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PRINCE2 and ISD Overview
Today's lecture focuses on PRINCE2 P rojectsinControlledEnvironments and its
application in Information Systems Development I SD. PRINCE2 is a heavyweight
project management methodology commonly used for large projects.
Reminders
Next week: Short in-class quiz 5 covering material up to last week.
Project A Specification: Available now 10, to be done in groups. Decide on a
case study providedoryourown this week with tutor assistance. Project A is due
in week six.
What is PRINCE2?
PRINCE2 is a globally recognized project management methodology used across
various sectors, not just ISD. It's employed by governments and organizations
worldwide for managing significant projects.
Initiation Phase: All ISD projects begin with initiation and proceed through
development, deployment, and maintenance.
PRINCE2 Focus: Assumes a large, significant project with longevity.
Key Concepts in PRINCE2
1. Organization: The project team assembled to deliver a business product.
2. Product Agnostic: PRINCE2 can be applied to various types of products. In the
context of ISD, the product is an information system.
Management Products: Documentations and plans generated during
PRINCE2 execution e. g. , models.
Specialist Products: The actual information system.
The business case is the central document that is revisited and updated
throughout the project's development.
How PRINCE2 Works
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The project aims to create a specialist output that brings about change on the
business side, affecting users. PRINCE2 identifies both positive and negative impacts,
tracking them during development.
Elements of PRINCE2
PRINCE2 consists of four key elements:
1. Principles: The mindset guiding project development.
2. Themes: Aspects addressed continuously throughout the project, like umbrella
activities.
3. Processes: The process model and recipes to follow for organizing iterations
and managing risk.
4. Tailoring: Adapting PRINCE2 to the specific environment, providing flexibility.
Tailoring can be seen as method engineering—adjusting a method to fit
the specific context.
PRINCE2 allows for integrating different components of ISD methods.
PRINCE2 Principles
There are seven principles in PRINCE2.
1. Continued Business Justification: Ensuring the project remains worthwhile by
continuously monitoring and updating the business case.
Companies that Use PRINCE2
IBM
EDS
HP
Vodafone
Siemens
Philips
Australian Government
British Government
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Accountability is critical in large ISD projects, especially when public sector funds are
involved.
PRINCE2 Principles
Here are the seven principles of PRINCE2:
Continued business case justification: Always ensure the project remains
viable from a business perspective.
Learning from experience: Continuously seek and apply lessons learned
throughout the project.
Defined roles and responsibilities: Strict, unchanging roles are allocated to
team members to maintain accountability, unlike Agile.
Managing by stages: Breaking projects into manageable sub-goals, each
corresponding to a stage.
Managing by exception: Escalating issues that exceed stage constraints to the
next management layer.
Focus on products: Clearly define the end product and its intended purpose
using specific templates.
Tailorability to suit the project environment: Adapt PRINCE2's extensive
documentation to fit specific project needs.
PRINCE2 Themes
The seven themes in PRINCE2 are abstract concepts that guide project management:
Business Case
Organization
Quality
Plans
Risk
Change
Progress
These themes often have associated work products, such as models or PRINCE2-
specific templates, especially in information systems development.
Levels of Hierarchy in PRINCE2 Process Model
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Understanding the management hierarchy is crucial for grasping the PRINCE2
process model. The levels are:
1. Corporate or Program Management: The highest level, controlling budgets
and overseeing programs consisting of multiple projects.
2. Project Board Management: Oversees the entire project, especially in large-
scale initiatives involving significant budgets.
3. Project Manager: Manages all project stages, higher in authority compared to a
Scrum Master in Scrum.
4. Team Management: Team leaders responsible for specific stages within the
project.
PRINCE2 Project Stages
The project begins with a mandate from the corporate or program level, followed by
these key phases:
1. Starting up the Project: Developing a project brief based on the mandate.
2. Directing the Project: Appointing the project manager and initiating the project.
3. Planning the Project: Creating plans for breaking the project into stages,
including start and completion conditions, and constraints.
4. Controlling a Stage: Monitoring for exceptions, overseeing stage completion,
and initiating new stages.
5. Managing Stage Boundaries: The project manager has the authority to begin
the stage
6. Managing Product Delivery: Team leaders execute tasks, such as coding in
information systems development projects.
7. Closing the Project: Finalizing the project upon completion.
The iterations of controlling a stage, managing a stage, and authorizing a stage or an
exception plan occur throughout the project's duration.
Managing Project Delivery
Managing project delivery focuses on the execution of a stage. The specific activities
within this phase are not strictly defined by PRINCE2, allowing for tailoring. Method
engineering happens here, where approaches like Scrum can be integrated. The
Scrum activities are controlled by higher-level management within the PRINCE2
framework.
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Managing project delivery is essentially when the stage is the execution
of the stage. It's not controlling the stage... What happens in here, inside
the managing product delivery, is not really specified by Prince2.
Starting Up the Project
The first assessment, project part A, involves starting up and initiating the project.
This begins with taking the mandate and developing a project brief using a provided
template.
The project brief is created through discussions with:
Corporate management: To align with program objectives, policies, and
standards.
Project board: To clarify project goals and deliverables.
Operations: If necessary for project requirements.
Suppliers: If the project is large and involves external resources.
Project Brief
The project brief is a crucial document that contains the project definition. It is created
through discussions and includes elements such as background, objectives, design
outcomes, scope, exclusions, constraints, assumptions, tolerances, users, and other
interested parties. A reduced template of the project brief will be used for project
part A.
Business Case
Early Version of the Business Case
The project brief also contains an early version of the business case, outlining why
the project is needed and why it's a good idea. This is a brief description, while a
more elaborate business case is developed during the initiation of the project
thesecondbubbleof P RI N CE2.
The full business case supersedes requirements, becoming particularly important
when requirements are unclear.
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Project Product Description
This includes:
Custom quality expectations
User acceptance criteria
Operations
Maintenance
Project Approach
This defines the solution used to deliver the business options selected from the
business gates, including:
Outsourcing
Insourcing
New software modules
Reuse of existing modules
Purchasing modules
Project Management Team Structure
This section identifies who's who in the project and describes their roles. You should
apply this to your teams.
PRINCE2 Process Model: Starting Up and
Initiating the Project
The project brief is the output of the "starting up the project" phase, which leads to
the "initiation of the project" phase. The initiation phase involves developing the
business case.
Four Layers of Management
The four layers of management in PRINCE2 are:
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1. Program Management: Sits at the top, issues the mandate.
2. Project Board: Appointed by the program management, directs the project.
3. Project Manager: Appointed by the project board, produces the business case
and manages stages.
4. Team Manager: In charge of each stage.
Lifetime of the Business Case
1. Outline: An outline of the business case comes from the project brief.
2. Full Business Case: Developed at the end of the initiation stage.
3. Revisiting: After every stage in the execution of the project, the business case is
revisited to check for violated constraints, unforeseen challenges, or
opportunities.
4. Updating: The business case is updated accordingly throughout the project.
The goal is for the business case to hold throughout the execution of the project.
Directing the Project
Standard Information Systems Development Project
In large information systems development projects, the actual execution happens
within a "white box," where "managing product delivery" is equivalent to Scrum.
Multiple Scrums may be needed, requiring integration management.
DevOps: Manages integration between stages.
Nexus: A "Scrum of Scrums" approach for integrating outputs from different
Scrums into a large system.
Agile development has its limits above the "managing the stage boundaries" level.
Quality, Risk, and Progress
These project themes are managed across three levels:
1. Corporate
2. Board
3. Project Manager
4. Team Leader/Team Management
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Each layer has a higher level of authority. If the project exceeds the budget beyond a
certain threshold, an exception is raised from the stage, escalating through the
project manager to the project board as needed.
The authority for managing risk is defined during the project initiation stage.
Part A Project: Use Case
For part A of the project, a use case is provided based on the allocation of rental
residences in the Netherlands. The Dutch government provides a significant amount
of housing for rent, similar to commission housing in Australia, but on a larger scale.
Public Sector Housing Case Study
An information system is needed to automate the assessment of residence
applications for public sector housing.
Input: Data about a particular application
Output: A decision yes/no on whether the application meets the criteria
The system must communicate with:
Database of residences
Database of applicants
Another program determining the priority list of applicants for each
residence
This case study can be used for Project Part A, and Project Part B must then use the
business cases and project definitions developed in Part A. You must stick to the
same case throughout.
Alternate Case Studies
You can bring your own case study if it's more compelling, but the team must agree
to it. The alternate case study must meet certain complexity requirements, including:
At least three stakeholders
Data streams from at least two or three databases
Sufficiently complex decision-making
An elaborate context with clear assumptions
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Combining PRINCE2
PRINCE2 can be combined with other methodologies, such as Scrum.
Horizontal Axis
The horizontal axis is the timeline
Vertical Axis
The vertical axis is the hierarchy of authority.
Four Hierarchies of Authority & Plans
Authority Level Plan
Corporate/Program Program Plan
Project Direction Project Plan
Stage Stage Plan
Team Team Plan
Program Plan: Covers many projects with a larger timeline.
Project Plan: A smaller timeline within the program plan.
Stage Plan: A smaller timeline within the project plan.
Product Delivery: Can use Scrum Sprints to elaborate on this stage.
Team Plan: Follows Scrum Sprints and may include several sprints.
Questions and Answers
Project Focus
The subject emphasizes the initiation phase and starting of the project.
Process Model
Design thinking will be used as the overarching process model for Project Part B.
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Quiz Preparation
Focus on Agile, Stakeholder identification, and User stories.
Review the last two lectures.
The quiz is closed book and worth 5%.
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