The PRINCE2 Project Mandate
PRINCE2 projects have a controlled start, a controlled middle and a controlled close, and the Project Mandate triggers the controlled start. The Project Mandate is therefore used as a trigger to the Starting Up a project process.
All projects are triggered because someone has an idea or is in need, ranging from a new business objective, legislation changes, or a report/audit. The trigger to start the project could be almost anything.
Therefore, the Project Mandate can vary from a verbal instruction to a well-defined and justified project definition. An example of the content of a Project Mandate may be the recommendations made from a feasibility study. As such, the Project Mandate will provide the terms of reference for the project and identify the prospective project board executive.
Before any project can start, several authorizations and activities must first occur.
The first activity to take place is the creation of the Project Mandate itself by those with the appropriate level of authority. PRINCE2 calls this authority corporate or programme management (the latter used if the project forms part of a programme).
The organization concerned would be totally out of control if anyone who cares to start a project and, for whatever reason, had the authority or mandate could do so.
Therefore, it is vital that as much is known as possible, including why, should be documented or, at an absolute minimum, discussed or stated.
Project Mandate Contents.
With this in mind, the PRINCE2 Project Mandate should contain sufficient information to answer the following fundamental questions:
- What is the purpose of the project, and what will it create?
- Who will be using the project’s products once they are handed over?
- Why should this project be started, and what is its justification?
- Who will need to be involved in the project?
- Whereabouts will the project occur, and where will the products be built?
- How will the products be made?
- What general approach will the project take to deliver the end product?
- When and why must the project start and finish?
As much of the above information as possible must be entered into the PRINCE2 Project Mandate so that it answers the what, why, who, where, and how questions.
A particular Project Mandate may contain an excellent level of detail as this may be freely understood and available, while another Project Mandate may contain only sparse information.
The Project Mandate Trigger.
For the above reasons, the Starting Up a Project process is triggered by the creation and issue of a project mandate as this process contains the necessary activities to refine and expand the information contained within the Project Mandate into the Project Brief and a plan for the initiation stage.
The amount of work effort expended during the Starting Up a Project process will depend upon the level of detail contained within the project mandate, and at its simplest, the work effort may only need to cover checking that the information in the Project Mandate is correct.
Directly that the Project Mandate is created, the PRINCE2 process model is started, or triggered if you will, by the Project Mandate to initiate work within the Starting Up a Project process.
The first individual to be appointed during the project process is the project board Executive, which is done by corporate or programme management. The individual selected will represent all business aspects of the project and, hence, will review the Project Mandate from a business perspective.
The following individual to be appointed as the Project Manager is there to focus on the day-to-day management of this pre-project work (don’t forget that the starting up of a project process takes place pre-project).
The first question that needs to be answered should be; “is the project idea set out in the Project Mandate worthwhile and viable?” The answer to this question will help prevent poorly conceived projects from starting in the first place.
The information contained within the Project Mandate is now further refined and expanded into the Project Brief. The following diagram illustrates the project mandate being used as the trigger and the activity flow within the starting up a project process:
Note that one of the activities above is called ‘prepare the outline Business Case’, and like all business cases, it should detail precisely why the project is needed since this will form the basis of the information extracted from the Project Mandate into creating the outline Business Case. The outline business case forms part of the Project Brief and is created by the project board Executive.
In some situations, the outline Business Case may be created by others, for example, the Project Manager or a financial representative. However, the project board executive continues to own and be responsible for the outlined and detailed business case, which is refined later within the initiation stage.
The Project Mandate will also contain the customer’s quality expectations or the acceptance criteria for the project’s end product.
The Project Mandate is a crucial document as it contains information which will be later expanded and used within the Project Initiation Documentation (PID). For example, the Risk Management Approach (how risk management will be applied for this project) will be based on Project Mandate information such as the customer’s quality expectations, the importance, complexity and scale of the project, and what assumptions have been made.
One Final Project Mandate Point.
The Project Board use the PRINCE2 process ‘Directing a Project’ (DP), and one of the activities within that process is called ‘Give Ad-Hoc Direction’. This is there so that the project board members may offer informal guidance or respond to any requests for advice.
Give Ad-Hoc direction could be used at any time during a project, and the whole project board or an individual member may give such advice.
One situation that may occur is that the corporate or programme management must revise the information in the Project Mandate. This would often be due to external events such as a change in the business environment or competitive pressures.
Such an action would have potential changes to the project. It, therefore, may result in the project board asking the project manager to replan the project or stage or even to stop and then restart the project by triggering a premature closure.
A potentially more straightforward approach may be to treat the changes to the Project Mandate as a ‘request for change’.
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