Why embedding PRINCE2 in organisational culture creates successful workplaces
PRINCE2 is a project management methodology which helps organisations deliver their projects with greater success. It also helps organisations to be more successful, improving team and individual performance. By embedding PRINCE2 as part of its culture and process (‘the way things are done around here’), an organisation removes disjointed approaches to project management and difficulties of consistency should a Project Manager leave.
In this article, we outline six ways in which adopting PRINCE2 as an organisational norm helps organisations to improve performance.
1. Scope creep becomes a thing of the past
The PRINCE2 methodology is one of the elements of the triple constraint that can destroy project success. When a customer adds to the original scope of the project, it is never a good thing.
Additions will add time and cost. The only way to deliver the project within its original time and cost parameters will be to reduce quality. Whichever way you cut it, scope creep reduces the chance of a project being successful.
Managing project scope as a Project Manager is a pre-determined process within PRINCE2. It starts immediately, includes a process to address scope creep, and enables the Project Manager to say no while retaining the potential to offer alternatives.
2. PRINCE2 methodology enables exceptional risk management
Project risks are an inherent factor in project work. Risk management enables the Project Manager to:
- Identify potential risks
- Prepare for those risks
- Be proactive in mitigating those risks
A PRINCE2 risk management plan prepares the project team and project stakeholders to both recognise and deal with risks in a known formulaic structure. This ensures that risks are mitigated, and that project teams take experiences gained into the next project.
3. PRINCE2 improves people management
PRINCE2 provides a guide for people to follow, through management by stages. This enables the Project Manager to manage expectations, adjust objectives, and alter course in response to external and internal events beyond the control of project management.
The governance principles of PRINCE2 provides a framework in which Project Managers are better able to manage stakeholder engagement with processes of approval to improve the flow of project management from one stage to the next.
4. PRINCE2 ensures project management consistency
Many organisations approach project work in a non-structured way, allowing their Project Managers to employ their own project management techniques and styles. Should that Project Manager leave or be moved to another existing project, or be asked to manage several projects, it can cause confusion among staff and stakeholders and produce a disjointed approach.
PRINCE2 standardises approach, enabling consistency and predictability in project management.
5. PRINCE2 enables tailoring of approach
While PRINCE2 provides a framework in which project work exists, it also enables customisation to suit individual projects. This allows elements within the project to be adapted to the project environment, creating the best solution while maintaining standards and effectiveness.
6. PRINCE2 develops a project management culture
Project work is the responsibility of all. While it is the Project Manager who steers the ship, without the crew behind him or her all that rudder work will be for nothing. PRINCE2 provides people with an appreciation of how project work is done, and helps to create a team with all its members pulling in the same direction.
By embedding PRINCE2’s principles and processes as best practices within the organisation, project work will become an integral part of thinking within the organisation, and PRINCE2 will become ‘the way things are done around here’ – a cultural bias that drives project success.
To discover how focused project management using PRINCE2 methodology can help your project be successful, contact Your Project Manager:
