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

The PRINCE2® approach

Prerequisites for planning – design the plan

Decisions need to be made about how the plan can best be presented, given the audience for the plan and how it will be used, together with the presentation and layoutsof the plan, planning tools, estimating methods, levels of plan, and monitoring methods to be used for the project.

This will include the use of diagrams versus text and will be driven, in part, by any standards adopted by the project.

Where the project is part of a programme, the programme may have developed a common approach to project planning.
This may cover standards - for example, level of planning - and tools.
These will be the starting point for designing any Project Plan.
Any project-specific variations should be highlighted and the agreement of programme management sought.
There may also be a company standard for planning and control aids, or the customer may stipulate the use of a particular set of tools.
The choice of planning tool may depend on the complexity of the project - hence the choice may need to be deferred until the level of complexity is known.

The estimating methods to be used in the plan may affect the plan design, so decisions on the methods should be made as part of the plan design itself.

The use of planning tools is not obligatory, but it can save a great deal of time if the plan is to be regularly updated and changed.
A good tool can also validate that the correct dependencies have been built in and have not been corrupted by any plan updates.

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