Plans

• Purpose
• Defined
  • What is a plan?
  • What is planning?
  • Levels of plan
  • The Project Plan
  • Stage Plans
  • Team Plans
  • Exception Plans
• The PRINCE2 approach
  • Philosophy
  • Prerequisites for planning -
    design the plan
  • Define and analyse the products
• Prerequisites for planning
  • Write the Project Product Description
  • Create the product breakdown structure
  • Write the Product Descriptions
  • Create the product flow diagram
• Identify activities and dependencies
  • Activities
  • Dependencies
• Prepare estimates
• Prepare the schedule
  • Overview
  • Define activity sequence
  • Assess resource availability
  • Assign resources
  • Level resource usage
  • Agree control points
  • Define milestones
  • Calculate total resource requirements and costs
• Analyse the risks
• Document the plan
• Responsibilities

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

Plans defined

© Crown copyright 2005 Reproduced under licence from OGC

Levels of plan

All aspects of planning become more difficult the further into the future they extend.
The period of time for which it is possible to accurately plan is known as the planning horizon.

Because of this, it is seldom desirable, or possible, to plan an entire project in detail at the start.
Therefore plans need to be produced at different levels of scope and detail (see section covering ‘Manage by stages’ under ‘Principles’).

PRINCE2® recommends three levels of plan to reflect the needs of the different levels of management involved in the project, stage and team.
A Product Description for a plan can be found in the folder ‘Product Description outlines’ as part of the product package.

PRINCE2’s planning levels are illustrated in the diagram.

The Project Plan is created by the Initiating a Project process.

The Initiation Stage Plan is created by the Starting up a Project process and each subsequent Stage Plan is created by the Managing a Stage Boundary process.
Note that since the Initiation Stage Plan is created prior to the Project Plan, it is influenced by the corporate or programme plan (or equivalent) from the organization commissioning the project.

Team Plans are created by the Managing Product Delivery process.

The only other plan in PRINCE2 is the Benefits Review Plan (see the section covering ‘Business case’ for more details).
This covers activities during and after the project and therefore may be part of a corporate or programme plan.
The Benefits Review Plan covers corporate, project and stage levels.

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