PRINCE2 Controlling a Stage 

PRINCE2 Controlling a stage with PRINCE2

Let us take a look at what you will learn in the Controlling a Stage process. You will be learning about the 8 activities, which are divided in three Work Package activities, 2 Monitoring and Reporting activities, and three Issues activities.

The Controlling a Stage Work Package activities are:

• Authorize a Work Package – Assign a Work Package
• Review Work Package Status – Check on Work Package progress
• Receive completed Work Package – Check if Work Package is complete and signed for

The Controlling a Stage Monitoring and Reporting activities are:

• Review the stage status – Continually check how the stage is going
• Report Highlights – Send Highlight Reports to the Project Board

The Controlling a Stage Issues activities are:

• Capture and examine issues and risks
• Escalate issues and risks – Escalate to the Project Board
• Take corrective action – take action to solve small issues or risk

PRINCE2 Controlling a Stage Purpose

The purpose of the Controlling a Stage process is for the Project Manager to assign the work to be done, monitor this work, deal with issues, report progress to the Project Board and take corrective action to ensure that the stage remains within tolerance.

The objective of the Controlling a Stage process is to ensure that:

• Attention is focused on the delivery of the products
• Keep Risks and Issues under control
• Keep the Business Case under review
• Deliver the products for the stage to the agreed quality within agreed cost and time & achieve the defined benefits

It will help to understand the following text if you look at the Process Model diagram.

The Controlling a Stage process describes the work of the Project Manager as they do their day-to-day management of a stage, and it is where the Project Manager does most of their work.

During a stage the Project Manager will repeat the following tasks:

• Authorize the work to be done
• Monitor progress information about this work using Checkpoint Reports and the Quality Register
• Review the current situation in relation to the Stage Plan, sign off completed work and issue new Work Packages
• Report to the Project Board using the Highlight Report
• Watch for issues, assess issues and deal with issues and risks; and
• Take any necessary correct action

As mentioned above, the Project Manager will keep repeating these tasks until all the planned products for the stage have been completed and then start to prepare for the Stage Boundary process.

This whole sequence of activities is again repeated for each stage in the Project. At the end of the last stage, the Closing a Project will be invoked and therefore, the Project Manager will start to prepare the project for closure.

PRINCE2 Controlling a Stage Activities

There are 8 activities within the Controlling a Stage process and they are divided into 3 parts that also describe what the Project Manager does:

• Work Packages
• Monitoring and Report
• Issues

The Controlling a Stage Work Packages Activities are:

1. Authorize a Work Package – assign and agree with the Team Manager
2. Review Work Package Status – check on Work Package progress
3. Receive completed Work Package – check quality & Configuration Management

The Controlling a Stage Monitoring and Reporting activities are:

1. Review the stage status – continually compare status to Stage Plan
2. Report Highlights – regular reports to the Project Board

The Controlling a Stage Issues activities are:

1. Capture and examine issues and risks – categorizing and assess impact
2. Escalate issues and risks – create Exception Report & send to the Project Board
3. Take corrective action – solve issue or risk while keeping stage within tolerance

As an exercise, try to list some of the 8 activities. Make this easy on yourself by listing the three Work Package activities, the two monitoring and reporting activities and the three Issue Activities.

Don’t be worried about getting the names 100% correct.

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