PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) is a structured project management method and

practitioner certification program. PRINCE2 emphasizes dividing projects into manageable and
controllable stages.

It is adopted in many countries worldwide, including the UK, western European countries, and
Australia. PRINCE2 training is available in many languages.

PRINCE2 was developed as a UK government standard for information systems projects. In July
2013, ownership of the rights to PRINCE2 was transferred from HM Cabinet Office to AXELOS Ltd, a joint
venture by the Cabinet Office and Capita, with 49% and 51% stakes respectively.

PRINCE2 has been designed to be generic so that it can be applied to any project, regardless the
project scale, type, organization, geography or culture, by separating the management of project work
from the specialist contribution, such as design or construction.. PRINCE2 is focusing on describing what
needs to be done, rather than prescribing how everything is done.

The structure of PRINCE2

The PRINCE2 method addresses project management with four integrated elements of principles,
themes, processes and the project environment.

The prince2 principles, 7 at number, are the guiding obligations and good practices which determine
whether the project is genuinely managed using prince2. They must be applied all at once.

The prince2 themes, 7 at number, describe aspects of project management that must be addressed
continually and in parallel throughout the project. They explain the specific treatment required by
prince2 for various project management disciplines and why they are necessary.

The prince2 processes describe a progression from the pre-project activity of getting started, through
the stages of the project lifecycle, to the final act of project closure. Each process has checklists of
recommended activities, products and related responsibilities.

The project environment refers to the fact that organizations often want a consistent approach to
managing projects and tailor prince2 to create their own management method, which is then included
into the organization’s way of working.
  Seven principles: Continued Business Justification, Learn From Experience, Defined Roles And
Responsibilities, Manage By Stages, Manage By Exception, Focus On Products, Tailor To Suit The
Project Environment.

 Seven themes: Business Case, Organization, Quality, Plans, Risk, Change, Progress.

 Seven processes:

1. Starting Up A Project, in which the project team is appointed including an executive and
a project manager, and a project brief is produced

2. Initiating A Project, in which the business case is completed and Project Initiation
Documentation assembled

3. Directing A Project, which dictates the ways in which the Project Board oversees the
project

4. Controlling A Stage, which dictates how each individual stage should be controlled,
including the way in which work packages are authorized and distributed

5. Managing Product Delivery, which has the purpose of controlling the link between the
Project Manager and the Team Manager(s) by placing formal requirements on
accepting, executing and delivering project work.

6. Managing Stage Boundaries, which dictates how to transition from one stage to the next

7. Closing A Project, which covers the formal decommissioning of the project, follow-on
actions and evaluation of the benefits.

Prince2 does not provide specialist aspects, detailed techniques and leadership capability. Also these are
well documented elsewhere. However the principles, themes and processes of PRINCE2 facilitate a good
performance of these skills and contribute in this way to the performance of the project too.

Benefits of PRINCE2

PRINCE2 delivers benefits to all parties concerned, especially the customers, suppliers and the
Project Manager. Although most characteristics of PRINCE2 are of benefit to all, a certain sub-division
can be made:

• Proven best practice, widely recognized;

• Can be applied to any type of project;

• Provides a common vocabulary and approach;

• Integrates easily with industry-specific standards;

 • Allocates resources as part of the go/no-go moments;

• Thorough but economical structure of reports;

• Restricts meetings to only those that are essential;

• Promotes learning and continuous improvement;

• Promotes reuse of project assets, facilitates staff mobility;

• Availability of Accredited Training Organizations;

• Clear roles and responsibilities for all participants;

• Focus on continuous justification of the project;

• Participation of stakeholders in planning and decision making;

• Management by Exception for senior management;

• Product focus: what a project will deliver;

• Plans meet the needs of different levels of management;

• Quality control during whole lifecycle of the project;

• Manages business and project risks;

• Ensures issues are escalated;

• Diagnostic tool for assurance and assessments.

Principles

PROJECT ENVIRONMENT

Continued
Tailor to suit business Learn from
project environment justification experience

Focus on Manage by Manage Defined roles &

products exception by stages responsibilities

PRINCE2 PRINCIPLES

The purpose of PRINCE2 is to provide a project management method that can be applied
regardless of project scale, type, complexity and culture, and irrespective of the environmental factors.
 This is possible because PRINCE2 is principles-based. Principles are characterized as universal,
self-validating and empowering.

Continued business justification

A requirement for each PRINCE2 project is that:

• There is a justifiable reason to start it;

• The justification may change, but should remain valid throughout the life of the project;

• The justification is documented and approved.

The justification drives the decision-making process. In PRINCE2 the compulsory require
justification to validate the option chosen to comply with the compulsion.

Learn from experience

In PRINCE2 learning from experience perfects the method:

• When starting the project, previous lessons should be reviewed to see if these lessons could be
applied;

• As the project progresses, lessons should be included in all reports and reviews. The goal is to
seek opportunities to implement improvements during the life of the project;

• As the project closes, and at the intermediate stages, the project should pass on the lessons to
the relevant corporate or programme organization.

It is everyone’s responsibility to continuously seek lessons rather than waiting for someone else
to provide them.

Defined roles and responsibilities

A PRINCE2 project has defined and agreed roles and responsibilities, with an organization
structure that reflects the stakeholder interests of the business, user and supplier:

• Business sponsors endorse the objectives and should ensure the business investment provides
value for money;
 • Users will use the project’s products to enable them to gain the intended benefits;

• Suppliers will provide the resources required by the project.

Therefore all three stakeholder interests need to be represented effectively in the project
organization, at the delivery level as well as at the directing level.

Manage by stages

A PRINCE2 project is planned, monitored and controlled on a stage-by- stage basis.

Management stages provide senior management with control at major decision points.
Management stages also overcome the planning horizon by having a high level Project Plan for
the total project and a detailed Stage Plan for the current stage. At the end of each stage, the
next Stage Plan will be produced and the Project Plan will be updated.

PRINCE2 requires a minimum of two management stages: one initiation stage and one or
more delivery stages.

Manage by exception

A PRINCE2 project has defined tolerances for each project objective to establish limits of
delegating authority.

PRINCE2 enables appropriate governance by defining distinct responsibility and

accountability at each level of the project by:
• Delegating authority so that tolerances are set against the objectives (time, cost, quality,
scope, risk and benefit) for each level of plan;
• Establishing controls so that if those tolerances are forecast to be exceeded they are
immediately referred up to the next management level for a decision on how to proceed;
• Establishing an assurance mechanism so that each management level can be confident that
such controls are effective.
Management by exception provides the effective use of senior management time and reduces
the time-consuming meetings that projects are normally burdened with.