Prince2

This will be a placeholder for my PRINCE2 foundation exam preparation, with aim to place all core learning material in a single page for on-the-go. Disclaimer: This is not intended to serve as a substitute for your learning, and below contents are largely based on Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2, published by Office of Government Commerce in United Kingdom.

Introduction

Project: a management environment that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to a specified Business Case.

Projects have specific business context, a temporary structure, a life cycle
benefits can take form of financial(increase profit), strategic, legislative(fulfill legal requirement)
stakeholders: customers, users, suppliers, sub-contractors

Processes

Starting up a Project

Objective: authorities exist, sufficient info. available, appointment of roles, plan project initiation, inform the organisation

SU1 Appointing an Executive and a Project Manger

ratify the key elements of the Project Mandate(information created externally to the project that forms terms of reference)
identify Executive & Project Manager, and their responsibilities
confirm availability, acceptance, commitment, then appoint to respective roles

SU2 Designing a Project Management Team

define project management team structure - appropriate size
identify candidates - draft job descriptions, determine responsibilities & requisite skills for each position
consider creating a supplier forum where there are many suppliers

SU3 Appointing a Project Management Team

define roles and responsibilities/accountable - consider appropriateness of training & availability of time
reporting and communication lines

SU4 Preparing a Project Brief

establish quality expectations, Acceptance Criteria(product description), initial risk log
forms outline of Business Case
Output - to be signed off by Executive
Project Brief - include high-level information on what needs to be done, why, who will be involved in the process, how & when will be done
Daily Log - informal record of any events, decisions, agreements, monitoring tasks
Risk Log - initial list
might be sufficient to for initiation stage in small project

SU5 Defining Project Approach

decide how the work will be approached - buy the solution, made to measure, developed in-house, contracted to third party, build from scratch, based on specific technologies
identify constraints - time, money, quality, resource, availability, security
identify range of options, best practice on product, existing solutions, training needs, decision authority delegation to supplier
evaluate possible options & select the best fit

SU6 Planning an Initiation Stage

initial Stage plan - how to produce Project Initiation Document(Project Brief+management team details, Project Plan, Risk Log)
reporting & control arrangements for initiation

Initiating a Project

first stage of the project, triggered by Authorising Initiation(DP1)

IP1 Planning Quality

assess applicability of system & standards possessed by customer & supplier
assemble Project Quality Plan: expanded Acceptance Criteria, change control procedures, responsibilities, procedures, change budget, documentation
refine Acceptance Criteria, establish quality assurance, set up a Quality Log(hold details of all planned & actual quality checks

IP2 Planning a Project

draft Project Plan - major products, activities, risks, estimation of timeline, resource requirements & costs
assess complexity, dependency or inter-department involvement, coherency with other documents
update Risk Log - prepare appropriate contingency plan, likelihood of each risk occuring
update Business Case - measurement of benefit, summarise different option considered from SU5, sensitivity analysis, in line with corporate standards

IP3 Refining the Business Case and Risks

ensure Business Case answers why project need to be done
update Risk Log with any extra items identified during the process

IP4 Setting up Project Controls

Communication Plan - establish decision-making procedures, confirm stage boundaries, escalation process, identify tolerance level for each party
project controls - establish monitoring mechanisms, resource req. for monitoring, identify external stakeholders, procedure for reporting
try to restrict external communication requests to copies of existing project reports

IP5 Setting up Project Files

objective - institute a system of storing & retrieving all information relevant to the project management, quality checking, assign filing responsibility
Issue Log - issue #, type, author, date, description, priority, status
Lessons Learned Log: record aspects that go well or badly, contain cause of abnormality, performance of specialist method used, recommendation for future, effort measurement

IP6 Assembling a Project Initiation Document

focal point at which all information relating to the 'what, why, who, how, where, when & how much' gathered for agreement by the key stakeholders, then for guidance
precursor to SB & DP2
Project Initiation Document(PID) - project organisation structure, job descriptions, project definition, elements compatibility, narratives, background

Directing a Project

Senior management to make key decisions in project requirement, funds authorisation, resource commitment, communication with external parties

Ad-hoc direction, project re-evaluation, management by exception, general advising

DP1 Authorising Initiation - confirm team appointment, approve plan to develop PID, commit resources, request necessary logistical support
DP2 Authorising a Project

expenditure granted only after Business Case approval, risk assessment, time & cost estimation
Decision whether to proceed with the project
PID components

DP3 Authorising Stage or Exception Plan - overlooks cs stage

Output: approved stage plan, exception plan, progress information
reassessment of risk situation, project progress
Objective: to prevent surprises, inform board members whose attention is harder to get in later stage
Time and budget tolerances exceeded raised as exceptions to determine whether to continue on with current project

DP4 Giving Ad Hoc Direction

Board advice on clarification needed on options, resolve conflict, potential impacts, organizational changes
Ensure project remains focused, progress according to plan, make decisions, escalation of progress report to upper management
Interference should remain within boundaries stated at start

DP5 Confirming Project Closure

Formal handover of responsibility/ownership of products to end users
Operational and support environment in place
Record lessons learned(establish future method of result verification), release resources, project closure notification

Controlling A Stage

core activities: allocate work, check on progress, ensure quality, control issues, monitor risks, report on progress, watch for plan deviations

CS1 Authorising Work Package(:set of instructions issued to the Team Manager, in conjunction with MP1)
CS2 Assessing Progress

minitor resource utilisation, product development, review quality log, update Stage Plan and Product Checklist
output: Product Status Account(status information of the Work Package products), stage status information(progress summary)

CS3 Capturing Project Issues - enter issues in the Issue Log as soon as they are identified; assess whether issue is general, request for change, Off-Specification, a new risk
CS4 Examining Project Issues - assess issue's effect on costs, timescales, value, risks, requirements, quality; devise/recommend alternative courses of action
CS5 Reviewing Stage Status - balance between planning ahead & reacting to events

objectives - check periodically that current stages is kept within tolerances, review project status
identify variation on progress, future resource availability, check for problems, review external developments, trigger CS1 to authorise any new work
output - plan deviation, tolerance threat, stage end notification, trigger for project end, work trigger

CS6 Reporting Highlights - produce/distribute Highlight Report to the Project Board
CS7 Taking Corrective Action - implement actions to resolve deviations, trigger corrective action via CS1, or request for advice
CS8 Escalating Project Issues - triggered by tolerance threat, PM should always present a recommendation when escalating issues

Exception Report: situation description, business impact, options identified, compromise with cost, timeline, scope, quality, benefits, risk appetite
other outputs: trigger for premature close, Exception Plan request, concession
speed in notifying the Project Board in 3-steps - a brief statement, supporting information, exception planning
CS9 Receiving Completed Work Package - check receipt, complete Quality Log entries, quality file records, product transfer to configuration management

Managing Product Delivery

Objective - to allow team manager(supplier) to agree work, accomplish delivery, then hand it back to PM

MP1 Accepting a Work Package - agreement on what to deliver, constraints, tolerance margins, reporting requirements, approval how-to, communication plan, Team Plan(allocation, planned/actual effort, progress), risk analysis, planning, resourcing, updates to the Quality Log, requirements viability, Product Description
MP2 Executing a Work Package - Checkpoint Reports(:progress reports to PM at defined frequency)
MP3 Delivering a Work Package - obtain acceptance for developed products, handover completed products, inform PM for Work Package approval

Managing Stage Boundaries

plan the next stage before the end of each stage, along with review&update of Business Case, risk situation, Project Plan

SB1 Planning a Stage - ensure detail sufficiency for day-to-day control against the plan, commitment of the board & PM, board awareness; produce Next Stage Plan
SB2 Updating a Project Plan - reassess/refine Project Quality Plan & Project Approach; record audit trail between cause & effect if the project scope has changed
SB3 Updating a Project Business Case - reassess timeline, cost, benefits, corporate environment, external resources/suppliers; review Exception Plan
SB4 Updating the Risk Log
SB5 Reporting Stage End - request for authorisation to proceed, produce End Stage Report; 'no surprises'
SB6 Producing an Exception Plan - replaces the current Stage Plan when project is forecast to go outside the tolerance level; careful not to overestimate ability to recover

Closing a Project

ensure the original objectives have been met, current project has run its course, operational regime takes over or become inputs to subsequent project/larger programme

CP1 Decommissioning a Project - confirm delivery, quality assurance, check operational/maintenance environment in place, notify closure, disbanded resources; handover to support group
CP2 Identifying Follow-on Actions - document all unfinished work, re-examine quality, effectiveness of benefits after a period

Post-Project Review Plan - what/when/who/how benefit achievements are to be measured

CP3 Evaluating a Project - assess quality & risk management, identify lessons learned, document End Project Report(:evaluation of PID objectives, management performance)

Planning

provides information on requirement, how & by whom, resources needed, when events will happen

PL1 Designing a Plan - decisions on approach to planning

decide on presentation & layout(diagram vs. text), planning tools, estimating/monitoring methods, levels of plan, recipients, update frequency, contingency budget

PL2 Defining and Analysing Products - identify specialist/management products, product description & quality requirements, sequence in logical order of creation

output: Product Breakdown Structure, Product Descriptions/Configuration Item Records, Product Checklist, Product Flow Diagram

PL3 Identifying Activities and Dependencies - identify all necessary activities, establish interdependencies between activities, internal/external dependencies
PL4 Estimating

resource types - skills, experience levels, from where
estimate effort/duration - depends on detailed understanding of the activity, product, level of assumptions in place

PL5 Scheduling - smooth resource usage under time constraint, identify additional resource effort needed, calculate total cost

draw an activity network - list of activities & durations based on dependencies, assign earliest/latest start/finish time, duration, total float
assess resource availability - specific information such as percentage availability, to be noted
produce a draft schedule & assign responsibilities - allocate resources in order of ascending float, prioritise zero float activities on the critical path (Gantt chart as alternative)
level resource usage, confirm control points, calculate costs, finalise Schedule

PL6 Analysing Risks - examine each resource with potential risk content (e.g. holidays, training), mitigate by more frequent monitoring for early warning
PL7 Completing a Plan - add narratives on plan explanation, constraints, external dependencies, assumptions made, risks identified, countermeasures, tolerances applied

Gantt chart does not show why & how it will happen

Components

Business Case: description of reasons & justification based on estimated costs, risks & benefits, savings

covers entier scope, drives decision making processes, used continually to align progress
composition - reasons, options, benefits expected, risks, cost, timescale, investment appraisal, evaluation(GAP analysis - good, average, poor)

Organisation

four layers of management: corporate/programme management, Project Board, Project Manager, Team Managers
three project interests - business(business need, value for money), user, supplier
Project Board - executive(key decision maker, Business case development, project organisation, progress monitoring, problem referral, formal closure, post-project review), senior user(providing user resources, ensure user requirements are captured & benefits delivered by products, senior supplier(accountable for product quality)
Project Manager facets - line management, strategy, customer, team work, planning, monitoring, user needs, changes, product/project needs, product status, quality, communication, funding

role to manage the work, not to do it, must avoid becoming involved in low-level detail to myopic extent

Team Manager - ensure production of products to an appropriate quality in timescale at acceptable cost
Project Assurance - monitoring performance & progress independently of PM
Project Support - administrative help, support with specific planning, control software, configuration management

Configuration Librarian

Plans

identify whether targets are achievable, resources & activities required, problems & risks associated
benefits - avoid ad hoc decisions, think ahead, how to measure progress, communication, gaining commitment, provision of personal targets
elements - products, activities needed to create, validate the quality, resources & time needed, dependencies between activities from outside, timeline, monitoring points, tolerances

sequence - products -> prerequisites & quality requirements -> assumptions -> activities -> resources -> risks -> control points/revised activities & resources -> time & cost

narratives should explain - plan scope, planning approach, implementation approach, monitoring plan, management reports to be issued, identified constraints/risks/dependencies, assumptions, tolerances to be applied, quality control methods
Project Plan - baselined at the end of each stage to reflect: progress already made, changes in circumstances, revised forecast of cost/duration
Stage Plan - close to the time, at shorter duration, developed with knowledge of the performance of earlier stages
quality plans - identify products, specify who will check at what points
Exception Plan - normally produced to replace Stage Plan when exceed agreed tolerance levels

also sensible to add resources needed to impact assessment on change requests

Control

purpose - project remains viable against Business Case, producing required products in accord. to quality criteria, carried out to schedule under cost plans
enable management to monitor progress, compare achievement with plan, review plans & options, detect problems & identify risks, initiate corrective action, authorise further work
event driven: control occurs because a specific event has taken place; e.g. PID completion, creation of Exception Plan
Project board controls - DP, Highlight Reports, Exception Reports
PM - day-to-day basis control within a stage, adjustments within defined tolerances, uses Work Package authorisation to allocate work to others
Tolerance: permissible deviation(small problems & estimating error) from a plan without bringing the deviation to the attention of Project Board

two standard elements - time & cost, can be plotted on cost/time tolerance graph
others - scope(divided line between essential/desirable features), risk appetite(risk PB is prepared to take), benefit(applied to Business Case), quality
contingency: budget including time&money set aside to carry out a contingency plan, which will only be invoked if a linked risk actually occurs
change budget - used to pay when users change their minds on specification

Product Descriptions, Work Package, quality control, Quality Log, Risk Log
change control - requirement change, specification revising due to legislation change, addition of acceptance criterion, extra features suggest themselves for inclusion, resource availability, sub-contractor failure to meet commitment
Highlight Report: achieved in current period, expectation for next period, issue & new risks & resolution suggestions
Exception Report - warning that a serious problem(deviation outside tolerance margins) exists that needs a decision
Stages: partitions of the project with management decision points; a collection of activities & products whose delivery is managed as a unit

peer review - by other personnel/organisations to carry out independent assessment; introduce a fresh perspective
gate review - formal end stage assessment where external scrutiny is applied to assessment, to determine whether project should continue or not
management stages - according to key decision points, time scale, risk scale
technical stages - typified by use of particular set of specialist skills(e.g. spec., design, build, training)

Risk management

risk: uncertainty of outcome
access to reliable/up-to-date information, decision making process supported by risk analysis & evaluation, risk monitoring process, balance of control
principles - assess risk appetite, assign responsibilities, ownership
Project Board responsibilities - notify PM of external risk exposure, make decisions on PM's recommended reactions to risk, balance between risk & potential benefits, notify corporate/programme management
risk management cycle

risk analysis - identify -> evaluate -> suitable responses -> select
risk management - ↑<- monitor & report <- plan & resource <-↓
evaluation - impact assessment on probability, effect scale, time, cost, quality, scope, benefit, people/resources
select - balance beween cost of action vs. probability & impact of risk occurring

risk profile - plot with probability & impact as axes
assess risk interdependencies across different levels, with other projects

Quality in a project environment

quality assurance: creates & maintains the quality system, ensure quality system operation, quality requirements satisfaction

Project Quality Plan: quality methods for the whole project, criteria determined by Product Description, composed during IP1

Acceptance Criteria: definition in measurable terms of the characteristics

quality policy - quality management system & quality organisation structure

Quality Log - details of all quality checking activities

Configuration management

purpose - to manage assets, combination of products developed & managed

specify versions of products in use/existence & hold information on: status, ownership, relationship with products

control changes, audit the records

baseline: snapshot of a product & any component products, frozen at time for a particular purpose, never discarded

basic functions

planning - how/where products will be stored, filing&retrieval security, version identification, responsibilities

identification - project created from, type of product, title, latest version number

control - product submission, issue, issue copies

status accounting - written/approved/ready, report from Configuration Librarian

configuration audits - look for discrepancies, process standard, normally carried out at the end of each stage

Change control

assessment of impact of potential changes, their importance, cost, judgemental decision by management

Project Issue management - anything that could have an effect on the project including: change in requirements, customer/supplier, legislation, new risk, implementation error/problem

procedure - capture/log the issue, assess to decide on issue type, investigate required action, document actions/confirm completion, review Issue Log regularly to monitor progress

Request for Change: cause a change to the specification or Acceptance Criteria, additional cost to carry out the change normally funded by the customer

Off-Specification: error or omissions found in work already conducted/planned, additional cost normally fall on suppliers

Techniques

Product-based planning

Product Description of the final product - first task to assist the customer to write
Product Breakdown Structure: hierarchical structure that breaks down a final product into its constituent sub-products

makes easier to estimate effort, resources, timescale needed, specific quality criteria, avoid omitting products
grouping helpful when too many components show up in a single level

Product Descriptions - aids understanding of purpose & estimation, define quality criteria, determine how to test quality

ensure clarity, specify quality checks(checklists)
in accordance to standards set by user/customer
elements: title, purpose, composition, derivation, format & presentation, allocated to, quality criteria/method/tolerance/skills(mandatory vs. desirable features)

Product Flow Diagram: sequence of development of products and any dependencies in-between

composition & derivation sections, check naming consistency
e.g. business requirements/procurement process/supplier information -> ITT -> bids -> product evaluation reports-> selected product -> training/test strategy/product development -> accepted product -> fully operational

types of product - specialist product(development), management product(reports, issues, plans)

Change control to specialist products

if a product is to be changed, Product Description should be checked for any necessary changes

upon product approval, PM should not authorise any work that would change it without PB approval

Changes: request to change deliverables/specifications, suggestion to improve products, record of current/forecast failure to meet requirement(off-specification)

every issue to be logged as a Project Issue in the Issue Log

prioritise - a must, an important change, a nice-to-have but not vital, a cosmetic change(of no importance), does not involve a change

impact analysis - identify, what needs to change, effort needed, impact on Team/Stage/Project Plans, BC, risks, whether deviation beyond tolerances

for Off-Specifications beyond tolerance margins, PM follows the exception procedure, escalate(CS8) to PB attention(DP4)

Quality review technique

assess whether product is fit for purpose or conforms to requirements, when presented for review

benefits - early identification of defects, objective measurement, collaboration to improve quality, user willingness to commit

responsibilities

review chairperson - check readiness for review, review session organisation, ensure actions/results are agreed, provide final review sign-off

producer - creators of the products, answer questions about product, agree action to resolve, obtain sing-off from reviewers

reviewer - assess product against quality criteria specified in Product Description, ensure errors are fully understand, sign-off any follow-up action list items

scribe - assist chairperson, take notes, read back the agreed actions & action owners at the end of the meeting

Project Assurance - check everyone performs their role, ensure quality review procedure is followed, check that follow-up actions are properly monitored, log & report

Quality review planning - identify products subject to review, timescale for each quality review, identify reviewers & add them to resource plans

follow-up - notification to PM of result, plan of any remedial work required, followed by sign-off, update Quality Log

Tips

summarise contents from ILX supplements

Study Plan

Showing 9 items

Date	Topics	Remark	Complete
Sort	Sort	Sort	Sort

Date	Topics	Remark
January 27, 2013	1-3.Introduction, 22.Product-based planning
January 29, 2013	Ch.4 SU	recorded in wiki
January 30, 2013	Ch.5 IP	issue log, lessons learned
February 3, 2013	Ch.6-8	DP, CS, MP
February 4, 2013	Ch.9-11 SB, CP, PL
February 5, 2013	Ch.13-16 components	Business case, organisation, plans, controls
February 6, 2013	Ch.17-24 Components+techniques	risk management, quality, configuration, change control, product-based planning
February 7, 2013	practice exam	39-44 range, need review on components
February 8, 2013	12:00 Foundation exam	Actual exam almost identical to practice exam. Will record explanations to sample exam questions to better exploit patterns

Showing 9 items

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