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Control – part 11 - Progress reporting - Project Board

Determine Terms of Reference

It is very unlikely that any project will run where the Project Manager has total control over decisions and expenditure.
Apart from Project Team meetings a higher level committee will oversee key aspects of the project.


This will be the Project Board.
It may be known by other titles, for example, a Steering Committee.

Under PRINCE2® 2005 and 2009 the membership of the Project Board will consist of the Executive, Senior User(s) and Senior Supplier(s).
Others could include departmental heads or representatives of major aspects of the project e.g. government bodies for certain construction projects.

Note:
Under PRINCE2 [see ‘The Complete Project Management plus PRINCE2’] the Project Board is very specific.
The first appointment for the project will be the Executive who will be responsible for appointing the Project Manager and then the Project Board.

It is usually useful for the Project Manager to get together with the Chairperson of the Project Board to agree an agenda.
This committee should also agree its purpose in terms of how it functions.

For example.

  • What are the outputs?
  • What are the objectives?
  • How often will it meet?
  • Who will chair?
  • Who will act as secretary?
  • When will the agenda be issued?
  • When will the minutes be issued?

Approve the Project Team

The Project Board will be accountable for the approval of many aspects of the project plan.

For example:

The Terms of Reference The Project Team

Monitor project milestones

The Project Board will also be accountable for the approval of:

For example:

Milestones

Sanction modifications to the schedule

The Project Board will also be accountable for the approval of:

For example:

Modifications to the schedule

Sanction additional expenditure

The Project Board will also be accountable for the approval of:

For example:

Expenditure

This would cover:

Equipment
Personnel
Facilities

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