<p>These were my summary notes that I used to study (and pass ;) the Prince2 exams. <img src="/fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/wink_smile.gif" alt=""/><br/>
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<strong><u>Components (8)<br/>
</u></strong><br/>
<strong>1 - Business Case (Reason for the project)</strong><br/>
Why is the project needed, what are the benefits<br/>
Investment appraisal<br/>
Timescales<br/>
Risks<br/>
<br/>
The business case can change after the project SU<br/>
The business case can change as projects change</p>
<p><strong>2 - Organisation (Responsibilities)</strong><br/>
Designed and appointed during SU<br/>
Reviewed during SB</p>
<p> Project board - should be managers<br/>
3 Interests need representing <br/>
- Business<br/>
- User<br/>
- Supplier</p>
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<p><strong> 6 Roles</strong><br/>
- Project executive - responsible for the project and owns business case.<br/>
- Senior users - represents users at management level<br/>
- Senior suppliers - Represent suppliers at a senior level, these can be in house suppliers too<br/>
- Project assurance - Can delegate, to ensure plans and business case, risks are realistic<br/>
Project managers <br/>
Day to day control of projects<br/>
Executing an agreed plan<br/>
Within defined tolerances of the board<br/>
Only one project manager<br/>
MUST NOT conduct project assurance<br/>
Can be a team member<br/>
Team managers<br/>
Represent each team<br/>
Agree work packages with the project manager<br/>
Project support <br/>
expert support staff, eg, admin, lawyers.</p>
<p> Remember<br/>
- Roles are identified not jobs<br/>
- 1 project manager only<br/>
- Board may NOT delegate decision making roles<br/>
- PM must NOT perform project assurance.<br/>
- Project board is the voice to the outside world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>3 - Controls (Arrangements, Reporting, Authroisation, Escalation)</strong><br/>
Allows project to be steered, started and stopped<br/>
Defines 26(!) controls<br/>
2 are time based, <br/>
- Checkpoint reports<br/>
- Highlight reports<br/>
The rest are used as needed<br/>
Management by exception<br/>
Deliver what was agreed<br/>
Escalate as soon as it is believed these tolerances will be breached<br/>
provides support to management<br/>
Startup controls<br/>
Project startup<br/>
Authorising initiation (DPI)<br/>
Project initiation (PID) once approved acts as a contract<br/>
Communication plan, agreement on what info provided, to whom and when<br/>
Stage selection, length of time between partitions, determined by risk, ability to plan/control future, resources.<br/>
Controls for the doing phases<br/>
Tolerances - Level of allowed deviation without management deviation<br/>
Product descriptions - What is the product, who is it for, what are the quality criteria<br/>
Work package authorisation - Only way in prince to agree work with a team or supplier<br/>
Quality control<br/>
Project issues and change control<br/>
Risk log (results of risk analysis)<br/>
Checkpoint report, from team managers to project managers<br/>
Planning and replanning activity<br/>
Daily log for the project manager<br/>
Highlight reports, periodic reports from PM to PB<br/>
End stage reports<br/>
End stage assessments<br/>
Exception report from PM to PB<br/>
Exception assessment PB review of the exception report<br/>
Controls for the end of the project<br/>
End project notification<br/>
Lessons learned report<br/>
Follow on recommendations<br/>
End project report - compares PID to actuals<br/>
Post project controls<br/>
Post project review</p>
<p> Tolerances - Remember! There are 6 types of tolerance :<br/>
Time<br/>
Cost<br/>
Scope <br/>
Quality<br/>
Risk<br/>
Benefit<br/>
<br/>
<strong>4 - Quality (Set and meet expectation)</strong><br/>
Projects should actively define quality. This helps to manage expectations from users/suppliers etc.<br/>
<br/>
There are 16 aspects of quality :<br/>
External (5)<br/>
- Project mandate<br/>
- ISO 9000<br/>
- Quality policy<br/>
- Quality management policy<br/>
- Quality assurance staff</p>
<p> Internal - project definition (6)<br/>
- Customer quality definitions<br/>
- Acceptance criteria<br/>
- Project approach<br/>
- Project quality plan<br/>
- Stage quality plan<br/>
- Project assurance</p>
<p> Internal - project doing (5)<br/>
- Product description<br/>
- Work packages, discrete pieces of work<br/>
- Quality log, records actuals against expectations<br/>
- Quality control, prove products meet defined criteria<br/>
- Quality review</p>
<p> Remember!<br/>
- Define quality <br/>
- Only the board may change the definition of a product</p>
<p><br/>
<strong>5 - Plans (Define project products and activities needed to meet them)</strong><br/>
These contain<br/>
- Deliverables<br/>
- Activities<br/>
- Dates<br/>
- Costs <br/>
- Resource requirements<br/>
- Gantt charts</p>
<p> Projects plans - major part of a PID<br/>
Stage plan</p>
<p> Remember!<br/>
- Plans are the backbone of a project</p>
<p><strong>6 - Risk management</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> - Risk analysis, identification and evaluation of risks, measures and countermeasures.<br/>
- Risk management<br/>
- If a risk occurs, it becomes a project issue.<br/>
- After risk analysis plans need reviewing <br/>
- Risk analysis is stored in the risk log<br/>
- Key concepts are<br/>
- Description<br/>
- Probability<br/>
- Impact<br/>
- Proximity (time)<br/>
- Owner<br/>
- Countermeasures identified<br/>
- Countermeasures in place<br/>
<br/>
<strong> - Dealing with risk (PRACT)</strong><br/>
Prevent<br/>
Reduce <br/>
Accept<br/>
Contingency<br/>
Transfer</p>
<p><strong>7- Change control</strong></p>
<p> - PB Must approve changes are out of tolerance<br/>
- PM can approve / decline changes within this tolerance<br/>
- All changes are handled as project issues, these must be captured in the issue log and have their impact assessed.<br/>
- Change control should have a priority scale - suggested 5 levls<br/>
- A change authority may be defined with a change budget</p>
<p><strong>8 - Configuration management (Tracking deliverables)</strong></p>
<p> - Controls versioning, like visual sourcesafe or a document management system</p>
<p> 5 Parts<br/>
- Product submission baseline<br/>
- Issueing copies, read only for testing<br/>
- Product issue - controlled, copies for editing<br/>
- Status accounting - records and reports<br/>
- Verification - documents match actual products</p>
<p> - The configuration librarianmaintains the issue log</p>
<p><strong><u>Processes<br/>
</u></strong>- SU - Startup - project preparation<br/>
- IP - Initiating a project<br/>
- DP - Directing a project - board steering<br/>
- 3 formal decision points, <br/>
DP1 - Authorising initiation, after SU decide whether to move to IP<br/>
DP2 - Authorising a project, review PID before commencing first doing stage<br/>
DP5 - Assessment of a project against deliverables.<br/>
- 1 general decision point, reusabe<br/>
DP3 - Authorising a stage / exception (End of stage or anything outside of tolerance)<br/>
- 1 Communication and governance point between stage boundaries <br/>
DP4 - Giving ad hoc direction, general comms, reporting, or advice.<br/>
- CS - Controlling a stage, work of PM when executing a plan<br/>
- MP - Managing product delivery, work of team managers who create products<br/>
- SB - Managing stage boundaries, PM preparation for end stage<br/>
- PL - Planning, define deliverable and create an activity plan.<br/>
- CP - Closing a project and review progress / issues, formal handover</p>
<p><strong><u>Techniques</u></strong><br/>
- Product based planning<br/>
Identify deliverables<br/>
Define deliverable quality<br/>
Work out relationships between the different deliverables<br/>
- Change control<br/>
A technique for processing change control<br/>
- Quality review<br/>
Review allegedly completed deliverables against quality criteria</p>
<p><strong><u>Remember... Prince is :</u></strong><br/>
Considered to be project based<br/>
Needs tailoring to projects<br/>
Can be used in any environment<br/>
Covers the life of the project</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>