PRINCE2^® Foundation Course

What is PRINCE2?

PRINCE2 is the most famous project management methodology. Being a methodology means that it gives you a step by step approach to running your project, along with guidelines on how to form the roles and responsibilities, how to prepare the documents and plans, etc.

What is PRINCE2 Foundation?

There are two levels of certification for PRINCE2: Foundation and the more advanced level of Practitioner.

In PRINCE2 Foundation, a candidate needs to learn the overall approach of PRINCE2 and its terminology. The Practitioner level goes into more detail on how to tailor PRINCE2 for different projects.

There used to be a third level of “PRINCE2 Professional” in the past, but it doesn’t exist anymore.

In addition to the main PRINCE2 certifications, there are also PRINCE2 Agile^® Foundation and PRINCE2 Agile Practitioner certifications, which are about using PRINCE2 in Agile projects.

The organizations behind PRINCE2

PRINCE2 is a member of a family of best practices that include ITIL^®, MoP^® (portfolio management), and MSP^® (program management), among others. This package belongs to AXELOS. The former owner was OGC, which you may still see mentions of in old resources about PRINCE2.

All PRINCE2 exams are administered by PeopleCert and delivered through accredited training organizations such as us. There used to be more examination institutes for PRINCE2 in the past (e.g., APMG and EXIN), but it’s been a while that it’s been limited to PeopleCert.

PRINCE2 vs. PMBOK^® Guide

Some people think that PRINCE2 and PMBOK Guide are competitors, but this is not the case, because these two have very different natures. PRINCE2 is a methodology, meaning that it gives you a step by step approach to the project. The PMBOK Guide, on the other hand, is not a methodology and is focused on telling you how to do [what you know you need to do] to make it more effective.

Because of their natures, both are useful to projects, and you can benefit from learning them both. It’s easier and more practical to learn PRINCE2 before the PMBOK Guide.

PRINCE2 Foundation vs. PRINCE2 Agile^® Foundation

PRINCE2 Agile Foundation provides you with a quick overview of the content of PRINCE2 Foundation, a quick overview of Agile, and then provides some content on how to use PRINCE2 in Agile environments. In theory, you can take the PRINCE2 Agile Foundation without any prior knowledge of PRINCE2 and without taking the PRINCE2 Foundation certification program, but we don’t recommend it, because the amount of content in PRINCE2 Agile Foundation is not enough to give you a good understanding of PRINCE2. It’s easier and more practical to aim for PRINCE2 Foundation first, and then think about PRINCE2 Agile.

Is it the right program for me?

If you’re involved in projects, whether predictive or even Agile, it would be helpful to you to learn PRINCE2 and familiarize yourself with a structured approach to project management.

If you’re already certified as PMP^® or CAPM^®, you can still enjoy learning PRINCE2 (maybe even more than others).

How can I learn more about PRINCE2 Foundation before making my decision?

You can start taking our eLearning course and see if the topic is interesting to you. The first 9 lessons are free.

This PRINCE2 Foundation eLearning Course

This course is accredited by PeopleCert, and it’s equivalent to a 3-day classroom course. There are 57 lessons in the course. The lessons are kept short and relatively independent, so that busy professionals can easily take and finish the course with as little time as 15 minutes per day. Regardless, it’s self-paced, and you can decide how quickly or slowly you want to take the course without putting too much pressure on yourself.

Besides the lessons, there are quizzes, Integrated Flashcards, printable handouts, educational games, and an exam simulator with more than 800 questions.

In short, the course provides everything you need to learn the topic and prepare for the exam. The first 9 lessons are free, and you can take them and see if it meets your needs before finalizing your decision.

The course is delivered in 3 iterations. Each iteration goes through the whole scope, each time from a new angle and with relatively more detail. This makes it easier for learners to absorb the content gradually without too much pressure.

Here’s the list of lessons:

• Iteration 1
  • 1. Starting a New Project
  • 2. Planning the Project
  • 3. Delivering the Product
  • 4. What if Something Goes Wrong?
  • 5. The End!
• Iteration 2
  • 6. Principles
  • 7. Starting Up a Project Process
  • 8. Initiating a Project
  • 9. Directing a Project Process
  • 10. Controlling a Stage Process
  • 11. Managing Product Delivery Process
  • 12. Managing a Stage Boundary Process
  • 13. Closing a Project Process
  • 14. Structure of PRINCE2
• Iteration 3
  • 15. Business Case Theme
    • 16. Outputs, Outcomes, Benefits
    • 17. Business Case Theme, Minimum Requirements
  • 18. Organization Theme
    • 19. Communication Management Approach
    • 20. Roles and Responsibilities
    • 21. Project Assurance
    • 22. Combining Roles
    • 23. Organization Theme, Minimum Requirements
  • 24. Quality Theme
    • 25. Quality Planning and Control
    • 26. Customer Quality Expectations and Acceptance Criteria
    • 27. Quality Products
    • 28. Quality Definition
    • 29. Quality Assurance
    • 30. Quality Theme, Minimum Requirements
  • 31. Plans Theme
    • 32. The Three Plans
    • 33. Planning Horizon
    • 34. Product Based Planning
    • 35. Designing the Plans
    • 36. Defining and Analyzing the Products
    • 37. Plans Theme, Minimum Requirements
  • 38. Risk Theme
    • 39. Risk Products
    • 40. Describing a Risk
    • 41. Risk Responses
    • 42. Risk Management Procedure
    • 43. Risk Theme, Minimum Requirements
  • 44. Change Theme
    • 45. Issue and Change Control Procedure
    • 46. Baselines and Change Budget
    • 47. Change Products
    • 48. Change Theme, Minimum Requirements
  • 49. Progress Theme
    • 50. Delivery Products
    • 51. Logs
    • 52. Performance Reports
    • 53. End Stage and End Project Reports
    • 54. Event Driven vs. Time Driven Products
    • 55. Tolerances and Exceptions
    • 56. Progress Theme, Minimum Requirements
• Exam Preparation
  • 57. Sample Exams

Welcome to the course!

This course is delivered in 3 iterations. Each of them reviews PRINCE2^® from a different perspective and adds more detail by building on top of the previous one.

This is the first iteration; the shortest, and the simplest one. There are only 5 lessons here to give you an overall understanding of the methodology. You don’t have to remember everything that is discussed here; they will be reviewed again in the next iterations.

Most lessons contain videos similar to the one below. After you click on the video to play it, there will be 3 features on the bottom-right corner of it that may be interesting to you:

• Making it full screen
• Increasing or decreasing the playback speed
• Adding subtitle (the CC button)

Enjoy the course :)

Based on AXELOS PRINCE2^® material. Reproduced under licence from AXELOS. All rights reserved.

So far, we’ve talked about starting up a project. What do you think should be done next?

Quiz

• Each project has a trigger. What do we call this trigger in PRINCE2?
• What topics are usually covered in the trigger?
• What’s the name of the highest role in the project, who is responsible for the return of investment?
• What are the two main outputs of starting up a project? What topics are covered in them?
• What’s the first Project Board decision about?

Answers:

• Project mandate
• Project mandate contains very high-level information about the purpose of the project, as well as its scope, quality, cost, and benefits. Remember that it’s a very simple document.
• Executive
• One is the Project Brief, that covers general information about the project (reasons, scope, quality, cost, benefits, and team structure), and the other is our plan for the next stage.
• The check the Project Brief to see if it’s a good idea to proceed with this project.