PRINCE2 7 Study Guide – Part 6
Execute a Work Package
Probably 90% of the project budget is spent within the Managing Product Delivery (MP) process, since this is where the specialist products are created. The ‘execute a work package’ activity is where the specialist products are created and their quality checks carried out, followed by their approval by the appropriate authority or individual.
The team manager or the team themselves will produce regular Checkpoint Reports providing information on the status and future forecast of the creation of specialist products. These are sent to the project manager, and may be in the form of a report or a meeting.
The project manager will use the activity of Review Work Package Status to determine the progress or otherwise of the creation and the approval of these specialist products.
The Project Manager is also required to report progress to the Project Board throughout the stage by creating a Highlight Reports.
At the point when the stage was authorized by the Project Board, they will set out how often they wish to receive a Highlight Report, and if necessary, specifying what information should be included within it.
In addition, the Project Board will set stage tolerance so that they can “manage by exception”, content in the knowledge that the moment the Project Manager forecasts that such tolerance limits will be breached, the Project Manager will bring this to their attention via an Issue Report, and an Exception Report.
The Team Managers and their specialist teams will carry out their product creation work within the Managing Product Delivery process. This process is where, probably 80% of the project’s budget will be spent as it is here that all specialist products within the project are created.
Managing Product Delivery
There are just three
There are just four activities within the Managing Product Delivery process:
- Accepting the work from the Project Manager via the Work Packages
- Creating the specialist products as laid down within each Work Package
- Evaluating a work package
- Notifying the specialist products back to the Project Manager
The details within each Work Package laid down how often the Team Manager reports progress back to the Project Manager. Such progress reports are called Checkpoint Reports, and these may be a document or a meeting.
The Project Manager will plan the next stage towards the very end of the current stage. The Project Manager will start creating the next Stage Plan when seeing that the work of the current delivery stage is nearly finished. The next Stage Plan along with other activities, will be created using the “Managing a Stage Boundary” process.
It is important for you to see that the Project Manager is still controlling the current stage while also using the Managing a Stage Boundary process to planned for the next. In this way, the specialist team are not told to wait once they finish the current stage products, while the Project Manager plans the next stage.
The Managing a Stage Boundary (SB) process
The project board would request the preparation of an Exception Plan using the Managing a Stage Boundary process.
At this point it would be helpful to state that the Managing a Stage Boundary process has only TWO uses.
The first is to prepare for an end stage assessment (ESA) by creating the next Stage Plan. The second is to prepare for an exception assessment (EXA). In the former the objective is to approve or otherwise, the next Stage Plan, and in the latter, it is to approve or otherwise the Exception Plan.
Whichever of the above, this process would follow the following steps and activities:
- Create either a next Stage Plan or an Exception Plan
- Update the Project Plan to show actual progress and if necessary, a modified future forecast
- As part of updating the Project Plan and the next Stage Plan/Exception Plan, it may be necessary to update some aspects of the PID (possibly in terms of the strategies, the plan, and the controls, or the Business Case and related Benefits Management Approach.
- Because of the above, new or modified Product Descriptions will need to be created, new or modified risks and issues entered on to the appropriate registers including any lessons that have been learned during the stage
- The Benefits Management Approach needs to be updated to reflect any products that may have already being released into the operational (business as usual – BAU) areas
- The project manager will produce an End Stage Report and if appropriate create a Lessons Report.
All the above will be brought before the project board at either an end stage assessment or an exception assessment.
The project board will need to decide to either approve the next Stage Plan, or approve the Exception Plan, or request more information, or to order a premature close of the project.
For each delivery stage these four processes will continue in the same manner as described above.
The Managing a Stage Boundary process will be used either to prepare a next Stage Plan or an Exception Plan and is brought before the project board using the Directing a Project process to either approve or otherwise the next Stage Plan or an Exception Plan.
The Project Manager also creates an End Stage Report for the delivery stage which is about to end.
