The Process and Practices’ purpose statements
All of the processes and themes have a purpose statement, and these purpose statements are the subject of some questions in the foundation exam. Knowing the method and how the parts fit together includes knowing the purpose of each component, so you will need to recognize which purpose statements go with each theme and process.
Once you have reviewed all the themes and processes, can you recognize the purpose statements?
Try out the following examples and identify which theme or process each belongs to:
- To establish mechanisms to judge whether the project is, and remains, desirable, viable and achievable.
- To enable the project board to be accountable for the project’s success by making critical decisions and exercising overall control
- To assign work to be done
- To identify, assess and control uncertainty
- To establish mechanisms to monitor and compare actual achievements against those planned
So here are the answers. An idea to help you is to identify keywords that associate the purpose statement with a particular theme or process:
- The business case theme with the keyword “viable.”
- The Directing a Project process with the keywords “project board” and “overall control.”
- The Controlling a Stage process with the keywords being “assign work.”
- The risk theme with the keyword “uncertainty” is the clue that it is part of the PRINCE2 risk definition
- The process theme with the keyword “monitor.”
How PRINCE2 7 fits together
Having learned the various parts of PRINCE2, it can be hard to see how they all fit together; however, for the exams, you must take that forward to specific knowledge.
The structure of each Process section
Each chapter in the manual has a standard structure for each process:
- The purpose
- Objectives
- Context
- Activities
- Responsibilities
- Application of the practices to that process
How all the practices fit with the processes
Knowing where the practices fit into the process is intuitive and almost obvious when you know the themes. However, the fit is also complicated.
It may be helpful to write down the list of the seven processes, then for each one, think through what is going on a list the things that are involved.
For example, in starting up a project, the first activity is called “appoint the executive and the project manager”. The work involves roles and responsibilities, so write down the organization in your list of things the startup process uses.
When you have completed all the processes, write another list but this time, a list of the seven practices.
Then, look at the process model again for each theme and think about which processes use that practice.
As an example, the organization theme is used by the startup in its first activity of “appoint the executive and project manager” and then again for the activity “design and appoint the project management team.”
The structure of each practice section
- the purpose and general description of that practice
- the details of that practice
- Any supporting techniques used
- How to apply the practice considering:
- Organizational and Commercial context
- Delivery method
- Sustainability
- Scale
- Management products used
- Key roles used in the practice
- key relationships with the principles
Tracking the principles throughout the method
You will find many questions in the exams to test your knowledge of how the processes and practices “support” the principles. You can take the same approach to revising, as I suggested above, by writing lists.
Do not try to memorize the lists. Your brain will need clarification; instead, use the list to record your understanding of the interaction as you revise. It is that same understanding which will then lead you to the correct answers in the exams.
Understanding how the rest of the method supports the PRINCE2 principles involves you win some careful thinking, so here is an example to show what your list might look like as you start to consider the principle of “learn from experience”:
Learn from experience
Starting Up a project. The lessons log is created where lessons from the past that need to be considered for this project are entered.
Directing a project. Passing lessons learned in this project, as reported by the project manager, into the organization. Making sure that plans and the project initiation documentation (PID) for this project take on board lessons from the past.
Initiating a project. This is applying past lessons from the log when preparing the PID. You will note any new lessons learned during the initiation and enter them into the lessons log.
Controlling a stage. Looking for lessons, logging them and putting them in highlight reports. Logging lessons are being learned when dealing with issues and risks. Taking note of lesson information recorded by team managers in their checkpoint reports.
Managing product delivery. Team managers look for lessons and put them on checkpoint reports.
Managing a stage boundary. The lessons report is included in the end-stage report.
Closing a project. Lessons reports from the lessons log entries are included in the end project report. Also, some lessons may lead to follow on action recommendations to be passed back into the organization. For example, recommending a change in project standards because of something learned. The lessons log is now closed.
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