Agree the PRINCE2 Tailoring requirements
The project manager may need to tailor how the project is directed and managed in order to recognize internal and external factors that affects the way in which the project is delivered.
Any deviations from the organizations standard project management approach must be documented and agreed.
There are two management products used as an input to this activity triggered by the authority to initiate a project.
The main output here is the creation of part of the project controls, in this case driven by the tailoring requirements.
Balancing the project, team and individual
People are crucial to the success of a project. It is not enough to have the required processes and systems in
place: if the people on a project do not work effectively together, then the chances of the project’s success are
severely restricted.
Knowledge of different types of personalities and how they affect each other can help the project manager to structure balanced teams that can work together effectively during a project. Different people have different characteristics and a preference for certain types of work and team roles. There are a number of ways of assessing these preferences (e.g. Belbin team role inventory).
In a strongly functional environment, project managers can find difficulties when managing cross-functional
projects due to the inability to agree overall leadership from within the various groups. As a result, the project
board may need to be involved more closely to lead, direct and prioritize work and resolve issues.
Whatever the environment, the project manager will have to adapt to, and work within, the corporate organization and this will affect the level of management required for the team members.
Combining roles
PRINCE2 allows the above roles to be combined within the following constraints:
• the executive and project manager roles cannot be combined
• there cannot be more than one executive or project manager
• the executive’s accountability for project success cannot be delegated
• the project board should not assign any project assurance roles to the project manager, team manager or
project support.
When combining roles, consideration should be given to any conflicts of responsibilities, whether one person
has the capacity to undertake the combined responsibilities, and whether any bottlenecks might be created as a
result.
Also, it is not recommended to combine the roles of senior user and senior supplier as this can create
conflicts of interest for an individual.
PRINCE2 provides role description outlines in Appendix C, and they should be tailored to the needs of the
specific project and each specific appointment. In addition, each theme chapter provides the responsibilities
relevant to that theme.
General organizational role considerations
Ensure that the organizational structure of the project team is suitable for the size, scale and complexity of
the project.
‘Organization’ is the PRINCE2 theme most affected by project size, scale and complexity. The right people with
the right experience need to be in the right roles, in the right numbers and at the right time.
Roles and responsibilities need to be carefully considered for all projects. Standard role description outlines will
need to be tailored to match each individual’s actual capability and authority in the context of the project role
they will be undertaking.
For smaller, simpler projects, the primary concern often is how to ensure that all PRINCE2 responsibilities are
fulfilled by a relatively small set of people. Some points to consider include:
• Scaling the project management team is primarily about consolidating role and function. Roles can be
combined but should not be eliminated.
• As the executive and senior user roles are both from the customer environment, these can often be combined.
• As the project manager is likely to be much closer to the project board than on larger, more complex
projects, members of the project board are often in a better position to carry out their own project assurance
rather than appointing another individual to fulfil this role.
• For small teams it may not be necessary to appoint team managers. The project manager of a simple project
can carry out those responsibilities.
Typically, on a larger, more complex project, responsibilities will be distributed among a larger set of people,
with some roles and responsibilities being shared.
For example, there may be multiple senior users. In such ·
circumstances, the primary concern is ensuring that individual accountabilities, limits of delegation and
authority, and governance are absolutely clear.
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