Gain in-depth knowledge for passing your exam with Exam-Labs PRINCE2-Foundation: PRINCE2 Foundation certification video training course. The most trusted and reliable name for studying and passing with VCE files which include PRINCE2 PRINCE2-Foundation practice test questions and answers, study guide and exam practice test questions. Unlike any other PRINCE2-Foundation: PRINCE2 Foundation video training course for your certification exam.

Introduction to Principles

4. Principle No 3 Defined Roles and Responsibilities

Projects are usually cross functional.What does that mean to an organization? functions that are often called silos or operational areas such as the sales area, marketing, production, human resources, distribution, and so on. And your team will probably be made up of members drawn from various different functions around the organisation as well as maybe a few people from outside. Too often, you'll be moving these people away from the usual locations where they feel secure and from their workmates, whom I always talk with, and bringing them together with other people that maybe they don't know so well in a different environment. And the work that they do is different from the usual work. And the work that they expected to do may be so different that they fail insecurely, and they may be afraid of failing. And also, they don't know who to talk to if they have a problem. Do they still talk to the usual line manager? Do they talk to the project manager? Do they talk to the project executive? All of these things can be very uncomfortable and stressful for both them and for you as a project manager. And in order to control the demand for these resources, you have to have a very clear picture of who does what on the project and what the lines of authority are. The best project can be ruined by team members not understanding their purpose or their responsibilities or by not having effective lines of communication. Prince Two avoids much of this confusion by assigning dedicated project-based roles where the duties and responsibilities of each are clearly defined. Key roles include the executive to represent the business, a senior supplier to represent the specialists who will provide the expertise to create the products, and a senior user to represent the staff who will use the products and thereby realise the benefits. Other roles include project manager, team manager, project support, project assurance, and others.

5. Principle No 4 Manage by stages

And Prince Two defines a management stage as the section of a project that the project manager is managing on behalf of the project board at any one time. The project board will want to review the progress made thus far. the state of the project plan. the business case. and the risks at the next stage of the plan. in order to decide whether to continue with the project. That's in principle. Guide page 23 In some organizations, the projects and bodies of work seem to go on and on forever. Indeed, the more it appears to be operations, and no one has a clear picture of where the project has progressed. In fact, sometimes no one is actually sure why the project was started or what it was intended to do. Princeton gets around all these problems by dividing the project into logical stages. And the very first stage is called the initiation stage, and that makes sure that everything is documented, understood, agreed on, and authorised before the project even starts. And each project must consist of at least two stages. Please make a note of that, because thatcomes up in the examination quite a bit. It must have the initiation stage and one other management stage. Breaking the project into stages means that the project board gets to check the progress at the end of each stage and also decide if the project should continue. This is quite the reverse of a typical non-printy project, where there is an underlying assumption that yes, of course, the project will simply continue to the end on channels, no matter what happens. The deciding factor for the project board hinges on whether or not the project is still likely to deliver the expected benefits. When the project board authorises the project to continue, they will also authorise the project manager to manage that stage. But the project manager is not given freerein to manage as they see fit. They are given tolerances that they have to keep within. Otherwise, if a tolerance is forecast to be exceeded, they have to submit an exception report to the board. Managing by stages takes much of the burden off the project board, as they are generally required only at the end of each stage or to give ad hoc advice during the stage. The board should also consider whether they want to increase or decrease the degree of control they want over the project. And they do that simply by increasing or decreasing the number of stages, as we will cover in detail later.

6. Principle No 5 Manage by Exception

As I mentioned before, people are in very short supply in an organization, and that means that managers' and senior executives' time in particular is very valuable indeed. The manage by exception principle ensures that people are involved in approaching a project only when it is essential for the success of the project. Corporate management selects a project board to control the project. The project board comprises managers to represent the interests of the three areas of the organization. I remember these by remembering the acronym BUS, which stands for business interest, which is represented by the executive. I will remind you that there can only be one executive on a project board because the executive, although advised by the rest of the board, is the single decision maker.So there can be only one you, the user interest, which is represented by the senior user or users, and the supplier interest, which is represented by the senior supplier or suppliers. When corporate management authorises a project or manages a project, they set performance tolerances for six aspects of the project. These are very important. Please take the time to memorise them. They are cost, time, quality, scope, benefits, and risk. And each aspect will have an upper and a lower tolerance limit. It's set by corporate management. For example, they may say $1 million plus $200,000 or minus $100,000 for the project cost and project time. They may say 215 days plus or minus using the principle of manage by exception, which means corporate management leaves the board to manage the project. under the guidance of the executive. Corporate management does not want to be disturbed during the project, and they've got much more important work to do. In fact, the only time they can be disturbed by the project board is when the project is forecast to exceed a lower or upper tolerance. When the tolerances are forecast to be exceeded, the project board will report to corporate management and ask for advice. If the tolerances are not exceeded, then the corporate management will not be disturbed. OK, so now we have the project board managing the project within project tolerances. The project board, with the help of the project manager, will divide the project into a number of management stages, as we saw in principle number four, managed by stages. And at the beginning of each stage, the project board will set stage tolerances for that stage, then authorise the project manager to manage the stage. As I said before, corporate management will not be disturbed during the project unless project tolerances are forecast to be exceeded. Well, in exactly the same way, the project board will not be disturbed during the stage unless stage tolerances are forecast to be exceeded. If a stage tolerance is exceeded during the project management stage, then the project manager will report to the board and ask for advice. If the tolerances are not exceeded, then the project board will not be disturbed until the end of the stage, and that is so efficient. Think of a typical home-based principal project. What happens every week? A lot of senior managers have a project meeting and people report about things that worked, things that didn't work, and corrective actions taken, plus what holidays you're going to have and how the kids are doing in school. Do senior people need to be involved in all this trivia? No, of course not. It is largely a waste of time. But as we've seen, we have two levels of management now: corporate management and the project board managing by exception. But wait, there's more. During a management stage, the project manager will then determine which work packages or sub-deliverables are required to be created. During that stage, the project manager will assign those work packages to team managers. The project managers will also set tolerances for each work package, and they will set checkpoints as well, which we'll learn about later. So now we have corporate management who will not be disturbed during the project unless project tolerances are exceeded. The project board will not be disturbed during the stage unless stage tolerances are exceeded. And the project manager will not be disturbed during a work package unless work package tolerances are exceeded. I think that is so clever and an exceptionally efficient use of people's time. Let's have a look at a quick question on management by exception questions. A management stage has an expected duration of 16 days, with a tolerance range of minus two days to plus four days. Because of a delay in a work package that is on the critical path, this stage is likely to be delayed by approximately three days. What should the project manager do? one, ask corporate management for advice on producing an exception report. Three, make an entry in the risk register or do nothing because the stage is still within tolerance. If you don't know the correct answer, sometimes you can follow the advice of a fictional detective called Sherlock Holmes. He said that once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how probable, must be the truth. Okay, so let's apply his method to our list of suggested answers. In any project, a project manager should never contact corporate management about anything. Remember, a project board reports to them. So number one is wrong. Number two is wrong as well, because this stage is still within tolerance; therefore, there is no exception to report. So that brings us down to three important, reasonable answers. However, when you think about it, although there's no exception, clearly something has gone wrong. And so the project manager can't just sit there and basically ignore it. which means number four is wrong too. And that brings us to number three. The only one left made an entry in the risk register as a correct answer. So even if you don't know the correct answer, all the other answers are wrong. But we still need to give it a final reasonable check. There is an issue causing the delay, and issues are connected with risks. It would seem reasonable to record the problem, and therefore, recording and a risky register again seem to weigh up. So number three is our correct answer. This method can be useful for answering questions when you simply have no idea what the correct answer is. Look for answers that are clearly wrong and strike them out. If you can strike out two of them, then you've got a 50% chance of getting the question right. on a simple guess. If you can strike a trade, you've got it. You've got the right answers.

7. Principle No 6 Focus on Products

They forget about the products. Yet without the products, you cannot deliver the benefits to the organization. The Princeton ensures that right from the planning of the project and in almost every part of the project, the products remain the main consideration, and every action taken must enhance the ability to deliver the products. And that is why a product breakdown structure is used in the early part of planning. All of the outputs from the project collectively form the project scope. And when the activities required to deliver the scope are estimated, they are determined by examining the necessary outputs. There are two types of product. As we can see from the Princeton Guide on page 25, a product is an input or output, whether tangible or intangible, that can be described in advance, created, and tested. Prince 2 has two types of product management: products and specialist products.

8. Principle No 7 Tailor to suit the project

However, it is vital to note that tailoring means adjusting the other six principles, not removing them, because unless the project is managed using all seven principles, it is simply not the principal project. The principal guide says in page 26 that it is tailored to suit the project environment, size, complexity, importance, team capability, and risk. And on page 27, the purpose of tailoring is to ensure that the project management method used is appropriate to the project, EIG. aligning the method with the business processes that may govern and support the project, such as human resources, finances, and procurement. Project controls are appropriate to the project scale, complexity, importance, team capability, and risk, e.g., the frequency and formality of the reports and reviews. The process is called tailoring because it is an analogy with how suitable clothing is adjusted by a tailor to fit a person. The tailor trims off pieces of cloth or adds pieces where legs are lengthened or shortened, and so on. However, no item of clothing is removed. This is vitally important because although you would expect pieces of fabric to be missing if the tailor returns the clothing to you, with the principal piece of clothing missing, such as a jacket or trousers, clearly it is no longer a suit. In a similar way, a principal project consists of seven principles, and while you must tailor each principle, if a principal is missing from your project, it is no longer a principal project because all seven principles are interconnected and interdependent. The goal of tailoring a principal project is to reduce the burden on the team as much as possible while still maintaining suitable governance and control, so it can be tailored. According to the Prince 2017 Guide, tailoring can be applied to processes, themes, roles, management products, and terminology. For example, on a small project, a project manager's role could be combined with project support and team manager roles, but they could not be combined with project assurance. For example, because of the obvious conflict of interest reasons, work packages could be emails and the project schedule could be a simple spreadsheet. On large projects, however, roles may be split in the pit. The project identification documentation may be so large that it could be a separate project; all of the management products might have to be formally signed; and so on, as long as tailoring does not impact negatively on efficiency, unless it's necessitated by governance requirements or introduces conflicts of interest. Another common tailoring practise is to adapt the organization's existing project methodology to fit Prince 2, and another is to replace Prince 2 terminology with the organization's terminology. Sometimes this is done to help with buying within the organization. This is all perfectly okay as long as all seven prints of the 2017 principals are used. And the key to tailoring is whether it already fits Stop Tailoring. It's a project manager's responsibility to develop a tailored plan, working with key stakeholders and providing project assurance. This will then be submitted to the project board for their approval.

Tailoring and Adopting PRINCE2

1. Tailoring and Adopting PRINCE2

The Prince's definition of tailoring is quite simple. It's adapting a method or process to suit the situation in which it will be used. Prince Two should be tailored to suit the project. The Prince Two Method is very large and very comprehensive. That's because it has to be able to deal with any project and any product. And if you're managing a project to send a group of people on a rocket to Mars, then you might want to use every single form, feature, and bell and whistle that Princeton has. But if your project is just to develop a new app for an iPhone, then you probably don't want to use all of these features. You could use every possible feature of Prints to develop an iPhone app, but then you would spend much more time and effort on the Print method than you would on the app itself. Instead, you should use a minimal application of print. But, conversely, you could try to use a minimal application of Princeton on your Rocket to Mars project. But then your efforts will probably end up more like the movie Lost in Space. The trick is to get the balance right—the maximum control for the minimum bureaucracy—so that everything is controlled but the team isn't overburdened with the method itself. As a reminder, tailoring means adjusting, not removing. You need to apply all seven principal principles. Otherwise, it can't be called a Prince 2 project. Prince Two needs to be adjusted to fit the environment of the project. This process is called tailoring because it is an analogy with how a suit of clothing is adjusted by a tailor. To suit a person with a suit of clothing, pieces of cloth will be trimmed off and sewed in; legs and sleeves will be licenced and shortened; and so on. However, no item of clothing is removed. This is very important because although you would expect pieces of fabric to be missing, if a retailer returns the clothing to you but it's missing a principal piece of clothing such as a jacket or trousers, clearly it is not a suit anymore. In the same way, a principal consists of seven principles of what you can and should do to reach it. If a principle is missing from your project, it is no longer a principal project because all set principles are interconnected and interdependent. To repeat what I said earlier, which shows how important it is, the goal of the tailoring principle is to reduce the methodology workload on the team as much as possible, while still maintaining appropriate governance and control. It is the project manager's responsibility to create a tailoring plan, collaborate with key stakeholders, and ensure project quality. This will then be submitted to the project board for approval. Adopting Prince Two Okay, what is the difference between adopting a principal and adopting a principal? Unfortunately, these two words are very similar, but there's a huge difference between them. Printing two means tailoring. Prince Two I am adjusting it to suit the project. But adopting Prince 2 means embedding the Prince 2 method within the organization. The Prince Two Guide tells us that tailoring is concerned with the appropriate use of Princeton on any given project, ensuring that there is a right amount of governance, planning, and control in accordance with Prince Two principles. The following aspects of Prince 2 may be tweaked; processes may be combined or adapted. E.g., by adding or combining activities, themes can be applied using techniques that are appropriate to the project. Rules may be combined or split, providing that accountability is maintained and that there are no conflicts of interest. C section 72114 restriction management products may be combined or split into any number of documents or data sources. They will often take the form of formal documents, but can equally be slide decks, wall charts, or data held in IT systems if more appropriate to the project. Alice's environmental terminology may be changed to set other standards and policies, provided that it is applied consistently. Remember that, while tiering can really help your project and can be fun to do, there is no sweet spot for tiering. There's no perfect balance to tiresomeness. So be careful not to let it soak up all your time and resources. Very much like risk management with tailoring, some people seem to make an entire career out of it. But if a suit fits well enough, stop touring and enjoy wearing a suit. As you study Princetone, you'll see that the seven themes and seven principles, as I mentioned before, are all interconnected and interrelated, and so you can't remove any one of them without weakening the method and putting your entire project at risk. Consider it, pinch two, and the tailoring principle has been designed and improved by tens of thousands of experts worldwide in every conceivable type and size of project. Do you really believe that you know better than all of them? Tailor the method, but don't mess with the method I mentioned earlier. The Prince 2 can be tailored by adopting the glossary of another organization. But a word of caution here: be wary of accepting a glossary that is far removed from Princeton because it will end up confusing everyone. They won't be able to understand the Prince. to guide managing successful projects with Prince 2, and every contractor or consultant that you take on board will have to learn this new language too, which can lead to mistakes. The Prince Two Guide gives us two important tips on page 32. Firstly, ensure that the tyranny of Prince Two adds value. One of the advantages of using printstoo is that it comprises roles, terminology, and processes that people become familiar with, which clarifies project governance and facilitates teamwork and cross-organizational cooperation. Too much tailoring may negate these advantages. And secondly, when two or three individual elements are printed, check the impact on any other elements to ensure they're all consistent. Think of developing the tailoring plan for your project as a mini-project in its own right, applying the principle of continued business justification to your mini-tailoring project, which must deliver actual benefits. So with each step of your tailoring, ask yourself: How will this step benefit the main project? Who is responsible for tailoring and where is it documented? I've already mentioned earlier that it's a project manager's job to determine the level and type of children to apply, and this is documented in the PIT, the project initiation documentation. But usually the project manager will review lessons learned about tailoring from other projects and also consult with some stakeholders, especially Project Assurance. Your project is a temporary organisation within the commissioning organization, and so it will have to comply with the organization's internal policies, processes, methods, standards, and practices. Please study Figure 4.1 Constraints and Influences on Tailoring a Project Princer cautions us to think of projects in terms of simple or complex rather than small and large, because small and large are relative to the organization. As you can imagine, on your journey to Mars programme projects, the tiniest project within that whole programme would be massively larger than your largest ever iPhone app project, and even with the simplest principal projects, they still must apply all seven Prince 2 principles. The following tailoring example is from the Prince Two Guide on page 35. This is a tailoring example for a simple two-stage project. On a simple project, the project mandate was a short email outlining the business date and expectations, as well as the costs and timeframe of the project's initiation stage. This was used to approve the start of the project. No project brief was produced. The project management team used the project mandate to produce a simple PID which included the justification for the project, a basic project plan with several product descriptions, and details of all the controls to be applied. A daily log was used to record risks, issues, lessons, and quality results. Following approval of the PIN, it was just one more management stage. The project manager held regular checkpoints with verbal reporting, which enabled the production of highlight reports to the project board. At the end of the management stage, we enhanced the project. At the end, a project report was produced, which also included the information for the Adams report, follow-on action recommendations, and the benefits management approach. No stage plans, work packages, team plans, or stage reports or issue reports were needed as they were incorporated into other products with sufficient detail. It reminds me of a project I was working on a short time ago, and the authorization I received from the director to start the project was yes, please. Two single words on an email, okay. You'll find recommendations for tailing in many of the chapters in the Princeton guide, so you'll need to study these to develop an understanding of what's required. Once you go through these a few times, they actually become second nature, which means embedding the Prince Two method into an organisation is introduced in Chapter 4 and fully covered in Chapter 21. Now, once I strongly recommend that you read Chapter 21, you need to know that the material in this chapter will not be tested on the examination.

Pay a fraction of the cost to study with Exam-Labs PRINCE2-Foundation: PRINCE2 Foundation certification video training course. Passing the certification exams have never been easier. With the complete self-paced exam prep solution including PRINCE2-Foundation: PRINCE2 Foundation certification video training course, practice test questions and answers, exam practice test questions and study guide, you have nothing to worry about for your next certification exam.

Hide