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  • 7/27/2019 Inside Prince 2

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    Elizabeth Harrin

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    Inside PRINCE2 Elizabeth Harrin

    Copyright Notice:

    Copyright The Otobos Group, 2010. All rights reserved.

    Reproduction or translation of any part of this work without the permission of the Publisher is

    against the law. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by

    any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or by any information

    storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

    While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this publication, neither the

    Author nor the Publisher assumes any responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary

    interpretation of the subject matter herein.

    This publication is not intended for use as a source of legal, financial or human resource

    management advice.

    The Author assumes no responsibility or liability whatsoever on the behalf of any Purchaser or

    Reader of these materials.

    PRINCE2 is a Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and

    other countries.

    MSP is a Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce.

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    Table of Contents

    Introduction..........................................................................................................................................4

    Tolerances.............................................................................................................................................5

    Time.............................................................................................................................................................5

    Cost..............................................................................................................................................................5

    Scope...........................................................................................................................................................6

    Risk..............................................................................................................................................................6

    Quality.........................................................................................................................................................6

    Benefits........................................................................................................................................................6

    Fixed date projects...............................................................................................................................8

    What PRINCE2 says......................................................................................................................................8

    The role of the Project Board.......................................................................................................................8Exam tips.............................................................................................................................................10

    Read the answers......................................................................................................................................10

    Annotate your manual...............................................................................................................................10

    Get some experience first..........................................................................................................................10

    Closing a project.................................................................................................................................11

    How does PRINCE2 handle closing a project?............................................................................................11

    What are the objectives of the Closing a Project process?........................................................................11

    How do I close down a project?.................................................................................................................11

    What if the project is closing before it completes?....................................................................................12

    Where can I get more guidance?...............................................................................................................12

    Who does what in Initiation?.............................................................................................................136 Reasons to use your pm4success subscription...............................................................................15

    1: Ask an Expert........................................................................................................................................15

    2: Alchemy for Managers.......................................................................................................................... 15

    3: OGC Resource Toolkit............................................................................................................................15

    4: Mind Maps............................................................................................................................................ 15

    5: Sample papers...................................................................................................................................... 15

    6: Free.......................................................................................................................................................16

    Will I renew my subscription?....................................................................................................................16

    A new way to think about RACI..........................................................................................................17

    What software works with PRINCE2?.................................................................................................18

    Book review: Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2................................................................19Book review: Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2.................................................................20

    About the author................................................................................................................................21

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    Introduction

    PRINCE2:2009 is no longer the new standard it's the guidance of choice for many project

    managers. Over the past year, A Girl's Guide to Project Management has published various articles

    about applying PRINCE2 techniques, as well as advice on how to get the most out of the PRINCE2

    exam process.

    This short book brings together all those articles, covering topics as diverse as exam tips, project

    closure and managing tolerances. It will be a useful guide for those starting their journey to

    become a PRINCE2 Practitioner, or for those who are trying to implement PRINCE2 successfully in

    their organisations.

    Even if you have no intention of studying for the PRINCE2 exams, I hope you will find something

    useful in here to apply to the way you do projects.

    Elizabeth Harrin

    London

    January 2011

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    http://www.pm4girls.elizabeth-harrin.com/http://www.pm4girls.elizabeth-harrin.com/
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    Tolerances

    Tolerances are a key part of being able to work autonomously as a project manager. Having a

    tolerance means you can be over a bit or under a bit and not have to continually go back to your

    project sponsor and get any variation approved. It gives you some slack to manage things in the

    best possible way and to be a professional about how you deliver projects.

    A tolerance is a performance range to which you will keep. Positive tolerances (the amount by

    which you can go over) are the most common. Who cares if you are significantly under against

    budget or come in three months early? Actually, negative tolerances are just as important.

    Coming in under budget means you have tied up company funds unnecessarily for a length of time,

    and in the current economic climate no sponsor will thank you for that. That isnt to say that you

    should spend company money on random items just to stay within tolerance, but once you dropbelow your tolerance levels it would be a good time to reforecast your project budget and free up

    any spare cash that you wont be using.

    The two most frequently used tolerances are budget and time, although PRINCE2 offers you a

    choice of six tolerances:

    Time

    Cost

    Scope

    Risk Quality

    Benefits.

    These are summarised in the table overleaf. Lets look at each of them individually.

    Time

    A time tolerance is the amount to which you can be over or under against your project completion

    dates. For example, if the tolerance is two weeks you can deliver two weeks earlier or two weeks

    later without it having an impact. If you are too early you will have created a problem for anotherproject; too late and you have missed the final deadline.

    Cost

    Cost tolerances are applied as either a percentage or a cash amount against the planned budget.

    For example, on a 100k project with a 10% tolerance you can spend up to 110k before having to

    ask for approval for more spend.

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    Scope

    Scope tolerance is slightly odd, because it is a lot harder to quantify a percentage variation to

    scope. Scope tolerance is measured as an agreed variation from the product description, and any

    potential variation should be documented in the product breakdown structure. Think priority

    listing for scope tolerance. MoSCoW prioritisation will give you a list that provides potential for

    variation in delivery.

    Tolerance area Description

    Time + / - time of planned completion

    Cost + / - amount of planned budget

    Scope Permitted scope variations

    Risk Permitted aggregate threat/individual

    threat value

    Quality Permitted quality variations within a

    range

    Benefits Permitted benefit variations within a

    range

    Table 1: Tolerances in PRINCE2

    Risk

    Each risk should have an impact attached to it, and risk tolerance covers the aggregate impact of

    the projects risk portfolio. For example, financial value of all the project risks should not exceed

    5% of the project budget. You can also set a tolerance per risk, like only two days of downtime

    permitted for any operational service. Risk tolerances give you an idea of which risks you should

    be escalating to the Project Board.

    Quality

    Quality tolerances are targets that define acceptable performance for a product, and are

    documented in the product descriptions. An example would be that a software product must have

    a response time of between 0 and 0.5 seconds when a user hits Submit.

    Benefits

    Its hard to think of a scenario where you would want to cap the project benefits, so normally

    benefit tolerances are set to the lowest levels. Benefit tolerances are defined as a range and will

    be part of the projects business case. For example: Achieve minimum savings on the cost of

    electricity of 6% for each of our shops, averaging 8% across all shops'.

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    Tolerances can be set for the project, for a stage and also at work package level, so they can

    become very detailed. The overall project tolerances should be agreed with the sponsor at the

    start of the project, so you know what parameters you are working to. They form part of the

    contract you have with the sponsor and getting this clear up front will make managing the

    project (and the sponsor) a lot easier as the project gets going.

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    Fixed date projects

    Planning is an essential part of what project managers do, so you would expect there to be some

    mention of how to deal with fixed date projects in the PRINCE2 manuals. There isnt. Fixed date

    projects only get a passing mention in the Managing Successful Projectsbook, and youd have to

    look really hard to find a mention of managing time constraints in the Directing Successful Projects

    book.

    Thats because PRINCE2 expects you to do project management properly, with sponsors who

    commit to realistic plans and dont expect you to deliver the world on a plate by Tuesday

    lunchtime. Unfortunately, when does any methodology get applied perfectly? Project managers

    still need some guidance on how to manage projects that have a fixed date.

    What PRINCE2 says

    PRINCE2 advises that the fixed date time constraint is managed as a planning risk. It identifies

    planning risks based on fiscal boundaries (for example, where you cant move the project budget

    from one financial year to the next) and also on calendar boundaries (for example, delivering

    something before the end of the tax year). It cites the Millennium Bug projects as calendar-bound

    planning risks, but there have been more recent examples, like last years 53 week year which

    messed up some software.

    If you are doing your product based planning properly, you will end up with a schedule that shows

    exactly how long the project is going to take. You then take this to the sponsor and ask foragreement.

    Project Board members are supposed to make a commitment to provide adequate resources to

    successfully deliver the project, and time is one of them. The Directing manual does acknowledge

    that there are factors that can upset the agreement process. For example, people may not be

    available to resource the project adequately to enable it to hit the scheduled dates because they

    are working on other things. PRINCE2 advises that the Project Board members decide between

    themselves how best to meet all the organisations commitments and manage competing

    priorities.

    The role of the Project Board

    The good news for project managers is that the Project Board are clearly advised by PRINCE2 that

    their role is to endorse the Stage Plans as realistic representations of the work required to achieve

    the deliverables. That is, by agreeing a Stage Plan, they also agree that it is completely possible to

    do all the work in the required time and they sign up to providing all the resources necessary to

    make that happen. They cant agree a Stage Plan, take away half your project team and then

    blame you when you cant get the work done on time. Has your Project Board done this to you?

    Point them to page 26 in the Directing manual which says: Project Board members cannot

    subsequently distance themselves and blame the planners. So there.

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    While there isnt a lot about managing fixed date projects in PRINCE2, the reason is that you

    shouldnt be managing fixed date projects. PRINCE2 is all about managing in a controlled

    environment (thats the C and the E of PRINCE), not one where everyone is rushing around

    panicking to get things done by a date some executive thought up on the golf course.

    If you are expected to manage a fixed date project in a PRINCE2 environment, question how that

    fits with the method because it doesnt fit very well.

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    Exam tips

    Read the answers

    When you are in your PRINCE2 exam pay special attention to the answers to the questions as they

    are written on the paper. The exam is multiple choice so there will be multiple answers to choose

    from. Look out for the language. There are very few absolutes in PRINCE2 so be careful with

    answers with the words 'must' in or those that say 'You always should do this' as chances are the

    examiners will be trying to catch you out.

    Annotate your manual

    The PRINCE2 exam is 'open book' which means you can take in your PRINCE2 manual but you can't

    take in any other materials, documents or notes that you have made. However that doesn't stop

    you from putting all the notes that you want to make inside the manual. There is lots of white

    space inside the back and front covers, the blank pages at the back - where you can make the

    notes that you need, and draw the process diagrams that you feel will help you pass the exam.

    Get some experience first

    There are no pre-requisites for taking the PRINCE2 Foundation exam. You don't need to have any

    level of educational attainment or any previous project management experience. However, to take

    the Practitioner exam you do need to have already taken and passed the Foundation exam. Whileyou don't need any project management experience to take Foundation and then move on to

    Practitioner, it is advisable to have some. It will be a lot easier for you to understand the concepts

    and to apply the skills that you have learned if you already have some experience working with

    projects.

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    Closing a project

    A project has a start, a middle and an end, so closing a project is an important part of the project

    management lifecycle. Closing a project successfully means a good, clean transition for the project

    team. This involves transferring ownership of the products to the operational team, and makes it

    clear that the project team are no longer responsible for them. The project manager and the team

    will be able to move on to their next assignment. A clear end to the project also provides an

    opportunity to ensure that any goals that were not achieved during the project can be addressed

    in the future.

    How does PRINCE2 handle closing a project?

    Closing a project in PRINCE2 uses a variant of the Managing Stage Boundary process, as thisclosure activity happens at the end of the last stage. The work required to close the project should

    be planned as part of this final stage. The Closing a Project process tackles the end of the stage in

    a slightly different way to the other stages: instead of gaining approval to move to the next stage,

    this process gains approval to close the project and handover to operations instead.

    What are the objectives of the Closing a Project process?

    The objectives of the Closing a Project process are:

    To verify that there is user acceptance of the projects products;

    To ensure that the operational team is able to support the products when the project and

    the project team is disbanded;

    To review the performance of the project against its baselines;

    To assess any benefits that have already been realised, update the forecast for the

    remaining benefits and plan a review of those benefits at some point in the future; and

    To ensure that provision has been made to address all the open issues and risks, with

    follow-on actions or recommendations.

    How do I close down a project?

    There are three areas to cover when closing a project.

    First, the project manager should check that the expected results have been achieved. This can be

    done through updating the project plan, checking that all the products have been approved and

    meet the quality criteria and checking that the acceptance criteria for the project have been met.

    Second, the projects products must be handed over to the operational team. This could be done

    in one go, or it might have happened as part of a phased delivery. If anything is not yet completed,

    prepare a follow-on action list for the operational team to pick up, including scheduling a review of

    benefits at a later date.

    Third, evaluate the project. This provides the opportunity to review the projects original intent as

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    agreed back in the initiation stage, against what was actually accomplished. The evaluation can be

    presented as an End Project Report, which covers how the project performed against targets,

    tolerances and the baseline schedule. The evaluation can also include a Lessons Learned Report,

    so that other projects can learn from what went well and what didnt go so well on this project.

    What if the project is closing before it completes?

    Projects sometimes need to be stopped before they are planned to finish. There are many reasons

    for this, including that the business environment or strategy may have changed, negating the need

    for the project. If this is the case, the project can still be closed in a controlled manner, which will

    allow the project manager to salvage anything of value and check that senior management is

    aware of any gaps left by cancelling the project.

    When a project is closed prematurely, there may be some products that have been completed.

    These can be handed over to the operational team if appropriate. It is also useful to notify the

    management teams that the project team will be released early and the team members will be

    available to take on other assignments.

    When a project is stopped early, it is really important to make sure that there is adequate

    communication to the business and the project team. People dont like to be associated with

    failed projects, so try to communicate the positive aspects of what the project managed to achieve

    before it was stopped, and clearly explain the business rationale for stopping the project at this

    time.

    Where can I get more guidance?

    The PRINCE2 manuals, Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 and Directing Successful

    Projects with PRINCE2, both include sections on managing project closure.

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    Who does what in Initiation?

    Initiating a project is where it all starts in PRINCE2. This is the phase where you start working out

    who is going to do what. You also put in place all the required elements to make sure the project

    goes smoothly. The Initiating a Project process is designed to establish solid foundations

    according to the manual. Essentially, this is the part where you make sure that everyone knows

    what they need to do and that there is a common agreement on the project objectives and the

    rationale for undertaking the work.

    There are a lot of items to set up in the Initiating a Project process, although if you have managed

    a project with PRINCE2 before youll just need to get out the versions you did for those projects

    and tweak them to suit this new one. No sense in reinventing the wheel.

    In my opinion, the four most important parts of this process are putting in place the approach to

    deal with issues and changes as they arise. That means having:

    a Risk Management Strategy

    a Configuration Management Strategy

    a Quality Management Strategy, and;

    a Communications Management Strategy.

    For each of these you need to work out who is going to:

    approve the strategy (A)

    review the strategy (R); and

    produce the strategy (P).

    The responsibilities for each member of the project team are shown in the table overleaf.

    Remember that the Configuration Management Strategy is where your issues register sits.

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    Product Action

    Executive or

    Senior User

    or SeniorSupplier

    Project

    Manager

    Project

    Assurance

    Project

    Support

    Risk Management

    StrategyCreate A P R

    Risk RegisterCreate and

    completeA R P

    Configuration

    Management

    Strategy

    Create A P R

    Configuration Item

    RecordsCreate first pass A R P

    Issue RegisterCreate and

    completeA R P

    Quality

    Management

    Strategy

    Create A P R

    Quality Register Create A R P

    CommunicationManagement

    Strategy

    Create A P R

    Table 2: Initiation stage responsibilities

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    6 Reasons to use your pm4success subscription

    Exam rooms for APMG exams like PRINCE2 can be daunting.

    The desks are clear apart from the papers you need. And somewhere on the desk is likely to be a

    leaflet for pm4success, the APMGs website for exam candidates. In the stress of the exam, you

    could overlook the leaflet and forget to fill in the blanks to ensure you get access to the website.

    However, with over 1000 pages of content aimed at project and programme managers, it is worth

    remembering that you have free access to this site for 12 months after your exam.

    Here are 6 reasons why you should log on to pm4success.

    1: Ask an Expert

    You can Ask an Expert, or browse the questions that have already been asked. Those asked in the

    last 30 days are flagged as new so you can see whats been recently added. Questions are

    answered by people like the chief examiner, so you know you are getting a good quality reply.

    Some of the answers include templates or sample documents, so you get more than just a stock

    answer you get a tailored response with useful additional material if they have something extra

    to share.

    2: Alchemy for Managers

    You get a years subscription to Alchemy for Managers which is very useful. Project managementis also about good management, so brush up on all your basic (and some more advanced) general

    management topics. The year starts from the day you sign up to Alchemy, so it doesnt run

    concurrent with your pm4success membership. This alone is worth logging on to pm4success for.

    3: OGC Resource Toolkit

    Theres a guide to the OGC Resource Toolkit. The OGC website is extensive and difficult to

    navigate. pm4success provides direct links to the most useful entry points, documentation and

    briefings, which saves you time. Its in flux at the moment as the OGC website is being updated.*

    4: Mind Maps

    There are Mind Maps to download for M_o_R, MSP and PRINCE2. You need to download

    Thoughtograph, a mindmap viewing tool to be able to view them. Its not how I think or structure

    my notes, but for graphically-minded people its an aid to not having to build your own.

    5: Sample papers

    There are sample exam papers available for PRINCE2, MSP, M_ o_R. Sample papers are a highly

    valuable resource. In order to get access to pm4success, you will have had to take one of those

    * As at September 2010

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    exams, but if you are thinking of taking another, you can get some exam practice in advance as part

    of your pre-course learning.

    6: FreeIts free! There are over 1000 pages of content. While I found that some of it is not helpful at all

    (although it might be helpful to people at different stages of their career), there has to be

    something here you can use!

    Will I renew my subscription?

    No. Much of the content on pm4success is static, and while they do add new articles on a regular

    basis, its not enough to encourage me to pay the annual fee. The Ask an Expert feature is

    excellent, but the newsgroup is not very active and Ill get the same benefit of discussion with my

    peers from forums on Gantthead or LinkedIn groups. Overall, it is a useful perk to have for a year,but not worth continuing after that.

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    A new way to think about RACI

    Do you use the RACI model to help with stakeholder management?

    RACI is a way of categorising stakeholders to help define their roles and responsibilities, and it is

    also useful for communications plans. The most common way to see RACI used is in tabular form

    with the letters across the top and the list of stakeholders down the side. The letters across the

    top stand for:

    Responsible: these people have responsibility for certain tasks

    Accountable: this is the person accountable for the job in hand

    Consulted: these people would like to know about the task and we would seek their

    opinions Informed: this group gets one-way communication to keep them up-to-date with progress

    and other messages

    A tabular format is fine for documenting the RACI profile of your stakeholders. If you have

    difficulty trying to remember how many you have in each group, think of RACI as a triangle:

    Figure 1: The RACI Triangle

    There is only one person accountable for the task or project, and they are at the top. You then

    have several people responsible for various elements. A larger group is consulted and provides

    input. An even larger group gets regular communications but are not active in any other way.

    This is a useful project management tool that highlights the type of input each stakeholder or

    group of stakeholders is going to have but you actually have to make sure that everyone is

    engaged for the project to be a success. At least RACI gives you a starting point in identifying and

    categorising stakeholders, so you can then properly engage them.

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    What software works with PRINCE2?

    I would like your suggestions on which software can apply the methodology of PRINCE2, said the

    email from a project manager from Brazil. I love getting emails from readers, and it is good to have

    the opportunity to set the record straight about certain things. It was interesting that this question

    had been asked at all, so I thought it was worth answering here.

    The short answer is that there is no software that applies the methodology of PRINCE2. PRINCE2

    doesnt work like that. This is what the manual says:

    PRINCE2 is a non-proprietary method [it] is truly generic: it can be applied to any

    project regardless of scale, type, organization, geography or culture.

    PRINCE2 is tool-agnostic, so it doesnt rely on any type of technology to make it work. I have used

    it in organizations using Niku and Microsoft Project, but that is just for producing scheduling

    information, and in the case of Niku, resource planning through the use of timesheets. You could

    use any scheduling tool. Or none at all.

    If you search online for PRINCE2 software you will find some companies who say their software

    can help deploy PRINCE2 as a method in your organization. Project in a box, for example, or

    Project Progress, both have PRINCE2 compatible software. I havent tried either of these

    (although I have had Project in a box on my radar for a while). I cant tell you if they are any good

    they might be. But they are certainly not essential for deploying and using PRINCE2.

    Personally I would be hesitant about using a project management software product particularly

    tailored to one project approach, as I have to question how easy it is to pick and choose the bits of

    the method you want to apply. The great thing about PRINCE2 2009 is that it is far more

    customisable than previous versions, and that allows project managers infinite flexibility in how

    they use it. I imagine that it would be far more time consuming to manage customisable options in

    a software product than by letting an experienced project manager get on with doing their job.

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    Book review: Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2

    The new version of the PRINCE2 manual for project managers feels a lot clearer

    and structured. Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2: 2009 Edition has

    more diagrams and a greater degree of clarity and explanation about the

    themes and processes. This makes the book more graphically interesting than

    the previous versions, and Im sure this makes it easier to study and reference

    on a daily basis.

    There is a greater degree of emphasis on the business case, and the text in

    general spends more time on evaluating and understanding the project context.

    Chapter 5 sets the project in the organisational environment, with advice on working with a

    project team part-time or otherwise including short guidance on training and line managementresponsibilities.

    This version has a clearer definition of the quality approach, including a sample quality review

    meeting agenda. Overall, the book provides more structured guidance on the how of managing a

    project with examples of what the techniques or criteria actually map to within a project. Each

    Theme chapter ends with a table explaining the responsibilities of each team member as it relates

    to that Theme, and this is replicated in a similar fashion in the Processes chapters. However, the

    text still talks about a daily log and I remain unconvinced as to the usefulness of this concept in an

    electronic business environment.

    The book includes useful checklists, and the Closing a Project checklist seemed particularly good,although it does overlap slightly with the Authorise Project Closure checklist. In total, the health

    check lists provided by Appendix E do offer a project manager the opportunity to assess the state

    of any project, which is helpful if you have not been the project manager since the beginning of

    the project, or if you are coming to the close of a major stage and feel that it is an appropriate time

    to schedule a review.

    There is clearer guidance here as to how PRINCE2 sits within the family of OGC texts, and there are

    references to Management of Risk in Chapter 8 (Risks). This, combined with the advice on tailoring

    PRINCE2 for your own organisation, makes the manual seem more practical and more coherent.

    Previously, the PRINCE2 methods were in danger of being applied in an all or nothing approach,

    but this new version sets organisational maturity and appetite in the heart of the project

    management process.

    P a g e | 19

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    Inside PRINCE2 Elizabeth Harrin

    Book review: Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2

    This book is long overdue: its a great idea to have a separate manual for those

    responsible for directing projects and sitting on the Project Board. Directing

    Successful Projects with PRINCE2 2009 has a clear structure and its also

    clear what it does not include. There is nothing in here about the leadership

    skills required to carry out the Project Executive responsibilities, but the

    manual does reference the Focus on Skills series which does cover this. In fact,

    the inter-relationships between this book and the other OGC texts is set out in

    a way which provides context to this text.

    I particularly liked the guidance for new Executives: there are case studies and boxed examples

    that help bring the theory into a practical setting. There are also discussions of the more complexconcepts for Project Board members. The explanation of different types of tolerances in Chapter 3

    is comprehensive and will no doubt assist project managers in securing tolerance limits on future

    projects. There are also practical shortcuts, like draft agendas for Project Board meetings and

    benefits reviews. However, I felt there could be more emphasis on the importance of a successful

    handover to operations, as this is often missed in projects and the support of the Executive is

    making sure this happens effectively is essential.

    The book provides clear guidance as to what is expected of the project manager, as well as how to

    select the right project manager for the project. Chapter 8 offers advice on what to do if the

    project manager selected requires too much support or is failing to manage by exception, and

    again, this is good, practical advice for new Executives.

    In the past, many project managers have had to provide guidance themselves to Project Board

    members, and ask for what they need. They will assuredly appreciate the concrete guidance this

    book offers in a form that they can give to Executives instead of having to hold difficult

    conversations which can often feel like undermining the Executives experience or authority. While

    it wont avoid the need for all difficult conversations between project manager and Executive, it

    will hopefully ease some of the organisational challenges and allow both parties to get on with the

    job of managing a successful project.

    P a g e | 20

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    Inside PRINCE2 Elizabeth Harrin

    About the author

    Elizabeth Harrin is a career project and

    programme manager and an award-winning

    blogger. She has been named one of the top

    project management thinkers today. Elizabeth is

    the author of two books on project

    management: Project Management in the Real

    World(BCS Books, 2006) and Social Media for

    Project Management(PMI, 2010).

    Elizabeth writes and publishes A Girls Guide to Project Management, an irreverent look at the

    world of project management which aims to help project managers stay on time, on budget and onscope while delivering excellent value to their stakeholders.

    Elizabeth has a background in financial services and healthcare, and an interest in international

    teams, having spent two years working in Paris, France. She is a PRINCE2 Practitioner, an MSP

    Practitioner and she trained as a Six Sigma Black Belt.

    Elizabeth is also CEO ofThe Otobos Group, a business writing practice specialising in topics relating

    to project management and women in business. The Otobos Group can create and edit templates,

    articles, blog content, website copy trade journal articles to appear under your byline, and much

    more.

    P a g e | 21

    Its not about replacing the tools you

    use to communicate now, but rather

    expanding your options so that you can

    communicate and collaborate more

    effectively.

    Dave Garrett, CEO, Gantthead.com

    I consider Social Media for Project

    Managers a must read for everyprofessional.

    Bas de Baar, The Project Shrink

    A perfect, practical, step-by-step guide

    to putting social media tools to work

    today.

    J. LeRoy Ward, PMP, PgMP, Executive

    Vice President, ESI International

    www.SocialMediaForProjectManagers.com

    http://www.liquidplanner.com/blog/2010/7/19/who-are-the-top-thinkers-in-project-management-today.htmlhttp://www.liquidplanner.com/blog/2010/7/19/who-are-the-top-thinkers-in-project-management-today.htmlhttp://www.pm4girls.elizabeth-harrin.com/http://www.otobosgroup.com/http://www.otobosgroup.com/http://www.pm4girls.elizabeth-harrin.com/http://www.liquidplanner.com/blog/2010/7/19/who-are-the-top-thinkers-in-project-management-today.htmlhttp://www.liquidplanner.com/blog/2010/7/19/who-are-the-top-thinkers-in-project-management-today.htmlhttp://www.pm4girls.elizabeth-harrin.com/http://www.otobosgroup.com/