Boost Your Exam Pass Score – crack the harder questions!

As the accredited trainer for the Projex Academy PRINCE2 accredited training organization (ATO), I like to keep myself sharp by sitting the latest PeopleCert PRINCE2 7th Edition Practitioner exam at least once a year. I sat and passed the latest live exam (2025) just two weeks ago.

As I worked through the live exam, I started to notice that many of these new questions (the harder ones on PRINCE2 tailoring) started to feel familiar …

After the exam it dawned on me – I had seen many of these questions based on the example scenario examples peppered throughout the official guide.

The four examples of scenarios that may be used in the live exam can be found in the official guide on pages 11 to page 17.

So, I worked through manual and noted where the FOUR scenarios were. The live exam WILL be based on one of the four samples scenarios given in the official PRINCE2 7 Guide (I even made a note of what pages the scenario examples were on):

What follows is each of the FOUR scenarios and the relevant tailoring examples of each (Data Knowledge, Findef, Louistown City Council, and NowByou.)

Data Knowledge Scenario:

Tailoring – Two team leaders meeting for coffee

Data Knowledge’s iterative approach for the development of a new time-recording solution allows for early feedback to be incorporated. It made the data science team leader and the development team leader realize that they needed to be aligned.

They agreed to meet for a coffee every two weeks for a general catch-up in a local park, as they usually met virtually.

The company provided coffee vouchers at a central coffee shop, encouraging people to accompany each other for coffee whenever they are in town.

On one occasion, the data science team leader was unsure of the level of detail to be captured in the solution and related reports. Specifically, they had to decide if it would be sufficient to record how many hours per project each resource carries out, or if it would also be useful to have that information at the task-level.

On one hand, reporting at the task level would give assurance to project managers that the team is allocating their time to priority tasks; on the other hand, reporting at this low level would be a significant cultural change and the staff could be uncomfortable with such level of scrutiny.

The two team leaders exchanged ideas over coffee and agreed that reporting at the task-level would be too much. A decision was easily reached to report time at the project level only.

Tailoring – Role of the team manager in the self-organizing agile team

The software development team in the Data Knowledge project is an experienced agile team that values trust and self-organization. The team has agreed that the team manager role will be held collectively by the whole team.

This means that all the areas of the team manager’s responsibility will be the responsibilities of the whole team and each individual member of the team.

These areas of responsibility include planning, monitoring and managing progress, managing issues and risks, obtaining acceptance, and handover of products.

The team has also appointed one person, the single point of contact for the project manager, with whom the project manager will liaise and who will provide the project manager with all the information they need.

All the agile team role names will remain the same.

These team arrangements have been accepted by the project manager as an appropriate tailoring of the PRINCE2 method at the team level.

Tailoring – Timebox delivery method

Data Knowledge is using a timebox delivery method to ensure that the new time-reporting solution and reporting suite can be deployed quickly to several new projects and enhanced during its roll-out to the rest of the business.

With fixed budget and timescale (three months), the project management team has divided the project into small units of time of two weeks each.

Based on an agreed product backlog, the team is going to plan and manage how much scope fits in the timebox.

When that period is completed, the performance of the timebox is assessed, the backlog is refined, and the subsequent timebox is planned.

This approach ensures continuous and incremental delivery by Data Knowledge, enabling value to be perceived early in the project.

Tailoring – Example non-functional requirement

For Data Knowledge’s time-recording solution, a functional requirement is that it must allow the authentication of users who are trying to log in to the app. These requirements define how a system/product must work and/or do.

The requirement that the processing of each time record should be done within 10 seconds is an example of a non-functional requirement to be met by Data Knowledge’s app.

These requirements explain how the system/product should perform, including attributes of usability, performance, security, and so on.

Another way to distinguish functional and non-functional requirements is to associate functional requirements with fitness for purpose and non-functional requirements with fitness for use.

If there are constraints on how a product is developed, produced, or delivered, such requirements may also need to be reflected in the associated work package description.

Subject to the complexity and maturity of the requirements for a product, it may be appropriate to keep the product descriptions at a relatively high level in the process of initiating a project.

The product descriptions can be primarily used to establish sufficient confidence in the time and cost estimates and confirm that the project can be delivered within an acceptable level of risk.

The product description also identifies the responsible producer, reviewer, and acceptance authority.

Tailoring – Timebox example

To enable accelerated project progression without compromising quality, Data Knowledge’s time-recording solution and resource management reporting suite is being delivered in timeboxes.

Must-have features will be included in timebox three, whereas refinements (should- and could-have features) will be covered by timebox four, following a pilot.

Tailoring – Scale illustrations

Since Data Knowledge’s time-recording solution is a simple project, the project manager decided to outline the quality management approach in a project workbook.

This contains all the management approaches and will follow the established organizational standards.

Planned quality activities are limited to a single round of user acceptance testing by selected users in the company.

In contrast, Findef’s project manager developed a standalone and comprehensive quality management approach document, which details how quality is going to be managed during the project.

Due to the complexity and novelty of the work involved, several quality activities are planned.

These are namely technical design inspections, unit tests, integration tests, performance tests, functional tests, and user acceptance testing.

The planning and results of these activities are described in the quality register established for the project.

Tailoring – Example of a virtual stand-up

Every day, from 10:15am to 10:15am in the morning, the project team of the Data Knowledge time recording solution project meets virtually from the comfort of their homes to share their current progress and detect any roadblocks where assistance may be needed.

This daily stand-up gives the team an opportunity to assess progress and promptly respond to any setbacks in the project; it also builds team cohesion.

The project’s product flow diagram is used to efficiently show progress. The team has embedded a short video or recording on progress of that product into the product on the product flow diagram so that it can also be shared with key stakeholders.

Louistown City Council – Scenario 2 

Tailoring – Concept of quiet phase

It is no surprise that LouisShopping is likely to cause some disruption to residents and businesses during the construction works.

To minimize the risk of incorrect information being shared and rumours spreading, the project team has decided to contain wider communications to a minimum until the project is defined.

Following this, BuildyBrick established a full communication strategy.

For that purpose, the project team has invited key influencers from the local neighbourhood to join a monthly communication planning meeting.

Together, these selected influencers will suggest ideas and work closely with the project team on the communication messages, formats, and vehicles to use when the time comes to communicate a clear message to the local community.

Tailoring – Sustainability as a trade-off in options appraisal

Louistown city council’s pledge to net zero within the next 10 years means it has set a finite allowance of greenhouse gas emissions across all activities by year. Of this allowance, the LouisShopping project has been allocated a limit of 2.3 tons CO2e.

This requires the project to make trade-offs in options regarding design, delivery, and operations/ maintenance. As part of the project design, the project board has requested the project team to complete an options analysis on what are the possible scenarios to meet sustainability standards and their implications.

The project team identified two key design decisions required and their trade-offs as follows:

Tailoring – Role of the team manager and who this  might be

Due to the specialist areas involved in the building of a shopping centre, the manager of the LouisShopping project has distributed the work by teams, where each team has been assigned a team manager reporting directly to the project manager.

The principal electrical building services engineer and the maintenance plumber, both from BuildyBrick, have been assigned as team manager for the electricity and plumbing teams.

Tailoring – Suppliers attending part of board meeting

The LouisShopping project is approaching a critical stage, where the design of the new shopping centre is to be defined and agreed.

BuildyBrick, the main contractor, is responsible for presenting design options that enable the infrastructure to be consistent with the environment. This is while also offering modern facilities supported by the latest technology.

To allow the project board to ask questions about BuildyBrick’s design proposals and receive complete and prompt responses and advice directly from the supplier, who retains technical expertise, the project manager has requested a permanent board arrangement.

Representatives of BuildyBrick attend the first part of every meeting. This is where a status update on design and delivery is presented, whereas the other part of the meeting is focused on matters related to the internal business case.

Tailoring – Illustrating a sensible planning horizon

As a complex infrastructure project where the work is performed consecutively and multiple dependencies must be managed, it is fundamental that appropriate planning is available for the implementation of the LouisShopping project.

However, the project spans three financial years and is just starting the design stage.

Hence, it would not be realistic to attempt the development of a detailed plan to show what each team member is doing for the next two years, as it will likely become inaccurate within a short time span.

Therefore, a sensible and effective approach to project planning would be to combine planning horizons and levels of detail.

This would be achieved by producing an outline plan for the next two years remaining in the project (long-term) while building a detailed plan for the current design stage (short-term).

Additionally, as a commercial firm is to be selected through a tendering exercise, the stage plans for construction stages will require collaboration between the Louistown city council and the supplier.

This will only be finalized following the contract award.

Tailoring – Tolerances changing from stage to stage

As project delivery progresses, more certainty about estimates is gained.

Accordingly, the tolerances agreed for each stage of the project should reflect that progression.

In the initiation stage, when the LouisShopping project started, the project board agreed to a tolerance of +/- 40 percent for the initial estimates of time and cost presented to be refined following the development of the project plan by BuildyBrick.

Now that the initiation stage has been completed and the knowledge gained from this stage returned to the project, the project board has applied a +/- 20 percent tolerance range to the starting design stage.

Tailoring – Contrasting scale

Projects are contextual with different scales of size, risk, and complexity. The planning should reflect these differences in an attempt to apply proportionality in the approach.

The LouisShopping project is a typical project (to the supplier) of medium complexity (to the client) and spans three financial years.

Therefore, with a larger planning horizon, the project will require a combination of high-level detail (overall project) and low-level detail (stage) when planning.

This is to enable sufficient oversight on a day-to-day basis for team leaders and the project management team while assuring the project board that the overall project is on track.

In contrast, a simpler project with lower complexity and risk that spans six months within the same financial year will be less demanding regarding planning and controls.

This can be seen in the new campaign by NowByou.

In this instance, it could be sufficient to present a single timeframe (project plan) relating to the entire project.

Tailoring – Responsibilities for quality control in quality management approach

The following quality register demonstrates the responsibilities for quality control in the LouisShopping project:

Quality register in the LouisShopping project

Tailoring – Example quality standards

In the LouisShopping scenario, there will be fire, safety, security, heritage, and other regulatory requirements that the shopping centre and parking garage must meet.

The quality planning for this project will need qualified subject matter experts to help develop the quality specifications included in the product descriptions.

Additionally, BuildyBrick and Louistown city council have agreed to adopt the latest version of the Mall Federation standards for construction, which include defined criteria to be met by BuildyBrick.

The Mall Federation standards are referred to in the quality management approach as well as in relevant product descriptions which will refer to specific clauses in the standards.

As construction work is completed, numerous types of specialized testing and inspection activities will be involved during quality control to confirm compliance with these specifications.

The quality management approach should ensure that the necessary experts are identified and available to support both quality planning and quality control.

Construction efficiencies and safety concerns mandate the application of high-quality standards in the construction industry.

LouisShopping will not be an exception regarding the concrete pavement strength, composition of construction materials, or parking slots measurements.

When approved, the initial product descriptions and the quality management approach become part of the project baseline.

The product descriptions are recorded in the quality register to allow monitoring and reporting of quality control activities and in the product register to allow monitoring and reporting on product delivery and acceptance.

Tailoring – Quality responsibilities in contracts

In the Louistown Shopping scenario, the construction of the shopping centre and parking garage falls under the scope of a contract.

Therefore, the quality management approach must ensure that the roles and responsibilities for quality control and contractual acceptance are clearly distinguished from the responsibilities for acceptance of the project as a whole.

Tailoring – Example of a combination of responses to a risk

Due to the location of the building and the historical nature of the surrounding buildings, there is a security risk for the LouisShopping project.

There is a risk that the construction works are unsafe for the BuildyBrick staff and partners to operate. This is a significant risk because of the financial and reputational impact at stake.

To minimize this threat, the LouisShopping’s project manager will hold regular meetings on health and safety with the BuildyBricks team leaders (reduce), have planned site inspections by independent contractors (reduce), and have included indemnification clauses in the contractual arrangements with BuildTech (transfer).

Tailoring – Formal versus informal issues

In the LouisShopping project, BuildyBrick, the main contractor, did not complete the water storage tank installation as per the floor plan, as it was difficult to integrate the infrastructure with an old pipe uncovered by excavations.

As this is off-specification, it needs to be handled formally, and the project manager has entered it in the issue register and that a printed report needs to be issued to the council the following week.

It has also been reported by a member of the project office that the project printer is not working. As this issue can be easily fixed by someone in the project team, it represents an informal issue that will be added to the daily log.

Tailoring – Example of off-specification

In the LouisShopping scenario, if it was determined that the number of spaces in the parking garage was inadequate for the anticipated demand, it would be necessary to identify not only the cost of increasing capacity, but also how this change might be funded.

In some cases, an issue is raised because a product does not or will not meet its quality specifications. This is referred to as off-specification.

In the LouisShopping scenario, if it was determined that the construction contractor had failed to provide the required number of parking spaces, this would be considered off-specification.

Tailoring – Collaborative approach to issue management

The incomplete state of the water storage tank installation in the Louis Shopping project triggered off-specification to be managed by the project management team.

The project board is sympathetic to the fact that the shopping centre is being constructed in an unusual setting, where historical findings are a risk to the excavation works.

However, a water reserve station is a must-have requirement concerning health and safety and therefore must be addressed immediately.

BuildyBrick is interested in establishing a relationship of partnership and trust with the LouisTown Council, as a successful project can be used as a case study and reference site for prospective business.

Consequently, a collaborative approach has been agreed to resolve this issue.

Despite leading to additional construction cost to the project, BuildyBrick will complete the water storage tank installation and has agreed to absorb that cost directly rather than request additional funding for completion.

The project board has agreed to the additional time required to resolve the tank installation issue without issuing any penalties on BuildyBrick for the delay.

Tailoring – Speed of assessing issues

After learning about the incomplete state of the water storage tank installation in the LouisShopping project, the project manager decides to assess any dependencies other products in the project have on the water storage tank.

They will assess the project performance targets overall and, if necessary, also the project business case.

They discover that although the storage tank is not on the critical path, it would cause a delay of more than two weeks, which would lead to a delay to the overall project.

The project manager immediately escalates the issue to the project board, who agree to release additional funding for one of the project manager’s recommendations.

If there was an incomplete or slow assessment of the issue by the project manager and/or a delay in escalating it to the project board., it would have been too late to implement the recommended remedy.

This would have caused a domino effect of delays and additional costs.

Tailoring – Example of analysing a lesson

The LouisShopping project experienced a setback concerning the electric power distribution system, as an outdated floor plan had been shared with the team responsible for the electric system.

This has caused a week of rework and project delay.

The project manager gathered the relevant project team members to investigate how incorrect drawings were shared and to understand what changes were needed to prevent the issue from happening again.

 In this way, they ensured that the issue was not repeated.

The project manager also asked for an audit of all floor plans that have been issued for other parts of the project to prevent outdated information from being used.

The team identified three other cases of incorrect drawings and were able to rectify them before any other delays or rework was caused.

Together, the team also reviewed the project communication matrix and agreed that going forward, project records are to be maintained and distributed by the project office members only.

This is in line with the latest approved records in the product register records.

Tailoring – Difference between event-driven and time-driven

Upon completion of the operations needs assessment for the LouisShopping project, the project manager will gather the team to review and potentially update the product description for operations plan and the associated work package description.

This control is event-driven, as it is due only when the milestone is achieved in the project.

On the other hand, time-driven controls occur at predefined periods of time in the project, as they are duration based.

For example, the project board meeting occurs every month, and therefore the project manager will need to consider this activity when scheduling the project.

Findef – Scenario 3

Tailoring – Making decisions at the best level

Findef has established four layers of governance to oversee programme delivery, address issues, and ensure that decisions are made at the appropriate level.

This model is underpinned by the principle of management by exception, where each governance body operates within designated levels of authority.

This principle is the heart of empowering people to self-organize and stay in control with the appropriate level of governance.

Operational day-to-day matters in the life of the individual projects, such as the approval of stage gates, scope changes, or selection of suppliers, are covered at the local level as a key responsibility of the project board.

A programme board has also been established to oversee the progress and health of the Findef Two programme, with the authority to make decisions at the programme level (such as agreeing the programme and project tolerances and signing off the completion of each tranche, including deliverables).

Should there be a need for additional change to investment over 20 percent of the original programme budget, the investment committee is required to be involved in the decision and retain ultimate authority over the programme finances.

Finally, strategic decisions must be escalated to the leadership board, who are at the top of Findef hierarchy.

Strategic decisions include: entering the end-user market rather than focusing solely on business-to-business (B2B), using a new technology, or introducing a new DevOps department in the corporate structure, which demand a higher-level focus, including mitigation of business and reputational risks.

Tailoring – Bringing the team together/social cohesion

Everyone involved in the new product development (part of the FindefTwo programme) has been under pressure to deliver the second stage of the project.

This is because the programme board wants to complete the high-level design before the next quarterly leadership board meeting.

Although the team managed to deliver on time, this was not without issues. It was found that working across multiple time zones and in virtual teams exhausted individuals, resulting in low team morale.

The project manager is aware of this, and before the detailed design starts for product 1, decides to bring the team together for a ‘pause and reflect’ day.

This is a full day of team building activities that offer an opportunity to share lessons, re-energize for the upcoming stage, and build social cohesion within the team.

To ensure that the unity of the team is not lost after the ‘pause and reflect’ day, certain changes have been agreed.

There will be regular project update webinars at different times of day to allow those in different time zones to attend.

There will also be a ‘virtual  coffee time’ in the internal social network platform, giving members of the team an  opportunity to interact with each other informally.

Tailoring – Business case lifecycle

Given the innovative nature of Findef’s products, there is a recognized need for market testing, which has been planned for stage 3 in the life of the project.

The early adopters’ feedback will help Findef identify bugs and design flaws in the product, as well as indicate any potential marketing opportunities.

The project sponsor is aware that incorporating market feedback into the product decisions will enable rapid adoption when the minimum viable product is launched.

However, this approach is not overly predictive of what can be expected as an acceptable list of features. This means that the original cost estimates presented in the business case are far from what would be needed to respond to the market’s feedback.

As a consequence, the project board now needs to return to the investment committee to request additional funding for the project.

Tailoring – Different team structures at different stages of a project

With multiple new products being released by Findef soon, it is paramount that adequate team structures are established for the different stages of the project.

Now that the project is at the beginning of stage 3 (detailed design), with early market testing for product 1 and DevOps upskilling as key planned activities, new teams will need to be formed.

The marketing agency contracted to advise on market testing, as well as the training company awarded the training contract for the upskilling of the DevOps team, will now have an active role as suppliers.

There will also be representation in the project board through the senior supplier role, who is responsible for managing the relationship with suppliers and conducting supplier assurance.

A change manager will also be appointed at this stage and is expected to work with the project management team to ensure that the change is effectively planned, managed, and embedded, in preparation for the soft launch of product 1 to MVP.

As the products progress to full launch and transition to BAU support, representatives of operations will start to become more involved with the project.

They will work with the change manager to enable a smooth transition and effective user adoption.

Tailoring – Scope uncertainty and short planning horizon

Due to high uncertainty of the scope of the Findef project and the iterative-incremental approach for the development of each product, the project manager suggested that the duration of the individual stages of the project would not exceed 1 month.

At the end of each stage, the project manager and the project board will have an opportunity to redefine the scope, plan the next stage in detail, and if needed, redirect the project to achieve as much value out of the products and requirements delivered as possible.

Also, each stage after initiation and design stages (1-3) will deliver a ready-to-use increment of the project product.

Tailoring – Use of specialist involvement in stage plan creation

Findef’s lack of experience working with end users rather than through banks and merchants make the new product development project risky.

To mitigate this risk, a marketing agency that are specialists in market research, branding, and development have been contracted by Findef to assist in the design and early market testing of each new product, providing close monitoring from conception to launch.

To ensure that the estimates and timescales are realistic and that common risks are considered, based on previous similar projects, each stage plan is developed with the involvement of specialists from the marketing agency.

Tailoring – Example of complying with regulations

Findef’s change of business model means they are selling directly to consumers rather  than via intermediaries such as the banks.

This means they are now subject to consumer protection regulations that had previously been the responsibility of their intermediary.

The Findef Two programme commissioned a study to determine what changes they would need to make across the business to comply with consumer protection regulations and any other regulations.

The study revealed that the regulations also had requirements of product design. The requirements were fed into the product descriptions.

The project team included additional reviews in the stage plans (stages 3, 4, and 5) to verify compliance with them.

Tailoring – Procurement/tender in separate stages

The three innovative cybersecurity products to be delivered by Findef required tender activities throughout the project to secure advisory, marketing specialists, and training delivery.

As a hybrid approach of linear-sequential is being used for the overarching design  and an iterative-incremental approach is being applied to the development of each  product, procurement of services was fully completed in stage 2.

This included extensive work from Findef to issue a request for proposals followed by rounds of presentations by shortlisted suppliers.

After a detailed assessment of proposals by each candidate against the weighted criteria and assurance from the procurement team, a contract has been awarded to the current marketing agency and training provider.

Tailoring – Example of changes to scope and quality

The results of early market testing by Findef uncovered that receiving in-app push notifications on product 1 was a feature in high demand by the consulted market sample, and it is a feature increasingly offered in financial services products.

Findef also learned that a new regulatory reporting requirement for financial crime has been published.

The project manager is going to assess the impact of introducing the new notification feature as a change request to scope and the regulatory reporting requirement as a change request to quality standards.

These change requests will be assessed, and options proposed ahead of the planning of the next project stage.

Tailoring – Culture example

The transformational nature of the projects that form the FindefTwo programme and the business risks involved require a different attitude to risk compared with the normal day-to-day activities at Findef.

The programme manager knows that if they want to make risk management work, they must establish the conditions for success within the leadership team.

The programme manager recognizes that it is common for people to feel the pressure to agree with the views ‘from the top’. Therefore, the programme manager utilizes external advisers to stop groupthink in the senior leadership team.

This enabled the senior leadership team to be self-aware and to encourage a culture of critical reasoning in the management of risks.

Tailoring – Part of a programme

Effective risk management requires a consistent approach, particularly in the context of a programme where different project management teams will have different attitudes towards risk.

In our example, the manager of the FindefTwo programme gathered the project managers of the several projects that composed the programme.

The aim was to co-create and adopt the risk management approach that would align with existing corporate standards.

The group ensured that all projects were using the same risk register template, categories, levels, and thresholds.

They also defined escalation and reporting routes in this way, thereby clarifying roles and responsibilities towards risk and aligning the risk management approach to the programme level.

Tailoring – Different ways to capture issues

One of the members of the team of Findef’s project to develop the first cybersecurity product has complained that the project data was not being backed up as it should. An IT analyst was called to identify the problem and realized that the hard disk used for taking backups was broken and will require full replacement.

This is a problem/concern that can be handled immediately by the project manager without adding significant cost to the project. Therefore, it does not need to be registered in the issue register but can be recorded in the daily log.

Later in the project, the project board requests that the logotype displayed in the new cybersecurity product be changed to reflect the corporate logotype that has been recently approved.

This represents a change request which, although simple to  accommodate and within the tolerance levels of the project manager, needs to be handled  formally and recorded in the project issue register.

Tailoring – Example of a project prioritizing a tolerance

Findef’s programme board, in alignment with the leadership team, chose to prioritize speed over cost for the project because of Findef’s stagnated growth and its new competitors’ quick time-to-market strategy.

The project board has been granted authority for the project subject to an acceptable deviation of up to 25 percent of the target project cost.

A smaller tolerance has been assigned to the variable of time, where the project has been given a tolerance of ±1 month only.

Should the project forecast to be more than one month early or late compared to the target launch date for each product, then the project board would need to escalate this deviation to the programme board.

NowByou – Scenario 2 (sample exam) 

Tailoring – Embedding shared understanding/users  inside and outside organization

The idea of project management as a discipline is completely new to NowByou.

As a result, the professional project manager who was contracted to produce the initial project documentation and mentor the future project management team is experiencing some initial challenges, including introducing NowByou to new terminology and practices.

The contracted project manager decided to work with the culture of the NowByou by demonstrating the need for a shared understanding among staff and users outside the  organization, such as donors and suppliers.

To do so, she formed a community of practice, ‘the project club’, intended to gather everyone on a regular basis and co-create the future project toolkit using the currently available artefacts and aligning to industry best practice wherever possible.

For example, the ‘campaign brief’ is now the ‘project brief’, which is the template that has the same branding and layout as before but updated to also cover project management fundamentals, such as project governance or defined milestones.

When the toolkit is finalized, the project manager plans to run a series of internal roadshows aimed at bringing to life and embedding the new concepts.

Tailoring – Management by exception principle

The NowByou project team is formed of people with different backgrounds and levels of experience. Generally, they all share a drive to use their competencies to make the world a fairer place.

Being new to NowByou, the contracted project manager mentoring the project team has asked team members to complete a competency self-assessment.

The project manager has also initiated a series of individual conversations to become familiar with the team’s competencies and experience, as well as their level of project management and campaign management knowledge.

It has become clear that the to-be appointed project manager, who is currently part of the donations team, is a skilled individual aware of their strengths and weaknesses.

They are a fast learner who has demonstrated awareness of project management.

Therefore, the contracted project manager is managing by exception, asking for decisions to be made without much supervision and to be notified of any deviations against tolerances.

By contrast, the campaign team manager is a specialist in campaigns but lacks planning and coordination skills.

The contracted project manager has decided that a closer management style is needed, and the delegation level will be based on direct instructions, coaching and slowly granting more autonomy in the completion of project tasks.

Tailoring – Desirable, viable, but not achievable

Upon review of the outputs of stage 2 in the campaign project by NowByou (which included the campaign’s high-level requirements gathering and options analysis) and in preparation for stage 3, the project manager met with the project board.

This was to examine the project business case, as more information is now available.

The group concluded that the approach outlined can be delivered on time and is  affordable. However, the (quality of the) communication vehicles proposed is deemed  unlikely to reach the intended audience.

For that reason, the project board has asked the project sponsor to redefine the project scope.

Tailoring – Do nothing/minimum/something options appraisal

In the design of its campaign against discrimination, NowByou has identified the following options, whose analysis is outlined below:

Given the expected benefits and costs involved, creating a multi-marketing vehicle targeted campaign is the preferred option, as it generates attractive value for money in line with NowByou’s mission.

Tailoring – Example of a delivery model

Since NowByou did not have professional project management capability in-house, a makeor-buy decision had to be made on how to deliver the new campaign against discrimination. 

Due to the limited funding available to NowByou, it relied mostly on donations, and this decision was severely constrained by the resources available.

Cost was a major driver to not hire a specialist project management provider such as a consulting company.

Nonetheless, NowByou understands that professional project management is an enabler of successful campaigns and vital to its long-term strategy.

Subsequently, a managerial decision was made to contract a professional project manager to set the foundations for good practices at NowByou and whose responsibility is also to build the project management capabilities of internal staff.

The other aspects of the project will be delivered internally, except for elements of consultation which will be undertaken by a number of voluntary organizations that NowByou collaborates with.

Tailoring – Representation on the project board

Sustainability concerns are not just about the environment but also manifest on how  organizations manage the impact of their projects on local communities.

Because NowByou is targeting the homeless and refugees as two key groups covered by the new campaign, the NGO wants to put their words into action.

It has invited two local organizations close to its headquarters to be actively involved in the campaign and have a seat on the project board with the role of senior user.

These two organizations will help the project team to understand the impact on the local community and that their interests are being taken into consideration.

They will also ensure that the decisions being made offer a sustainable outcome that could last  beyond the campaign.

Tailoring – Example of a response to an opportunity

NowByou has been invited to participate in the annual NGO Summit, a conference with national reach that unites the sector’s key players and attracts the interest of donors across the country.

NowByou has been given the chance for a free stand in the conference. The project manager is going to exploit this opportunity as another mechanism to advertise the new campaign.

Tailoring – Example of combined risk owner/risk action owner

NowByou wants to pursue the opportunity of having a stand at the NGO Summit, where it has been invited to participate for free.

The project manager for the new campaign is the risk owner for this opportunity.

However, the person arranging NowByou’s participation with the organizing committee of the conference is the Head of Partnerships.

The Head of Partnerships is therefore responsible for implementing the action of agreeing the terms of NowByou participation and securing a free stand at the event.

They are the risk action owner.

Tailoring – Scale illustrations

NowByou has a project relating to a campaign against discrimination.

As a simple project, where professional project management is being introduced to the organization, the project complies with the approach to issues management during the first project team meeting.

Issues are captured in a presentation slide and discussed with the campaigns manager on a weekly basis, as part of an overall project status update meeting.

Whenever there is off-specification or a change request, the project manager assesses the criticality of the issue and formulates a resolution plan to be discussed in the project status update meeting.

Upon approval, changes are implemented, and this is also recorded in the slide deck.

In contrast, Findef projects, which are complex in nature and implemented in the context of a programme within an organization with some project management maturity, have additional established controls.

The project manager has developed a change control approach document that describes how changes will be managed during the project.

An issue register has been established for the project and is available as a form in Findef’s project management system.

Notifications on new issues that are flagged as requiring escalation or review are sent automatically to the project board and followed-up in a weekly meeting.

An assessment of change requests are conducted with the involvement of subject matter experts with an independent report recommending a preferred action.

Upon resolution or approval of change requests, the records in the product register records in the project management  system are updated by the project manager.

Tailoring – Example of the escalation procedure done quickly/verbally

Due to lengthy negotiations with some of NowByou’s marketing partners, the new campaign project is expected to take an additional two months before options analysis, a key output of Stage 2, can be completed.

The project manager has a regular 30-minute catch-up calls with the sponsor (campaigns director) every Thursday.

This time is used to share news and discuss possible corrective actions rather than waiting until the next scheduled project board meeting.

The sponsor expressed their preference, and they agreed to explore possible actions further in the project status meeting that has been scheduled for the following week.

Tailoring – An example of a dashboard

An example of a dashboard being used as a highlight report is presented above for the NowByou campaign project, highlighting the following aspects:

1. general identification project data, including reporting period

2. RAG (red-amber-green) indicators, which show the status of the project at a glance, including a comparison with the last reporting period

3. activities accomplished and planned activities, which provide oversight on the project progress

4. pending decisions and changes, highlighting to the board decisions that are required from them

5. critical risks and issues operating under the management by exception principle, which help the board gain visibility over the risks and issues with highest score/exposure level (typically referred to a ‘red’ )

6. commentary or latest update by the project manager, offering an opportunity to share a critical and subjective evaluation of the project status to date, including the ‘route to green’, if applicable

7. project financials update, including latest forecast available and a commentary on this objective

8. project milestones update, including a comparison against the baselined estimates and a commentary on any deviations identified.

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