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PRINCE2®, an acronym for PRojects IN Controlled Environments, is a project management methodology.
Published in 1996, it’s now used in over 150 countries in both the public and private sectors, establishing itself as the world’s most practised project management method.
The owner of the method is Axelos, a joint venture company co-owned by the UK Government’s Cabinet Office and Capita plc.
PRINCE2 can guide professionals and organizations through the essentials for managing successful projects, regardless of type or scale. It provides a framework that focuses on organization and control throughout the entire project: PRINCE2 divides projects into manageable stages to encourage efficient control of resources and regular progress monitoring.
PRINCE2 is “product-based”, meaning the project plans are focused on delivering results, and not simply planning when activities will be undertaken; processes cover all the activities that compose a project, from start to finish. Every project starts with a project plan, each stage of the project is clearly structured. It provides a common language across a project and provides breakpoints within a contractual framework.
What are the benefits of using PRINCE2
PRINCE2 is a generic best practice method which is flexible enough to be tailored to the specific needs of different organizations for all projects, including Agile delivery. The main benefits of the method are:
- an organised and controlled start, making sure there is a valid reason for the project and that all people and resources have been organized and are ready for the project
- an organised and controlled middle, once the project has been organized and has started, making sure its validity is maintained and the work carried out is controlled throughout the project life
- an organised and controlled end. A controlled end is always better than the natural tendency to drift into the operational life of a project’s product, hence we need to make sure the project deliverable is accepted by our client before officially closing the project
- regular reviews of progress against plan and against the Business Case
- flexible decision points
- controlled management of deviations from the project plans thanks to the Management by Exception principle
- the involvement of management and stakeholders at the right time and place during the project
- good communication amongst the project management team, the stakeholders, and the rest of the organization
Key elements of PRINCE2
The key elements of the methodology are principles, processes, themes and project environment.
The 7 principles
Principles are the guiding obligations and good practices which determine whether the project is being managed using PRINCE2. Unless all of them are applied, it is not a PRINCE2 project; the seven PRINCE2 principles are:
- Continued business justification There must be a justifiable reason to be running and managing the project. If not, the project should be closed.
- Learn from experience PRINCE2 project teams should continually seek and draw on lessons learned from previous work.
- Defined roles and responsibilities The PRINCE2 project team should have a clear organizational structure and involve the right people in the right tasks.
- Manage by stages PRINCE2 projects should be planned, monitored and controlled on a stage-by-stage basis.
- Manage by exception People working within the project should be given the right amount of authority to effectively work within the environment.
- Focus on products PRINCE2 projects focus on the product definition, delivery and quality requirements.
- Tailor to suit the project environment PRINCE2 must be tailored to suit the project’s environment, size, complexity, importance, capability and risk.
The 7 processes
The processes describe a progression from the pre-project activity of getting started, through the stages of the project lifecycle, to the final act of project closure. Each process has a checklist of recommended activities, products and related responsibilities. The processes are:
- Starting up a project The main purpose of this process is to ensure that the prerequisites for initiating a project are in place by answering the question: “Do we have a worthwhile and viable project?”.
- Directing a project The purpose of this process is to enable the project board to be accountable for the project’s success,
- Initiating a project The purpose of this process is to establish solid foundations (documented in the PID) for the project so the organization can understand the work that needs to be done to deliver the project product.
- Controlling a stage The purpose of this process is to assign work to be done, monitor the work, deal with issues, report progress to the project board, and take corrective action to ensure that the stage remains within tolerance.
- Managing product delivery The purpose of this process is to control the link between the project manager and the team manager, by agreeing on the requirements for acceptance, execution, and delivery.
- Managing stage boundaries In this process, the project manager provides the project board with an overview of the performance of the current stage, updates the project plan, and business case and creates a stage plan for the next stage. The project board reviews these documents and decides to approve the next stage.
- Closing a project The purpose of this process is to provide a fixed point at which acceptance of the project product is confirmed and to recognize that objectives set out in the original PID have been achieved, or that project has something more to contribute.
The 7 themes
The themes describe aspects of project management that must be addressed continually and in parallel throughout the project. They explain the specific treatment required by PRINCE2 for various project management disciplines and why they are necessary.
- Business case Create and maintain a record of the business justification for the project.
- Organization Define the individual roles and responsibilities of the whole project team.
- Quality What the quality requirements and measures are and how the project will deliver them.
- Plans The steps required to develop the plans and the PRINCE2 techniques that should be used.
- Risk Effectively identify risks and opportunities that could impact the project.
- Change How the project manager will assess and act on changes to the project.
- Progress The ongoing viability and performance of the plans and how and whether the project should proceed.
Project environment: organizations often want a consistent approach to managing projects and tailor PRINCE2 to create their own project management method. This method is then embedded into the organization’s way of working.
The last version of the Method, launched in 2017, places a new emphasis on the flexibility of the method and how to tailor it to specific projects.
PRINCE2 is comprised of:
- A certification scheme
- The PRINCE2 manual - Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 2017 Edition
PRINCE2 Certification Scheme
The PRINCE2 certification scheme has two main levels:
- Foundation: this level introduces the PRINCE2 method. The PRINCE2 Foundation exam aims to confirm that you know and understand the PRINCE2 method well enough to be able to work effectively with, or as a member of, a project management team working within an environment supporting PRINCE2.
- Practitioner: the purpose of the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam is to confirm whether you have sufficient understanding of how to apply and tailor the method in a range of different project environments and scenarios.
PRINCE2 or other methodologies?
Your choice of a Project Management methodology defines how you work and communicate with your team. Project management has more than one certification, and it can be difficult to choose the right one for you and your organization.
Other project management qualifications that are acknowledged worldwide include:
- Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from PMI (Project Management Institute)
- IPMA (International Project Management Association) also has detailed bodies of knowledge that explain the wider skills needed for a project manager
- AgilePM from APMG, a method focused on the management of Agile projects.
How to get PRINCE2 certified?
In order to obtain your PRINCE2 Certification, you need to take a classroom or online training with an AXELOS' Accredited Training Organizations (ATOs).
QRP International is an official ATO for PRINCE2, accredited by Peoplecert on behalf of Axelos. We’re authorised to deliver PRINCE2 Foundation and PRINCE2 Practitioner classroom courses and PRINCE2 Online training.
Would you like support in order to figure out the best solution for you and your team? We would be happy to provide more info on the different PM methods available - contact us!
Source: Axelos, Key Benefits of PRINCE2®
As an expert in process and project management in various sectors, Serge has extensive experience in Design of business processes and the implementation of change projects.
His focus has always been on the benefits-oriented implementation of concepts that support effective business management.
1. What is HERMES? And why was this method developed for?
HERMES is a project management method reduced to the essentials and directly applicable. It was developed in the Federal Administration to ensure minimal but effective governance structures in projects.
2. What about HERMES 5?
The current version HERMES 5 is pleasingly straightforward and also modular. It does not claim to make specifications regarding the HOW of project management but is limited to the WHAT. However, the method focuses on making work easier for project participants by providing role, task and result descriptions as well as document templates, and on the other hand, it increases the chances of success of projects by promoting strong governance.
3. Hermes Foundation and Advanced. To whom are these levels addressed and why?
The HERMES Advanced certification is aimed at project managers, HERMES Foundation at all other project staff.
The goal of a HERMES Foundation training (and certification) is to get to know the elements of the method and their interaction. A project team member should get a solid understanding of his role and the other roles involved.The HERMES Advanced certification is about deepening this knowledge so that the method can be applied in a beneficial way. This includes, in particular, the ability to assess how HERMES can be optimally adapted in a concrete project situation.
4. How does HERMES position itself on the Project Management market, taking into account other methods such as PRINCE2 and Agile PM?
HERMES is a very concrete, directly applicable method. However, as already mentioned, it deals exclusively with WHAT and not with HOW of project management. A HERMES training course is therefore not suitable for learning and developing general project management skills.
Instead, other project management methods and frameworks are less directly applicable, but they are much more complete and the training courses offered for them prepare more comprehensively for a project management task. I, therefore, recommend HERMES training and certification as a supplement to a PMI, IPMA or PRINCE2.
Methodologically, I see a certain "kinship" between HERMES and PRINCE2 and see a particular benefit in this combination. Agile PM or also PMI-ACP are further very useful training possibilities in the environment of agile software development.
5. What is the biggest problem/change you currently see in the project management community?
The classic and very justified claim to governance in projects is in at least apparent contradiction to the principles of agile project implementation, which is increasingly proving its worth, especially in software projects. It is necessary to combine both.
From my point of view, it is a problem that many actors do not understand the meaning and goal of governance requirements and implement these requirements with much unnecessary effort in a purely "administrative" way. At the same time, a lack of understanding of the agile approach is often misused as an "excuse" for hopeless project chaos.
I have noticed a great need for training in the area of a meaningful application of methods in many projects.
6. What are three things project managers should learn in the near future?
- Agile project approach
- Effective project controlling
- Negotiation techniques
This last point may seem surprising, but a project manager must be able to negotiate with stakeholders what his team can offer to create the maximum possible benefit. It is fatal if it simply accepts all requests and cannot deliver later.
Serge Schiltz completed his studies in mathematics and computer science with a doctorate in computer science. While working, he continued his education in business administration (MBA in Business Administration), project management, process management and service management (ITIL v4 Foundation). processCentric GmbH was founded in 2015 by Serge.
Laurent Kummer is a Senior Project Management Consultant for the European Commission and works on developing and promoting PM², the project management methodology used and sponsored by the European Institutions.
At the end of 2019 he was actively involved as Project Manager in a very challenging project inside the European Commission. We interviewed him to know more about it.
'6 weeks to deliver a paperless solution and break a 60 years old habit'. Can you tell us more about the project?
This project came from a demand from European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen after her election. She wants to lead by example in showing that the highest decision-making meeting of the EU, the College of Commissioners meeting, can be run paperless, thus avoiding printing over 2 million copies of document every year.
Another requirement came complicating the demand: the president usually asks all participants to her meetings to leave all personal electronic devices outside (smartphones, tablets etc…), both for security reasons and also so that people are focused on the meeting and nothing else. We then had to think of special electronic devices that would be kept in the iconic Jean Monnet meeting room.
What was for you the most challenging part of the project? And what was, in your opinion, the key for the success of the project?
The constraint was essentially the time: we had less than two months to deliver an innovative solution that meet both security criteria (some documents are sensitive) and usability (users are VVIPs with no particular IT skills).
On the pressure side, we were told there was no plan B, it was announced publicly upfront, so there was a clear image/reputation damage risk of not delivering on time…
At this level, and with a new President, competition of egos was also clearly a risk: everybody wants to please the new boss, so roles and responsibilities distribution has to be airtight.
That’s where PM² came into play: with crystal clear governance model and Responsibility matrix, with its communication management template and how it involves project sponsors and management in the project, it was a serious asset in our hands.
Concretely when you jump in such a demanding project you have to focus on first-time right delivery and little else. Soft skills are put to a test: calm; patience and influencing skills are paramount to get what is needed fast.
How did PM² support you?
With the PM² RASCI* table we were able to quickly communicate on who does what. PM² promotes a balanced governance model where the business side plays an important part in the successful delivery, but it also means the business manager must know PM².
It was thankfully the case, as my counterpart in the business was also PM² certified – this definitely simplified the communication: we all knew how to structure and organize the work using PM² artefacts such as the Work Plan and the Charter. It allowed for precise requirements collection and scope guardian, allowing to stay focused on the delivery, with clear visibility of the risks and issues.
*RASCI is a Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM), a way of representing and clarifying the roles and responsibilities for a given activity. RASCI stands for: Responsible, Accountable, Supports, Consulted, Informed.
What were the results?
In the end we tried to keep things very simple: known tablets, known software, no innovation on the security layers, but it was the integration that was delicate. The Project Manager is like an orchestra conductor in this case, and must ensure all play their part when they are supposed to.
We delivered on time (with even a couple of weeks to spare) and the President was happy - it was the first item she mentioned in her first press conference as President:
“I want to report from the very first College meeting, which was for the very first time a paperless College meeting, it was completely digital.”
(In the picture above, Laurent Kummer in a paperless Jean Monnet meeting room.)
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_19_6660
Laurent Kummer
Laurent has been managing projects and programmes for over 20 years, as an engineer in the industry for General Electric and then for the public sector. He works now on developing and promoting PM², the project management methodology used and sponsored by the European Institutions and contributes to the development of the ISO 21500 project management standard. He is a Lean Six Sigma expert, PMP and of course PM² certified.
The purpose of the ITIL 4 Create, Deliver and Support Qualification is to provide the candidate with an understanding of how to integrate different value streams and activities, of service performance, service quality and improvement methods.
Thanks to this understanding, the candidate will be able to create, deliver and support IT-enabled products and services, and relevant practices, methods and tools.
To take the exam, the candidate must have passed the ITIL 4 Foundation examination. Also, the candidate must have attended an accredited training course for this module. Work experience in IT services is recommended.
Examination Target
- Individuals continuing their journey in service management.
- ITSM managers and aspiring ITSM managers.
- ITSM practitioners managing the operation of IT-enabled & digital products and services, and those responsible for the end-to-end delivery.
- Existing ITIL qualification holders wishing to develop their knowledge.
Exam Format
- Language: English and French.
- Duration: 90 minutes.
Candidates taking the exam in a language that is not their native or working language may be awarded 25% extra time, i.e. 113 minutes in total.
- Materials permitted: No materials other than the examination materials are permitted. This is a ‘closed book’ examination.
- Questions: 40. All 40 questions are Objective Test Questions (OTQs).
- Pass Mark: 28 marks or above.
- Level of Thinking: Bloom’s levels 1 & 2.
- There are 15 questions at Bloom’s Level 2 = approx. 37.5%.
- There are 25 questions at Bloom’s Level 3 = approx. 62.5%.
- Exam Format: Online or Paper.
- Certificate Format: Online.
- Online certificate is usually included in the exam fee, you could ask for a paper certificate to the Exam institute after your exam.
- Prerequisites: The candidate must have passed the ITIL 4 Foundation examination. In addition, the candidate must have attended an accredited training course for this module (the recommended duration for this training is 18 hours including the examination).
ITIL 4 Create, Deliver & Support (CDS) Exam Sample Questions
All 40 questions are Objective Test Questions (OTQs), which present four options from which one option is selected. Question styles used within this type are: ‘standard’, ‘list’, and, exceptionally, ‘negative’ standard OTQ.
- Example ‘standard’ OTQ:
Which is a source of best practice?
a) Q b) P c) R d) S
- Example ‘list’ OTQ:
Which statement about service asset and configuration management is CORRECT?
1. It does Q 2. It does P 3. It does R 4. It does S
a) 1 and 2 b) 2 and 3 c) 3 and 4 d) 1 and 4
NOTE: Two of the list items are correct. List style questions are never negative.
- Example ‘negative’ standard OTQ:
Which is NOT a defined area of value?
a) Q b) P c) R d) S
NOTE: Negative questions are only used as an exception, where part of the learning outcome is to know that something is not done or should not occur.
ITIL 4 Create, Deliver & Support (CDS) Objectives
The purpose of the ITIL 4 Create, Deliver and Support Examination is to assess whether the candidate can demonstrate sufficient understanding and application of ITIL 4 to the creation, delivery and support of services, as described in the syllabus below, to be awarded the ITIL 4 Create, Deliver and Support qualification. The ITIL 4 Create, Deliver and Support qualification is one of the pre-requisites for the designation of ITIL 4 Managing Professional.
As a candidate you need to demonstrate the achievement of these learning outcomes:
- Understand how to plan and build a service value stream to create, deliver and support services.
- Know how relevant ITIL practices contribute to creation, delivery and support across the SVS and value streams.
- Know how to create, deliver and support services.
The ITIL 4 Create, Deliver & Support (CDS) Certificate
The candidate, who will pass the exam with positive marks, will obtain the certification. The online certificate is usually included in the exam fee, you could ask for a paper certificate to the Exam institute after your exam.
QRP International is an ITIL Accredited Training Organisation (ATO) by Peoplecert on behalf of Axelos. We are authorised to deliver ITIL 4 MP Create, Deliver & Support (CDS) courses and can prepare you for the examination leading to the ITIL 4 Create, Deliver & Support (CDS) Certificate in IT Service Management.
What’s a PID? PID's Definition in PRINCE2 context
Within a PRINCE2-context the PID (Project Initiation Documentation) is a logical set of documents that brings together the key information needed to start the project on a sound basis and that conveys the information to all involved with the project.
What is the purpose of the Project Initiation Documentation?
The purpose of the PID is to define the project, in order to form the basis for its management and an assessment of its overall success. The PID gives the direction and scope of the project and (along with the stage plan) form the “contract” between the project manager and the project board.
The three primary uses of the PID are to:
- ensure that the project has a sound basis before asking the project board to make any major commitment to the project
- act as a base document against which the project board and project manager can assess progress, issues and ongoing viability questions
- provide a single source of reference for the project so that people joining the “temporary organization” can easily and quickly find out what the project is about, and how it is being managed.
The PID is a living product in that it should always reflect the current status, plans and controls of the project. Its component products will need to be updated and re-baselined, to the extent necessary, at the end of each management stage, to reflect the current status of its constituent parts.
The version of the PID that was used to gain authorization for the project is preserved as the basis against which performance will later be assessed when closing the project.
PID Composition
The PID should include the following content:
- Project definition Explains what the project needs to achieve (background, project objectives and desired outcomes, project scope and exclusions, constraints and assumptions, the user(s) and any other known interested parties and interfaces).
- Project approach Define the choice of solution and delivery approach. Click here to download your customizable Project Approach Questionnaire (PAQ)!
- Business Case Describe the justification for the project based on estimated costs, risks and benefits.
- Project management team structure A chart showing who will be involved with the project.
- Role descriptions These describe the roles of those in the project management team and any other key resources
- Quality management approach Describes the quality techniques and standards to be applied and the responsibilities for achieving the required quality levels.
- Change control approach Describes how and by whom the project’s products will be controlled and protected.
- Risk management approach Describes the specific risk management techniques and standards to be applied and the responsibilities for achieving an effective risk management procedure.
- Communication management approach Defines the parties interested in the project and the means and frequency of communication between them and the project team.
- Project Plan Describes how and when the project’s objectives are to be achieved, by showing the major products, activities and resources required on the project. It provides a baseline against which one can monitor the project’s progress, management stage by management stage.
- Project controls Summarizes the project-level controls such as management stage boundaries, agreed tolerances, monitoring and reporting.
- Tailoring of PRINCE2 A summary of how PRINCE2 will be tailored for the project.
PID Chronological Order
Project Initiation Documentation Derivation
The PID includes the information available in the project brief. Indeed, the project brief describes the purpose, the cost, the deadlines, the performance requirements and the constraints of a project. It is developed before the start of the project during the Starting up a project process and used throughout the Initiating a project process to create the PID and its components.
It is then replaced by the PID and is not kept. A project brief includes the following:
- project definition,
- outline business case,
- project product description,
- project approach,
- project management team structure,
- role descriptions,
- references.
These essential elements of the project brief are therefore included in the PID and supplemented with new elements obtained after:
- Discussions with users regarding requirements,
- Discussions with suppliers for input on methods, standards and controls,
- Discussions with the business regarding value for money.
The Project Initiation Documentation consists of almost all the management documents from the Initiation Stage except the Benefits Management Approach as this comes to life after the project and is not archived with the other project documents.
PID Format and presentation
The PID could be:
- a single document
- an index for a collection of documents
- a collection of information sources in a project management tool.
QRP International regularly provides customizable templates to download for free in order to help you in the development of your management products.
Healthcare is one of the largest industries worldwide. Switzerland as a whole counts 281 hospitals (BFS, 2017) comprised of both public and private sectors. New challenges lead to an ever-higher number of initiatives needing to be implemented, which demand a high proficiency in project management.
To make a contribution to the healthcare sector becoming more efficient and competitive, we developed a survey based on various maturity assessment methods and on project management standards such as Hermes, PRINCE2, AgilePM, PMBoK, and the International Competence Baseline (by IPMA).
The report titled 'Swiss Hospital Project Management Maturity' is the final output of the Survey. It focuses on the hospital sector comprised of publicly state-owned infrastructures as well as privately held infrastructures within the French, Italian and German-speaking regions of Switzerland only.
Key Players
We collected 102 complete results from 46 hospitals with at least one hospital participating from 20 cantons; the exceptions being Appenzell Inner- and Ausserrhoden, Schaffhausen, Glarus, Zug & Schwyz. 240 hospitals of the officially 281 hospitals were invited to participate. The remaining 41 hospitals were too small, such as all birth-clinics and some specialised surgical, rehabilitation and psychiatric clinics.
Reasons for reading this research report
- A unique report on the Project Management Maturity in the hospital field.
- Information about the maturity of various aspects of Project Management in the hospital sector.
- Learn which PM methodologies are the most popular in the hospital sector.
Report segmentation
Analysis on the basis of:
- Size of hospitals - Large, Medium, Small.
- Private and Public.
- Function - Project and part project managers, Head of Project Management, PMO Manager, Quality Managers, Portfolio Managers, Further members of middle management.
- Language - German and French.
Table of Contents
- Background and introduction.
- The research approach.
- The results. a. Overall maturity. b. Maturity of organisational set-up. c. Roles and responsibilities. d. Maturity of the Project life cycle . e. Risk Management. f. Stakeholder Engagement. g. Benefits Management. h. Change and Issue Management.
- Summary & conclusions.
- Abbreviations and definitions.
Who
This initiative is a joint venture between the Business School of Lausanne (BSL) and ProfeoQRP (based in Chiasso) which is a consulting and training company with expertise in the hospital sector.
The master students of International Business executed the survey during their summer term from the end of May to the End of July 2019. After the term, the project was taken to completion by their professor and ProfeoQRP who was involved from the beginning as a sponsor of this initiative. The survey was kept running until the end of September, the report created between October and December, and the follow-up events carried out in January and February 2020.
Contact Info:
ProfeoQRP Address: Corso San Gottardo 46E – 6830 Chiasso, Schweiz Email: switzerland@qrpinternational.com