Lesson 10: Controlling a Stage Process
Can you explain how stages are managed by the Controlling a Stage Process?
Based on AXELOS PRINCE2® material. Reproduced under licence from AXELOS. All rights reserved.
Note: PRINCE2 2017 edition is now called PRINCE2 6th edition.
- 00:09 – The Controlling a Stage Process
- 00:12 – The purpose of the Controlling a Stage Process is for the Project Manager to assign work to be done, then monitor this work, deal with issues and report progress; for example, to the Project Board
- 00:25 – And also take corrective action to deal with issues
- 00:32 – There is a controlling stage process for every delivery stage
- 00:36 – And this process has a number of activities that the Project Manager repeats again and again in each stage
- 00:44 – So let’s take a look at these objectives
- 00:50 – The objective one is to ensure that attention is focused on the delivery of the products in the stage
- 00:58 – So that all products listed in the Stage Plan are done
- 01:02 – Therefore, the Project Manager monitors this and keeps the focus on the products
- 01:09 – Two, to ensure that risks and issues are kept under control during the stage
- 01:15 – So the Project Manager checks or gives time to checking the risks and issues regularly and updates the Risks and Issue Registers
- 01:27 – Three, to ensure that the Business Case is kept under review and the Project Manager therefore keeps the Business Case up-to-date after each stage
- 01:37 – It is then easy to see if there is still a valid Business Case
- 01:45 – Also to ensure that the agreed products are delivered to the agreed quality standards
- 01:51 – And these are defined in the product descriptions
- 01:55 – And the last objective is to ensure that the complete project management team is focused on the delivery within the defined tolerances
- 02:05 – So the project has the full support from the complete project management team
- 02:11 – Now we’ll take a look at the activities which actually support the objectives
- 02:17 – So, first a reminder, how does a controlling stage process actually start?
- 02:24 – So each controlling stage process starts with a decision by the Project Board
- 02:30 – The Project Board authorizes the next stage after reviewing the performance of the last stage
- 02:37 – So therefore they review the End Stage Report
- 02:40 – And they will also review the Stage Plan
- 02:44 – So the first thing that the Project Manager will do is they will look at the Stage Plan, choose the first products to hand out to the teams
- 02:53 – And they can put these into what we call a work package and PRINCE2 calls this Authorize a Work Package
- 03:01 – Because the Project Manager gives this out, so they authorize this work to begin
- 03:05 – Later the Project Manager will review the work done by the teams
- 03:11 – So they can read checkpoint reports each week, for example, and they can also keep an eye on the quality tests that are being done and make sure that whatever products are being produced are passing the quality tests as expected
- 03:25 – Next, review stage status
- 03:29 – This is like the home base for the Project Manager in the controlling stage process
- 03:35 – Here they check the progress of the stage versus the Stage Plan
- 03:39 – And then they will decide on the next controlling stage activity to do
- 03:44 – So they keep coming back here
- 03:47 – For example, capturing and examining risks and issues
- 03:51 – So they will spend a number of hours on this, let’s say, every week
- 03:54 – They should put this in the calendar to do it
- 03:57 – And they will check the impact of issues and risks on the project
- 04:02 – And then they can update the Issue and Risk Registers and also write issue reports if needed
- 04:10 – Again we go back to the reviewing stage status, which is the home base remember
- 04:15 – And the Project Manager will then decide on the next activity to do
- 04:20 – And this could be a need to take corrective action to solve an issue
- 04:24 – So for example, a feature with an existing product that doesn’t work correctly
- 04:29 – So the Project Manager can decide to authorize a new work package to get this fixed
- 04:36 – After the teams have completed the work package, this completed work can be received back by the Project Manager
- 04:45 – The Project Manager checks the products have passed the quality tests
- 04:48 – So they don’t check the products themselves, they just make sure that the people responsible have checked them and they check the results
- 04:56 – Then the products can be accepted back
- 05:00 – Also, during a stage, some issues and risks may bring this stage out of tolerance
- 05:07 – So the Project Manager will then escalate this to the Project Board using an Exception Report
- 05:16 – Another activity is to report on the stage status, so this is done regularly
- 05:21 – The Project Manager will use a highlight report to do this
- 05:25 – And the word “highlight” here is very important because it’s just a one-page review or a report or even less even
- 05:33 – It could be even a PowerPoint slide
- 05:35 – And this can be done every one to two to three weeks, whatever has been agreed between the Project Manager and the Project Board
- 05:44 – The Project Manager may receive advice from the Project Board at any time
- 05:49 – So this may be feedback from an issue or exception report that has been given to the Project Board or it could be general advice
- 05:58 – So now let’s take a quick look at the inputs and outputs for a stage
- 06:03 – Now the main input is actually the Stage Plan because this contains the work to be done in the current stage or in the stage
- 06:12 – And the outputs are the regular highlight reports, updates to the registers, an issue report and perhaps an exception report if that is needed
- 06:25 – So just a reminder of the purpose of the controlling stage process
- 06:29 – It was again for the Project Manager to assign work to be done, then monitor this work, deal with issues, report progress regularly and take corrective action to deal with issues as they arise
What’s the process that is continuously in contact with the Controlling a Stage process? Can you explain the interactions?
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