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PRINCE2™ was launched by the UK Government in 1996 and has since become the most widely used project management method worldwide. At the end of 2006 there were more than 250,000 certified project managers who had sat and passed the PRINCE2™ practitioner exam. PRINCE2™ practitioners can now be found in all 7 continents (yes, even in Antarctica where PRINCE2™ has been used by the British Antarctic Survey since 2001).
PRINCE2™ is now more than a just manual. When people say “we are using PRINCE2™” they don’t mean that they are using the manual. They mean that they direct, manage or participate on a project which follows (some of) the processes, components and techniques embodied in the PRINCE2™ manual.
PRINCE2™ has become ‘a way’ of delivering projects. It has become the international language for project management. It has become a community. And a global community at that. The community comprises:
The UK Government (it is owned by the Office of Government Commerce – OGC)
· A documented method (the manual, now in its 4th edition)
· An accreditation body (APM Group Ltd)
· Training companies (120+ accredited training organisations, providing training around the globe in 17 languages)
· Consulting companies (15+ accredited consulting organisations)
· Software tools (There were 52 tools which support PRINCE2™ listed in Project Manager Today’s December 2006 PM Software Tool sourcebook)
· Several User Groups (6 formal ones covering more than 10 countries)
· Several on-line clubs with discussion forums dedicated to PRINCE2™ (e.g. ecademy, APMG-ICP, Yahoo!)
· More than 250,000 certified Practitioners worldwide
The number of people using PRINCE2™ is many times the number of people certified to Practitioner level and its reach is evident in that a Google™ search will show that there are more than 1.6 million pages on the world-wide-web which reference PRINCE2™. Much more than any other method.
While the PRINCE2™ manual is owned and maintained by the UK Government, several other governments are now prescribing its use (for example The Netherlands, Denmark, Germany) and it has been adopted by The United Nations Development Program as part of their global framework for managing projects. Its use extends beyond Governments and institutions as it has been adopted by the private sector with some vigour. PRINCE2™ has also moved beyond its IT origin and is used for R&D projects, construction projects, product development projects, marketing projects, business transformation projects and many more.
That all sounds great, but….
The PRINCE2™ phenomena is dampened by the fact that for every well run project using PRINCE2™ there are a number of poorly run projects using PINO (PRINCE In Name Only). Common issues observed with PINO projects are:
· The start-up phase is rushed or missed (the organisation jumps straight to producing a PID)
· Project Boards are not effective (escalations may go into a black hole, the project board refuse to baseline the scope, etc)
· Gantt charts form the basis of project planning instead of Product Breakdown Structures (without Product Descriptions, PRINCE2's quality management processes and techniques do not work)
· Tolerances are not set or are limited to time and cost only
· Projects are all single stages (or 'phases' are used to avoid doing an End Stage Review!)
· PIDs are simply a 'cut & paste' from the last project and are not read or followed (shelf-ware)
The ‘hit and miss’ nature of how well PRINCE2™ is applied is one of the reasons why OGC produced thePRINCE2™ Maturity Model (P2MM). P2MM describes the infrastructure an organisation should have in order to gain full value from adopting and using PRINCE2™ as a corporate standard.
Outperform is an Accredited Consulting Organisation licensed to conduct assessments using P2MM and to provide quality assured PRINCE2™ consulting services. If you would like to:
· Implement PRINCE2™
· Reinvigorate your existing PRINCE2™ Implementation
· Check you are using PRINCE2™ appropriately
· Move your project management performance to the next level
...we have a range of services to help.
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