Prince2 Foundation Training Videos

hello and welcome to this online prince2 foundation level training course my name is greg pal-reese and i will be your tutor for the duration of the course i've been involved in prince2 projects and in project management training and consulting for much of my project management career i've consulted and worked with a range of clients in europe in the united kingdom and in most of sub-saharan africa my client list includes major nuclear regulators petrochemical organizations centers for industrial research telecommunications companies and a wide range of parasital organizations including state-owned enterprises and government departments now prince2 is a beautifully simple common sense approach to getting things done managing projects and this course has been designed to convey that by the end of this course you'll have an appreciation of what prince2 is and how you'll be able to use it to add value immediately to the projects that you work on you'll be able to act as an informed member of a prince2 project management team the course is specifically designed to aid you to pass the foundation exam but also to prepare you for the practitioner course now there are no prerequisites as such for the foundation course however you must achieve a pass at the foundation level before you can sit the practitioner exam now over and above the video modules for each syllabus area there is a resource area available in this learning management system now in this resources area you'll find a number of documents available to you one of them is the prince2 syllabus document this is a very important document because it sets out the learning objectives associated with each of the methods themes and processes and will be used essentially by you at the end of each theme or process to determine whether specific learning objectives have been achieved now over and above that you'll find sample exam papers these are copies of exam papers that replicate the live exam in terms of its format that will prepare you adequately to sit the live paper once you've completed the sample exam papers you'll have access to the answers and a rational document explaining why the answers are either correct or why any answer you've chosen is incorrect now there are videos to accompany the sample exam papers as well further to that you'll find exam guidance giving you some additional preparation advice for the examination and other relevant documents available for you to download this training course is based on the 2017 version of prince2 which is the latest version now the 2017 version of prince2 replaced the 2009 version in july of 2017 and so this course is based on the latest guidance or the latest handbook or manual which is called managing successful projects with prince2 2017 now this manual is available in both hard copy from stationary stores or tso the stationary office as well as in a digital version which you can then keep on a tablet or ipad for example the book itself is not necessary for foundation in that you may not use it during the foundation exam the foundation exam is a closed book exam however if you are serious about prince2 and you want to go on and do the practitioner level then i would suggest that you get a copy of the manual because you're able to use the manual in the practitioner exam you're also allowed to add any annotations or side notes to any diagrams for example which you'll then be able to have with you when you go into that practitioner exam ultimately now this course has been presented and prepared in a modular fashion in other words there is a module in this course that reflects and represents the contents of each chapter in the manual so it matches the structure of the manual from that extent however you'll find that the course is actually presented in a different order to the order of chapters in the guide in the guidance let's have a look at the structure of the manual first and foremost chapter one in the manual is the introduction which sets out the structure of prince2 explains what prince2 is and isn't looks at what makes a project a prince2 project and explains the purpose of the manual itself chapter 2 deals with project management and with relation to prince2 what project management is what projects are generally what aspects of the project we need to control and looks at the role of the project manager chapter 3 establishes the principles upon which prince2 is based and there are seven of them chapter 4 provides guidance on tailoring and adopting prince2 to suit different projects and different environments then from chapter 5 through to chapter 12 there is coverage on the prince2 theme so there's an introduction to the themes and then seven chapters one relating to each of the themes chapters 13 through 20 deal with the prince2 processes so again an introduction to processes as a chapter and then an individual chapter one relating to each of the processes chapter 21 provides considerations for organizational adoption which covers essentially tailoring the method and embedding prince2 into organizations following that there are five separate appendices which are lettered a through e appendix a provides product description outlines and what these are effectively are details of the suggested content of the management products now in prince2 terms a management product is a a project management artifact or document for example it could be a document or a register to any type of report or even a baseline strategy document for example and these can be considered to some extent to be templates for the management products but remember that they provide guidance on the content of these particular documents not necessarily the format so for example if you if we talk about an end stage report in prince2 and you want to know well what needs to go in end stage report you can go and look at the product description for an end stage report in appendix a now in appendix a all of these documents are presented in alphabetical order appendix b is a chapter or an appendix it's very brief but provides you with some guidance on standards alignment in particular how prince2 meets the bs 6079 and the iso 21500 project management standards appendix c is for roles and responsibilities it sets out all of the roles involved in the project and provides guidance on the general responsibilities associated with each role together with the competencies that each that an individual should have in order to fulfill that role for example appendix d is a based a product-based planning example which supports the product-based planning content in the manual this is something we'll speak about in the plans theme but really is more covered at the practitioner level then appendix e provides a health check now this health check is essentially a processed based collection of checklists in particular they provide a little more additional detail around the directing a project process but all of the seven processes are represented and they can be used to check an existing product rather to check an existing project to identify any weaknesses shortcomings and obviously to offer ideas on where improvements can be made now the reason there is a difference in the order that we present the course and the order in which the handbook is presented is that the handbook is presented in sections so we've got the principles then the themes then the processes [Music] collected in that format when we go through this training course we're going to go through a project in more of a chronological order in other words from the beginning of a project we'll work through it in a time-based sequence through to the end of the project so we'll address essentially the processes as they occur in the prince2 project it's important for us then to address the themes and we'll do so when they are most relevant and as a result we're going to jump between processes and themes but remember that prince2 is a tightly interwoven web if you like of themes and processes principles and this project environment that cannot be easily separated from each other now if you've spent any time reading the prince2 manual ahead of sitting down to do this course you'll you'll know that it doesn't necessarily read that well it certainly reads better the 2017 manual reads considerably better than the 2009 version however one tends to get lulled into a false sense of security uh because it looks like a book it's got a cover it's got a it's got pages it's got page numbers and you get the sense of uh if i read this from cover to cover eventually the story will unfold but the story doesn't unfold because it's not written in the chronological sequence of a project so in chapter four chapter five for example they'll be mentioning stuff that you ought to know about but that stuff is not necessarily covered until chapter 17 and so how could you be expected to know it if you haven't yet covered that it's a little bit like building up a jigsaw puzzle without having the benefit of the box lid so each chapter each piece on its own is not difficult to deal with it's not difficult to understand or to look at and describe but on its own it doesn't really give you any greater information about the bigger picture now once you've built the jigsaw puzzle in in totality in other words once you've finished the course if you go back and re-look at the manual then you'll find it a much easier read in other words when you get to chapter five and they speak about that same concept that's only covered in chapter 17 you'll have had some experience with that now and that won't necessarily catch you off god so without jigsaw puzzle you know once you know what the jigsaw puzzle is the next time you pick up that piece you'll say oh uh i know what this piece is that's a little girl's shoe and she's going to be standing in front of a fountain and there's going to be a hot air balloon in the background but you would never have known that piece of information until you built the puzzle up and so the purpose of this course is essentially to help build this jigsaw puzzle up for you so that when you reflect back on the content of the manual it makes a lot more sense now to maximize your chances of passing the exam i have a couple of suggestions for you one of them is before each module review the syllabus document so that you understand the learning objectives which make up the examinable syllabus then review the handbook looking primarily for those essential key terms now it's important that you make time available for the study don't try and uh sit down and and and in an unprepared way flick between your handbook and the syllabus and watching the videos give yourself some quiet time where you're able to sit down review the documents review the handbook watch an entire video from start to finish and then of course you're able to re-watch any portion of the video if you need to but it's important to plan your study time make the time available to get maximum benefit out of the course after each module complete the test questions and again review the chapter chapter in the handbook if you got any of the test questions wrong look specifically for those points so you're able to identify any shortcomings that you may have once you've completed the full course you'll need to do the sample papers and use the rationale to mark them they'll also be the guidance videos as well which you can watch along with reading that rationale and watch those explanation videos that will give you the best possible chance of passing this exam on your first attempt now when you're ready to do the exam you'll need to book it with your training company the prince2 foundation exam is a one hour exam and it is a closed book exam remember you may not take any additional training material including the prince2 manual into the exam with you the prints to exam remember is based on the syllabus so be familiar with the syllabus before you attempt the live exam the exam is made up of 60 questions and the pass mark is 55 that means you'll need to score 33 questions right of the 60 available the format is multiple choice there is a question and for each question four possible answers with only one correct answer per question now there is no negative marking which means that if you don't know the answer to a question and you have to guess then color something in there's no reason to leave any answer incomplete because you will not be penalized for giving wrong answers now the exam can be taken both online or at an exam center if you wish to take a paper-based version okay well that wraps it up then for this very quick introductory module we're going to move on now to look at the first module in prince in the training itself which is an overview of prince2 i hope that you enjoy this course and do take the time as i've said to review the modules once they're completed and pay particular attention to those learning objectives as you move through hello and welcome to this first module where we're going to take a look at an overview of prince2 we'll consider all of the things that prince2 is and importantly what it isn't by the end of this module you should be able to recall the definition and characteristics of a project the six aspects of project performance that need to be managed the four integrated elements of prince2 and recall what makes a project a prince2 project you should be able to describe the features and benefits of prince2 the customer supplier context on which prince2 is based including considerations when undertaking projects in a commercial environment and explain which aspects of a project can be tailored who is responsible for that tailoring and how tailoring decisions are documented now prince2 stands for projects in controlled environments it's one of the most widely used and widely accepted methods for managing projects in the world but it is a generic method now when we say it's a generic method what we mean is that prince2 has cleverly separated the management and specialist aspects of work in the project so that it can be used to manage any type of project in any type of environment now prince2 specifies what needs to be done not how it should be done so it's important to understand that the prince2 manual is not a textbook on general project management but rather it's a definition of this particular way of doing things now to that extent we say that prince2 is best practice it's proven best practice and it's based on feedback from the tens of thousands of organizations around the world who use it effectively but you must understand that best practice is based in a utopian world where everyone always acts in the best interests of the project and to that extent the way it's described in the manual and the way it's taught in the way it's examined is very seldom how it will exist in the real world to that extent it's a bit like a recipe for a perfect lasagna so prince2 is a recipe for a perfect project now if i gave a hundred people a recipe for a lasagna you can imagine that some of those lasagnas would go horribly wrong some of them would be quite nice but most of them would be different to each other and that's because we all have different ways of doing things and different levels of skill in the kitchen so think of prince2 as a recipe it explains how to do things but doesn't necessarily guarantee that we have the ability to do that so prince2 assumes that we either have the necessary soft skills to execute elements of the method or if not we have people available to give us those skills or we can outsource elements of it to people who are appropriately skilled now there are a number of advantages and benefits of using prince2 as an approach or an adopted method within an organization and what follows is not an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination of all of the possible benefits but these are some of the more commonly recognized benefits of using prince2 prince2 is based on established and proven best practice and governance for project management and as such is updated periodically so there's always new information feeding into the method and it's been written by and for project managers prince2 can be tailored to meet the specific needs of an organization and can be scaled to the size and complexity of different projects it can therefore be applied to any type of project and can be implemented easily alongside other industry specific models prince2 is widely recognized and understood and provides a common vocabulary for all of the project participants now the prince2 vocabulary can be a little bit of an issue particularly in the training environment or in the classroom now the reason for this is that because prince2 is designed to be this generic methodology um it's trying to be all things to all people and so it doesn't align with a an industry-specific set of terms but rather has developed its own generic set of language now what tends to happen for students studying prince2 is that they constantly try to align some of the prince2 terminology with uh what they are used to from their own work environment if you're coming out of a where you haven't necessarily got much commercial experience and you haven't worked in a project environment then this will be less of an issue but people with more experience tend to find it's a little difficult to constantly try and draw parallels with what they call a document and what prince2 calls it and are sort of persistently reverse engineering their own experience back into the method so i'd encourage you as far as possible simply to embrace the prince2 terminology and try and immerse yourself in it for as long as it takes you to get through the training and then of course you go ahead and use your own language that's one element of tailoring is to tailor the language but for the purposes of studying prince2 the terminology we use in this course the terminology in the manual and importantly the terminology that you come across under exam conditions will be consistent now importantly prince2 practitioners who are using prince2 language that find themselves in more complex project environments inter organizational environments will be able to communicate effectively with each other using prince2 and it's promoting of this common language and the promotion of this common language that allows prince2 to promote consistency in project work and will reduce the impact of staff changeovers going forward another benefit of prince2 is that it promotes learning from project experience and continual improvement in the organization we'll speak in the next module about our principles one of the principles of prince2 is learning from experience and we do this through lessons reporting and by recommending uh actions for activities uh within the processes so there's a lot of um there's a there's a need in many of the recommended actions within the processes to draw on experience before we execute an activity and of course to pass any lessons forward so that leads to this continual improvement as projects unfold prince2 is also supported by a global network of examination institutes accredited training organizations and consulting organizations which means that when you get stuck expert support is always available right so that brings us now to start looking at the structure of prince2 prince2 is essentially cr structured it's it's created by or it's it's comprised of four integrated elements we call these four integrated elements the principles the themes the processes and the project environment now the principles are what prince2 is based on and so the principles are sort of guiding obligations and good practices they are rules if you like or a code of behavior a way that we're going to conduct ourselves whilst we manage the prince2 project and there are seven principles now what manages or what determines that a project is genuinely being managed using prince2 amongst other things one of the fundamental things is that the project is embracing these seven principles now there is a separate module that follows this that covers the seven principles individually in a lot more detail but they are just to summarize continued business justification defined roles and responsibilities learn from experience manage by stages manage by exception focus on products and tailor to suit the project now the themes when we speak about the themes in prince2 these are aspects of project management that are continually addressed and addressed in parallel with each other throughout the project and again there are seven themes so a theme is like a related set of activities or concepts now each theme will be covered individually in a separate module in this course and there is a separate chapter for each theme in the prince2 manual of course we'll cover them individually but to tell you about them they are collectively the business case theme the organization theme the quality theme the plans theme the risk theme the change theme and finally the progress theme now these themes are integrated into and embedded into the seven processes prince2 is a process driven model or method and we know that a process itself if we define a process a process is a structured set of activities that's designed to accomplish a specific objective in other words it's a set of activities that if we execute them as we are supposed to we'll accomplish something we'll do something meaningful so if you think about making a cup of coffee that's a process and there are a number of activities that are associated with making a cup of coffee we have to boil the water put the coffee in the cup pour in the water add the milk add the sugar stir it and eventually we get something meaningful out of that process which is a cup of coffee that we can drink and enjoy now each of the seven processes are covered individually themselves again in each module but collectively they are the starting up a project process the initiating a project process the directing a project process the controlling a stage process the managing product delivery process the managing a stage boundary process and the closing a project process now it's the interaction of these seven processes with each other that create the prince2 method now the last uh factor or the last integrated element of prince2 is what we call the project environment of course every organization has a unique context into which the project at hand must fit and of course the method will need to be tailored to suit this environment so that's the fourth consideration just to recap the four integrated elements of prince2 are the principles the themes the processes and the project environment and don't forget there are seven principles seven themes and seven processes now one of the things that often people find hard to distinguish between are themes and processes so this short explanation might help clear things up remember that a process is made up of activities so let's show an activity here as a check mark there are a number of activities in a row and this collection of activities we can draw a box around this and this is a process now we know that prince2 is a method made up of the interaction of a number of processes well there's seven different processes but for the purposes of keeping this explanation simple let's just show three or four processes so here we have a simple method made up of three processes each process itself is comprised of a number of activities now if i examine the first process and i look at the first activity and i say to myself well what is this activity all about in this case we'll assume that this activity has got something to do with risk management so to identify this as a risk related activity i'm going to put a red circle around it i then work through the balance of the process and identify any remaining activities that are risk related i'll do the same for each of the other processes and in doing so by the end of this exercise i've identified all activities in all of the processes that have got anything to do with risk at all i will repeat the exercise now for another theme let's take quality as an example i move through the processes identifying any activity that has got anything to do with quality and in this case i'll put a green circle around all of the quality related activities now some activities may relate to both risk and quality and will therefore be shown with both circles surrounding them so the place now where some people have some problems separating themes and processes this can be now easily explained by looking back at the diagram so remember that this process this model this method prince2 is made up of these individual processes each process is made up of activities and those activities relate to something some of them relate to risk some of them relate to quality and of course the rest will relate to other themes but of the ones we're looking at when we are looking at process number one now let's assume this is the starting upper project process when we consider this process when we cover this module we'll be looking at this process all of the activities that make up this process and the little bit of risk that relates to this process and the little bit of quality that relates to this process however when we are looking at a theme so for example the risk theme the red circles we take all the red circles from the various processes and ignore where they've come from but consider them as a completely separate related set of activities and information so a theme is all of the risk-related stuff regardless of where it came from but when we look at a process we consider all the little extracts of the various themes that exist in this one place i hope that explanation helps to clear up any confusion there may be between the differences between processes and themes so we've established that prince2 is a method and we understand what it provides it provides processes and activities that help us execute them but it's important to understand as well that pr there's elements that well there's things that prince2 does not provide now prince2 will not provide any specialist aspects because it's generica prince2 will not say this is how you should build a bridge or this is how you should set up a telecommunications network prince is not as related to any particular industry at all to that extent doesn't provide any detailed techniques such as critical path analysis or earned value management there are some techniques described in prince2 and where they are described you you can use them or some equivalent but there are no really detailed mandatory techniques that are described in the method and certainly it doesn't provide any leadership capability in other words uh being a good project manager or managing a project effectively will of course require some leadership capability some motivational skills interpersonal skills organizational skills these types of things now prince2 does not provide details of any of that information but prince2 assumes that you either have them or can get them and there are no shortage of good training courses good textbooks and wonderful sources of information available in the world in the on the internet and in various publications that that can provide these specialist aspects detailed techniques and leadership capability but you won't find any of them in the prince2 guidance now what does define a project then as a prince2 project well there are a number of things that need to be in place for a project to be considered prince2 but fundamentally one of the most important things is that the prince2 project applies embraces and adheres to the seven principles now again we'll cover principles in a separate module after this one but a principle is a is a is a guiding obligation it's something that simply must be done um in order for the project to be a prince2 project so in in terms of what makes a project a prince2 project fundamentally the most important thing is applying the seven principles further to that there are minimum requirements within each theme so in the quality theme for example one of the requirements is that we maintain a quality register and so for each theme we will define the minimum requirements from that theme that need to be applied in order for the project to be a prince2 project or defined as a prince2 project furthermore we should also have processes in place that satisfy the purpose and objective of the prince2 processes you do not have to use the prince2 processors as they are defined what you will find and you can take it from me if you do use the prince2 processes they are an exceptionally effective and efficient way of ensuring that the principles are adhered to that the themes are applied appropriately and so on so there's no real need necessarily not to use the prince2 processes but if you have an existing process in place as long as it satisfies the purpose and objective of the related or relevant parallel version of the prince2 processes then that is perfectly acceptable and of course where techniques are prescribed or where techniques are described either we'll need to use the prince2 prescribed technique or an equivalent so those four things that make a project a prince2 project most importantly applying the principles then we need to meet minimum requirements at theme level ensure the processes are in place to meet those purpose and objectives of the related prince2 processes and use prince2 techniques or equivalent so why are projects then even necessary well remember that organizations don't exist in static environments they we exist in very dynamic and ever-changing environments and organizations face challenges on an almost daily basis challenges to survive challenges to remain competitive in marketplaces and the pressure that's created by these constant challenges forces us to come up with new ideas and new ways of doing things to remain competitive so the pressure could be introduced by for example a new competitor joining a marketplace where pricing adjusts and we need to drive an efficiency related project or perhaps new technology coming to the foreground where uh the way we interact with our customers could be better well all of these uh changes and all of these challenges that need to be solved can be introduced by way of introducing a project or by way of running a project in fact projects are the best way to introduce change to an organization so a project then is a temporary organization that fits in or is exists within my normal organization now during the or in the normal organization in my day-to-day work we're carrying out what we call business as usual now business as usual is what an organization does we receive an order we process the order we send an invoice to the customer the customer pays the invoice and we distribute the product that the customer has purchased and that's done on an ongoing basis and as long as we continue to do that and do it well and we keep our customer service high then we will continue to survive well that's as long as nothing changes but we know that things will change and anything could change it could be a change the products could become outdated another supplier could enter the marketplace as we said earlier so there's a number of things that could cause us to sit down and look at the way we do things and say hey we need to drive an efficiency here hey we need to introduce a new system here or hey we need to design a new product and bring a new product to the marketplace that doesn't exist otherwise we're not going to survive and the way to bring that product to the marketplace or the way to bring that system into existence is by running a project so there's a distinct difference between projects and business as usual so the project is designed to bring about a form of change whereas with business as usual the way we do things it does change from time to time but these changes tend to be more gradual it's an evolutionary type of change rather than a dramatic instantaneous capability to do something that we couldn't do before so projects bring about a form of change projects are also cross-functional whereas the business's usual environment tends to be hierarchical in other words in the business as usual environment we have silos we have hr department a finance department an it department sales and marketing departments for example but in the project we may need resources to to support the project from from the hr department and the finance department and the sales and marketing department and so you tend to have resources working together who don't ordinarily work together in the standard line function or the line management function so projects are cross-functional projects are also temporary as we said in the definition a project a temporary organization it will exist as long as the project exists once the project has delivered what it needs to deliver then the project is over it will be disbanded and the resources go from the project environment back into their business as usual roles so project is temporary whereas business as usual is ongoing it continues ad infinitum as long as the organization exists now projects are also unique even if we're doing a similar project for a similar customer for example if you look at it from a supplier perspective there will be unique circumstances it might be on a different site there'll be different resources there'll be something that makes the situation unique whereas in business as usual we're doing things on a repetitive basis think about it think about standing in the queue at a bank the bank teller is doing business as usual taking deposits from various customers the only thing that's changing is the amount of money that's being deposited and the account into which it's going but the process is a repetitive one with the project of course it's a unique situation we've never done something like this before we'll never do something exactly like this again and because projects are unique they bring about a former higher level if you like a higher level of uncertainty or risk with business as usual there's a much lower uncertainty so on payday at the bank we know how many withdrawal slips we need we need you know more than we would do at the end of the month for example so once everyone's been paid they come to the bank and they withdraw their funds i know because i've done that time and time and time again that at that time of the month we need to have more pens available more deposit slips more stationary available because we're going to be busier in a project environment we can't tell because we've never done it before and that brings about a much higher degree of uncertainty so projects are more uncertain than business as usual where there's a much lower degree of uncertainty so there's five key characteristics or five uh core characteristics of projects let's recap them quickly a project introduces a form of change projects are cross-functional projects are temporary they are unique and they have a higher degree of uncertainty so to control these projects there are aspects of the project performance that need to be managed now we speak in prince2 terms about six different aspects of project performance that need to be managed they are costs time scales quality scope benefits and risks so costs are fairly obvious why do we need to manage costs well we need to manage costs because there's a limited fund available for the execution of the project and if we don't control the rate at which we're burning money then we will run out of money before we're able to deliver the solution that's required to introduce the change so management of our spend and management of costs is of huge importance in any project the second aspect of project performance which needs to be carefully managed is time scales now this is particularly important where the project needs to deliver a solution by a particular deadline of course you can't allow the project simply to extend into the future um in an uncontrolled way because you might not deliver something on time and this is often as part of complying with a new regulation or legislation for example where something has to be done by a particular date so our project time scales need to be carefully managed the next thing which needs to be carefully managed is quality and quality relates very closely to the next thing which needs to be managed which is scope so when we speak about quality we're talking about the quality of the products which need to be delivered in prince2 we define each and every product that is going to be delivered and we define uh the quality criteria that need to be achieved and the reason we have to do that is because in order to deliver the benefits that the solution is designed to deliver we have to have a product that performs as it was designed to perform and if the component products do not meet the relevant quality criteria that introduces a risk that the project's product will not deliver at the required performance levels and will therefore potentially not deliver the benefits and it's those benefits that are used to justify the project in the first place so you can see why quality is of utmost importance it's something we have to keep a very close handle on throughout the project scope obviously is the extent of the total sum of products that need to be delivered in order for the solution to be considered full or delivered as part of initiating the project we'll define or will agree exactly what forms part of the agreed scope and what is out of scope and keeping our tight control on all of the scope items is of fundamental importance now the last two aspects of project performance are benefits and risk we have to constantly monitor the benefits that are likely to be achieved now this is slightly harder to do because benefits are typically achieved in the future they can be achieved during the life of a project where there's some phased release or phased handover of parts of the project's product during its execution but typically benefits are realized benefits are generated by the project's product the end solution going off and working doing something that introduces the change that those benefits are realized as a result of so constantly monitoring what benefits we thought would exist and if there's any change to those expected benefits throughout the project is an important thing because our project could well be on target for time on target for cost and the quality of products could be sound but for some reason the benefits are no longer achievable that could bring the entire justification of the project into question and so that's something we have to keep a tight handle on now the amount of money we're willing to invest in a project and the benefits that we expect to get back because of that investment the disparity between cost and benefit is acceptable only because we are able to manage the amount of risk that we have to take to generate that differential so in other words if you have a low level of cost and a high level of benefit then you know you're going to have to take some risk but managing the amount of risk that the project is exposed to at any point in time again is of paramount importance risk exposure will change things will change but what we don't want to do is for the risk exposure to inadvertently in an uncontrolled way slip away from us where we find ourselves in a project where actually we're taking huge amounts of risk that we're not really part of the master plan in order to generate really a fairly mediocre return on investment because we could easily have got a similar return by investing in a much lower risk initiative so those are the aspects of project performance that need to be managed cost time quality scope benefit and risk now these aspects of project performance are managed at multiple levels in the project so we'll manage our project time frame as well as stage time frames as well as the time frames of individual work package and the same will apply for costs for quality will relate to the products and for benefits we only really monitor that at one level which is the the project level but remember that the aspects of project performance are not managed at a single uh resolution if you like they're managed at different levels in the project and it's these aspects of project performance that against that we attribute tolerance to and we'll get to this when we look at the principles but there's a principle called manage by exception and it's the provision of tolerance the permissible deviation from the target uh goal if you like the target spend if we were talking about cost it's that permissible over or under expenditure within which a level of management is empowered to make decisions that enables us to manage by exception that empowers people in the project team to get on and do what they do so those are the six aspects of project performance but how does the project manager manage them well in order to achieve control over these aspects there needs to be a plan so a plan must be put in place now we are very often not specialists in every project that we undertake and so and certainly the project manager even if he or she is a specialist will not physically have the time available to do all of the work themselves all of the work in the plan so the work we must delegate the work so we have to have a plan and we must delegate once the work has been delegated we have to monitor the work so that we can ensure that it goes according to plan and then finally we have to control in other words we have to intervene if the work is not going according to plan or if it is going according to plan then figure out ways that we're able to speed it up or potentially reduce the cost of it so the project manager needs to actively plan delegate monitor and control these aspects of project performance now different projects will exist in different environments in different contexts i mean essentially at its simplest state a project will be a simple non-complex project that is happening in an organization in complete isolation of anything else but there may be situations where projects are part of programs or a bigger portfolio we'll examine those now in turn so a project being a standalone project means that it is a simple project and it is an organization that has commissioned this project it's not part of any larger structure it is a stand-alone project now a project could also be part of a program the definition of 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 to the organization's strategic benefits now a program is likely to have a lifespan that expands or covers several years in simple terms a program is a collection of related projects so an organization may be embarking on a rebranding program and part of that rebranding program there will be a project to design a new company logo a company a project to design a new company stationery a new company website for example perhaps we replace the signage on our buildings and delivery on our company vehicles now each of those projects is a standalone project within the program but what makes them part of a program is that they all align with one single strategic objective and that is the rebranding of the company's image now it may be that this company has another project happening at the same time which is that the staff facilities on the third floor of a particular building are being refurbished so this will be the staff room where the staff take their lunch we're putting in a new canteen and new sofas and a new relaxation area for the staff well that project is a project it forms part of the it's part of the organization's total portfolio but it doesn't form part of the rebranding program so there we've got a standalone project that's the the new staff facilities project as well as the rebranding program happening alongside it and that the collection of the projects or programs and and freestanding projects is what we call the portfolio so the portfolio is the totality of an organization's investment in the changes required to achieve its strategic objectives so that summarises then projects programs and the portfolio now regardless of whether your project is a standalone project or whether it's part of a program part of a bigger portfolio prince2 says that there will always be a customer and a supplier the customer specifies the desired results and the supplier delivers the products which will ultimately result in a solution capable of delivering the benefits now prince2 is based on this customer supply relationship but things are not always so simple they may in certain circumstances be multiple suppliers so the customer may appoint three different suppliers who collectively will be delivering the totality of the solution required the customer may also be doing some of the work internally or in-house you know doing it themselves and so there you'll have customer acting or resources from the customer environment fulfilling the role to some extent of the suppliers during the project the suppliers themselves may subcontract some of the work to other contractors in any event there are likely to be several different commercial contracts in place governing the relationships between all of the suppliers and in each of these organizations there will be a separate business case with their own reason for taking part in the initiative in the first place examples will include joint ventures collaborative research intergovernmental projects interagency projects building consortium and alliance contracting and partnerships now when managing a project in each of these different sets of circumstances there will be different reasons for undertaking the project you'll have to deal with different management systems including different project management methods different governance requirements different organizational structures different delivery approaches and different corporate cultures so tailoring will have to take all of those different sets of circumstances and reasons into account now tailoring is in fact one of the principles of prince2 it's the seventh principle the seventh principle is taylor to suit the project tailoring basically means adapting the method or enhancing the method tweaking the method so is that it is most appropriate for the project at hand in other words that we apply a method that provides appropriate control and governance the idea being that we don't want to over burden the project with uh unrequited governance and and control and paperwork and red tape if it's a low-risk informal project there's no need to apply the full set of governance now the prince2 textbook if you like we'll call that the textbook version as a pretty high level version that would be suitable for managing quite a large scale fairly complex project in 99 of the cases if your project is not quite as complex and quite as large you're going to want to tailor down in other words you're going to want to make the method more usable and more manageable so that the appropriate amount of governance is provided i mean this is an investment after all so we're investing money in the initiative and we want to make sure that that investment is looked after that it's protected and that the money is spent appropriately so tailoring is about a pr providing an appropriate use of prince2 given the project now when tailoring we'll need to consider each element that needs to be tailored and what impact that may have on the rest of the method so what can be tailored well there are a number of things that can be tailored first and foremost the processes can be tailored so processes can be combined for example the starting up and initiating a project process which i know we haven't covered yet but in time this will make sense the starting up and initiating a project process can be combined we must where a project is mandatory or where a project it must go ahead there's a tendency sometimes for the project managers to think well we'll skip the starting upper project process but there's real value in the starting upper project process and so rather than that we talk about combining processes we don't cut away elements of the method we don't emit elements of the method but rather we combine change and adapt elements so we can combine processes the processes themselves can be adapted by adding or combining activities the themes can be applied using different or more appropriate techniques the roles can be combined together different roles can be combined within the project management team structure subject of course to the accountability still being maintained and subject to not introducing any conflicts of interest but the roles can be combined or split and of course the management products can be tailored we can combine management products we can split them up into as many products as is required and the format of the documents can change they can take the form of physical documents and be formal documents or they could be less formal or even informal in other words they could be conversations or meetings and where those meetings are minuted in particular it's a slightly more formal type of meeting but progress reports for example could be in an agile environment you know the daily stand-up is a form of what prince2 calls a checkpoint report it's information exchanging hands between the project manager and the team manager at an interval that has been agreed in advance the fact that it's now a meeting rather than a physical document is because it's been tailored because that's what's appropriate for that project now the other thing that can be tailored is the is the language you know the terminology as we said before the prince2 terminology can cause a few upsets along the way now one of the most easiest things you can do is to instead of using the prince2 terminology is use your own organizing organizational language use your own terms and terminology for the different elements of the method for the different reports and management products that will be produced along the way so they can also be changed to suit if not your own organizational language other adopted standards but always apply this change to language consistently so that it's the same across all aspects of the project now you have to be careful not to cause any confusion so if you're renaming something you have to ensure that the the intent of the management product the purpose of the management product is still reflected in its name that that is still expressed in the name of the product prince2 uses very clear and concise names for all of its documents so there's no mystery as to what an end project report is all about or an end stage report for example the names are clear and unambiguous but we do tend to change them um and it's important if we do change them that we don't lose the spirit of the name of that agreement so a good example would be and this is quoted in the prince2 manual using the pmi's project management plan as opposed to the project initiation documentation or a project closure report as opposed to using the prince2 term which is the end project report so consideration has to be given to those elements to keep them consistent and keep them sensical so they don't cause any additional confusion tailoring is supposed to make things easier so we can tailor processes we can tailor themes we can tailor the roles we can tailor the management products and we can tailor the terminology but who is responsible for all of this tailoring well the project manager will identify any tailoring to take place and will document the level of tailoring for the project in something called the project initiation documentation under a heading or as a as a component of the pid called the tailoring section if you like so the project manager identifies and documents the tailoring that is to be affected over the project now that project initiation document itself will be subject to review by project assurance so they will have some input into it to that extent but the project board which is a representative of the business the representative of the user community and a representative of the supplier community acting as a cross-functional decision-making body that project board will approve this project initiation documentation and so they therefore approve any tailoring to the project's method when they approve the pid now both the project board and the project manager may be advised by as we said an assurance function or project support and particularly if there's a project management office or some center of excellence in the organization they will provide tailoring guidance and advice alongside any suggestions from the project manager and the project board now team managers who are the project resources responsible for the delivery of projects products in other words they're the guys with their hands dirty the guys on the ground physically building products that make up the working solution the team managers may also suggest any tailoring that would help them manage their work and their work packages more effectively okay well that wraps up that overview of prince2 i hope you've got a much better understanding of what prince2 is and how it adds value and i'll leave you just with a short analogy or a short statement let's just say that prince2 can be considered to be a set of rules for managing a project if you imagine a game of football where team a are playing team b and team a are playing to one set of rules and team b are playing to a second set of rules well that's not a very uh sort of cohesive set of circumstances and you can make that even worse by saying well the referee could be could be having a third set of rules a completely different set of rules to either team a or team b in their head and so they are trying to referee a game where both teams are playing to a different set of rules now of course there'll be some overlap and there'll be some some some commonality between the three sets of rules but there will be fundamental differences and those fundamental differences are likely to cause issues and problems and upsets along the way and we can make that situation one step worse to say that the spectators in the stadium have a fourth set of rules in their head and this entire situation i'm sure you'll agree now is pretty much a crying shambles no one's enjoying it team a and team b both feel aggrieved that they are being unfairly treated the referee's got far too much work to do and is constantly having to explain and re-explain things and no one seems to agree with them the spectators have all but got up and left having been fed up with the decisions and the poor performance of both teams so the whole thing is a mess and so what we do to introduce some control and some calm and some enjoyment to that game of football is to introduce a standard set of rules and if everybody is playing to that one single set of rules the whole game the enjoyment of the game by the spectators the playing of the game by the players and ultimately the refereeing of the game by the referee becomes much more manageable much more enjoyable and much more controlled and that's what prince2 is it's that standard set of rules for playing the game of project management and if everyone plays to the same set of rules which granted we can tailor or tweak depending on exactly the extent of experience in in the football team for example we can tailor and tweak that set of rules but we play with a standard set of tailored rules available and that's why we call it prince2 or projects in a controlled environment a controlled environment is one far more likely to have a successful outcome so you can review the syllabus document now you'll be looking specifically at learning outcomes one and two but bear in mind that item 2.1 in the syllabus we've still yet to cover in detail there's a separate module solely dedicated to the principles simply because of how important those principles are to the fundamental basis of prince2 so you'll be able to say you've achieved a learning objective 2.1 only really once you have completed the principles module but the other two learning objectives number one and number two should be should be achieved by this point in time try your hand at the sample questions review chapters 1 to 4 in the manual and then move on join me as we talk about prince2's principles hello and welcome back now to the next module in this prince2 foundation level training course until now we've discussed the basic structure of prince2 and established some fundamentals in terms of understanding what projects are and what project management is and it's time now to move on and discuss the first part of the prince2 specific element of the course which is to understand in some detail what the prince2 principles are and how they are relied upon throughout the execution of projects to enable a project to be effectively managed using the prince2 method so the first question one should really ask oneself is well what is a principle what is it what does the word principle actually mean well a principle is a fundamental value or belief some type of standard or set of rules that needs to be applied and applied consistently throughout the project to that extent the prince2 principles are said to be universal meaning that they must be applied to each and every project in order for it to be considered a prince2 project self-validating meaning that these principles weren't dreamt up in an ivory tower somewhere but that they have been developed over many years by the tens of thousands of organizations using prince2 around the world to manage their projects effectively they are effectively proven in practice we also say that the principles are empowering since they enable the practitioners of the method to shape how the project is managed by giving them the confidence or the authority let's say to tailor and adjust the method but the prince2 principles form the foundation upon which the themes and the processes that make up the balance of the prince2 method are based let's have a look at all seven principles now together and then what we'll do is we'll explore each one in turn in a little more detail so the seven principles are continued business justification learn from experience defined roles and responsibilities manage by stages manage by exception focus on products and finally tailor to suit the project environment right so those are the seven principles then as a collective let's now drill down on them one by one and look at each in a little more detail before we start though it's worth remembering or worth understanding that to get an idea of what a principle really means in other words what the spirit of the principle is or what's the core meaning of a principle a good object a good exercise to set yourself is to say well how would i explain this management style principle in really simple non-management related terms and that that helps you develop a core understanding of what the what the real messages behind these behind these principle statements the first principle we'll look at is the continued business justification principle so in prince2 terms what that means is that a prince2 project should only begin if it can be demonstrated that there's enough business justification for doing so that during the project we must continue to demonstrate this business justification still exists and if it can no longer be demonstrated then the project should be stopped now that's much easier to say than it is to do but there's a real tendency and it's a human failure to assume that stopping a project prematurely is indicative of project failure that is true to some extent but the real failure in my opinion is is in allowing a project that is not worth doing to simply perpetuate because it's because it started so at the heart of its value if you like at the heart of the messenger continued business justification in simple terms means don't do anything unless it's worth doing and keep checking that it's still worth doing and if you don't think it's worth doing anymore then stop doing it that's as simple as you can put that as a principle the next principle that we're going to take a look at is the second principle learn from experience now prince2 project management teams will actively seek lessons this will become evident when we look at the starting upper project process when we first appoint the team those lessons will ultimately be recorded in the lessons log and used throughout the project for teams to act on them in order to improve project management going forward not only those lessons but other lessons will be learnt during the execution of this project those will be collated as well and passed back to the organization so in simple terms learn from experience as a principal means look backwards at previous projects either within the organization or even external to the organization if that is possible and look at them and look at the performance of those projects and ask yourself is there anything that that project did poorly that we can try not to do again and importantly look back at previous projects and say is there anything that that project did really well that we can repeat and the more of the things that didn't go so well that you don't do again and the more of the things that did go well that you can repeat again the better the project performance will be if we embrace this principle of learn from experience but important here to stipulate or to to to to highlight that learn from learning from experience during the prince2 project is an active thing it's not a passive process it's not something that the project manager will simply sit and wait for lessons to be delivered to them and and learn them as they go the project manager will actively seek lessons before the project really gets underway and look to maintain this repository of lessons information so that at all times throughout the project there is as much meaningful information at the team's disposal in order to again minimize those failures and maximize the successes so it permeates right from one end of the project through to the other the third principle is defined roles and responsibilities now all prints to project management teams should have a clearly defined structure in terms of a structure of accountability understand which roles are reporting to to whom and so on and that's obviously important it's also important to understand that the prince2 project management team is a temporary organization in other words it is a structure of people who are operating in parallel with the standard organizational structure the usual principles of line management and so on won't necessarily apply to the project management structure but all three project management stakeholder interests being those of the business the users and the suppliers need to be represented within that team and there will be clear communication between all of the different roles in order to help deliver the project successfully but in simple terms defined roles and responsibilities essentially means that it must be explicitly clear for each and every role involved in the prince2 project management team what is expected of them in other words what do i need to do on a daily basis whose responsibility might it be to update a particular register or create a particular report that should be clearly defined that allows me as a project management or a project manager or a project management team member to understand exactly what is expected of me from other stakeholders within the project but importantly also allows me to understand what i can expect from other people and other roles within the project management team structure here's a little diagram here's a little picture that helps uh explain the point so here's a picture of an aircraft which is clearly landed uh without putting down the landing gear and then the pilot is saying to the co-pilot or perhaps the other way around what do you mean did i put down the landing gear in other words well whose job was it to do that that's the spirit of this principle make sure that it's evident make sure that it's perfectly clear to everyone involved in the project management team who's doing what to avoid any of these uncomfortable situations where somebody thought it was their responsibility or somebody thought it was someone else's responsibility and essentially an important thing and that could be anything from updating a risk register or creating a particular report or exchanging important progress information with a particular senior manager for example doesn't take place because it wasn't really clear to those involved whose job it was to do that remember that all of this information will be defined and that word defined means written down in what we call in prince two terms a role description so for each role in the project management team there will be a role description and it's within the content of that role description that all of the details of what that role is expected to do will be defined it's further important to understand that the role description does not replace or override that individual resources job description because their job description will still be valid and that will still be a function that they need to execute in the main business remember we said that the project is a temporary organization in other words for the project they're fulfilling the role of the team manager or the project manager whatever the case may be and to fulfill that role these are the things you need to do that's the role description but they will still have a job description and that is their normal job in the larger picture in the bigger organization and that the role description in the prince2 project does not compromise or override any responsibilities they may have in order to fulfill their day job the next principle is manage by stages in order to understand this principle in order to explain this principle we'll use a simple analogy imagine that your project is to deliver a snowman and one of the things that we need this project to deliver would be obviously the big large snowball that forms the base of the snowman now in order to create that snowball what we're going to do is start at the top of the mountain with a small snowball and roll it down the mountain and we all know as a snowball rolls down the mountain it gathers more snow and it gets bigger and bigger and moves faster and faster and the use of this analogy is not coincidental because when projects get out of control and spending gets out of control and time scales start to slip we talk about projects snowballing or snowballing out of control and so this is a very apt analogy from that point of view so we start at the top of the mountain with this small snowball and we'll allow it to descend along the mountain till it gets to the bottom now if we allow that snowball simply to descend along the side of the mountain gathering more snow and more speed and more momentum as it goes then we have to accept that when we get to the bottom of the mountain to see what's waiting for us at the bottom there that what is given to us or what is available there for us to collect is what it is in other words that the the snowball at the bottom of the mountain may be too big it may be too small it may be the wrong shape or the wrong size or the wrong density it may have sticks and mud and stones and all things mixed up in it that we didn't really want but what we haven't done is provided any control points along its journey we've simply allowed it to to to take the trip down the side of the mountain completely without any intervention now that's not ideal because we want a snowball of a particular size and a particular shape and a particular density and one that is delivered to a particular quality in other words without sticks and stones and rubbish and all sorts of things mixed up inside it so rather than simply allow this snowball to transcend the side of the mountain here completely without any intervention what we're going to do is we're going to break its journey up into stages and by breaking it up into stages we divide the total project if you like into a number of stops or a number of stages at each of these control points we can assess the performance of the snowball against a plan so when we get to this point here we thought well how big ought the snowball to have been and how big is it actually now that way if the snowball is too big we can shave a little bit of the excess snow off it and reshape it if the snowball's too small we can pack a little bit more snow on it right here and allow it to continue along its journey so by having these control points along the way we're able at any point in time to stop look at what we've done so far look at what we expected to have achieved by this point and determine whether the snowball is in fact on track this will greatly increase the likelihood of the snowball getting to the bottom of the mountain and being something that actually meets the needs of of what we need to do with the snowball by taking this approach we can ensure that when the snowball gets to the bottom of the mountain that it's actually fit for purpose in other words that it actually will be suitable for us to use as we intended as the base of our snowman it's the right shape and the right size and so on now what happens if we adjust or what happens if we change the gradient of the mountain what does the gradient of our mountain represent in other words let's make this mountain a lot steeper so you'll see now if this mountain was a much steeper mountain you'll see that if we let the snowball go it's going to get out of control and move a lot faster because the gradient is steeper let's make this mountain a lot shallower so we'll flatten it out and see now if we let this snowball go you see that it doesn't move along quite as fast in other words there's less tendency for it to snowball out of control so the question i suppose then is well what does the gradient of this mountain actually represent and the answer here is that it represents risk in riskier projects we need more control and so on the steep mountain we would break this project up into more short stages on a low risk project we would have less stages but each stage would be longer and this is because of something that we call the planning horizon a planning horizon is a distance in time terms into the future that we can plan with some degree of accuracy so in a volatile environment where exchange rates are fluctuating wildly and the availability of resources is almost impossible to calculate on a week by week basis it'd be very difficult to plan a three month or a four month stage whereas in stable environments where factors are not quite as erratic a two or three or four month stage might not be completely out of the question so the degree of risk that surrounds us to a large extent determines the future time distance that we're able to create our plans and prince2 recommends that our project be divided into no less than two stages the first as a minimum would be the first stage of planning this will be our initiating a project process where we create the project plan and so on we'll get to that in time but the second stage would be our stage where we actually deliver the products that we planned to deliver longer projects will naturally have more stages because our planning horizon won't extend right through to the end of the project with each stage comes a stage boundary and so each of these stage boundaries provides a control point for senior management to assess whether the project is in fact justified going back to our first principle here of continued business justification these are the points in time at which it must be demonstrated and re-demonstrated that the project is on track that it has a likelihood of delivering what we want within the constraints of time and cost set upon us from the very beginning right the next principle that we're going to look at is manage by exception managed by exception in simple terms is a principle that allows the project objectives of time cost quality scope benefit and risk to be managed at project stage and even work package level and this is achieved by providing for each of those elements of control something we call tolerance now tolerance is a permissible deviation from target within which it's still an acceptable performance so if my project is a six month project with plus or minus one month of time tolerance as long as that project finishes somewhere between the five and seven month mark everyone involved should be happy because it's within its tolerance and really only when we forecast that the tolerances are going to be exceeded is it necessary to involve a higher level of management so you can understand then that these tolerances that exist at different levels are what cause the level of management above those tolerances if you like to be involved so team manager when work package tolerances are forecast to be exceeded is required to escalate the issue by raising an issue to the project manager if stage tolerances are exceeded or forecast to be exceeded in any event then the project manager is required to notify the project board or to get project board involvement and so at the next level project level the project board would need to escalate to a corporate or program or the customer if you imagine taking a long road trip in your own car well it would be a little bit frustrating and silly even for you to have to stop your car every five miles or so to open the bonnet and check the coolant levels and check the windscreen wash and oil temperature walking around the car kicking the tires to make sure everything's in limits now there's a reason that you don't have to do that and the reason is that built into the engineered systems of the vehicle are warning systems designed to monitor those aspects of the vehicle's performance to alert you as the driver if any one of them is out of limit if it's not acting as if it's expected to to react now as a driver if i get a warning light on my dashboard here to tell me that the engine temperature is climbing i should be getting that warning from my vehicle with enough time to bring the vehicle to a stop and take some type of corrective action before i cause any damage to the engine or it seizes in prince2 terms that's brought about by management by exception and the key to management by exception is that we escalate exceptions to the next highest level of management when we forecast a potential breach of tolerance remember our tolerances are the permissible deviation from a target so back to the car my engine temperature might have to be 120 degrees and there might be a five degree tolerance either side of that and as the temperature climbs so the vehicle alerts me to the fact that the temperature is getting out of range before i cause damage to the engine and in prince2 we forecast breaches of tolerance we predict them so that we can take action before they cause damage to the project or damage to the engine so in the same way that the systems in our car on monitoring the engine temperature coolant levels tire pressure and so on the prince2 project is managed by exception we constantly monitor different aspects of project performance in particular time cost quality scope benefit and risk to make sure that they are within limits and in prince2 terms those limits are what we call tolerance this tolerance if you like is the permissible deviation away from a target beyond which we need to alert the next higher level of management and to that extent these tolerances exist at multiple levels within the project relevant and related to the different levels of management within the project management team now each aspect of project performance will have tolerance attributed to it and the project manager will need to manage and monitor all of them at project stage and work package level so management by exception is the opposite of micromanagement it empowers each level of management to get on and deal with their own issues unless those issues are forecast to take some aspect of the project outside of tolerance and then it becomes mandatory that the next higher level of management is informed one of the major benefits of this style of management is that it makes particularly effective use of management time and we'll deal with this in more detail when we look at the progress theme the next principle that we're going to discuss is focus on products prince2 is a product focused methodology what that means is that prince2 says that all of the projects products the individual components that were going to be delivered throughout the life of the project should be defined clearly in the way of what we call a product description now a product description is in essence some type of document that specifies exactly what needs to be produced along with the criteria that this product needs to meet in order for it to gain approval so if the product was a pin for example the product description may record that the pen should weigh 20 grams or that the volume of ink that it contains must be three milliliters these are the criteria against which the finished item in this case the pen will be assessed to ensure that it is fit for purpose prince2 says that more successful projects are output orientated rather than activity orientated now what this means is that we should first define what is to be produced before worrying about planning the activities required to produce them let's use another analogy really to understand that so imagine that the product we're going to produce in prince2 terms is a painted room well it'd be quite easy to define in terms of a specification exactly what the painted room needs to look like once we're finished with it quality criteria will no doubt mean or be that there are no paint drips on any of the window woodwork that there are no paint drips on the skirting that the doors and windows are not painted only the surfaces of the walls and so on now creating a product description for a painted room will allow us once the room has been painted to inspect it compare it to the product description for the painted room and then determine whether what we see in front of us is described by the product specification commercially the reason that's important is because the resource the supplier who has painted the room is expecting to get paid and as a project we will only pay them if they've delivered what we asked them to deliver if however we decided not to define the painted room but rather simply plan the way in which the room will be painted we can create a detailed plan as to how many rollers we're going to use and whether we should put cardboard down on the floor or plastic down on the floor to protect it and we can engage in long meaningless conversations about how we're going to do it but the point will remain then that even once we've done it there's no real way at the end of that to categorically determine that what we see in front of us is fit for purpose or not because we don't have a description against which to assess it define what we want first and then plan the activities under required to produce those products the final principle is tailor to suit the project environment this principle basically recognizes that although prince2 is a well-defined universal project management method it can't be applied straight out of the textbook to each and every project because each and every project will be of a different scale have a different level of complexity have a different level of importance within the organization and almost certainly have a different level of risk associated with it and to deal with all of those variables we need a unique method for each and every project tailoring the method means considering the circumstances of the project looking at the textbook version of prince2 and asking yourself how can i tweak this how can i change this to be more effective for my project if we take a relatively simple project a non-complex project perhaps designing a new company logo or something like that you may consider that this type of project may be very low risk and we look at another project to build a nuclear power station now this project may be obviously large much larger in terms of scale and complexity but also have much more significant levels of risk associated with it if you had one set of rules for managing risk on all projects you would find that in the simple project designing the new company logo that the amount of risk management the amount of risk reporting the the the level of detail to which we would have to record and document project risks would basically almost bring a simple project like that to a to a halt in other words it would the burden of risk management might be so weight so heavy that it really prevents that project from gaining any real momentum equally if we were to apply the real amount of risk management required for that simple project to the project to deliver a nuclear power station you might find that there's not enough risk management and that that project would easily get out of control and time scales would be difficult to keep to the cost would almost certainly scale out of control very quickly so it's important that the level of risk management for example is appropriate with the level of risk associated with the project and this tailoring does not simply apply to risk it applies to all elements of the project management method but tailoring doesn't mean getting rid of elements of the method it means putting your mind to the textbook version of the method and asking yourself how can i make this work for my project if my project requires a very formal reporting structure then using the templates from the prints to textbook might be appropriate for things like highlight reports or checkpoint reports but if my project doesn't need such formal reporting and particularly at the delivery levels then having morning meetings for example where the information is exchanged verbally might be sufficient prince2 doesn't care what form those communications take place in prince2 only cares that the information is exchanged between the right parties at an appropriate time in whatever format suits that project and that's what tailoring means tailoring means take the textbook version of the method and make it work for you if you don't tailor the method effectively the method will almost certainly risk non-adoption people will simply not stick to a project management method that that encumbers them in terms of or prevents them from getting the job done can lead to either heroic project management or what we call it robotic project management so robotic project management very dangerous the house is on fire the fire extinguisher is over there but the process says that i can't use the extinguisher until i got a report from someone else so i'll sit and watch the house burn down because i can't simply do anything until i've got this report in from another level of management so that robotic style of project management which prevents people from dealing with situations effectively we really need to avoid and effective tailoring will do that the detail of how the method is tailored will be captured in the project initiation documentation which is created by the project manager during the initiation stage and whilst we haven't got to this yet this document is essentially a set of rules for project management it explains how the project's risk and quality and change control will be dealt with how the project members will project team members will communicate with each other where the stage boundaries are going to be how people are going to talk to each other the mechanisms for escalating issues and risks and how the method has been tailored and having a good clearly defined section in the project initiation documentation that states how the method has been tailored will allow a project or a prince2 project manager who's joining a project perhaps midterm to spend a day or two days in the pit in the project initiation documentation and then get out there and hit the ground running with a good understanding of the the scale of the project the complexity of the project the details around the risk of the project and how the method has been tailored to deal with all of those so those are the seven principles of prince2 let's go through them once from top to bottom and remind ourselves of the simple easy to understand meanings behind each one continued business justification don't start a project unless it is demonstrably worth doing keep checking that it is still worth doing whilst you're doing it and if it is no longer worth doing then stop it learn from experience look at previous projects and experiences reflect on those aspects of those projects which went well and those which didn't go so well use these lessons to avoid repeating the mistakes of previous projects and to replicate the successes of previous projects defined roles and responsibilities have an organized team structure and define each team members responsibilities in a role description make these visible to the whole team so that each team member can understand unambiguously what is expected of them and what they can expect from other team members manage by stages break your project up into stages according to your planning horizons and while you will have a high level project plan plan each stage in detail only when it is time to do so so that that planning has a reasonable chance of being accurate manage by exception define your tolerances for the project against the aspects of project performance monitor that performance closely and involve the next higher level of management only when there is a forecast breach of some tolerance give attention to the things which aren't behaving as they were expected to behave focus on products define all of the project outputs by creating product descriptions get agreement on these products before planning and executing the activities required to create them and tailor to suit the project consider the unique requirements of the project and adjust the method to suit and complement the project don't throw the textbook version of prince2 at each and every project hoping that it will simply work well i hope you now have a good understanding of the seven principles of prince2 remember it is these seven principles that establish or form the foundation of the method in other words these are the the foundation upon which the things like the processes and the themes rely in order to themselves function effectively together and remember that principles you don't tailor the principles the principles are mandatory in all prince2 projects and you'll find later on for example once we've covered more of the method and we've looked at some of the processes that some of the relationships between processes for example simply aren't normal or can't function normally if you don't for example manage by exception and so you'll see that for a project to be truly a prince2 project all seven of the prince2 principles must be applied again i hope you've enjoyed this module i hope you have a good understanding now of these principles and you'll need to bear them in mind and think about them constantly as we continue on our journey to understand the balance of the prince2 method you

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Length: 98min 47sec (5927 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 03 2020