Stage Review – PRINCE2 preparation
At a simple level, the project manager’s job is to give out work, check its status, forecast the future, and if required, take corrective action.
There is therefore a balance between planning ahead and reacting to events.
Since the project manager is managing against the stage plan it will be necessary to compare what has actually happened with what was expected to happen and as a result of that what might happen next.
Review the stage status activity is there to maintain an accurate and current picture of the stage progress on the work being carried out, and the resources used to carry out that work.
The project manager will use Checkpoint Reports as the main source on progress data but will also check for quality issues shown in the Quality Register and the status of risks and issues.
Any new or revised risks and current issues should have their impact assessed against the Business Case, Stage Plan or the Project Plan.
Any corrective actions which the project manager instigates should have their status checked to ensure the corrective actions are getting the required results. Another important aspect is to check the utilization of resources. For current work underway, the resources should be checked for their knowledge and skills and experience, and for non-human resources, that they are appropriate and adequate.
Plan updates in stage review
The project manager will want to review the stage plan for planned future resources and ensure that these resources are available.
The Benefits Management Approach should be used to check whether any benefit reviews are due and if so, execute them as required. Such benefits will also need to be quantified to ensure that have been realized, or further time is needed. The status on any realized benefits should be included within the regular Highlight Report.
Apart from authorizing Work Packages, the project manager must give the project board regular Highlight Reports, and if necessary escalate issues and risks if tolerances are threatened via an Exception Report.
The Business Case. At regular points, the project manager must check that the project is still on track to deliver the benefits contained within the business case. As a result of checking this, the project manager may need to edit the business case to reflect new time or cost information extracted from the project/stage plan.
The business case is also referenced as part of calculating the impact of any issues and risks – either new ones or existing ones in terms of their probability and impact.
The project board should be used to seek advice if necessary or issue them with an issue report if required.
Regular Checkpoint Reports are received from the specialist team or team manager giving the project manager vital information on work package progress and hence stage status.
The Highlight Report gives regular progress and stage review updates to the project board.
As the products are created, checked and eventually authorized, project support will provide stage review information by giving product data from Configuration Item Records (CI).
The PRINCE2 Product Checklist provides detail on stage review by showing the planned, actual, and variance information on product creation progress and this often is attached to the Highlight Report as supplemental information on stage review and status.
The Issue Register and Risk Register gives stage review status on the issues and risks.
The Quality Register records the planned quality activities, their actual dates and variances to ensure that quality checking is occurring as planned. All three registers provide vital stage review information to the project manager.
If any of the products are to be transferred to the customer then the project manager would request a product status accounts to ensure that the products have been approved and the operation and maintenance staff are ready to take responsibility for these products.
Stage Review – checking the status
As the end of the stage approaches the project manager will want to use the Managing a Stage Boundary process to prepare for an end-stage assessment, or in the case of this being the last stage use the Closing a Project process to prepare for a controlled shutdown.
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