38 Speedy Power Keys For PRINCE2 7 Project Health Check
PRINCE2 Project Health Check – 38 Speedy Power Keys
Why do we need a PRINCE2 Project Health Check? Despite our best practice methodologies and a slew of lessons learned, projects, just like dying dinosaurs, continue to fail – a massive 66% of them!
If PRINCE2 projects were easy and a formula for perfection had been discovered, then project managers and organisations would have applied it by now. The fact of the matter, however, is that attaining or repeating project success remains the holy grail of project management.
It is generally accepted that the PRINCE2 project success can be split into two broad camps: management maturity and delivery effectiveness.
Here, then, are the Power Keys for a toned-to-perfection PRINCE2 project:
PRINCE2 Pre-project
- The project board and appropriate other PRINCE2 roles are designed and appointed by individuals along with their role descriptions and with sufficient authority, availability and credibility.
- Lessons from previous projects have been determined and applied if required, plus the daily lessons logs have been set up.
- A full project brief containing the outline business case, project product description, and project approach has been produced.
- The initiation stage plan has been produced.
PRINCE2 – Authorising the initiation stage
- The project brief and initiation stage plan are approved.
- Resources are in place for the initiation stage, and tolerances have been set.
- The project manager is advised that work may start.
- All key stakeholders reported that the project has now formally started.
PRINCE2 – The initiation stage
- The PRINCE2 project initiation documentation has been defined, documented and assembled.
- The risk, issue and quality registers have been set up and populated.
- The project management team structure has been refined as per PRINCE2, and where appropriate, new appointments are in place, along with proper role descriptions.
- The benefits management approach has been created, and initial configuration item records have been set up.
- The PRINCE2 project board reviewed and approved the initiation documentation, confirming that the various approaches, plans, control roles, and tolerances are appropriate.
PRINCE2 – Delivering the project
- The PRINCE2 stage plan has been reviewed and authorised, and stage tolerances have been set.
- Work packages have been authorized and approved with a team plan if required.
- Specialist products have been produced by their product descriptions and have been approved.
- Configuration item records are current, and products are handed over if appropriate according to the configuration management strategy.
- The registers and logs have been maintained, and regular checkpoint reports have been created with actual and forecast progress.
- Issues, problems, concerns, risk records and other online communication aspects regularly occur between the project and team managers.
- The PRINCE2 stage plan is regularly updated with corrective actions if required and remains within stage tolerances.
- Regular highlight reports have been created and issued, and the business case has been checked for viability.
- PRINCE2 Management by exception is being used as an exception report created when tolerance is forecast to be exceeded
- Good lines of communication exist between the PRINCE2 project board and the project manager regarding requests and reports.
PRINCE2 – Stage boundary activities
- All stage products have been approved and status verified via a product status account.
- If appropriate, products were handed over along with documented issues and follow-on action recommendations.
- All PRINCE2 logs, registers, issues and reports have been created, updated, and reviewed.
- The various PRINCE2 plans and approaches have been reviewed and updated if appropriate.
- The project initiation documentation has been reviewed and updated if appropriate.
- The project board reviewed the end-stage report and updated the project plan, business case and risks.
- The project board reviews and approves the next stage plan, sets tolerances for it, and ensures that resources are in place for the next stage or have directed the project to be prematurely closed.
PRINCE2 – Project closure
- The product status account has been created, and all outstanding issues are documented as follow-on recommendations.
- Exceptions records have been completed for the Handover of the project product, and operational and maintenance staff have accepted it.
- The PRINCE2 project plan, business case, and benefits review plan have been updated with actual.
- All registers and locks have been closed, and project documentation has been archived.
- The PRINCE2 project board have confirmed the Handover and acceptance and approved the end-stage report.
- The PRINCE2 project board can approve the end project report, confirm the business case, and approve the updated benefits management approach.
- The project board have ensured that follow-on action recommendations have been correctly recorded and reviewed, the lessons report and project closure notification issued, and advised that resources can now be released.
- In the case of premature closure, a plan is in place for recovering complete or incomplete products, and if so requested, an exception plan has been created and approved.
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The PRINCE2 Foundation examination assesses your knowledge and comprehension of the PRINCE2 project management methodology as detailed in the syllabus. The PRINCE2 Practitioner examination, on the other hand, gauges your ability to apply and tailor the PRINCE2 method. Candidates who pass the Practitioner exam should be able to start implementing the method on an actual project with some guidance. However, their effectiveness may differ based on their experience in project management, the complexity of the project, and the level of support they receive in their work environment.
