Introduction

• Forewood
• Introduction
  • Introduction part 1
  • Introduction part 2a
  • Introduction part 2b
  • Introduction part 2c
  • Introduction part 3
• Principles
  • Principles
  • Continued business justification
  • Learn from experience
  • Defined roles and responsibilities
  • Manage by stages
  • Manage by exception
  • Focus on products
  • Tailor to suit the project environment
• Themes
  • What are the themes?
  • Applying the themes

Key sections

• Introduction
• Business case
• Organization
• Quality
• Plans
• Risk
• Change
• Progress
• Introduction to processes
• Starting up a projectDirecting a project
• Initiating a project
• Controlling a stage
• Managing Product Delivery
• Managing a Stage Boundary
• Closing a Project
• Tailoring PRINCE2 to the project environment
• Directing Projects with PRINCE2

Overview

The purpose of PRINCE2® is to provide a project management method that can be applied regardless of project scale, type, organization, geography or culture. This is possible because PRINCE2 is principles-based.

Principles are characterized as:

• Universal in that they apply to every project
• Self-validating in that they have been proven in practice over many years
• Empowering because they give practitioners of the method added confidence and ability to influence and shape how the project will be managed.

The principles on which PRINCE2 is based originate from lessons learned from projects both good and bad.
They provide a framework of good practice for those people involved in a project.
If a project does not adhere to these principles, it is not being managed using PRINCE2, because the principles are the basis of what defines a PRINCE2 project.

The seven PRINCE2 principles can be summarized as:

1. Continued business justification
2. Learn from experience
3. Defined roles and responsibilities
4. Manage by stages
5. Manage by exception
6. Focus on products
7. Tailor to suit the project environment

It is the adoption of these principles that characterizes whether a project is using PRINCE2, not the adoption of processes and documents alone.
The principles facilitate good use of PRINCE2 by ensuring that the method is not applied in an overly prescriptive way or in name only, but applied in a way that is sufficient to contribute to the success of the project.

PRINCE2® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.