The PRINCE2 Exception Plan – continued …
One final point to cover is which process the Project Manager uses to create the Exception Plan.
To clear a point of confusion, the Exception Plan is always created within the Managing a Stage Boundary process.
This can be clarified by noting that the point that the exception occurs (represented by the dotted vertical line below), the project has not yet reached the end of the stage.
A good way of thinking about this is that because of the breach of tolerances, the project needs an “emergency stage boundary”.
During this emergency stage boundary, the Project Board needs to review and you detail plan to see how to recover from the exception.
Therefore, the Project Manager must use Managing a Stage Boundary to prepare to meet with the Project Board.
Be clear, the ‘emergency stage boundary’ is not a PRINCE2 term, I have just use it here to better explain the situation.
Using an Exception Plan to replace a Project Plan
In the previous example, the Exception Plan was created at the stage plan level.
It covers the work from the point of the exception to the end of the current stage.
However, in some situations, the Exception Plan might have to cover the work from the point of the exception to the end of the project.
In such a case, the Exception Plan would be created at a Project Plan level.
Why would the Project Manager create an Exception Plan at the project plan level?
It all depends on how badly tolerances are forecast to be affected by the a problem the project is facing.
Imagine that in the above situation, the Project Manager once again recommends to the Project Board the option to rebuild the room, and once again this is forecast to take an additional eight weeks.
However, this time the additional eight weeks will not only breach stage time tolerances, but also breach the project time tolerances.
In this example, corporate or programme management has given the Project Board a six-week time tolerance within which they must deliver the project.
When the Project Manager escalates the problem with the bedrooms to the Project Board, the board realizes that the recommended remedial action will breach their project time tolerances
In this situation, if the Project Board wants to pursue the Project Managers recommended option, they will ask for an Exception Plan that not only details the work to finish the stage, but also shows what the effect that work will have on subsequent stages.
In this example, it looks like the only effect would be that the work in the subsequent stages is delayed, but in another situation, it could be that the work in a subsequent stage might change as well.
The Project Manager once again creates this project level Exception Plan in the Managing a Stage Boundary process.
This time however, the project level Exception Plan needs to be approved at the corporate or programme management level. Once it is approved, the Exception Plan becomes the new project plan.
Breaches in work package tolerances
In PRINCE2, Exception Plans can replace Stage Plans or Project Plans. They are not used to replace Team Plans.
If the Team Manager, or team member if there is no Team Manager, realizes there will be a breach of their Work Package tolerances, they will raise an issue.
If the issue does not breach the Project Managers stage tolerance, the Project Manager can then deal with this problem by amending the work package or issuing a new work package.
Be very clear, the Team Manager, or team members, do not create an Exception Report, but escalate the situation as an issue to be passed to the Project Manager for their consideration and the decision for what to do next.
Finally, remember that the Team Manager/team members raise the issue in the PRINCE2 Managing Product Delivery process.
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