For the PRINCE2 Practitioner Exam, you will have a section of questions on organization as well as additional project scenario information. This will often include a list of people with a paragraph information about each person, and you may be asked to select suitable people to fill roles within the project.
In some instances, you are asked to select two people who may be suitable to consider for a role within the project scenario.
As well as revising the roles themselves, you need to be clear on for related areas:
The business, user and supplier viewpoints which are contained within the project board and project assurance appointments
The four management levels and how the roles map onto these
The Communications Management Strategy document
The impact on project roles and responsibilities if the project is part of a programme such as the impact on reporting lines and where the program staff may also cover project roles such as the programme director carrying out the role of project board executive.
Understanding the project organization structure
There are two key areas to check out to be sure that you understand how the PRINCE2 organization structure works – the management levels and the potential for role sharing.
Mapping roles to the management levels
There are four management levels. Above the project is corporate or programme management. Normally it will be corporate management, but if the project is part of a programme of projects, then the project board will report to programme management rather than directly to corporate management.
The Project Board Executive role may be filled by the Programme Manager.
Within the project there are three levels of “directing”, “managing”, and “delivering”. These last three are covered by the PRINCE2 project management team roles.
The project board is at the directing level, the project manager at the managing level, and the team managers at the delivering level.
Understanding “the great divide” for multiple role allocation
The key to understanding the basics of where someone can have more than one role is to appreciate “the great divide” between the project manager and the project board.
Anyone covering one or more of the roles of project manager, team managers and project support cannot also take a role on the project board or two project assurance.
The change authority can be confusing but is often not a big problem within the exam itself.
To make sense of the great divide just think about project assurance. Project assurance is primarily an audit function.
Taking an example of financial audit, you cannot have someone writing the accounts and then auditing those accounts as that would be pointless and would take away any hope of impartiality.
It is the same situation with project or audit, the project assurance role.
The project manager, team managers and project support had been the people managing and creating the products, so they cannot also have a role responsible for checking that work.
Remember too that the project board members may choose to do some or all of the project assurance themselves.
So, can the person who is the Project Manager also be the Project Board Executive?
No, because that would be a conflict of interest.
Can the person who is the Senior Use also carry out some or all of user assurance?
Yes, because that does not crossed “the great divide”.
You may find it confusing that the project manager attends meetings of the project board such as the end stage assessment meetings at the end of each stage. It makes sense though when you remember that the project manager is accountable TO the project board but is not a member of it.
The project manager attends the meetings and can recommend things but does not share decision-making authority.
Appreciating the significance of roles
You need to be very clear on the difference between a role and a job on the project.
Check your understanding by answering this question: “is an acceptable for the senior user to attend a quality review as a reviewer for the specialist product?”
The answer is no. The senior user is not involved in a quality review of a specialist product, but the reviewer is.
The use of roles is it very powerful in any project setting, including PRINCE2. One person can have more than one role, and with a couple of exceptions in PRINCE2, roles can be shared by more than one person.
This gives you flexibility in project organization. A very small PRINCE2 project can be run with just two people, both of whom are part time on the project and that includes all of the teamwork.
Jobs may map one to one to people. So one person’s job may be part of a role, the whole role or more than one role. So, to be clear about roles and jobs, one person’s project job may be a single role, part of a role, or more than one role.
Understanding the roles
You should be familiar with each of the roles in the project management team and the basic responsibilities for each one.
Understanding where stakeholders fit
You will not be asked exam questions related to the actual management of stakeholders. You are expected to know however, where PRINCE2 records stakeholder information, notably in relation to communications with them, and show they are communicated with.
Stakeholders are people who can affect or be affected by the project, or who think they will be. Those taking project roles such as the Executive, are clearly affected by the project and so are stakeholders.
Other stakeholders may be outside the project, such as people in other departments or the company’s customers and suppliers, and won’t have any powers to make decisions about running the project.
Understanding when appointments are made
Ensure that you know when people are appointed to roles. For the most part, that happens in Start-up the process Starting Up a Project), but remember that Team Managers may be identified and appointed later in the project.
In Start-up, two activities are involved. The executive and project manager are appointed first, and then the rest of the project management team are appointed later in the activity called “Design and appoint the project management team”.
Knowing whether appointments can be changed
PRINCE2 is not very clear about the whole area of changing appointments. The method talks about the project management team structure being updated on the stage boundary, as if it can’t be changed or any other time.
There is no need to get into a debate here however, because the purpose of this section is just a draw your attention to the recommended update action in the activity “update the project plan” in the process managing a stage boundary.
It may also be done after initial appointments are made in Start up, some potential clarification or extension to roles can be carried out in the Initiation stage because of creating the Project Plan.
This is alluded to in the Manual text for the activity “create the project plan” rather than specifically stated, but it is shown clearly on the activity summary diagram together with an update of any role descriptions.
This course is DEPRECATED
The old PRINCE2 6th Edition Foundation and Practitioner syllabus was upgraded in 2024. Check out the brand NEW PRINCE2 7th Edition Masterclass, covering all the current syllabus, training material and online exam benefits HERE
Your Route To PRINCE2 6th Edition Practitioner
Study PRINCE2 6 Foundation and Practitioner Exams with our famous on-line course with streaming HD Video Lessons, study guides and mock exams. In the last fifteen years we have had 6,000+ Academy students successfully transform their careers as PRINCE2 Practitioners.
