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Improve Your Project Management: PRINCE2

by Phil Baguley

PRINCE is an acronym that stands for Projects In Controlled Environments. It’s a management method that covers the management, control and organization of a project. PRINCE2 refers to the second major version of this method and is a registered trademark of the UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC).

Initially developed in 1989 and used as a UK government standard for information systems (IT) project management, PRINCE was soon in regular use outside the IT environment.

PRINCE2 was released in 1996 as a generic project management method and is scheduled for review in 2008/09.

PRINCE2 breaks the overall project process down into eight processes which in turn contain a total of 45 separate sub-processes. These processes are:

Starting Up a Project (SU)
Planning (PL)
Initiating a Project (IP)
Directing a Project (DP)
Controlling a Stage (CS)
Managing Product Delivery (MP)
Managing Stage Boundaries (SB)
Closing a Project (CP).

The PRINCE2 process is described more fully on the website of the UK government’s Office of Government Commerce (www.ogc.gov.uk).

PRINCE2 practitioners are required to take (and retake at five-year intervals) an accreditation examination. These are administered by the APM Group and a register of successful candidates is available on the web (www.apmgroup.co.uk/examquery.asp).



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