Book review: The Art of PRINCE2 Survival

I just read the book The Art of PRINCE2 Survival by Colin Bentley. Colin was the lead mentor of the latest revision to the manual, released in June 2009.
The book is very easy to read and Colin included several humoristic drawings to accommodate the text.
It’s not a book to describe the whole PRINCE2 methodology but it gives you a pragmatic, common sense view on several topics related to the Organization, Risk and Issues, quality, Planning, and several documents including examples of very down to earth documents like a Product Brief, a Product Description, a Work Package and a Lessons Report.
When he describes a topic you will not get a list with bullet points but a readable story explaining the specific topic and several times including some one liners or quotes related to the topic. E.g. “If your project has more than one product, more than one version of a product and more than one person working on the project, then you are using configuration management. It’s just a question of how well you’re doing it.”
I really like the examples to simplify e.g. the work package into a one pager. Also his quote “Don’t write a progress report for a busy manager that takes longer to read than the time between his/her phone call – and that is one page.” is exactly what I want to achieve with my book PRINCE in practice, a practical approach to create project management documents; how to avoid bulky, inaccessible, standalone, and illegible documents.
Also his proposal to integrate the Issue Register, Issue Register and Issue Report into one problem report makes sense.
The first chapter of the book is a different one. It gives you an overview of the seven principles on which PRINCE2 is based including simple schemes to show which principles are supported by which processes. Something the official manual will not show you.
In my opinion a good book for those project managers who just passed their PRINCE2 exams and who are now struggling to put the methodology into practice and who are looking for some pragmatic advice.

Huge piles of paper to read or not to read?

Last week I visited the BPUG (Run the business – Change the business; Who makes the connection?) in Utrecht, and discussed with lots of colleagues about project management. I also had the opportunity to have a short talk with Lex Dirkse, a professional cartoonist.
I explained my philosophy that I don’t want to see project managers sitting behind their PC’s and creating huge piles of paper, sometimes called PID’s. In my opinion they must communicate and only write down the essence of what was discussed, instead of writing a lot of pages and simply give this to senior management. I have seen too often that large documents were not read at all by senior management.
He translated this short story into a cartoon, showing a project manager, called Brad PID, creating a huge document while drinking lots of coffee. As he is finally finished, senior management received the PID. As a consequence the senior managers had to postpone their holiday to read the document. So this PM could still be happy because his executive wants to read it, even if it costs him a lot of time. But in real life I don’t believe this will happen.

PRINCE2 in practice: Building block update

Due to several comments, adjustments, remarks and improvement proposals I updated several of the building blocks to create most of the PRINCE2 Management Products like the Project Brief, PID, Work Package, High Light, End Stage and End Project Report, as described in my books De praktische Prince2, Prince2 in Practice and added some new building blocks.
See also: PMO (PRINCE2 building blocks, 110601) v2.0. I am looking forward to your reactions, experience, new comments, new ideas.

European Masterclass 2011, Lake Como, Italy

I will be one of the guest speakers of this European Masterclass 2011, Lake Como:

European Masterclass 2011, Lake Como:

Learn to apply European Best Practices

23rd of March 2011, Como, Italy. – QRP International proudly presents the First European Masterclass, 5 day program based on the international OGC standards PRINCE2- Project Management, MSP- Programme Management and P3O-Project, Programme and Portfolio Offices Guidance. The Masterclass will be held in English at the QRP Training Center at Lake Como, Italy.

The European Masterclass combines PRINCE2, MSP and P3O, Best Practices in Europe for Project, Programme and Portfolio Management, it shows how to apply this methodologies/guidances in a business environment.

Program:

Day 1 Benefit of applying PRINCE2
Day 2 How to improve your projects with PRINCE2 in a real scenario
Day 3 Benefits of applying MSP Programme Management
Day 4 How to improve your programmes with MSP in a real scenario
Day 5 Best Practices united in a PMO (P3O)
The European Masterclass will be conducted by three QRP lead trainers with the support of two major international experts in Best Practices, Emanuele Matteazzi-Manager Strategy & Planning PM DHL and Henny Portman-Head of Global Project Management ING Insurance Best Management Practice.

Two sessions are available, from the 20th to the 24th of June 2011 and from 12th to 16th of September 2011.

Senior Project Managers, Programme managers, and Senior Project managers aspiring being Programme managers will find this Masterclass- focused on practice- an in depth, concise and smart way to understand how to use and implement methods successfully oriented.

For more information see attached brochure: QRP_Masterclass Brochure 2011

PRINCE2: Principles in graphics (Pigs)

By coincidence I discovered a hidden quality by one of my PMO leads Sandor Szucs (Budapest, Hungary). I ‘pushed’ him to make use of this hidden talent by making some cartoons of the PRINCE2 principles. And he was enthusiastic about the process and the results. I already used them during one of my PRINCE2 training classes in Istanbul, Turkey as a short intermezzo and it definitely helped the candidates to memorize the PRINCE2 principles. As Sandor used pigs to express these principles it took me some time to find the connection but in the end it was simple. Just Principles in graphics (Pigs). Have a look and enjoy.

PRINCE2 (Principles in Graphics poster, 110305) v1.0

PRINCE2: Project Organization

From time to time I receive requests to explain the project governance structure. Based on some video’s I found on YouTube I created a small video explaining the set up of a Project Management Team structure (PRINCE2 2009).
I would like to hear your comments and if you see a need for more of these simple videos to explain other PRINCE2 themes or principles.

Avoid PINO syndrome by adopting a tailor-made approach to PRINCE2

Many organizations encounter problems when introducing PRINCE2 and often ending up with PINO (PRINCE2 in Name Only). What makes it so difficult to implement this popular project management methodology? In this article I focus on the possibilities of tailoring the method to your project and embedding it into any organization. PINO happens because PRINCE2 has been insufficiently adapted to the specific situation in the organization. Having standard templates for the Project Initiation Documentation doesn’t automatically mean you work according to PRINCE2. You can find the complete article at pmtoday or in the Box folder ‘Prince2 in practice’, name PINO0610

PRINCE2 in practice: communication plan update

The current communication plan building block only contains the communication action plan. But before you can create these actions you must be aware of the background and the communication issue. What must be the result of the communication: knowledge transfer, change in attitude or behavior? The adjusted building block takes this into account.

The Communication Management Strategy describes the objective, the message, the planning, the means and those responsible for project communication.

Before you create your Communication Actions you must be aware about the background from a communication perspective. Are there negative emotions which need to be addressed? What is the communication issue in terms of knowledge, attitude and/or behavior? Based on this analysis it becomes clear what communication has to take place and this is your starting point to create the Communication Action Plan.

In terms of project communication, think of news letters on the corporate intranet, presentation sessions and formal reports for the benefit of the Project Board and the stakeholders.

For the purpose of the Communication plan an analysis of those involved (stakeholder analysis) is useful. Establish their interest in the results of the project. Ask yourself what information stakeholders need and how often they would wish to receive such information.

Decide how communication on project level is integrated within the Communications Plan on programme level if your project is part of a programme.

Op maat maken van PRINCE2

Recentelijk zowel aan de Hogeschool Arnhem en Nijmegen, Expertisecentrum Informatica, Media en Communicatie als aan de Hogeschool Utrecht, richting Digitale Communicatie van de faculteit Communicatie en Journalistiek een gastcollege gegeven over het op maat maken van PRINCE2. Uitgaande van een krantenartikel waarin de bureaucratie van PRINCE2 aan de kaak werd gesteld heb ik aangegeven dat PINO (PRINCE2 In Name Only) geen antwoord op deze bureaucratie is maar dat het hanteren van de principes van PRINCE2 je vele mogelijkheden biedt om deze bureaucratie te lijf te gaan. Zolang je de principes maar blijft hanteren kun je PRINCE2 volledig aanpassen aan je omgeving en je project. Middels een afbeelding van Rene Magritte ‘ceci n’est pas une pipe’ de discussie aangegaan dat je de PRINCE2 methode moet aanpassen aan je project anders blijft het PINO. Vervolgens heb ik aan de hand van het PRINCE2 management product model uit Prince2 2009 Edition Quick Reference Card stap voor stap laten zien hoe dit op maat maken van PRINCE2 voor een klein project gestalte krijgt. Vervolgens ben ik ingegaan op mijn zoektocht naar en filosofie achter mijn bouwsteenaanpak van PRINCE2 managementproducten zoals beschreven in De praktische Prince2, maakt het weer leuk. Wat mij betreft twee geslaagde sessies waarvan bijgevoegde videoopnamen zijn gemaakt.

Hogeschool Arnhem en Nijmegen:
Henny Portman De Praktische Prince2 deel 1 from Hans Mestrum on Vimeo.

Henny Portman De Praktische Prince2 deel 2 from Hans Mestrum on Vimeo.

Henny Portman De Praktische Prince2 deel 3 from Hans Mestrum on Vimeo.

Hogeschool Utrecht
Video + slides from Pim Schonk

PRINCE2 in Practice: Acceptance Criteria building block update

In my book ‘PRINCE2 in practice’ I described a free format page to explain the acceptance criteria (Success criteria). This gave some confusion and that was the reason why I changed the layout into a more structured layout.

Definition of the acceptance criteria according to PRINCE2:
A prioritized list of criteria that the product must meet before the customer will accept it, i.e. measurable definitions of the attributes, required for the set of products to be acceptable to key stakeholders.

This template can help you to explain the current level of these criteria before the project and the needed acceptance level before the final product/project will be handed over to the organization.
Not every topic (criteria) will be important. To show the priority you can make use of the MoSCoW principle (see first column). Each acceptance criterion is rated as either M: Must have, S: Should have, C: Could have (nice to have), W: Won’t have. All the ‘Must have’ and ‘Should have’ acceptance criteria should be mutually achievable.
You can find the complete article about this building block template update in the Box folder ‘Prince2 in practice’, name: PP2 EN Building block (Acceptance criteria).