PRINCE2 Management Stages for Control
A summary of the Progress Theme is:
- The purpose of Progress Practice and such definitions as Progress, Progress Controls, Exceptions and Tolerances
- The PRINCE2 approach to Progress and the four main controls provided by PRINCE2, which are (1) Delegating Authority, (2) Using Stages, (3) Time- & Event-driven reports, and (4) Raising Exceptions
- The 3 Project Controls Used by the Project Board and the Project Manager: Authorizations, Progress Updates and Exceptions and Changes and how they differ
- Management Stages and why Management Stages are used by the Project Board as controls
Points to consider when deciding on the number of stages on the project, and how long a stage should be are:
- What are technical stages? How do they differ from Management Stages? How is it possible to manage Technical Stages from Management Stages?
- How the Project Manager reviews progress? How they use the different management products, such as the Checkpoint Reports, Daily Log and Issue Register?
- The three reports used by the Project Manager to report progress to the Project Board
- How the Team Manager and the Project Manager raise exceptions and why
- And lastly, the Project Roles and Responsibilities.
Why are Management Stages used as controls by the Project Board?
Management stages are partitions of the project with decisions points for the Project Board between each stage. A management stage is a collection of activities to produce products and is managed by the Project Manager.
Why are Management Stages important for the Project Board?
- They provide review and decision points at end of each stage and before the next stage
- They can check the viability of the project
- They can authorize one stage at a time, or choose to stop the project
- They review the End Stage Report of the last stage and Review plan for next stage
- Then can check project progress compared with baselined Project Plan at the end of each stage.
As you can see, stages are important for the Project Board.
Also, with the help of tolerance, the Project Board can give the day-to-day authority of running the stage to the Project Manager. The Project Manager sends regular highlight reports to inform them how well the stage is going according to the Stage Plan and does not otherwise bother them unless the stage goes or is forecast to go out of tolerance.
How many stages should be in a project?
First we need to look at the minimum number of stages in a project. The use of stages is mandatory and the minimum number of stages in a project is two: the Initiation Stage to define and agree what needs to be done, and at least one other stage to produce the products.
So even for a 2-day project, you may spend one hour in the first morning deciding what will be done, how you are going to do it, who is responsible for what, and other such details.
The rest of the time will be creating the products in the second stage.
How to decide the number of stages?
This depends on a number of items and as you can see, it’s a bit of a balancing act.
Start by considering the following:
- How far ahead is it sensible to plan? (I know one IT development company that does not like to plan any more than 6 weeks ahead if they are working on new applications that they have not created before.)
- Where do key decision points have to be made in the project? (Example: Maybe after creating a prototype or after completion of a major part of the product. This would be a good point for stage end.)
- The amount of risk in a project. (If similar to another project, then there will be less.)
- Think of the control required by the Project Board. Do they require little or lots of control? Decide between too many short management stages compared to few lengthy management stages – in other words, too much administrative overhead versus less control
- How confident are the Project Board and Project Manager at proceeding? (For instance, if this is a similar project with minor changes, then they would be very confident and they could use less management stages. If this is to create a new kind of product that no other company has created, then the risk is higher. In this case, it would be better to have more stages.
So, I hope you have a good idea on how a Project Board and Project Manager would choose the number of management stages in a project, and as you can see, it is a bit of balancing act.
How long should a stage be in PRINCE2?
The main consideration is the level of risk or complexity. If there is a lot of risk and complexity then it is best to keep the stages short. If there is less risk and complexity and you have done a similar project before, then stages could be much longer.
PRINCE2 mentions the following four points to consider when deciding the length of stage:
- The planning horizon at any point in the project (i.e., How far can you safely plan ahead?)
- The Technical Stages within a project
- Alignment with program activities (as you might require input from another project at a certain time in the project)
- The level of risk.
What are Technical Stages?
Technical stages are a way of grouping work. The best way to understand this is to look at how they differ from Management Stages.
- Technical stages can overlap but management stages do not
- Technical stages are usually linked to specialist skills (e.g., Requirements Analyses and Design Product, while Management Stages are more focused on business justification and authority to spend)
- A technical stage can span a management stage boundary.
PRINCE2 advises to mention the products from the technical stage that will be completed in each management stage. (For example, Design is two parts, so Design will deliver separate products in the first and second Management Stages)
Event-Driven and Time-Driven Controls
All controls can be divided into two parts in PRINCE2: Event-Driven and Time-Driven.
Event-driven controls take place when something happens, in other words when an event happens in the project. (For example, at the end of a stage, at completion of the PID, when a stage goes out of tolerance, at the end of project and change request.
All of these events produce documents like an End Stage Report, Exception Report and Issue Report.
Let me give you an example of an out-of-tolerance event. You are the Project Manager and you have seen that an issue you are evaluating will bring the stage out of tolerance. This is an event and this event will require you to take the following actions:
- Create an Exception Report
- Send Exception Report to the Project Board.
In other words, these two actions were driven by the event of going out of tolerances.
Time-driven controls take place at predefined periodic intervals. For example, the Project Board will agree with the Project Manager to send a Highlight Report every 2 weeks to the Project Board, and the Project Manager can agree with the Team Manager to send a Checkpoint Report each week.
So time-driven controls don’t have to wait for an event to happen.
A question that might be asked in the exam is “In which management document is the frequency of the Highlight Report first mentioned?”
It is first mentioned in the Communication Management Strategy, which is written in the Initiation Stage.
Another question could be “Can the Project Board change the frequency of time-driven reports for a new stage?”
Yes, and normally they would advise the Project Manager to change the frequency during the stage boundary process and before approving the next Stage Plan. The Project Manager can even specify a different frequency for the Checkpoint Report when agreeing to the Work Packages with different Team Managers.
How does the Project Manager review progress?
The Project Manager does most of their reviewing progress in the Controlling a Stage process. The information that follows in this section will be same as you will learn in the Controlling a Stage process.
During the stage, the Project Manager will hand out work in Work Packages to Team Managers or directly to the Team Members in the case of a small project. What two management products do you think the Project Manager uses as input to check on how well the Work Packages are progressing and, therefore, to see how the stage is progressing?
They use the Checkpoint Reports, which come from the Team Manager or team members, and they use the Quality Register to see that intended Quality responsible persons have signed off on the products.
As you can now see, the Quality Register acts an important extra check for the Project Manager, as perhaps the Team Manager was not 100% open in the Checkpoint Reports.
Question: Which Management Products does the Project Manager use to keep track of how the project is doing (e.g., where do they keep informal notes, issues, check on product status, quality progress, risk, etc.)?
The Project Manager uses the Daily Log, Issue Register, Product Status Account, Quality Register and Risk Register.
What do you think the Project Manager uses the Daily Log for?
This is the place to record any informal information about the project (e.g., news, telephone calls, meetings, small issues, reminders, observations, tolerance levels and other such information.) The Daily Log is similar to a Daily Journal for the Project Manager.
What does the Project Manager use the Issues Register for?
The Issues Register contains all formal issues raised during the project, which could be:
- Request for Change: This happens when the clients notice something that was not in the original requirement but now wants this included (so it becomes a Request for Change)
- Off-Specification: This happens when the supplier may not be able to complete something exactly as described in the Product Description
- Problems and Concerns: This is the place to note any other comments, problems and concerns (for example, there is train strike on the same day as our expected demonstration for the major stakeholders, or the cost of a major component we need for the project has increase in price by 50%).
What does the Project Manager use the Product Status Account for?
- At certain times during the project the Project Manager will want to check that all products created so far in the project (1) are in the right place, (2) are the correct version, (3) have the correct identification codes attached, (4) are distributed correctly, (5) have the correct status, and so on
- Let me give an example to explain how important this is. Consider that you are organizing an event and send out a communication 20 days beforehand that the location has changed to a new conference center due to the demand. But you are using an older registration list and will therefore only notify 70% of the registered users
- Product Status Accounting could also show that some products have not been updated according to the plan. For example, one product was supposed to be approved 2 weeks earlier but has still not been approved. Product Status Accounting makes sure that the right products are in the right place and that the products are in line with the Project Plan.
What does the Project Manager use the Quality Register for?
The Quality Register is a record of all planned and executed Quality activities. Therefore the Project Manager can see if all planned Quality activities are in line with the plan and if results are as expected or if a number of products are failing quality tests.
What does the Project Manager use the Risk Register for?
The Risk Register is a record of all identified risks and the Project Manager should review it as part of the Reviewing a Stage status in Controlling a Stage. Risk levels can change during the project. The Project Manager therefore needs to be vigilant during the project as far as Risk is concerned.
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