Project Management: PRINCE2 - PRojects In Controlled Environments

    Greetings, colleagues. In my article I want to talk about the most popular project management methodology in the UK and Eastern and Northern Europe - PRINCE2 . This methodology was developed by the United Kingdom Government and is the only widely used framework for managing projects in large organizations. As the name implies, PRINCE2 aims to structure the project in a controlled environment, which he undoubtedly copes with.
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    PRINCE2 is a very clearly structured methodology that allows systematic(rather than intuitively random) to conduct projects, while easily scaling the structure and integrating with various techniques, such as Agile or CMMI. The key difference between PRINCE2 and PMBoK in the following is that PRINCE2 is a product-oriented method, and PMBoK is an activity-oriented method. Scalability at the program level (project portfolio) is provided by the derivative methodology of MSP (Managing Successful Programs).

    The fundamental elements of PRINCE2 are a) processes, b) components, c) techniques. In the context of rigidly set processes, there are clearly defined components that are connected by certain techniques that each project manager is free to adapt to his discretion. This is very convenient because the whole system is clearly structured, which allows you to connect specific for each phase of the project equipment, while not violating the overall structure. Also, the most important control tool in PRINCE2 is to split the project into phases with a clearly defined time start and end.

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    Processes and components in PRINCE2

    The basic principle in PRINCE2 is product-based planning. This means that the work on the project begins with an understanding of the final product (final product) and its subsequent breakdown into smaller offal. The next step is to build a product flowchart describing all the interdependencies of the offal and the sequence of their implementation. In fact, the project plan does not look like a task tree, but a product tree.

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    Left to product-based planning, the right activity-based planning

    All the results are divided into 2 categories - management products (management products) and specialty products(specialist products). Management products are all documents, mandatory of which are PID (Project Initiation Document). In fact, PID is a fairly lengthy document, including a Project Brief with a business case (what we used to call Project Vision), and a description of the products (Product Description, something like User Stories from Scrum), and Product Flowchart, and accordingly a detailed project plan. Specialized products are nothing more than directly sub-products (elements of functionality).

    Let's look at an example of convenient integration of PRINCE2 and Agile Scrum. In fact, Scrum is also a fully product-oriented technique, as relies on the Product Backlog, in which the required functionality is described in the form of User Stories (the same descriptions of (sub) products). Those. it turns out that PRINCE2 is a high-level framework, which fits into the low-level Scrum method based on the commonality of products. And even in the most insidious aspect - Change Management - both approaches adhere to the idea of ​​“freezing” functionality within the sprint / phase, and also share the general principles of the trade-off matrix: resources, time, functionality.

    If a respected habrosociety is interested in PRINCE2, I could cover this wonderful methodology in detail (since I have been a certified professional working on it for many years), as well as share templates in .doc / .xls and other useful material.

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