Creating Realistic PRINCE2 Project and Stage Plans

YOUR KEY TO AUTHENTIC and Structured PLANNING

Brought to You by Dave Litten

the PRINCE2 approach to plans

There are seven steps to the PRINCE2 planning procedure, and one fundamental planning concept is that the project management team should clearly define what products will be delivered before planning the activities and resources necessary to work on those products. This concept is called product-based planning.
This means that although there might be a certain amount of iteration and repetition of the steps in the planning procedure, define and analyze the products should be done at least once before going on to the activity focused steps.

The following diagram shows these PRINCE2 planning approach steps:

Design the plan
This is the first step and the first thing that the project management team must decide is how they would like to present the plans within the project.

Project plans can come in a variety of formats, from Gantt charts, to a list of tasks on a spreadsheet, or even a basic set of post it notes on a wall. So, it makes sense for this first step to choose a suitable format for their specific project.
This step is also where the project management team decides what estimating techniques to use.

Once again, there are many ways to estimate how long tasks should take and how much they will cost. For example, reviewing records from similar projects initiatives, using statistical methods such as 3. estimating, or consensus approaches such as the Delphi technique.

For the PRINCE2 exams, it is not necessary to understand any of these approaches to estimating, you just need to know that this step is when the estimating techniques are chosen.
Also at this time, the project management team needs to consider whether to use any planning tools such as project software. A popular choice here is to use Microsoft project.

Even though the planning procedure might be carried out numerous times in any PRINCE2 project, this specific step might be done just one time. Because after the project management team has chosen the plans formats, estimating techniques, and planning tools, there is no need to repeat this step.

During the design the plan step, the project management team may need to review corporate or programme documentation to see if there are any standards for planned formats, estimating approach is, and/or planning tools that may need to follow.

Define and analyze the products
This is where the product-based planning technique is used.

It involves identifying all the products that will be delivered within the plan and then describing them in sufficient detail so that the teams understand what needs to be created, and the project manager contract and monitor their work.
In addition to identify and specialist products, this step lists the management products such as progress reports that will be created.

The main output from this step is a collection of product descriptions describing the inputs and outputs to this plan.
Identify activities and dependencies

Once the products within the scope of the plan have been identified, the next step is to understand what activities will deliver those products. It is important that the teams who will be carrying out such activities should be involved within this step.

In addition to identifying the work to deliver the products, the plan should include identifying quality activities to check the products and the management activities involved with controlling and monitoring this work. The dependencies between the activities should also be described.
These come in two flavors within PRINCE2, internal or external.
Internal dependencies are when one activity cannot start until another activity has finished. An external dependency is when the project management team needs something from outside the project such as a product or a decision before starting some work detailed in the plan.

Prepare estimates

Here, the project management team forecast how long the tasks will take, how much they will cost, and what effort and resources are required to carry out the activities within the plan. The estimates will inevitably change as more is discovered about the project.

Prepare the schedule

Once all tasks have been identified and the time, effort, and cost of those tasks have been estimated, the next step is to prepare the schedule, which involves forecasting the dates that the tasks will start and finish. The project manager will consider resource and team availability, as well as the availability of the people involved with reviewing and approving the products.

Once the schedule is complete, it can be represented drastically so it is easy for everyone to see what needs to be done and when it should be done. It is usual to identify key milestone dates within the schedule showing when key outputs need to be created.

Having assigned people and resources to the various pieces of work, the project manager can create a cost budget for the plan. Such costs must include any provision for dealing with risks (risk budget) and changes (change budget) and whether there is any proposed flexibility around the cost targets (cost tolerance).
These costs must be authorized by the appropriate level of management, that is, the project manager for a team plan, the project board for a stage plan, and corporate or programme management for a project plan.

Analyze the risks

Because predicting the future is difficult and the fact that plans are forecast, all plans contained some element of uncertainty, or in PRINCE2 terms, risk. This step should be carried out in parallel with the other steps in the planning procedure, and any threats or opportunities that are identified are dealt with using the PRINCE2 risk management procedure.

Each plan should be considered a draft until the risks inherent in that plan have been identified and assessed, and risk actions/countermeasures to deal with the risks have been implemented.

Document the plan

This is the final step, and here, the outputs from preceding steps are put together in a document. This document will probably contain the overall schedule and some narrative areas describing the risks associated with the plan, external dependencies, and planning assumptions.

It could be a good idea to have several document formats, such as a high-level format for senior executives and a more detailed format for day to day use for the management of the project.

Product based planning technique

The product-based planning technique is done in the second step of the planning procedure that I've just described - define and analyze the products. This technique includes four steps as shown above.

Benefits of the product-based planning technique

It helps to clearly define the scope of the plan, and reduces the risk of 'scope creep' or the team forgetting essential products, and provides clarity over what needs to be delivered
If the Senior User and specialist team are involved with the creation of the product descriptions, it reduces the risk of acceptance disputes once the products have been created and delivered. It also helps the project management team identify products that will be delivered outside of the project team, so that they can take countermeasures against potential delivery problems
In addition, it provides clarity about who will review and approve products and how this will be done

The video above describes this in detail and so I will not describe it here, but it might be helpful to bring out two aspects - the project product description and product descriptions.

Write the project product description

This is when the final outputs of the project are documented periods the project product description would describe the brawled that measurable characteristics of the project deliverable and its main components. The project manager, in consultation with the senior user and executive, creates the project product description within the starting up a project process.

Write the product descriptions

Once the product breakdown structure (refer to the accompanying video) has been used to identify all the products that are needed for a plan, the next step is to gain an understanding of the specifications for those products.
A product description is written for each product and this describes the measurable characteristics of the product, known as quality criteria.

These can be used to confirm that the right product has been delivered. In addition, the quality criteria shows any techniques for approaches that will be used to ensure that a product complies with its quality criteria and who is responsible for reviewing and approving that product.

The project manager creates the product descriptions, although it is sensible to include other parties who have specialist knowledge of the products, such as the senior users, the senior suppliers, and the specialist teams.

Product descriptions for any product should be started as soon as the need for the product has been identified. At this point, they may be in draft form, and as more is known about the products, the product descriptions will become more refined. A product's product description should be signed off at the same time as signing off a plan that will be used to deliver it. For the specialist products, this will be the team plan.

For a small project, it may only be necessary to create a project product description as this might contain enough level of detail for the project management team to understand unambiguously what needs to be delivered.

The levels of a plan

The highest level created with a PRINCE2 project is the project plan. This has the broadest level of detail and is used by the project board to monitor the progress of the project. Then, for each stage, he'll be a more detailed stage plan. This helps the project manager control the day to day activities of a stage. Finally, the lowest and most detail plan is the team plan.

One area that can cause confusion is the exception plan. This is not a different level of plan. The exception plan is used to show how the project will recover from a breach in tolerances and might replace either a project plan, or if stage plan, or both.

Every PRINCE2 plan, whether it is at project, stage, or team level, should include a number of pieces of information such as a schedule, planning assumptions, lessons learned from previous projects, and product descriptions for the products that are within the scope of the plan

KEY PRINCE2 EXAM CRAM Essentials

What follows is a fast track checklist for all PRINCE2 Plans Theme specific foundation and practitioner exam syllabus questions:

Understand the purpose of the plans theme. This is to facilitate communication and control by defining the means of delivering the products
Identify the three levels of plans recommended by PRINCE2. PRINCE2 recommends three levels of plans: project plan, stage plans, and team plans
Know the purpose of the project plan and understand in which process is the project plan is developed, used, and reviewed and which roles are responsible for doing this. The project manager creates the project plan during the initiating a project. This plan covers the work of the entire project after the initiation stage and describes how the major products of the project will be delivered. The project board uses the plan to control and monitor the project during the directing a project process
Know purpose of the stage plans and understand in which process is the stage plans are developed, used, and reviewed and which roles are responsible for doing this. The project manager creates the stage plans during the managing a stage boundary process. The plan covers the work of the individual management stage within the project where the project manager uses the planned to control and monitor the day to day work of the stage during the controlling a stage process
Know the purpose of the team plans and understand in which process is these plans are developed, used, and reviewed and which roles are responsible for doing this. The team manager or team creates the team plans during managing product delivery. The plan covers the work of one or more of the teams work packages. The team manager or team uses the plan to control and monitor the day to day work of delivering one or more work packages during the managing product delivery process.

NOTE: In the above paragraph, I've made the point that it may be the team manager or the specialist team themselves that creates the team plan. The reason for this, is that in smaller projects, all projects where the specialist team can organize and manage themselves, then the specialist team may act as the team manager

Know the purpose of the exception plans and understand in which process is the exception plans are developed, use, and review and which roles are responsible for doing this. The exception plan is prepared by the project manager during the managing a stage boundary process and is at either a project or stage level. The exception plan shows the actions required to recover from either a forecast project or forecast stage tolerance deviation. Once exception plan has been approved, it becomes the project plan or a stage plan
Understand the inter-relationship between the various levels of the PRINCE2 plans. The project plan is divided into several management stages and each management stage has a corresponding stage plan. Each stage plan describes how to deliver several work packages. A more detailed description of the work involved with delivering one or more work packages might be described in a team plan
Understand the recommended composition of the PRINCE2 plan. Know the recommended types of information that should appear within a PRINCE2 plan, such as product descriptions, schedule, and plan prerequisites
Know the four tasks involved within the PRINCE2 product-based planning technique and which roles are involved with these actions. The product-based planning technique involves four tasks: writing the project product description, creating the product breakdown structure, writing the product descriptions, and creating the product flow diagram
The project manager is responsible for these activities when using the product-based planning technique to prepare the project plan or the stage plan. The team manager or team is responsible for these activities when preparing the team plan
Understand the PRINCE2 approach to plans. Know that there are seven steps to the PRINCE2 approach to plans: design the plan, define and analyze the products, identify activities and dependencies, prepare estimates, prepare the schedule, document the plan, and analyze the risks

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