Prince2 - 7 Steps of Effective Project Management

Prince2 is a term often bandied about in business circles often leaving the uninitiated bewildered. For those in that position, here is a brief explanation of what Prince2 is and how it works.

Prince2 is an acronym for PRojects IN Controlled Environments. Put simply it is a project management method, the 2 referring to the fact that it is the second iteration of the method. It is a trademark owned by the UK government and specifically the Office of Government Commerce.

Prince2 has a rich history; originally it was referred to as PROMPTII, once again developed by the government but at this stage purely applied to the IT sector. This type of project management quickly became popular outside the world of IT and became Prince2 in 1996. Since this time it has become practically the standard for managing projects within the UK and beyond.

Essentially the project management system has seven distinct stages to completing a project:

• The first of these is the start up phase. During this stage the team responsible for the project are assigned and a brief is provided containing information on what the project hopes to achieve and what approach will be taken to complete various actions required. Additionally, this stage usually leads to the appointed of a project manager and executive in charge who with the help of the team start to plan the next step.

• Initiating the project is an important process. Working on the findings from the first step the team then creates an overall project plan as well as quality controls and specific project files. Typically before the next stage can start the team will have their initial plan signed off by the executive and perhaps a sponsor (the project board).

• Directing the project is the third step and includes how the board intend to control the project from the top down. In addition this step will also see the creation of some contingency processes for the creation of new stage plans and how the board should react to unforeseen circumstances.

• The control stage is vital; it essentially breaks down the stages and sub processes that are used throughout the process. During this stage the processes are defined that set out how any work pages should be presented to and signed off by the board, it also includes a process of understanding how and where process issues may occur and how these should be dealt with and if serious enough, presented to the board.

• Once the stages of the project have been created Prince2 then demands that boundaries should be set up for each stage, defining deliverables for the end of each stage and what should happen if these deliverables are not met. It also decides how stage conclusions should be made.

• The penultimate stage is the management of product delivery. In this step the project manager works with team managers to ensure that a set of formal requirements are created for every piece of work contained in the project. Essentially if this is done correctly all of the work should be delivered on time and to a suitable standard.

• The final step is the closing of the project. Essentially this stage contains three processes, the decommissioning of a project, the identification on any follow up work and finally the evaluation of the project's successes and failures.

Whilst this approach to project management may seem complex at first the seven steps that make up the Prince2 system have proven successful in a large range of different working environments and businesses. The logical path in which the Prince2 system uses is one of the main factors involved with its success.