Once the Project Initiation Documentation and the Project Plan have been approved, the project proceeds as a series of management stages, with Stage Plans acting as notional contracts between the Project Board and the Project Manager.
Stage boundariesAlthough Project Board members should continue to provide ad hoc direction as necessary (see the section covering ‘Give ad hoc direction’), the aim, for the most part, is for them to ‘manage by exception’.
This means that the Project Board’s contribution is focused on key control points (stage boundaries – see diagram 1) when:
Diagram 2 illustrates the typical profile of Project Board activity in a PRINCE2® project.
Note that the effort is heavily ‘front-loaded’, with peak activity during project initiation.
Thereafter, there should be smaller peaks at stage boundaries and minor blips during the stages (perhaps for reacting to Highlight Reports or Issue Reports).
There is also likely to be another peak as the project’s products are handed over for use.
This pattern will of course be different if the handover of products for operational use is phased in some way.
Projects that do not have front-loaded involvement of the Project Board tend to have a profile showing greater and more haphazard involvement at later stages through an increased need for Project Board interventions or consultations.
All references above are in Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 unless stated otherwise.
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