What makes PRINCE2 such a successful methodology (when it’s used properly) is that it understands that projects, like journeys, are best managed in stages. And although, it’s the Project Board that decides on the number of stages, project managers need to understand the process in order to deliver what the board and the project need.

1. One step at a time. Just as your journey plans could go awry if you tried to do everything in one go, so your project would stall or crash if you tried to do everything in one stage. The Board therefore bolts together reasonably sized units of work that fit naturally together.
2. Money, cash, dosh… Call it what you will, it’s one of the key controls used by the Project Board. So while it sets aside money for the whole project, it will likely only authorise cash for one project at a time. If the Board determines that 5 million is the most it will authorise for a stage and one particular stage will cost 8 million, you will be asked to break up the stage into two smaller ones.
3. Tick, tock. While you may be happy to drive a project on for six months to complete a stage the Board may well feel it’s sensible to pull things over every three months to check progress.
4. Gambling on the future. If the project journey is high risk through dangerous territory, you can bet your carburettor that the project board will, quite understandably, be jumpy. The most likely result will be that they’ll divide up the project into as many stages as necessary to lower the risk.
5. You! Projects are about people and you’re one of the most important there is on a project. If you’re a Formula 1 project manager then the Board will entrust you with longer, expensive stages knowing that you’ll deliver. If you’re Formula 3 standard then you won’t blame them for wanting to keep a close watch on the project. This can even be to your benefit as it means that you’ll be able to check in with them from time to time when you’re not sure about something.

If you think that there should be more factors to help the Project Board decide on stages, you’ve obviously got a project management brain, because you would be right!  There are other elements and aspects to understand because PRINCE2 isn’t a question of ticking things off on a list. To find out more come along to one of our free seminars before signing up for one of our popular, guaranteed pass, interactive courses.

Useful Links

• Check out our Downloads page which has loads of forms, discussions and case studies for current and potential project managers.
• ILX Group delivers PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner e-learning, classroom and blended learning to suit every situation. Don’t forget the guaranteed pass offer.
• The APMG has a slew of useful information about PRINCE2 accredited training options.
• The PRINCE2 e-learning experience provides cost-effective, rich and collaborative training that includes a blog, a forum and social media such as Twitter and Facebook.
• ILX Connect can help companies implement PRINCE2 training.
• ILX Consulting provides everything from maturity assessments and organisational health-checks, through ITIL, MSP and PRINCE2 implementation, to programme and project performance management. It has a proven record of delivering tangible improvements in capability, productivity and customer satisfaction to a businesses and organisations.

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Once you might have been hard pressed to find women as managers – who used to come in one size only – male! That’s no longer the case but it’s still true that fewer women than men stride the boardrooms of the UK and the world.  The times, though, they are a-changing. Research suggests that women have the leadership qualities that business and project management in this century may well demand.

1. Role model for the future. There is a school of thought that suggests that had women held senior positions in the noughties the credit crunch might never have happened. Women, they say, think before they act. They don’t take risks lightly. They take decision making seriously and so make better decisions and so give greater confidence. We’ll never know what would have happened if women had been at the helm but we do know that these are helpful qualities in the modern project world buffeted as it is by the winds of global events. For women PMs who can gain the confidence and support of local or global team members, executives, users, suppliers, and others, must have a better chance of project success.  
2. Inspirational leader. Take any great explorer in history and there’s one quality you’ll find: the ability to inspire a shared and lasting vision that persuades people to follow them into unknown seas. The same is true – some claim – of women leaders in general as they can motivate, influence and appeal to people to follow them. Attributes that any PM would value and, more importantly, attributes that any man or woman can acquire. PRINCE2 gives you the hard skills that help you understand elements such as the quality review technique which can assist you to lead. APMP instils soft skills such as leadership, communication and conflict management that help manage the people that help keep the project on track.
3. Communication expert. We all know the stereotype of women loving to chat. But actually, research shows that they’re good listeners too (though some men may disagree!). And it is through this informal, casual, exchange of ideas and information that women are thought to pick up on the good and bad vibes in an organisation that help them steer business away from stormy weather. Whatever the truth of it, one thing is for sure, man or woman, the PM also needs to remember that PRINCE2 communication doesn’t only take place by the coffee cart but also via more formal means such as reports, registers and logs.
4. Conflict manager.  Since projects are about people in one way or another, it’s no surprise that differences can occur. What may be more of a surprise, however, is that these differences can benefit a project. If a team member, for instance, highlights concerns about a particular approach or action, the whole team can reflect on it, re-evaluate any potential risks and adjust course to ensure a better outcome. The trick is to manage the process so that conflict is constructive rather than destructive. Which is where women come in. They are thought to possess the qualities required for conflict resolution, valuing communication, collaboration, inclusiveness and fairness. As a result people they work with feel cared for, and people who feel cared for give their best. It is worth noting, however, that there is research that shows that men and women both have positive and negative qualities when faced with conflict.
5. Negotiator. Sometimes project management feels as if it should be called project negotiation as there’s so much of it! PM’s negotiate with customers, suppliers, executives and sponsors about everything from budgets and timescales to technology and personnel. Researchers have discovered that when women have good information, when they care about an issue and when they are working for others they negotiate results that can exceed those of men. Whatever the truth of all these gender differences, perhaps the one thing to remember is that everyone has qualities to celebrate.

Useful Links

• Fascinated by the role of women in the workplace? The Institute of Leadership and Management report will take you through the many layers of thought and discussion about gender and work in detail.
• Women are thought to epitomize Transformational leadership and more information. See if you agree.
• If you’re wondering how women are doing in business then this FT report will make riveting reading along with the latest survey on women in boards.
• Want to know how APMP and PRINCE2 fit together? Here’s the long version and here’s the 60 second version.
• Want to know about APMP? We’ve got almost everything you’ll need to know.
• ILX Group delivers PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner e-learning, classroom and blended learning to suit every situation. Don’t forget the guaranteed pass offer.
• Don’t reinvent the wheel! We’ve got a bunch of free and useful downloads to help you manage projects.
• The PRINCE2 e-learning experience provides cost-effective, rich and collaborative training that includes a blog, a forum and social media such as Twitter and Facebook.
• ILX Connect can help companies implement PRINCE2 training.
• ILX Consulting provides everything from maturity assessments and organisational health-checks, through ITIL, MSP and PRINCE2 implementation, to programme and project performance management. It has a proven record of delivering tangible improvements in capability, productivity and customer satisfaction to a businesses and organisations
• The APMG has a slew of useful information about PRINCE2 accredited training options.
• For definitive information about PRINCE2 the Cabinet Office is the place to go on everything from the history of the methodology to all the Best Management Practice products in its portfolio.

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How many times have you said: I wish I’d never started… the conversation, the idea, the project? We can’t help you with the first two but we can help you third by taking you through the Starting up a Project process so that you have a better chance of initiating viable projects. For the full picture visit PRINCE2.com.

• Deciding if the project is a go-er.  Imagine you’re redoing your garden. The purpose of the Starting Up a Project process in this situation would be to help you make sure that your plans to create your own Versailles were realistic and worth the effort before you started the Initiate a Project process.
• Thinking tough. In life and in projects it pays to hang tough early so you don’t have to deal with difficult problems later on. The objective of the Starting Up process is to make sure that you’ve thought through a bunch of things like having a sound and solid business justification for initiating your project, defining the scope of your ambitions, and much more of the same.
• Lessons from history. Any good gardener will tell you that the secret to success lies in learning from other gardens, from experts and from other sources of information such as blogs. It’s the same for project management. PRINCE2 encourages you to learn from other projects and other sources both in and outside the organisation. Learning lessons well will have a positive effect on everything from the Business Case to the project team.
• Finding the face that fits. One of the critical objectives of the Starting Up a Project process is creating the right roles and putting the right people in them. Sticking to our garden analogy you first need, a head gardener (the executive) and a foreman gardener (project manager). The executive’s role is to represent the interests of the stakeholders and make decisions accordingly.  The foreman’s role is to run things on a day-to-day basis him. After that, you would build a team whose members had defined roles, responsibilities, accountabilities and so on.
• Answering the big “why” question. It can’t be said often enough that the Business Case where you answer the “why do we want to do this?” question is critical in any project. It has many elements. It looks, for example, at project objectives, reasons behind it, funding and background information like feasibility studies. This is also an opportunity to determine things like the customer’s quality expectations and key milestones.
• Taking the right approach and writing the brief. Is it more cost-effective to develop it ourselves or to buy it in from outside? Is it better to modify an existing product or create a new one? These are some of the questions that this step helps you answer while you think things through in terms of resources, security and legality and the like. Oh and the project brief should be just that – brief! It outlines the current status of the project, desired outputs and outcomes, the scope and… well, instead of just reading about it take a look at a sample brief for Ace Software on our Free PRINCE2 Downloads page.
• Planning for Initiating a Project. When you’re planning a garden it can sometimes feel as if you’ve spent ages planning it and that you’ll never get down and dirty and do anything. It’s worth stick with it, though, for planning can make the difference between success and failure for any project. Jobs to do in this period include reviewing the lessons log, evaluating the time needed to create the stage plan, reviewing and analysing any risks and, finally, getting approval to initiate the project.

Useful Links

• ILX Group delivers PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner e-learning, classroom and blended learning to suit every situation. Don’t forget the guaranteed pass offer.
• Don’t reinvent the wheel! We’ve got a bunch of free and useful downloads to help you manage projects.
• The PRINCE2 e-learning experience provides cost-effective, rich and collaborative training that includes a blog, a forum and social media such as Twitter and Facebook.
• ILX Connect can help companies implement PRINCE2 training.
• ILX Consulting provides everything from maturity assessments and organisational health-checks, through ITIL, MSP and PRINCE2 implementation, to programme and project performance management. It has a proven record of delivering tangible improvements in capability, productivity and customer satisfaction to a businesses and organisations
• The APMG has a slew of useful information about PRINCE2 accredited training options.
• For definitive information about PRINCE2 the Cabinet Office is the place to go for information on everything from the history of the methodology to all the Best Management Practice products in its portfolio.

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