Is PRINCE2 a methodology or framework?

Projects bring about new solutions and value adding change to organizations and businesses. Completing the projects in time within budget and delivering the expected outcomes have always been of paramount importance. Ironically, even today, almost 50% of the projects are in some kind of distress either ending up being behind schedule or over budget or even both.

Need for structured project management has been the need of the hour to improve the success rate of the projects. There are many project management guidelines and methodology emerged during the last few decades. 

But PRINCE2 and PMI’s PMBOK have emerged as the most sought after project management recommended approaches. PMI’s PMBOK is a standard set of guidelines for project management, whereas PRINCE2 is a methodology with well-defined set of steps we need to follow to take a project from its inception to closure.

PRINCE2 (an acronym for PRojects IN Controlled Environments) has been used extensively by the UK Government, PRINCE2 is also widely recognised and used in the private sector, both in the UK and internationally.

PRINCE2 was established in 1989 by CCTA (the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency) UK. CCTA has been renamed the OGC (the Office of Government Commerce). 

It is a flexible method that contains the essentials for managing successful projects, regardless of type or scale. PRINCE2 includes seven principles, themes and processes, PRINCE2 can be tailored to meet your specific requirements.

Key features of PRINCE2:

• Focus on continued business justification
• Defined organisation structure for the project management team
• Product-based planning approach
• Emphasis on dividing the project into manageable and controllable stages
• Flexibility that can be applied at a level appropriate to the project.

PRINCE2 proposes a structured project management process framework with some principles, themes and processes. The PRINCE2 framework says that a project should have:

• An organised and controlled start, i.e. organise and plan before leaping in.
• An organised and controlled middle, i.e. keeping projects organised and controlled.
• An organised and controlled end, i.e. when you've got what you want and the project has finished, tidy up the loose ends.

PRINCE2 framework is base four integrated elements of:

• Principles, (7 principles)

The seven PRINCE2 principles are:

• Continued business justification: There must be a justifiable reason to be running and managing the project. 
• Learn from experience: PRINCE2 project teams continually seek and draw on lessons learned from previous work.
• Defined roles and responsibilities: PRINCE2 project team will have a clear organizational structure and involve the right people in the right tasks.
• Manage by stages: PRINCE2 projects are planned, monitored and controlled on a stage-by-stage basis. The project life cycle is divided into number of logical stages.
• Manage by exception: Project Manager and others working within the project should be given the right amount of authority to effectively work within the environment.
• Focus on products: PRINCE2 projects focus on the product definition, delivery and quality requirements.
• Tailor to suit the project environment: PRINCE2 process rigour must be tailored to suit the project’s environment, size, complexity, importance, capability and risk.
• Themes, (7 themes)

The seven PRINCE2 themes:

• Business case: Create and maintain a record of the business justification for the project.
• Organization: Define the individual roles and responsibilities of the whole project team.
• Quality: Identify the quality requirements and measures are and how the project will deliver them.
• Plans: The steps required to develop the plans and the PRINCE2 techniques that should be used.
• Risk: Effectively identify risks and opportunities that could impact the project.
• Change: How the project manager will assess and act on changes to the project.
• Progress: The on-going viability and performance of the plans and how and whether the project should proceed.
• Processes (7 processes)

These describe the steps of the project lifecycle, from the initial idea to project closure (and measurement of the benefits). Each process provides checklists of recommended activities, related responsibilities and guidance about how to tailor to a specific environment.

The seven PRINCE2 processes:

• Starting up a project
• Directing a project
• Initiating a project
• Controlling a stage
• Managing product delivery 
• Managing stage boundaries
• Closing a project

More details about the PRINCE2 framework can be studied at www.prince2.com . 

Conclusion

PRINCE2 framework has been the de-facto project management methodology to be adopted for all government projects in UK. It has become popular internationally also. But PMI’s PMBOK standard has gained more adoption worldwide. PRINCE2 is a methodology with clear steps to be followed, while PMI’s PMBOK is a standard guideline consisting with a set of best practices which practitioner can follow as per their project requirements.

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