Progress

• Purpose
• Progress defined
  • What is progress?
  • What are progress controls?
  • Exceptions and tolerances
• The PRINCE2 approach
• Delegating authority
  • The four levels of management
  • Project Board controls
  • Project Manager controls
• Use of management stages for control
  • Overview
  • Number of stages
  • Length of stages
  • Technical stages
• Event driven and time driven controls
  • Overview
  • Baselines for progress control
  • Reviewing progress
  • Capturing and reporting lessons
  • Reporting progress
• Raising exceptions
• Responsibilities

Key sections

• Introduction
• Business case
• Organization
• Quality
• Plans
• Risk
• Change
• Progress
• Introduction to processes
• Starting up a projectDirecting a project
• Initiating a project
• Controlling a stage
• Managing Product Delivery
• Managing a Stage Boundary
• Closing a Project
• Tailoring PRINCE2 to the project environment
• Directing Projects with PRINCE2

The PRINCE2 approach

Use of management stages for control

Number of stages

The use of management stages in a PRINCE2® project is mandatory, but the number of stages is flexible and depends on the scale and risk of the project.
Every PRINCE2 project consists of at least two management stages.
The initiation stage is mandatory as it ensures that there is a firm basis for the project, which is understood by all parties.
There should also be at least one other management stage to cover the remainder of the project.
For larger projects, additional management stages may be needed to enable the project management team to have an optimal level of planning and control.

Defining management stages is fundamentally a process of balancing:

• How far ahead in the project it is sensible to plan
• Where the key decision points need to be on the project
• The amount of risk within a project
• Too many short management stages (increasing the project management overhead) versus too few lengthy ones (reducing the level of control)
• How confident the Project Board and Project Manager are in proceeding

The number of management stages required will be dictated by the nature of the project and its duration.
For short-duration projects (where the project can be completed within the planning horizon, for example), the introduction of multiple management stages could result in unnecessary ‘overheads’ and additional costs.

PRINCE2® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.