The PRINCE2 Project Board
The Project Board consists of the Executive, the Senior User and the Senior Supplier. Only one person can be the Executive while both the Senior User’s and Senior Supplier’s roles may be assigned to one or more persons. The Executive owns the Business Case and has the final word on decisions that are taken, so the Project Board is not a democracy.
The Project Board has the following duties:
- To be accountable for success or failure of the project
- To provide unified direction to the project and Project Manager
- To provide the resources and authorize the funds for the project
- To provide visible and sustained support for the Project Manager
- To ensure effective communication within the project team and with external stakeholders.
Far too many projects have Project Boards that don’t understand their role and don’t provide proper support to the Project Manager. PRINCE2 says that a Project Board should have 4 characteristics.
These characteristics are:
- Authority so they can get things done
- Credibility
- Ability to delegate
- Availability, especially to support the Project Manager
If the Project Board is lacking one or more of these characteristics, they are not able to support the Project Manager. These are good questions for the Project Manager to ask about the Project Board at the start of the project.
The Project Board members are usually busy people, so the concept of Management by Exception allows the Project Manager to keep them regularly informed of the project’s progress, and to only get involved to make key decisions. The Project Manager mainly communicates with the Project Board using the Highlight Report, which is a regular report that provides progress updates on the current stage.
How big should the Project Board be?
The Executive supported by the Project Manager usually takes the following points into account when deciding on the size and structure of the Project Board:
- It should be kept as small as possible so it will be easier to make decisions
- It needs to represent all of the stakeholders in the project
- For larger projects, Users and Suppliers can be split into subgroups. These subgroups can discuss Issues and Risks and pass recommendations on to the Project Board. This is done outside the Project Board
- They also decide whether to include external suppliers on the Project Board. This will depend on the company’s culture, e.g., how they work, and if there is a fear of divulging commercial or financial information. For example, a company might not wish for the external IT supplier to know the exact value of the project, as the price might increase.
The Project Board Roles
The Executive: What does the Executive Role do?
The Executive is appointed by Corporate or Program Management. The Executive is responsible for the project and is supported by the Senior User and Senior Supplier Roles. The Executive’s role is to ensure that the project is focused on achieving its objectives and on delivering a product that will achieve the forecasted benefits.
The Executive also gives a single point of accountability for the project. Usually the Executive will be responsible for designing and appointing the Project Management Team, including the rest of the Project Board and the Project Manager.
The Executive is responsible for developing the Business Case at the start of the project. The Executive owns the Business Case, so throughout the project, their main concern is “Is the project value for money?” The Project Manager may update the Business Case during the project but, again, it is the Executive who still owns the Business Case.
The Executive is the face of the project to people who are external to the project. They are also responsible for communicating to outside stakeholders and to Corporate or Program Management.
The Senior User: What does the Senior User Role do?
The Senior User has the following responsibilities
- To specify the needs of the Users that will use the Project Products
- To liaise between the Project Management Team and the Users
- To make sure the solution will meet the needs of the Users, especially in terms of quality and ease of use and against requirements.
As well as representing the Users, the Senior User normally represents the persons responsible for Maintenance and Operations after the products have been delivered and the project has closed. The Senior User specifies the expected benefits at the start of the project and reports to the Project Board on the benefits that were realized during the project.
So we can say that the Senior User is responsible for reporting the realized benefits during the project.
In some cases (e.g., in-house projects & perhaps smaller projects), the Executive Role and the Senior User Role can be assigned to the same person. So this person would represent both the Business and the Users.
The Senior Supplier: What does the Senior Supplier Role do?
The Senior Supplier Role represents the interests of those designing, developing, facilitating and implementing the projects products. They are responsible for the quality of the products and the technical integrity of the project. In cases where the Supplier will continue to maintain the products after the project, the Senior Supplier will also represent the persons who will provide support and maintenance.
The Senior Supplier role provides the resources for the project. This role will ensure the right people, tools, equipment and knowledge are in place, and that the products will meet the expected criteria.
The Senior Suppler can come from the customer organization (e.g., Purchasing Manager) or they can come from a supplier, and as with the Senior User Role, this can be one or more persons.
Finally, more than one person can represent the suppliers and therefore be assigned to this role.
Project Assurance: User, Business & Supplier
This is known as Project Assurance but it is actually separated into three parts: User, Business and Supplier Assurance. The Project Board is responsible for Project Assurance and the Project Board members are responsible for their own parts.
First you need to understand why we need Project Assurance. So just imagine the following situations:
- We have a new Project Manager in the company who is not fully aware of the corporate quality standards, so they will most likely deliver a product that cannot be used
- There has been a change in certain recognized standards that must be adopted by all companies that produce products for that market. It is therefore important that all projects reflect these changes
- An external Project Manager may be under pressure to get products signed off so they can invoice the client and they may be cutting corners to get this done
- A Project Manager might have discovered a big issue but is afraid to report it, as they don’t want to be the bearer of bad news. So they keep quiet and hope the issue will go away.
For each of these situations, the Project Manager may be telling the Project Board that everything is fine and the project is going as planned, so it is important that the Project Board get a second opinion and this 2nd opinion is called Assurance or Project Assurance.
- Executive is responsible for Business Assurance
- They wish to ensure that the business aspects of the project are correct
- They keep asking: Is the project value for money?
Project Assurance Senior User
Senior User is responsible for User Assurance
- They wish to ensure that the project will deliver the correct products and these products will meet the expected requirements
- They keep asking: Will the product work as expected?
- Senior Supplier is responsible for Supplier Assurance
- They want to ensure that the products will be delivered as expected and that the right materials and people are in place to do the work
- They keep asking: Can it be done within time, cost, and other variables?
The Project Board can decide to do this work themselves or they can assign these assurance tasks to other people within the organization who have the necessary skills and who will provide an independent view on how things are going with the project.
The Project Assurance should not just focus on finding things that the Project Manager may not be doing correctly, but should support the Project Manager and make them aware of standards that they should use in the project. The Project Manager should also feel comfortable to ask for guidance from Project Assurance.
The Change Authority Role
Change Authority is a person or group to which the Project Board may delegate responsibility for the consideration of requests for change or off-specifications. The Change Authority may be given a change budget and can approve changes within that budget.
Change Authority can also be a mixture, depending on the severity of the change, so you can see that the different roles can have Change Authority responsibilities
Severity
Why doesn’t the Project Board do all Change Authority during a project?
If few changes are expected, then the Project Board can do this. If many changes are expected, then it is better to use a separate Change Authority group . This is more efficient for the change process and less time is demanded from the Project Board (as they are busy people).
This is defined in the Configuration Management Strategy document during the Initiation Stage.
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