Subject of PRINCE2
Everybody working with and in projects know the "magic triangle" of project management: quality - cost - timescales. PRINCE2 enlarges this to a hexagon, the following dimensions are about to be managed:
- Costs: Which costs are related to project? Under which conditions is it affordable?
- Timescales: When will the project be finished?
- Quality: Are the deliverables/products fit for purpose?
- Scope: Exactly what will the project deliver? What's essential, what is “nice to have”, and what is for sure out of scope?
- Risk: Each projects bears some risk, but exactly how much risk is acceptable?
- Benefits: The answer to the most often overlooked question, “Why are we doing this?"
Management Levels of PRINCE2
In respect to project management in organizations PRINCE2 distincts four levels of management:
- Corporate Management: Is responsible for commissioning the project and the strategic alignment
- DIRECTING: responsibility of the Project Board for benefit and success of the project.
- MANAGING: responsibility of the Project Manager for the day-to-day management and attainment of goals
- DELIVERING: responsibility of the Team Manager for delivering the specific products of the projects
PRINCE2 concentrates strongly on the relation between and the co-operation of the different levels in order to secure justification and control for the organization.
PRINCE2 is well compatible
The integrated approach and the clear differentiation of the four levels of management is a big advantage. Especially the distinction between direction and management of the project from the delivery of the project's outputs makes PRINCE2 highly compatible with ...
- existing standards and specialist instruments in organizations, e.g. methods for risk analysis or standards for specification management
- iterative approaches like AGILE or SCRUM, which focus more on the level of DELIVERING the project's products/outcomes
- different Bodies of Knowledge (BoK's) like the ones of IPMA focusing more on "good practices" for project managers
Customisation of PRINCE2
The approach of PRINCE2is strongly focused on tayloring the methodology to the spefic conditions and relevant environment of every single project, be it in size, complexity, duration, and many more.
Furthermore the PRINCE2 method offers a ful set of standard templates to assist with management. These include plans, reports, strategies, product descriptions and registers.