Best Practice User Group Ltd,
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Atworth,
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Email: admin@usergroup.org.uk
You can use this page to find out about PRINCE2®, M_o_R®, MSP, SDTK® or the OGC Maturity Models. If you don't see the information you are looking for, please email us and we will reply to you with our answer and will post key questions and answers on the list below for others to see and benefit from. (We may amalgamate similar questions and provide a consolidated answer.) The question can be anything to do with the best practice products - technical questions, history, who's who, how to adapt the methods and so forth. Please note that this is a manual process and can take a while as we consider the question and how best to answer it. Please bear with us. Also, please read the answers contained here before asking your own question. If the information you seek is already here, you will simply be referred back here.
PRINCE2® is a project management methodology - a way of managing projects. It encompasses many aspects of project management but not all. PRINCE2® concentrates on what should be done and not how to do it. It consists of a number of processes, from Start Up through to Closure and defines when in a project certain key activities take place and whose responsibility they are. PRINCE2® provides an organisation structure, a set of controls, advice on planning and so forth. It is intended that all of these should be tailored to suit the project environment and the organisation.
More details about PRINCE2® may be obtained from the official PRINCE2® web site at www.PRINCE2.org.uk
There are no other published Project Management methods - there are lots of project development methods i.e. development methods which also include project management.
PRINCE2® is considered to be fairly universally applicable. Its strengths lie in its definition of who is responsible for everything at each level and its focus on deliverables rather than work. It is also well supported by a user group, trainers, consultants and qualified practitioners, which is something that other methodologies don't really have.
PRINCE® is freely available without payment (other than for whatever optional support, training etc you wish to purchase).
PRINCE® is well-documented, including a process model that guides the project manager through the things that must be done. It does not, however, prescribe how to do those things. For example, you are free to use whatever software you wish to support the project manager and to use Gantt charts or not, as you consider appropriate.
PRINCE® is supported not only by an active user group (so you can influence the method and contact others who are using it) but is backed up by trained and qualified consultants and trainers. Training companies are accredited against standards set by the APM Group and the practitioner examination gives some recognition of a person's knowledge on the subject.
The use of PRINCE® throughout your organisation will bring a number of benefits:
PRINCE® also brings benefits to individual projects, through:
There are undoubtedly more, but that should give you a flavour.
You would be well advised to call upon some consultancy help to assist you in implementing PRINCE®. In the long term, this is likely to save you money and time and help to ensure an appropriate implementation of the method.
PRINCE2® was developed in the UK, based on many years of experience gained through PROMPT II and PRINCE® (the original version). It is a method that covers many aspects of project management but not all - for example, it does not cover items such as contract management or people management that are covered by the bodies of knowledge from both PMI (the USA professional body) and APM (in the UK).
Interestingly, the PMI BOK uses a product-based approach that aligns very nicely with PRINCE2®! Nevertheless, the bodies of knowledge set out what a project manager should know, whereas PRINCE2® sets out what a project manager (and others in the project management team) should do.
PRINCE® is less prescriptive about matters of 'how' the job should be done. It does not, for instance, insist that Earned Value Analysis is performed. Neither does it even insist that a Gantt chart be used! It provides guidance on the essential elements of managing a project without imposing techniques or tools. (The techniques that are included are only recommended and cover Product Based Planning, Quality Review Technique and Project Filing).
Mike Tarrani has performed a comparison of the two in his 28 July review of Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2®.
These qualifications are more general than PRINCE2® and require skills in planning techniques (such as the construction of network diagrams and Gannt Charts) and all aspects of managing a project. They are usually awarded after a period of training, which can only be commenced if entry requirements have been met. Whilst the awarding body is IS-related, the qualifications are applicable more widely and are well respected.
These fairly recent qualifications are focussed much more on the needs of the Project Support Office than on those of project managers. They do not currently require the use of any specific methodology (like PRINCE2®) and the topics are very wide - encompassing an element of planning, controlling, reporting as well as people management, finance and PSO design.
The two qualificiations are quite different. For a start, there is no entry qualification to sit the PRINCE2® exams, whereas to sit the APMP exam requires some prior experience. The PRINCE2® exams are very specific about the PRINCE2® method and do not cover the whole gamut of project management, whereas the APMP exam is more general (covering the APM Body of Knowledge) and does not require the use of any one methodology.
PRINCE2® has been adopted by organisations in many other countries, starting with the Netherlands and Australia. It's use within Eurpose is now quite wide and it is also used in Japan and USA.
PRINCE2® has been translated into a number of languages other than English.
Not that we are aware of. However, from time to time organisations do talk at conferences about their experiences and conference notes are downloadable from our web site (for members only).
We are not aware of published case studies of how to use MS Project 2000 in a PRINCE2® project. However, there should be nothing special in the matter, as PRINCE2® does not define 'how' you should plan, simply that you should! Nevertheless, there may be features of the software that could be of benefit to PRINCE2® project managers and PSOs over and above the norm. It might be worthwhile contactingthe MS Project User Group for more information.
It might also be worthwhile getting in touch with the Programme and Project Support Specialist Interest Group.
Most importantly, treat the implementation of PRINCE2® into your organisation as a project itself. Many organisations have done this before. It is the recommended way of introducing PRINCE2®. However, we are unaware of published guidance on the matter as this seems mostly to be achieved with the assistance of consultants. The BPUG® Autumn 2001 and Autumn 2002 Conferences addressed the subject of managing the introduction of PRINCE2® and the notes of these are downloadable from the web site (members only).
PRINCE2® can be applied to any such project. It is important to realise that a feasibility study is likely to be short in duration (so perhaps only one working Stage is required). Product Based Planning is particularly useful in this type of project as it will help to define the outcomes - for example, is the study to concentrate on the technical feasibility alone, or will it also need to produce a business case - or an outline project plan? Do not spend too long in the Start Up or Initiation stage. Use the feasibility study project to familiarise yourself and your team with PRINCE2® - a successful project under the belt will help with confidence when you start the development project.
PRINCE® sets out standards for a wide range of project management tasks, including planning. It covers the design of the project organisation, management of risk, change control and so forth - and these are applicable whatever approach is to be taken.
As for the plans component, PRINCE® is not prescriptive as to how you plan, only that the planning should be done on the basis of the products to be produced and used by the project. This Product-Based Planning approach is central to PRINCE® and does not depend on how the products are to be produced. Once undertaken, the project manager must decide how to go about planning the activities and PRINCE® does not interfere with the work-based planning that needs to be undertaken. So - the short answer is that PRINCE® allows you to use an iterative approach or a waterfall approach as appropriate and is really only concerned with ensuring that the goal you are seeking has been properly defined in advance.
It may be interesting to ask the question "what software is available to support an iterative approach?"
PRINCE® was originally written to interface directly with this, although developments in PRINCE2® may now make the interface more difficult to define. Nevertheless, PRINCE2® is a way of managing your project, whereas SSADM is about software design and development and ISO9000 is about quality systems. They should all be able to coexist - just make sure that any overlaps do not result in duplication of effort.
The Capability Maturity Model for Software (CMM) is developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). The CMM describes an evolutionary improvement path for software organizations from an ad hoc, immature process to a mature, disciplined one. This path is encompassed by five levels of maturity. CMM2, means maturity level 2.
A BPUG® member writes:
"I use both the CMM (in an informal way) and PRINCE® a lot. I am pretty sure that there is no document that maps PRINCE® against the CMM requirements. I often use the implementation of PRINCE® to kick start a company's process improvement initiatives. Not only do I believe that PRINCE® maps onto the relevant parts of the CMM Level 2 very well, I believe that PRINCE® provides a good stepping stone to address some of the requirements of the CMM Level 3. However, I still need to write up the results of my practical experience."
Certification can be accomplished by sitting the PRINCE2® examinations. The Foundation exam is multiple choice and the Practitioner exam is essay style. The exams can be taken alongside formal training or independently. Each exam offers a Pass or Fail only. You will have to sit the Foundation exam before sitting the Practitioner exam. Since the start of 2001, the Practitioner Certificate is valid for a period of five years, after which re-examination is required, although the method for accomplishing this does not require you to attend an exam centre, as it can be performed via the Internet.
"Managing Successful Projects Using PRINCE2®" is essential to a proper understanding of the method and there is nothing to stop you from practising once you have done so. There are no fees to pay for the use of PRINCE2®. However, most people find that some form of training is useful and most organisations find that implementing PRINCE2® across the whole organisation brings bigger benefits than if used for just one or two projects. Thus they often use Consultants to help implement it.
For a list of Accredited Training Organisations and further details of the exams please see the APM Group web site.
A book has been published on the matter and may be purchased from TSO.
There are books available on the use of PRINCE2® in small projects and the Best Practice User Group has held conferences to assist PRINCE2® users in applying the method in small projects - the last one was in the Autumn of 1999. The conference notes for that are downloadable fro the resources section and cover the use of Rapid Application Development, Benefits Realisation, Planning and Control of Smal Projects, Project Portfolios and Tailoring the Method.
As a general response, however, PRINCE2® can be tailored for use in very small - even tiny - projects by applying common sense to its recommendations. Do not feel that you must add extra bureacracy to the method - most of the form-filling, filing and meetings that people use are created by themselves - not by PRINCE2®. Remember that the Roles are not individual people - many roles might be performed by just one person. Items like Checkpoints do not require a meeting. PRINCE2® simply lays out for you the things you need to consider for a successful project - and leaves the 'how' to you.
You can see details of some tools in the Product Listings section of our web site, under the public services area.
A member writes:
"It appears to me the processes that involve us are Authorising Work Package (CS1) and most of Managing Product Delivery (MP). The other processes work very well for the customer, but do not include us. Most of the time SU and IP have already been completed by the customer and very rarely have they used PRINCE2® so there's no Senior Supplier role for us to fill either. I was much taken by PRINCE2® and appreciated its approach, but in a supplier scenario where your business is the selling of your products and service, agreeing the work to be done, and then doing it, how would you see PRINCE2® help manage this?"
This comes down to the fact that there can be two views of the project. Ideally the customer will use PRINCE2® and you as the supplier will be represented on the board as Senior Supplier. Even if this is not the case, however, there is a project from the suppliers perspective - the business case is based on the margin that can be achieved. With any such project there may be risks, issues and products which are internal to the supplier's view of the project. Examples would be where you want to undertake some form of skills transfer within the project, establish track record/develop capability, produce a case study etc. Each of these could become products on a plan which is internal to the supplier's view of the project. In terms of project board - this depends on your own organisation. It may be that the delivery functions are separate from the sales/account management function and so the Exec/User role combined are filled by someone with Account Mgmt responsibility who is asking "is my customer getting what they are expecting" or "Will this maintain/enhance our reputation as supplier within this organisation" or even "does this contribute to my account development targets" etc etc.
Where the customer uses PRINCE2® then all this still applies just that you might have an internal annex to the PID etc.
There is no publicaly available list of PRINCE2® users. As PRINCE2® is freely available for all organisations to use, no central register is kept. Any records that may exist as a rsult of the provision of consultancy, training or examinations are proprietary.
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M_o_R® is a Registered Trade Mark and Registered Community Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce.
PRINCE2® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce.
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