving it to the user to handle.