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Scalable PRINCE2

One of the very best aspects of PRINCE2 is that it is flexible and scaleable. It can be used in any environment in any project, as the good book says. As I go through classes with delegates we usually get on to the subject of scalability, particularly in their own environments. In this blog I thought I would give you my thoughts on this powerful area of PRINCE2.

The Manual says that there are a minimum of three pieces of information to record; what you have to do, what you have to do if can’t do what you have to do, and that you have done what you have to do.  Simple eh?  Well, yes if you are decorating your spare bedroom, but in most organisations you need a bit more than that.  You need to go through all eight processes, but what you do in them is up to you so, first of all let’s deal with Starting Up a Project (SU).  You’ve been given a project, possibly just a statement ‘get that done by December next year’.  You need to record the scope, and in a bit more detail than that, so you definitely need a project brief, capturing what the customer wants and, just as importantly, what you are not going to do (or “out of scope items”).  The brief should also contain the benefits of the project.  Risk management is essential so a risk log is needed, other than that perhaps recording your project approach at the bottom of the brief will be useful.

Now you’ve got two documents to get approved in your first meeting with the board, the brief and the risk log.  In this meeting you should also explain what you want to do next and get it minuted (see below).  Alright, now you have an approved project, you need to plan it, so a project plan is needed, but if the project is small then just make it one stage and create the detail (stage plan) on the spot.  Take the brief back to the customer and ‘flesh it out’ in more detail, talking to the experts and getting more technical details.  You should get definite acceptance criteria at this point; hopefully as the project is small this is fairly straightforward, if not, make some assumptions and concentrate every waking moment on getting those assumptions turned into requirements.  Not only will you get risks, but things will go wrong and almost certainly change, so you might want to expand your risk log to contain issues as well.

Go back to the board for the second meeting and get the refined brief, risk log and project plan approved. Now comes delivery, have a regular update meeting with the board, but get those meetings minuted, this saves creating highlight reports, do your own admin, so you don’t need project support, and manage the teams yourself.  Finally, you will get sign off from the customer when you have finished and the project is delivered.  Create a lessons learned log and end project report to capture any useful data and you are done!

So there you are, PRINCE2 in 6 documents.  Who says it is has to be complicated!  Of course the largest projects will need to use everything, especially if there are third parties involved.  Remember the most important rule; people have very short memories so record all important decisions, especially what you are supposed to deliver!