PRINCE2 7 Study Guide – Part 5
Stage Plan
The next step is for the Project Manager to create a Stage Plan for the first delivery stage. Every PRINCE2 project will have at least two stages – the initiation stage and I a delivery stage, although most projects will have several delivery stages, each requiring its own Stage Plan to be created before the Project Board authorize the start of each stage.
However, there is a parallel activity that also needs to take place if this project is to proceed any further, and that is to prepare a Stage Plan for the next stage.
Managing a Stage Boundary
The Managing a Stage Boundary (SB) process is used for this purpose, and will use the product based planning technique. As this is the end of the initiation stage then the End Stage Report will also need to be created along with an optional Lessons Report.
Authorizing the PID will occur within the Authorize the Project activity and authorizing the next Stage Plan will occur at the Authorize a Stage or Exception Plan activity. Both are activities within the Directing a Project process, and will normally take place at the same meeting which is the end stage assessment.
At this end stage assessment, as is typical, the project board has the option to approve the next Stage Plan, prematurely close the project, or request that the project manager reworks some aspect of the documentation.
Assuming all is well, the Project Board will set stage tolerance for the next stage, advise the project manager of the frequency and detail to be included in the regular Highlight Reports and approve the next Stage Plan. This will now trigger the project manager to give out the first Work Package within this newly approved stage.
The Project Manager sends the Project Initiation Documentation along with the Stage Plan for the first delivery stage, to the Project Board who will review both management products within the Directing a Project process.
Management Stages
The Project Board have two activities to carry out now. The first of these is to review the information in the PID and decide whether to authorize the project. The second activity is for them to review the Stage Plan and information and decide whether to authorize the first delivery stage of the project. After the initiation stage is complete, the remaining management stages are called delivery stages because it is where the specialist team will create the specialist products which make up the projects end product.
It is important that you understand the Project Manager is only authorized to deliver the project one stage at a time and is not given authorization for the whole project.
From this point, onwards, each management stage will consist of the Project Manager using the process “Controlling a Stage”, and the Team Manager plus the specialist team creating the specialist products within the process “Managing Product Delivery”.
I will explain each in turn:
The Project Manager will manage each delivery stage using the activities within the Controlling a Stage process which sets out management activities such as how the Project Manager delegates work to the various teams, reports on progress, and deals with problems and issues. It is important for you to understand that the work is given out by the Project Manager in the form of Work Packages. These Work Packages may be given to several different specialist teams either all that once or one off to the other. Indeed, at a minimum, a typical management delivery stage will have one Work Package containing the Product Description for a single product.
At a maximum, there may be multiple Work Packages containing multiple products or given out at various points within a management stage. A Work Package gives team members all the information they need to do the work of creating the products. It specifies what to creates, how much time and money they have, and how often to report back to the Project Manager.
Team Manager
The specialist team are not authorized to carry out any work until they have received and accepted a Work Package from the Project Manager. Each product to be created within each Work Package will have a Product Description included.
It is highly likely that the number and detail of Work Packages within a stage and any associated Team Plans have already been thought through during the planning of the relevant stage. But whether they have or not, the PRINCE2 method defines that the specialist team should not start work on any product creation until a Work Package containing such work has been authorized by the project manager and accepted by either the team manager or the team members themselves.
The Team Manager role may optionally be given to an appropriate individual within the specialist team (if the specialist team is a third party, then it may well be that their project manager takes on the role of Team Manager – but remember, there can only be one Project Manager). The team manager may optionally produce a Team Plan which would show that one or many Work Packages can be delivered within the constraints laid down.
Every Work Package must contain at least one Product Description. The project manager may optionally set tolerances at the work package level.
Once the Work Package has been agreed and accepted then work can start on the creation of the specialist products contained within the Work Package. At any given point during a stage there may be one or several Work Packages, possibly given to different teams, being worked on at the same time. Alternatively, Work Packages may be given out one after another. This is clearly a very flexible system and the manner and formality will depend on the nature of the specialist work within the stage.
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