PRINCE2 Walkthrough – The final part…
Assuming a natural close to the project, then the prepare planned closure activity will be used. The project manager would request a product status account to ensure that all products within the project would have been approved and that the project acceptance criteria have been met. The Project Plan should be updated with the ‘actuals’ of this final stage.
The projects products must now be handed over to the operational and maintenance environment, where they will be used to ultimately realize the benefits contained as stated within the Business Case.
The project manager would updates relevant configuration item records to show that such products have the status of ‘operational’, any acceptance records should be created or obtained, and the Benefits Management Approach updated to reflect any products that have already realized benefits and to include any post project activities for such benefits that have yet to be realized.
The re-evaluate the project activity will create the end of project report to capture actual progress and aspects such as project performance metrics, and will include the Lessons Report based upon the information contained within the Lessons Log.
In the case of premature close, then the reasons for this should be entered and updated on the Issue Register, and if necessary any additional work may be needed to buy the complete unfinished products or to make them safe.
Once the project manager has determined that the project should and can be closed, then a recommendation of such should be raised to the project board in the form of a closure recommendation.
The final activity in any project, is the authorized project closure within the Directing a Project process.
The project board would need to review original and updated versions of the PID, review and approve the End Project Report, confirm any follow-on actions or loose ends, verify that the projects products have been handed over in an appropriate manner, ensure that the Business Case remains viable, advise that the project can now be closed, and advise those supplier resources that these can now be withdrawn.
PRINCE2 preview
Okay, so if you have been following my 4 previous PRINCE2 RoadMap articles, you can now you can see how the processes work with each other…
You can see that the Starting Up a Project, Initiating a Project, and Closing a Project are usually used once per project.
You will have noted that at the completion of the Starting Up a Project process, the Directing a Project Process is continually used until the final close of the project.
It will not have escaped your attention that the Managing a Stage Boundary process is EITHER used at the end of a management stage to prepare for an End Stage Assessment (ESA), OR it is used if needed when Tolerance is forecast to be exceeded AND Corporate/Programme Management or the Project Board request an Exception Plan – in which case the SB process is used to create an Exception Report and prepare for an Exception Assessment (EXA).
The controlling a Stage and Managing Product Delivery processes are used continually during an individual management stage.
Okay.
So what about the 7 PRINCE2 Practices? Good question. You see, Practices are used continually throughout a PRINCE2 project. Whereas the PRINCE2 processes describe a structured sequence, the Themes represent project management best practice in seven key areas. And put simply, they are applied as ‘How-To’ approaches in each of the processes.
I do not intent to go through each of them here, but an example of how some of them might be used in the first, Starting Up a Project process:
- The outline Business Case is created and used to justify investment in the initiation stage
- The PRINCE2 Organization is designed and implemented
- The User’s Quality Expectations and Acceptance Criteria are initially created as part of the Project Product Description
- A Plan for the Initiation Stage is created
- Any known risks are captured and managed within the Daily Log – they are also used to make a decision as to whether to proceed to the Initiation Stage or not.
- The Daily Log is used to capture and manage any issues which include changes
- The Project Manager and the Executive/Project Board work informally to ensure pre-project progress is under control.
As you can see from the above, I have included all 7 of the PRINCE2 Practices – and I could give a similar example in each of the remaining PRINCE2 processes…so let’s try and summarize this in a few diagrams:- This shows how the 7 PRINCE2 Principles are the bedrock, upon which the 7 processes are used as described and the 7 themes are applied as appropriate for each process.
Followed by the 7 processes overlaid by an example 3-stage PRINCE2 Project (remember, the minimum is the Initiation stage plus one delivery stage – but depending upon the size, importance, complexity and risk, a project may have one initiation stage and many delivery stages…
And to remind you, the 7 PRINCE2 Themes are applied as needed to the 7 PRINCE2 Processes.
Now you’ve sampled my PRINCE2 Walk-through and RoadMap, perhaps you would like to read my FREE PRINCE2 In 60 Minutes Guide – a 50-page overview of the full PRINCE2 Method, You are now one of the few folks out there who are taking their path to PRINCE2 Practitioner seriously…
It is NOW important that you create a study plan to absorb the high-level information.
Good Luck on your PRINCE2 journey…and check out the great deal on preparing for our PRINCE2 foundation and Practitioner Masterclass….over 20 hours of downloadable video coaching in preparation for your Accreditation as a PRINCE2 Practitioner!
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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.
