PRINCE2 Management Stages
and Management Products
Whilst each project is unique and produces one or
more specialist products, every project would use management stages and
management products to deliver the project’s specialist products (depicted in the diagram below). PRINCE2
defines management stages as partitions of the project with management decision
points, they also equate to the commitment of resources and authority to spend.
A management stage therefore is a collection of activities and products
whose delivery is managed as a unit. Every project using PRINCE2 will
have a minimum of two management stages: the initiation stage where the Project
Initiation Documentation is created, and at least one Management stage,
so-called, because a Management stage is where the specialist products are
created and approved. Therefore management stages only occur one at a time;
they do not overlap. There is no guidance on how many stages a project should
typically have. Although it is recommended that a project with many stages be
managed as multiple projects so as to ensure and exhibit greater control
through the development of specialist products. There are many advantages of
splitting a project into a series of management stages.
For instance, providing at the
end of the stage, an end stage assessment, to allow review and decision points
for the project board to assess the project viability at regular intervals
rather than letting it run on in an uncontrolled manner. Another advantage is
that stages give the ability to make key decisions prior to investing in the
detailed work and cost of the following stage. Management stages also
facilitate the management by exception principle by delegating authority to the
project manager on a stage by stage basis. Also ensuring that the management
time is used efficiently and effectively.
The project board will release
the project to the project manager one stage at a time, and only after
considering the business case, project plan, next stage plan, and End-Stage
Report. The next stage will only be authorized if there is sufficient business
justification for the project to continue. With management by Exception
implemented, there is no need for “regular progress meetings”. Don’t’ get
confused, the end stage assessment is fundamentally a business review (although
progress information is gathered and presented). The project manager will have
the authority for day to day management and control of a stage as long as the
agreed tolerances are forecast not to be exceeded. By virtue of this, the
project board can manage by exception while reducing the administrative
overhead of being involved while still keeping in control. When considering how
many management stages within a project, there are several key questions that
need to be asked to help define this number. For example, how far ahead in the
project is it sensible to plan (Planning Horizon)? Where do key decision points
need to be?
In addition, if the project is a
risky one, then management stages will tend to be shorter in duration. The
confidence of the project board and project manager in the project, will also
determine how many stages and how long particular stages needs to be. There is
clearly a balance between many short stages with an increase in overhead,
versus few long stages resulting in less control. The number of stages in
a project should be chosen by asking the question “where do the end stage
assessments need to be so that project viability can be checked?”
It is important that management
stages are not confused with technical stages. These are often called phases,
and refer to sensible groupings of products and techniques. Technical stages of
the overlap, whereas management stages do not. Technical stages are typified by
the use of a particular set of specialist skills. Whenever a technical stage
spends beyond a management stage boundary, the technical stage should be broken
down so that each management stage contains a whole number of specialist
products.
PRINCE2 defines a set of baseline management
products, records and reports that can be tailored and used in managing
projects. These artifacts are not necessarily documents – they are
information sets that are used by the PRINCE2 processes to enable the project
management team to take action and make the right decisions at the right time. These
artifacts evolve over the project life cycle, and are often reviewed and
updated as the project progresses. There are 26 defined management products for
a PRINCE2 project. The baseline management products define aspects of the
project and are created, approved and put under change control. Records
are dynamic management products maintaining information regarding project
progress. Reports provide snapshots of certain aspects of the project at
certain points in time. Records and reports are under configuration
management but are not subject to change control. The following table
summarizes these:
26 Management Products in a PRINCE2 Project
Environment:
______________________________________________________________________________
Author - Vijayakumar Reddy, CTO & Lead Trainer, A2A IMTCS Pvt. LTD.
© Copyright 2014 A2A -
IMTCS. All rights reserved. www.iimtcs.in
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