The Main Products used in Controlling a Stage Process
Benefits Management Approach
The Project Manager checks this to determine what reviews of benefits, if any, to do in the stage to quantify benefits that have already come on stream. Benefits can come on-stream during the project, not just at the end of it. The Benefits Management Approach describes when benefits should be measured, who should do it, and when.
PRINCE2 Business Case
The Project Manager must check that the project is still on track to deliver benefits, and they may also update the Business Case with new cost and time information. The Project Manager will also check the Business Case when determining the impact of any issues and risks.
The Business Case is the justification for the project, and the Project Board refer to it at all key decision points to ensure that the project remains viable and worth continuing with.
Checkpoint Report
These are received from the team managers and are progress reports on individual work packages providing information to determine how the whole stage is progressing. Each particular Work Package specifies this report’s frequency and the exact content, allowing the Project Manager to vary it from one work Package to another.
Configuration Item Record (CIR)
These are a record for version control of a particular product.
Exception Report
The Project Manager uses this report to advise the Project Board if the whole stage breaches a stage tolerance. The Exception Report could be verbal or a phone call.
Highlight Report
The Project Manager gives this report, which highlights progress on the whole stage, to the project board. It may also include a Lessons Report. The report may go to other interested parties, and its contents and frequency are set down inside the Communication Management Plan.
Issue Register
The project manager (or Project Support – on behalf of the project manager) uses this register to record the existence and progress of issues under formal control. The Issue Register records information such as who submitted each Issue and its current status.
Issue Report
The Project Manager formally records an issue on this report upon receipt of an Issue.
Product Checklist
The Project Manager uses this checklist to monitor the delivery of products during this stage. It is a simple and powerful progress monitoring tool providing clear milestones during each management stage. It records what products will be produced, their target, and actual delivery dates.
The Product Checklist can also be used at the team level to monitor progress on building the products in a Work Package.
Quality Register
The Quality Log records the planned quality actions, such as tests, and is generally completed by the people doing those tests. The Project Manager keeps an eye on the register to ensure that the quality actions are being taken.
This provides a simple audit trail to ensure that no planned test is left out by inspecting to see if the register entry has been signed off,
Risk Register
This register is used as a reference when managing risks during the stage and entering any new or changes to existing risks. The register contains information such as the probability and impact of each risk.
It is also used at the end of each stage by the Project Board to see the latest situation on all risks and to decide whether to authorize the next management stage.
Stage Plan
This plan helps the Project Manager check progress and is a reference for the controls in force in the stage. Stage Plans are created at the end of the previous management stage.
Team Plan
A Team Manager may create a Team Plan upon receiving a Work Package. If so, the plan will need to be agreed by the Project Manager.
Work Package
The Project Manager gives this unit of work to a Team Manager. The Work Package is an instruction pack and authority to the Team Manager to build one or more products.
Controlling A Stage in PRINCE2
If you’ve referred to the PRINCE2 Manual, the “Controlling a Stage” process is crucial to understanding the method.
Reading through the detail, it is relatively straightforward that this is a well-thought-through and structured process. As you dive into the detail of each activity again, the thinking becomes apparent, and the details make good sense.
The problem may be, however, in the diagram of the Controlling a Stage process. It is drawn to fit on the page and needs to give a clearer understanding of how the activities work together.
It occurred to me that since controlling a stage is all about the day-to-day management of a management stage, then the flow and sequence of the sub-processes could be better understood when starting from the perspective of a project manager.
The project manager needs to gather information to determine what has been done (or not done!) – and then consider what remains. In summary – collecting data and forecasting are crucial to controlling a stage.
The following action of the project manager in controlling a stage is to capture actual data, a completed Work Package as one example. Of course, it is never as simple as this in the real world; other information that will help project managers determine the actual status so far, such as the Risk Log, the Quality Log, Checkpoint Reports, etc.
The project Manager will also want to refer to the main plans and the Business Case for efficient implementation of controlling a stage.
Of particular interest is the arrival of issues. These can arrive from anyone at any time, and they must be logged, categorized and an analysis carried out of their impact.
The result of this impact analysis will almost certainly change ” the road ahead”. Determining and acting upon issue actions within your PRINCE2 project is an excellent example of controlling a stage.
The project manager enters all factual information into the PRINCE2 Stage Plan, and will almost certainly be some form of a planning tool to assist with this (for example, Microsoft Project) and to help forecast the remainder of the stage work to be carried out, and the products yet to be created and approved.
The next step is to look at the remainder of the stage and the project. This will help determine the actions to control a management stage. As above, information from the Logs, Stage Plan, Project Plan, and Business Case will assist in determining what remains to be done and checking that appropriate plans, products, resources, and activities are in place.
PRINCE2 Controlling a Stage Process Diagram
That summarises the ” thinking” part of a project manager’s control – now it is time to take action. If everything is going well, then the project manager can ” do nothing”!
But life is different.
When the project board approve the next stage plan, they will set the Tolerance for the stage and tell the project manager how often they wish to receive the regular Highlight Reports.
Therefore, the everyday job of the project manager is to gather sufficient information, then create and send the highlight report to the project board, all as part of controlling a stage.
Work packages should be sent regularly, as needed during the PRINCE2 stage, to the specialist team or team manager. These must be first agreed upon with the specialist team before work can start.
Once underway, regular Checkpoint Reports are given to the project manager to help determine the status of product creation and approval.
It is rare that progress nor controlling a stage during the stage ever goes exactly to plan, and it is pretty typical for a project manager needing to take some form of corrective action.
This may be done as a simple verbal instruction to issue a new or modified work package to the team. Such corrective actions will only be taken when the stage is forecast to remain within Tolerance.
As part of the stage’s day-to-day management, the PRINCE2 project manager will ensure that Tolerance is not exceeded. However, the first moment that Tolerance is forecast to be exceeded, the project manager must create an Exception Report and send it to the project board for their consideration and future action.
This last step uses the “Management By Exception” element of PRINCE2.
Well, that sums up controlling a stage; when you now refer to the detail in the PRINCE2 Manual – it will make better sense!
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