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PRINCE2 means Projects in Controlled Environments. The Prince2 project management structure is based on a Customer/Supplier environment. PRINCE2 training course is a structured method for effective project management. It is a de facto standard used extensively by the UK Government and is widely recognised and used in the private sector, both in the UK and internationally. PRINCE2, the method, is in the public domain, offering non-proprietorial best-practice guidance on project management.
PRINCE is not intended to cover all subjects relevant to project management. The project management techniques and tools needed will vary according to the project type and the corporate environment. There are also certain aspects of project management that are well covered by existing and proven methods and are therefore excluded from PRINCE. Examples of these aspects are:
· People management techniques such as motivation, delegation and team leadership
· Generic planning techniques such as Gantt Charts and Critical Path Analysis
· risk management techniques
· The creation and management of corporate quality management and quality assurance mechanisms
· Business case management, budgetary control and earned value analysis.
PRINCE2 covers the management of the project, and the management of the resources involved in carrying out the activities of the project. It does not cover the specialist techniques involved in the creation of the products. This is the job of other methods, although PRINCE2 must interface with them to enable information on such areas as estimating, for example, to be provided for project management.
Although PRINCE2 is centred on the project, it begins before the project does by preparing the ground so that the project starts in an organised and controlled manner.
Another often critical project area is procurement. PRINCE2 assumes that the project is run within the context of a contract. The contracting process is not included within the method itself. Contracting and procurement are themselves technical activities (like software engineering) and can therefore be managed using the PRINCE2 method. If procurement or contracting is to be undertaken during the early stages of the project, changes may be needed to the Project Board and other parts of the Project Management Team once these stages have been completed. For example, it may be appropriate to have a senior representative of the contractor organisation as a member of the Project Board (in the role of Senior Supplier).
Contract and procurement issues will also increase the importance of a complete and accurate Project Initiation Document (PID) which will need to be kept in line with the text of the contract(s). Where PRINCE2 certification describes project roles, the conversion of these into formal job definitions for a particular project will also require careful attention, for example Project Assurance, the approval of Product Descriptions, and the allocation of risk ‘ownership’.
PRINCE2 projects are always focused on delivering specified products to meet a specified Business Case. There will be many higher level issues surrounding the project. These will need to be dealt with by other methods and approaches, such as programme management. PRINCE2 is aimed at the middle ground between these higher level, more strategic, issues and the specialist production processes underneath project management
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