PRINCE2 - Organisation part 1
of the Cabinet Office under delegated authority from the Controller of HMSO.
Overview
The PRINCE2® method relies on the existence and relationship of the Customer and supplier.
They may both be part of the same organisation.
In general, the Customer will specify the project outcome and will mostly finance the activity.
The Customer may or may not be the final user of the product.
The supplier will be the primary organisation for providing the resources and skills to complete the project.
The running of a project is normally cross functional and requires more flexibility then would be experienced through a typical line management structure.
The project management structure will exist only for the period of time necessary for project completion.
In some cases the Project Manager will have direct control over individuals and in other cases not.
Different priorities and interests may exist between the Customer and the supplier.
A structure is required to pull all interested parties together in order to reach the common goal of project completion.
Four layers
The project management structure consists of 4 layers.
- Corporate or programme management
- Direction of the project (Project Board)
- Day-to-day management of the project (Project Manager)
- Team management and product delivery (Team Managers)
In the above system, the first layer are responsible for instigation of the project and defining the overall constraints.
The other three layers comprise the project management team responsible for product delivery.
Project management structure
The project management team supports the following:
- Roles for decision makers
- Management by exception for the decision makers
- Full- or part-time project management
- Controlled delegation of some day-to-day management responsibilities, where required, to Team Managers
- Roles for the independent inspection of all aspects of project performance
- Administrative support, as required, to the Project Manager and Team Managers
- Agreement by everyone on the roles and responsibilities of the team
- Lines of communication between the project management team members
All roles and responsibilities must be defined at the outset of the project.
These should be reinforced with job descriptions that indicate:
- The defined responsibilities
- Goals
- Limits of authority
- Relationships
- Skills
- Knowledge and experience needed
The broad structure for the project management is shown in the file ‘project management structure.doc’.
PRINCE2 does not focus on ‘jobs’ but on ‘roles’.
The roles themselves should not be dropped unless the risk of doing so has been full assessed.
Roles can move between jobs, be shared, divided, delegated or combined.
Some roles cannot be shared or delegated, for example, the Project Manager role and the decision making roles of the Project Board and the Project Manager.
The exact organisation of the project management team will be influenced by contractual and commercial arrangements.
Three project interests
The three interests below must be represented at all times.
- Business
The project should meet a business need and produce value for money.
There must be someone who can make this judgement before the project can go ahead.
The Executive role will look after the business interest throughout the project, representing the Customer.
- User
The user could be an individual, group or groups.
Some or all of the following will apply:
- They will use the final product
- The product will achieve an objective for them
- They will use the end results to deliver benefits
- They will be impacted by the project outcome
The user should be presented on the Project Board to ensure the desired outcome is met.
- Supplier
The supplier could be both in-house or external.
They supply the skills and experience needed to create the final product.
The supplier must be represented on the project management team.
Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 - 2005 edition
Managing successful Projects with PRINCE2 – 2009 edition
Directing Projects with PRINCE2.
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