Lesson 02: What is PRINCE2?
- 00:05 - Here I’m going to talk about what actually is PRINCE2
- 00:10 - And if you think about it, well, it’s a good place to start
- 00:13 - Let’s say somebody asked you what is PRINCE2, it’s nice to be able to explain it to them
- 00:18 - So, you can say, well, PRINCE2 is a method for managing projects. Okay?
- 00:24 - So, it’s not some random advice but it gives you a roadmap to follow when actually doing a project
- 00:31 - And it covers the who, the when, the what and the how
- 00:35 - That’s … that’s a good answer
- 00:38 - Okay. Now, if they were to ask you that, “Well, how does it do that?”
- 00:44 - Then you can say the following, well, PRINCE2 is divided up into five main parts
- 00:49 - And with those five main parts, they actually give you the knowledge or the way to run a project correctly
- 00:57 - So, what are those five main parts?
- 00:59 - Well, those would be Principles, People, Practices, Processes and Project Context
- 01:07 - So, I’m going to take you through those five main parts now to give you a really good idea
- 01:12 - Well, our first good idea on what they are. Okay?
- 01:16 - So, you’ll be able to remember this and, of course, everything which we discuss here
- 01:20 - Is discussed in a lot more detail later on in the project
- 01:25 - Great. So, let’s start off with Principles
- 01:29 - So, what are principles and why do we need them?
- 01:34 - Well, actually, principles from a PRINCE2 point of view really help to shape the whole methodology
- 01:41 - They really help us as a project manager as well
- 01:45 - And how do they do that?
- 01:47 - Well, they can actually help us to find the best option if you have doubts
- 01:52 - What does that mean?
- 01:54 - Well, they help us to make better decisions, which is important
- 01:58 - So, if we keep these principles in the back of our mind
- 02:02 - And when we come across something or an issue or something we have to do
- 02:06 - As long as you remember those principles, then we can make a better decision
- 02:11 - That’s why I like the term “principles are guiding principles” because they guide us to make better decisions about the project
- 02:19 - And this will make more sense as well when you see the principles later in the course
- 02:25 - Okay, but for now, that’s what principles are
- 02:30 - Now let’s look at People
- 02:32 - So, why do we give a whole section for people in a project?
- 02:37 - Well, our project’s success largely depends on the people involved
- 02:43 - Can you imagine having the wrong people on a project? What’s going to happen?
- 02:48 - Not much perhaps
- 02:50 - So, having the right people is good, and we must understand the people in the project
- 02:56 - So, we must understand what their motivations are, what their requirements are
- 03:00 - Why they want to be involved in the project and even their relationship from between these groups of people as well
- 03:08 - So, those are all good things and you will really see that people are a really key component of the project
- 03:17 - So, the better understanding the project manager has of this, the better for the project as well
- 03:23 - So, that’s it for People
- 03:26 - Then we have Practices.
- 03:30 - So, what are Practices?
- 03:33 - Well, these are different project management topics that each project should be aware of, that should be in each project
- 03:42 - Best way to explain this, of course, is to give you an example
- 03:46 - No matter what project you are running, you have to consider things like risk management, how will we do it?
- 03:52 - Quality management, how will we do it?
- 03:54 - To monitor or control a project, how will we do it?
- 03:57 - Or even to handle issues or change requests, how will we do it?
- 04:01 - So, that’s actually what practices are
- 04:04 - They provide knowledge or information on all of these topics that are used to run their project
- 04:12 - So, there we can see them as knowledge areas, PRINCE2 calls them Practices
- 04:17 - Then we can understand them and then we can use part of the information that we need
- 04:21 - To use on the particular project we are working on right now. Okay
- 04:26 - And there are seven knowledge areas or seven practices in total
- 04:31 - So, I think that’s a good introduction into Practices
- 04:36 - Then we’re going to look at Processes. So, what is a process?
- 04:40 - Well, a process actually is a group of activities
- 04:43 - And then we can group all of these together and we have like a process for the whole project
- 04:49 - So it’s best to visualize this as a map through the whole project, that’s the best way to see it
- 04:58 - And it can take us then like any map from somewhere to someplace else
- 05:05 - And from a project point of view, we want to get from the start of a project to the very end of a project
- 05:11 - You could even say that a good project management process is like a path we can follow through a very dense jungle
- 05:20 - That’s a good way of putting it
- 05:24 - And then the other main parts of PRINCE2 we just mentioned
- 05:28 - Like the Principles, the People and the Practices
- 05:31 - They actually work with the Processes and you’ll see this later in the project as well
- 05:37 - And actually in the next lesson, I’m going to give you a very high level overview of the processes
- 05:43 - Because it’s going to give you a timeline of how the project works from beginning to end, so you’ll see this much better
- 05:50 - So, just hold on a moment and we can go through that
- 05:54 - The last area then is Project Context. So, this is also important to get across
- 06:01 - Now why do I say this?
- 06:03 - Well, it’s because basically our approach to managing projects
- 06:07 - Will differ on the type of project that I am working on as a project manager or that you will work on as a project manager
- 06:14 - So, for example, if you’re working on a very complex project which has got lots of people, lots of complexity
- 06:22 - It’s a huge investment for the company, a lot of people are relying on it
- 06:27 - Well, then you cannot take the same approach managing that project as a smaller project
- 06:32 - So, there are different things to consider
- 06:35 - So, we have to make sure that the way we manage the project fits actually the type of project that we are working on
- 06:43 - And another thing to consider as well is our whole approach to doing the project
- 06:49 - So, should we try to plan everything upfront? That’s more like a predictive approach
- 06:54 - Or should we use a more Agile way of working where we’re learning as we’re going along
- 06:59 - So that’s referred to as the Agile approach
- 07:03 - Right. So, I think I’ve actually covered, well, I have covered what is PRINCE2
- 07:09 - And I’ve covered as well the main parts of PRINCE2, giving you a first introduction to this
- 07:17 - And everything I mentioned here actually then we will discuss later on a number of times in the rest of the course.
Quiz
- What are the five elements of PRINCE2?
- Which element provides information on different project management topics you should be aware of when managing a project?
- What guides those involved in projects to make better decisions?
- A project’s success largely depends on the ______ involved.
- What is seen as a road map through a project that takes you from the beginning all the way to the end?
- Principles, People, Practices, Process, and Project Context
- Practices: They provide knowledge on Risk, Quality, Planning, etc.
- Principles: They help shape the PRINCE2 methodology
- People: Working well with people is key to any project.
- Processes: See the processes as the path you can follow thru a project.
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