Principles

Objectives
After completing this lessons you will be able to:

• List the seven principles of Prince 2 methodology

• Explain the seven principles of Prince 2 methodology
Why Principles?
The whole point of the Prince 2 principles is that you’re able to make your life easier as a project
manager. Sometimes projects can get out of hand, soaring past their original expectation in terms of
scope, money, or timeframe.

The Prince 2 principles are there, primarily to stop projects getting out of hand. Essentially, they are
there to maintain control and add structure to make projects more manageable. But, when your
projects do then get chaotic, it’s useful to know there’s a system in place to refer back to in times of
crisis.
At their core, the Prince 2 principles are:
• Universal in that they appy to every project
• Self-Validating in that they have been proven i0n practise 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.

Each Prince 2 project should include the 7 principles, and if even one of these principles is missing
from the project, it cannot be considered a Prince 2 Project.
Seven Principles of Prince 2
The seven principles of Prince 2 are as follows:
Continued
Business
Justification

Defined Roles
Learn from
and
Experience
Responsibilities

Manage by Manage by
Exception Stages

Tailor to suit the

Focus on
Project
Products
Environment
Continued Business Justification
A Prince 2 project has continued Business Justification.

Requirements for a Prince 2 project are as follows:

• There should be a justifiable reason to start a project.
• The justification should remain valid throughout the life of a project.
• Although justification should remain valid, it may change or evolve.
• The justification should be approved and documented in a Business
Case.
• The business case is the most important document, and is updated at
every stage of the project to ensure that the project is still viable.
Early termination can occur if this ceases to be the case.
Learn From Experience
Prince 2 project teams learn from previous experience: lessons are sought, recorded and acted upon throughout
the life of the project.

The main features of this principle are:

• The teams learn from historical data based on previous similar projects in the
same organisation or from a different organisation, however in the same industry.
• They learn when the project starts, as it progresses and when it closes.
• It is the responsibility of everyone involved in the project to proactively seek
lessons learned.
• Each project maintains a lessons log and projects should continually refer to their
own and to previous and concurrent projects' lesson logs to avoid reinventing the
wheel. Unless lessons provoke change, they are only lessons identified (not
learned).
Roles and Responsibilities
A Prince 2 project has defined and agreed roles and responsibilities within an organisational structure that
engages the business, user and supplier stakeholder interests.

• In any project, people need to know what to do and what they can expect from others
• Roles are separate from individuals, who may take on multiple roles or share a role.
• Roles in Prince 2 are structured in four levels (corporate or programme management,
project board, project manager level and team level). The Project Management Team
contains all primary stakeholders.
• According to Prince 2, a project has 3 primary stakeholders. They are the Business sponsors,
Users and Suppliers.
• Business sponsors are those who make sure the project delivers value for money.
• Users will use the products once created, so they receive the benefits.
• Suppliers provide the resources and expertise to the project and produce the products.
• Prince 2 states that a project should have defined and agreed roles and responsibilities
within an organization structure that engages the Business, User and Supplier Stakeholder
interests.
Manage by Stages
A Prince 2 project is planned, monitored and controlled on a stage-by-stage basis.

The different features of the principle are:

• Prince 2 suggests that the work be divided in multiple logical stages called
management stages.
• The production of the project is carried out in phases called technical stages.
• The project is planned and controlled on a stage by stage basis. Moving between
stages includes updating the business case, risks, overall plan, and detailed next-
stage plan in the light of new evidence.
• A Prince 2 project should have a minimum of two management stages: One
initiation stage and one or more further management stages.
• The shorter the stages the more control, and the opposite for longer stages.
• Stages are to be planned, delegated, monitored and controlled according to the
business priority, risk and complexity involved.
 Manage by Exception
A Prince 2 project has defined tolerances for each project objective to establish limits of delegated authority.

Every Prince 2 project has four levels of management. As shown below:

Corporate or programme management The corporate or Programme management appoints and Executive, whose
responsibility is to get the project executed as per the tolerances defined by
them.
Directing – Project Board The Project Board is responsible for providing overall direction and
management to the project.
Managing – Project Manager The Project boards appoints a Project Manager to take care of day-to-day
management of the project within the constraints set by the Project Board.

Delivering – Team Manager The Project Manager gets the work done through Team Managers, who
deliver the project product.
Manage by Exception (contd.)

A Prince 2 project has defined tolerances for each project objective, to

establish limits of delegated authority. According to Prince 2, the Project
Manager controls six aspects of the project and they are Time, Cost, Scope,
Benefits, Risks and Quality.

• If a management level forecasts that these tolerances are exceeded (e.g.

time of a management stage will be longer than the estimated time in the
current management stage). it is escalated to the next management level
for a decision how to proceed.

• Right decisions are made by the right level of people at the right time.
Focus on Products
A Prince 2 project focuses on the definition and delivery off products, in particular their quality requirements.

A Prince 2 project focuses on the definition and delivery of the products, in

particular their quality requirements.
The product description includes product’s purpose, composition,
derivation, format, quality, criteria and quality method.
• Product description is used to:
• Estimate efforts.
• Determine resource requirements.
• Determine dependencies
• Determine schedule of activities
• A successful project is output-orientated and not activity-orientated. An
output orientated project is one that agrees and defines the project’s
products prior to undertaking the activities required to produce them.
Tailor to Suit the Project
Environment
Prince 2 is tailored to suit the project’s environment, size, complexity, importance, capability and risk.

Prince 2 is tailored to suit the project environment, size, complexity, importance, time
capability and risk. Tailoring is the first activity in the process Initiating A Project and
reviewed for each stage.
Project Initiation Documentation (PID) describes how the method is being tailored to the
project.
• Tailor the project management method to suit the project environment such as business
processes for human resources, fiancé and procurement management.
• Set project controls based on:
• Scale
• Complexity
• Importance
• Capability
• Risks involved in the project
Tailor to Suit the Project Environment (cont’d)
Not every aspect of Prince 2 will be applicable to every project, thus
every process has a note on scalability. This provides guidance to the
project manager (and others involved in the project) as to how much of
the process to apply. The positive aspect of this is that Prince 2 can be
tailored to the needs of a particular project. The negative aspect is that
many of the essential elements of Prince 2 can be omitted sometimes
resulting in a PINO project – Prince in Name Only
Prince 2 Principles Wrap
• A Prince 2 project has continued business justification.
• A Prince 2 project teams learn from previous experience, lessons are
sought, recorded, and acted upon throughout the life of a project.
• A Prince 2 project has defined and agreed upon roles and
responsibilities within an organisation structure that engages the
business, user and supplier stakeholder interests.
• A Prince 2 project is planned, monitored and controlled on a stage by
stage basis.
• A Prince 2 project has defined tolerances or each project objective to
establish limits of delegated authority.
• A Prince 2 project focuses on the definition and delivery of products,
in particular, their quality requirements.
• Prince 2 is tailored to suit the project’s environment, size, complexity,