PRINCE2 7 – Progress Practice Exam Nuggets
This article will give you the key points and exam tips for the PRINCE2 progress theme to score well in your exams.
The purpose of the Progress Practice is to set up and establish appropriate mechanisms to monitor the actual achievements against what was planned and, from that comparison, provide a forecast for the project objectives and its continued viability.
Any unacceptable deviations from what was planned must be controlled by taking appropriate corrective action.
PRINCE2 7 Progress Practice – Tolerances
Corporate or programme management sets project-level tolerances before the project is approved at the end of the initiation stage. Similarly, the project board sets stage-level tolerances before the authorization of the next stage plan.
In this way, the project manager has some form of tolerance (and hence permissible deviation from the plan) within which to manage. The project manager does this by comparing actual performance against planned performance and taking some form of corrective action – providing that the result of this corrective action keeps the project performance within tolerance bounds.
PRINCE2 tolerance is; “the permissible deviation above and below a plan’s target for time and cost without escalating the deviation up to the next level of management.”
Remember, each project is unique, so that each project may need different tolerance types and the amount of deviation.
PRINCE2 states that seven types of tolerances may be applied to a specific project and, indeed, to particular stages within that project. These tolerances are time, cost, quality, scope, benefit, sustainability, and risk.
Whenever the project manager first forecasts that a project or stage is likely to exceed its tolerance bounds, they must log this as an issue and raise an exception report for the project board, who may then transmit it upwards to business management should the report indicate that project tolerance is forecast to be exceeded.
In addition to business management setting project tolerances and the project board setting stage tolerances, optionally, the project manager may set Work Package tolerances on one or more of these management stages work packages as part of delegating the work package to the team manager and specialist team.
Management products that set product tolerances
The Project Plan records the cost, time and scope of project-level tolerances. Stage level tolerances are recorded in the Stage Plan, and Work Package tolerances are recorded within the Work Package.
Risk tolerances for project and stage level are documented within the Risk Management Approach document (part of the Project Initiation Documentation) and at a Work Package level within the Work Package itself.
Risk tolerances at a stage and Work Package level may also be documented at a management stage or Team Plan level, respectively.
Quality tolerances are documented within the Project Product Description or Product Descriptions.
Benefit tolerances are documented within the project Business Case.
Reporting exceptions
It is the team manager’s role that reports a forecast Work Package level exception by raising it as an issue within the Issue Log, and this is sent to the project manager.
The project manager reports stage-level exceptions by escalating via an Issue Report or an Exception Report to the project board. As mentioned, the project board will report any project-level exceptions by notifying corporate or programme management.
The Exception Report
The project manager will create an Exception Report during the Controlling a Stage process if they forecast that stage tolerance will be exceeded.
The Exception Report provides information about the exception for the project board and includes options that have been considered to deal with the exception. This allows the project board to decide on this situation within the Directing a Project process.
There are four levels of management within PRINCE2, and starting at the highest, they are;
- Corporate or programme management
- Project Board
- Project Manager
- The Team Manager or the specialist team
- team manager or specialist team.
The Work Package
It is essential to understand the purpose and composition of the Work Package and to know in which processes the Work Package is developed, used and reviewed, in addition to the responsible roles.
The project manager creates the Work Package description in the Controlling a Stage process to define the information the team manager or team needs to deliver one or more products.
Once the team manager or a team member has accepted the Work Package within the Managing Product Delivery process, they are responsible for delivering the described product.
The Daily Log
This is used to record any informal issues along with their required actions, or more, any significant events not caught by other PRINCE2 registers and logs. The Daily Log acts as the project diary for the project manager.
Event-driven and time-driven controls
You must understand the difference between these two types of controls.
Event-driven controls are used to control a specific event that has occurred. Examples here are at the end of a particular stage or an exception.
By contrast, time-driven controls do not respond to an event but occur at a regular frequency or passage of time. Two examples here are the creation of a Highlight Report or a Checkpoint Report.
The Lessons Log
It is essential to remember which processes the Lessons Log is developed, used, and reviewed, along with the roles responsible for this.
The project manager creates the Lessons Log within the Starting Up a Project process and updates it throughout the project as necessary.
The project manager uses the Lessons Log to collate lessons learned from previous similar initiatives that may be useful for the current project. In addition, the Lessons Log collates experiences from existing projects that might be useful for future endeavours.
The Lessons Report
It is essential to understand the purpose and composition, in which processes it is developed, used and reviewed, and which roles are responsible for carrying this out.
The Lessons Report can be created at any time in the project but is typically made during the Managing a Stage Boundary process and embedded within the End Stage Report. In addition, during the Closing a Project process, the Lessons Report may also become part of the End Project Report.
Management stages
You must understand what factors should be considered when dividing the project into management stages.
At a minimum, a PRINCE2 project will contain two stages, the initiation stage and one delivery stage (where the specialist products are created).
PRINCE2 recommends five factors to consider when dividing the project up into management stages, and these are:
- How far ahead is it sensible to plan
- Where the critical decision points will be within a project
- The amount of risk within a project (and hence the management team’s appetite for risk)
- How confident the project management team is in proceeding with the project
- When balancing many short management stages against too few in length.
The last point above is a balance of many short management stages resulting in a higher management overhead, and too few extended management stages resulting in little control over the project.
Finally, it is crucial to understand the concepts of management stages and their difference from technical stages:
Management stages equate to the commitment of resources and authority to spend, while technical stages are typified by using a particular set of specialist skills. Therefore, it is typical for a management stage to contain one or more specialist stages, and by the same token, a technical stage may traverse more than one management stage.
Indeed, as part of deciding how many management stages and where their start and finish points should be, one such decision may be based upon a particularly long technical stage that would be split at some point during its duration by the completion of one management stage and the start of the following management stage.
Want more help in passing your PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner Exams on your first attempt?
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.
