PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) is a structured project management method[1] and practitioner certification programme. PRINCE2 emphasises dividing projects into manageable and controllable stages.
It is adopted in many countries worldwide, including the UK, Western European countries, and Australia.[2] PRINCE2 training is available in many languages.[3]
PRINCE2 was developed as a UK government standard for information systems projects. In July 2013, ownership of the rights to PRINCE2 were transferred from HM Cabinet Office to AXELOS Ltd, a joint venture by the Cabinet Office and Capita, with 49% and 51% stakes respectively.[4]
In 2021, PRINCE2 was transferred to PeopleCert during their acquisition of AXELOS.[5]
PRINCE was derived from an earlier method called PROMPT II (Project Resource Organisation Management Planning Techniques). In 1989 the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) adopted a version of PROMPT II as a UK Government standard for information systems (IT) project management. They gave it the name 'PRINCE', which originally stood for "PROMPT II IN the CCTA Environment". PRINCE was renamed in a civil service competition as an acronym for "PRojects IN Controlled Environments". PRINCE2 is the second edition of the earlier PRINCE method which was initially announced and developed in 1989 by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), a UK government support agency.[6] PRINCE2 was released in 1996 as a generic project management method.[7]
Since then, PRINCE2 became increasingly popular[8] and is now a de facto standard for project management in many UK government departments and across the United Nations system.
There have been three major revisions of PRINCE2 since its launch in 1996: "PRINCE2:2009 Refresh" in 2009, and "PRINCE2 2017 Update" in 2017. The justification for the 2017 update was the evolution in practical business practices and feedback from PRINCE2 practitioners in the actual project environment.[9] More recently, in 2023 AXELOS launched PRINCE2 7 - the 7th edition - which is described below.
These aspects are also called tolerances or performance goals. Tolerances define the delegated levels of authority which are set by a higher level of management to a lower level. The management level responsible must manage within the tolerances provided only as long as they are not forecast to be exceeded. Otherwise they are deemed to be an exception which requires escalating to the management level which delegated them. This way of managing is known as 'management by exception' and is one of the principles of PRINCE2. By managing in this way, it saves the time of senior management. In some organisations tolerances can be key performance indicators (KPIs). In the following table project level tolerances are summarised:[10]
| Tolerance type | Defined in management product | Example | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scope | Project/stage plan, work package description | The printer must print documents in black/white, and should also print in colour. | |
| Timescale | Project/stage plan, work package description | The work must be delivered within 2-3 months. | |
| Risk | Business case, stage plan, work package description | Printer might not work if it is exposed to water. | |
| Quality | Printer should not suffer mechanical failure when printing between 2,000 and 10,000 pages. | ||
| Benefits | Business case, stage plan | Sales should enable a net profit of between £200,000 to £400,000. | |
| Cost | Project/stage plan, work package description | The cost of the project should be between £100,000 and £150,000. | |
| Sustainability | Business case, stage plan, work package description, product description | Toner for the printer must be carbon neutral. |
| Management level | Delegated tolerance level | Escalated issue/exception | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business layer | Project tolerance | ||
| Project board | Stage tolerance | Project exception | |
| Project manager | Work package tolerance | Stage exception | |
| Team manager | Issue |
PRINCE2 is based on seven principles and these cannot be tailored. The PRINCE2 principles can be described as a mindset that keeps the project aligned with the PRINCE2 methodology. If a project does not adhere to these principles, it is not being managed using PRINCE2.
Not every aspect of PRINCE2 will be applicable to every project, thus every process has a note on scalability. This provides guidance to the project manager (and others involved in the project) as to how much of the process to apply. The positive aspect of this is that PRINCE2 can be tailored to the needs of a particular project. The negative aspect is that many of the essential elements of PRINCE2 can be omitted sometimes resulting in a PINO project – PRINCE in Name Only
| Practice | Management products which support the practice | |
|---|---|---|
| Business case |
| |
| Organizing |
| |
| Quality |
| |
| Plans |
| |
| Risk |
| |
| Issues |
| |
| Progress |
|
The 7th edition of PRINCE2 introduced a major new aspect to the method - the role of people. The purpose of a project is to deliver change, which will affect the people who perform business as usual (BAU) activities. How well the project delivers the change, depends on the capabilities of the project team, the strength of the relationships between them, and the people impacted by the change. For these reasons, PRINCE2 recommends that projects must incorporate change management to be able to successfully implement the change into the organization.
The management products described by PRINCE2 are only used for the "high-level" management of the project. Within its tasks, task managers must still decide on their own project management framework. Some suggestions given in the PRINCE2 manual are product based planning, change control, quality review technique, Kanban boards, Gantt charts, PERT charts and critical path analysis.
PRINCE2 can also be used to manage projects that use agile software development methods.[12]
See also: Quality assurance. The quality review technique ensures a project's products are of the required standard (i.e. meet defined quality criteria). This takes place in a quality review meeting, which identifies errors in the product. The quality review meeting will not attempt to solve the problems it identifies. The meeting brings together people who have an interest in the project's outputs (or products) and people on the project team able to address issues identified.
Below is a list of all the editions of PRINCE2. As of 1 January 2020, "PRINCE2 2017" was renamed "PRINCE2 6th Edition". Also, the previous edition, "PRINCE2 2009" was renamed "PRINCE2 5th Edition". There were no other changes except the name of the brand. The reason for the name change was to "ensure the format of the name is aligned with that used by other frameworks within the project management industry".[13] As list of all versions of PRINCE2 are printed in the cover of the PRINCE2 manual:
| Release year | Release name | Release edition |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | PRINCE2 1996 | PRINCE2 1st Edition* |
| 1998 | PRINCE2 1998 | PRINCE2 2nd Edition* |
| 2002 | PRINCE2 2002 | PRINCE2 3rd Edition* |
| 2005 | PRINCE2 2005 | PRINCE2 4th Edition* |
| 2009 | PRINCE2 2009 | PRINCE2 5th Edition |
| 2017 | PRINCE2 2017 | PRINCE2 6th Edition |
| 2023 | PRINCE2 2023 | PRINCE2 7th Edition |
(*nth names added for other editions in order for context, but they were not referred to these names originally. However, they are referenced as such in the PRINCE2 manual cover page.)
| 2009 version | 2017 version | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Benefits review plan | Benefits management approach | Management product |
| Communication management strategy | Communication management approach | Management product |
| Risk management strategy | Risk management approach | Management product |
| Quality management strategy | Quality management approach | Management product |
| Configuration management strategy | Change control approach | Management product |
| PRINCE2 7th edition | |
|---|---|
| Performance target for sustainability | |
| Renaming of some principles | |
| Renaming of themes to practices | |
| Change practice now called Issues | |
| Configuration management strategy | |
| Introduction of new management products: sustainability management approach, digital and data management approach, project log. |
PRINCE2 provides a method for managing projects within a clearly defined framework, but project management is a complex discipline and using such a framework is no guarantee of a successful project.
Some of the advertised benefits of PRINCE2 are: increased quality of the finished products, efficient control of resources, avoidance of either "heroic" (under-regulated) or "mechanistic" (over-regulated) working, and increased confidence among the project team.
PRINCE2 is sometimes considered inappropriate for small projects or where requirements are expected to change, due to the work required in creating and maintaining documents, logs and lists. The deliverable structure may also lead to focus on producing deliverables for their own sake, to "tick the boxes" rather than do more useful work.
The general response of PRINCE2's authors to criticism has been to point out that the methodology is scalable and can be tailored to suit the specific requirements and constraints of the project and the environment.[14] This strong emphasis on tailoring has led some users to complain that PRINCE2 is unfalsifiable, i.e. it is impossible to tell whether PRINCE2 "works" or constitutes "best practice" if any problems encountered with a project can be blamed on inappropriate application of PRINCE2 rather than on PRINCE2 itself.
The experiences of the Blair administration in the UK between 1997 and 2007 (and of subsequent UK governments) arguably undermine PRINCE2's claim to be "best practice", given the string of high-profile failed IT projects charged to the taxpayer during that time,[15] [16] [17] and the controversy surrounding the financial relationship between the Blair government and PRINCE2's co-owners Capita.[18] [19] PRINCE2's training material addresses these failures, blaming them on inappropriate tailoring of PRINCE2 to the project environment, and advocating for more PRINCE2 training for government project managers to solve the problem.
Project Management Professional (PMP) from Project Management Institute may be seen as a competitor of PRINCE2. In general, the UK, Australia prefer PRINCE2, and the US and American countries prefer PMP. Asia, Africa and the Middle East area have no strong preference for PMP or PRINCE2.The important thing is that PMP (PMBOK) can be used with PRINCE2.
PRINCE2 and PMP acknowledge each other's existence in their advertising material and attempt to position themselves as complementary products – PRINCE2 as a "methodology" and PMP as a "standard"[20] – which can be used alongside each other. In practice, companies and practitioners choose one system or both depending on the project environment, their geographical location and costs involved.