PRINCE2 Standards Alignment
YOUR PRINCE2 STANDARDS REFERENCE
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT STANDARDS
Project management standards summarize the key concepts and activities that need to be undertaken in order to increase the likelihood of project success.
There is scope for confusion regarding the respective uses of standards and methods, and how they are applied in organizations.
Put simply, a standard, such as BS 6079, defines what needs to be done and by whom, but not how activities are done.
Whereas a method, such as PRINCE2, provides not only a set of activities to be done, together with roles, but also techniques for undertaking these activities.
Standards can improve the effectiveness of project management by drawing attention to the key principles and activities required. After they have been established, standards can promote continual improvement by being periodically reviewed and updated.
This ensures that the latest consensus on best practice is included and that any omissions or clarifications are dealt with. In this way, all users of standards benefit from the collective experience of all other users.
How PRINCE2 meets BS 6079
PRINCE2 and BS 6079 (British Standards Institution, 2010) share a core of common practice and both cover 'project management' in its widest sense, notably:
Therefore, if an organization is using PRINCE2, it could be said to comply with BS 6079 Part 1 provided that those aspects which are explicitly beyond the scope of PRINCE2 are covered either by its enterprise method or by other corporate processes and methods.
How PRINCE2 meets ISO 21500
As PRINCE2 and ISO 21500 (International Organization for Standardization, 2012) have different structures and scopes, it is not always possible to make direct comparisons clause by clause.
ISO 21500 does not cover, in its processes, the roles of what PRINCE2 refers to as the executive or the team manager. However, PRINCE2 and ISO 21500 do share a core of common practice relating to the role and activities of the project manager.
ISO 21500 does not define the roles of team manager or team member in any detail because they, like the project sponsor, are outside the standard's scope.
In terms of project lifecycle, PRINCE2 and ISO 21500 have the same concept of phases/stages, with decision points where each phase/stage of the project starts. ISO 21500 provides no detail on best practice relating to such decisions, which are deemed out of scope.
The actual structure of ISO 21500 in its logical form is very different from that of PRINCE2.
In PRINCE2, the stages of a project are explicit and defined within the processes, such that the initiating and closing of a project is done in a different way from the initiating and closing of a phase/stage. ISO 21500 treats a project and a phase/stage within a project identically and has no explicit procedure for starting new stages within a project.
How this is done is left to the user of the standard to determine. PRINCE2 provides detail on this in its managing a stage boundary and directing a project processes.
Being a method, PRINCE2 has details of techniques and approaches which are not in ISO 21500 (e.g. product-based planning).
Therefore, if an organization is using PRINCE2, it could be said to comply with ISO 21500 provided that those aspects which are explicitly beyond the scope of PRINCE2 are covered either by its enterprise method or by other corporate processes and methods.
PRINCE2 terms used compared with those used in BS 6079 and ISO 21500
PRINCE2
Project
Stage
Stage boundary
Executive
Project Manager
Team Manager
Project Brief
PID: project definition, project approach, project Project management plan Project management plan management team structure, role descriptions, quality management approach, change control approach, risk management approach, communications management approach
Business case (part of PID)
Project plan (part of PID)
End stage report
Issue register
Highlight report
End project report
BS 6079
Project
Phase
Gate
Sponsor
Project Manager
Team Manager
Project Brief
Project Management Plan
Business Case
Project plan
Phase closure report
Issues log
Project report
Project closure report
ISO 21500
Project
Phase
Sponsor
Project Manager
Charter
Project Management Plan
Business case (treated as an input to the project)
Project plan
Issues log
Progress report
Project closure report
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