PRINCE2™ is a Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce

What is PRINCE2™?

PRINCE stands for PRojects IN Controlled Environments and is a structured method for effective project management. The method is owned by the UK Government, but is provided license free to anyone who wishes to adopt it. It is now accepted throughout the UK as "best practice" project management.

PRINCE2 is a structured method providing organisations with a standard approach to the management of projects. The method embodies proven and established best-practice in project management. It is widely recognised and understood, and so provides a common language for all participants in the project.

PRINCE2 provides benefits to the organisation, as well as the managers and directors of the project, through the controllable use of resources and the ability to manage business and project risk more effectively. PRINCE2 enables projects to have:

• A controlled and organised start, middle and end;
• Regular reviews of progress against plan and against the Business Case;
• Flexible decision points;
• Automatic management control of any deviations from the plan;
• The involvement of management and stakeholders at the right time and place during the project;
• Good communication channels between the project, project management, and the rest of the organisation.

A PRINCE2 project is divided into a number of stages, each forming a distinct unit for management purposes. The delivery of products to the agreed quality standards, marks the completion of the stage. A project is divided into stages based upon:

• The sequence of production of Products/Deliverables;
• The grouping of Products into self contained sets or associated Processes;
• Natural decision points for review;

PRINCE2 provides a structure of management controls to be applied throughout the project. They are defined at Project Initiation to ensure:

• The project is set up with clear Terms of Reference
• There are agreed and measurable Objectives
• There is an adequate management structure.

These controls cover all aspects of project activity and, at the highest level, allow senior management to assess project achievement and status prior to committing further expenditure. Controls are applied through meetings of project management and project staff, with each meeting producing a set of predefined outputs.