The term PRINCE2 is the abbreviated form of:
- Projects
- IN
- Controlled
- Environments
As its name depicts, the PRINCE2 defines a way of managing projects in a controlled and organized environment. It implies that the projects should be divided into multiple stages, and roles must be defined clearly to manage resources and risks in a better way. The Prince2 demands that the project team has a project plan ready with defined timelines, milestones, and roles before starting a project. It is mostly used in the UK, Australia, and other European countries for effective project management.
There are different methodologies that project managers can use to manage a project effectively and meet deadlines. PRINCE2 is one of those methodologies. It stands for Projects IN Controlled Environment, which means that project development is carried out so that everything is planned and pre-defined.
PRINCE2 mainly focuses on managing the resources and risks by dividing a big project into multiple milestones. It implies that all the milestones, deadlines, roles, scope, and costs are defined before a team starts working on a particular project.
Principles of PRINCE2:
The PRINCE2 defines seven principles that should be followed by the project managers while using the PRINCE2 as their project management methodology:
1. Business Justification:
The PRINCE2 implies that the business plan for any project should be prepared in advance. The business justification defines the value of the project. It is checked throughout the project life cycle to ensure that it is viable. If the project managers find that a particular project is not worth the effort, it is stopped.
2. Learn and Improve:
The lessons learned from different PRINCE2 projects are noted in a log attached with each new project so that the team does not repeat the past mistake and improve their work.
3. Roles and Responsibilities are Clearly Defined:
The PRINCE2 implies that all the team members know their duties and what they are responsible for.
4. Manage by Phases:
The PRINCE2 methodology ensures that a project is carried out in multiple phases or stages. After each phase/stage, the outcomes, mistakes, and lessons learned are noted for future reference.
5. Manage through Exceptions:
The board of directors should set baseline costs, deadlines, risk assessments, and roles that the project team should follow.
6. Focus on Quality:
The project team should ensure that what they deliver is exactly what the client wants. In other words, the project teams should check whether the deliverables meet the requirements or not.
7. Customize Project Environment:
Project managers can tailor their approach for different projects based on the resources and time available for a particular project. The resources include any hardware or software as well as human resources.
Advantages of Using the PRINCE2 Methodology:
There are so many benefits associated with the implementation of the PRINCE2 methodology, some of which are as follows:
- The organization gets a common and consistent approach for completing the projects.
- A controlled environment for managing the project and meeting the deadlines.
- A check and balance regarding the progress of the project and project team.
- The project team knows the business value of the project during different phases.
Aspects of PRINCE2:
The PRINCE2 requires project managers to manage certain areas in every project. They are:
- Scope: The project plan should briefly explain the scope of the project.
- Cost: The project plan should mention the total cost of the project.
- Timelines: All the timelines should be mentioned in the project plan.
- Risks: All the risks associated with the project must be addressed in advance.
- Quality: The quality requirements must be known to all the project team to create a quality product.
- Benefits: Benefits and the value of the project must be defined.