The essence of prince2 project management is basically about “What do you want to achieve, and how do you go about achieving it?” When you have an idea of how you would like to go about achieving your goal, the chances are it will be a lot easier to get it completed and live with the results for the greater part of what you get there is worth it. I’ve always said that it is better to be prepared for a presentation and have a little time to shift gear, globally or locally, than to be completely prepared to speak only when the minutes are up and all your slides aren’t filled out.
Very few ideas and/or just about any activity can be done in isolation in a vacuum. The objectives or goals need to be defined regionally or globally, and they also need to be defined absolutely and serve as a resource, which creates goals of a strategic nature.
Some of the core functions of a prince2 project training are:
- Build a requirements set that includes the deliverables and deliverables that fall outside of the scope set.
- Determine an estimate, schedule a phased start and finish, and estimate a key deliverable.
- For every one that is not true, make sure your schedule and budget are working together.
- Track, tweak and test all you know about the scope, schedule, requirements and key deliverables.
- Make sure that you have an understanding of how your deliverables fit into the overall business.
- Provide a methodology for core business functions on a prince2 project.
- Define and document the interrelationship between each of them under the umbrella of the prince2 project and ensure that they fit together and interact in a specific way and allow for cross working.
- Ensure that all your human resources are engaged and recyoal them and guide them in the proper order.
- Define the procedures and policies that should be in place for when things go off the rails (which you will!) and have them to be followed by the prince2 project.
- Define how the prince2 project is going to be evaluated at the completion of the prince2 project.
- Ensure that all scheduling and budgeting interfaces are under your control.
- Ensure that all detail and planning and decision points with your client, provider and any third parties you may be working with.
The benefit is high, but similar to any new prince2 project, it will be a learning and Refresher phase so that it becomes second nature to use the tools or their equivalents to stay on track.
The obstacles will mostly be unexpected and overwhelming with no real plan in place to deal with them. You must recognize that inevitably you will encounter detours; be prepared to make them if they are necessary. Understand you must also have certain tools at your disposal to tackle these difficult problems.
I have worked with prince2 project managers who were able to resolve problems effectively through a few simple tools. On the other hand, there were some other managers who did not come to be pleased with the benefits they got out of the tools and asked to take them back even though they did not know what they were.
The impacts of failing to use the standard tools to their prince2 projects can be very damaging. We must prepare ourselves by using the tools that we need and make sure that we can make the most from them. Make sure that your team members are as well.