PRINCE2 7th Edition Project Stages
PRINCE2 stages do not overlap, instead, they partition the project by introducing stop-go decision points.
By not overlapping, they enable the project management team and project board to review progress and assess whether the project has continued business justification and therefore should proceed to the next stage.
The stages also enable the project management team and project board to maintain alignment with the business case through the plans for the subsequent stage and the decisions taken at stage boundaries.
Project work may be organized into logical groups of work packages, depending on the delivery method being used, the set of specialist skills required, or the relationships of the organizations involved.
Such logical groupings of activity may run in parallel and overlap. It is a good practice to avoid having work packages that span a stage boundary, as decisions taken at stage boundaries could lead to repeated work or waste relating to work in progress.
Where work packages span a stage boundary, such as work packages involving procurement of long lead items, their status will need to be reviewed as part of the process of managing a stage boundary.
Many projects are driven by various constraints, such as schedules and resources. For example, a project that must be completed by a certain date would be considered a schedule-driven project.
On the other hand, a project that must be delivered without any resources beyond those authorized in the project initiation documentation would be considered a resource-driven project.
A crucial element of effective planning is understanding which constraints take precedence, selecting which approaches to use and the appropriate tolerances for control.
PRINCE2 includes tolerances for benefits, time, cost, quality, scope, risks, and sustainability to manage such constraints at each plan level.
The PRINCE2 technique for planning helps the project management team to set tolerances that balance the need for the project board to maintain effective control. At the same time, it enables the project manager or team manager to achieve efficient delivery.
PRINCE2 Time tolerance definition
The permissible deviation in a plan’s time that is allowed before the deviation needs to be escalated to the next management level.
The plan for a schedule-driven project will have a narrow time tolerance, possibly set to zero, indicating that any delays would put the project at risk of failure.
PRINCE2 Cost tolerance definition
The permissible deviation in a plan’s cost is allowed before it needs to be escalated to the next management level.
The plan for a project that must be delivered within a fixed budget will have a narrow cost tolerance, possibly set to zero, indicating that there is no room for an increase in cost.
PRINCE2 Scope tolerance definition
The permissible deviation in a plan’s scope is allowed before it needs to be escalated to the next management level.
The plan for a project delivering a product that is new to an organization might specify some level of tolerance for initial support and user training after acceptance.
This is to ensure a smooth transition to the new business as usual.
How wide or narrow each tolerance is set for each plan level improves the understanding of which constraints take precedence and how they should be incorporated into a plan.
PRINCE2 Stages
The goal of the project plan is to give the project board and the project manager confidence in proceeding with delivery.
PRINCE2 structures the management of the project on a stage-by-stage basis. Combined with the Focus on Products principle, managing by stages helps the project management team to plan and deliver what is required when it is required.
Determining how to divide the project into stages is a matter of balancing:
- the delivery method (iterative-incremental or linear-sequential)
- the sequence of delivery activities
- the type of people and resources involved
- the number and timing of key decision points
- the amount of risk the project can manage
- how far ahead in the project it is sensible to plan.
The number of PRINCE2 management stages
The number of stages can vary, based on the nature of the products and the necessary delivery activities. A greater number of stages increases the degree of control, but every stage boundary requires effort to manage.
Therefore, there is a trade-off between the degree of control and the level of management overhead on the project.
For a simple project with a small number of well-understood products and mature delivery method, only two stages may be required. These are an initiation stage to prepare the project initiation documentation and a single delivery stage.
For a larger project with a complex set of products and a mix of delivery methods, multiple delivery stages, each with their own products and stage boundaries, will be required.
This approach allows the project management team to refine its estimates in each stage plan and the project board to confirm that the project is continuing to satisfy its business justification.
For an iterative-incremental project, the project plan may provide multiple delivery stages in which the quality and acceptance criteria are refined in parallel with the development of the required products through use of a Product Backlog.
Some projects may need to align stage boundaries with external events.
For example, in organizations with an annual budget cycle, there may be a requirement to provide an accounting of what the project has delivered and also what is in progress as it stands at the end of the budget year prior to authorization of the next portion of the project budget.
The length of PRINCE2 stages
Determining the appropriate length of a stage is a matter of assessing the following:
the level of complexity: if the number and dependencies among delivery activities is high, a shorter stage may help avoid encountering exceptions to the approved tolerances.
the level of risk: stages are useful in providing control over high-risk projects. Stage breaks can be inserted at key points where risks to the project can be reviewed before major commitment of resources.
the planning horizon: if there is significant uncertainty in the estimates of resources or of the duration of activities, a shorter stage can allow these estimates to be refined in the next stage plan.
appropriate decision points: stage boundaries should be aligned with critical decisions to be made by the project board (such as whether and how to continue after delivery of a prototype) or business layer decisions or events (such as a business planning cycle).
alignment with programme activities: programmes may be organized around groups of projects structured around distinct changes in capability and delivery tranches.
The programme may require the project to align the end of a stage with the end of a programme tranche. The length of stages does not have to be uniform throughout the project.
The design or prototyping stages for a new system, for example, may be much shorter than the build stage.
PRINCE2 Stages and work packages
PRINCE2 stages do not overlap. Instead, they partition the project by introducing stop-go decision points.
By not overlapping, they enable the project management team and project board to review progress and assess whether the project has continued business justification and therefore should proceed to the next stage.
The stages also enable the project management team and project board to maintain alignment with the business case through the plans for the subsequent stage and the decisions taken at stage boundaries.
Project work may be organized into logical groups of work packages, depending on the delivery method being used, the set of specialist skills required, or the relationships of the organizations involved.
Such logical groupings of activity may run in parallel and overlap. It is a good practice to avoid having work packages that span a stage boundary, as decisions taken at stage boundaries could lead to repeated work or waste relating to work in progress.
Where work packages span a stage boundary, such as work packages involving procurement of long lead items, their status will need to be reviewed as part of the managing a stage boundary process.
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