We would like to wish you a very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2009.
This year will be full of challenges and changes will be an absolute necessity for all industries around the globe.
PRINCE2 will also see many changes with a new edition to the manual which will from May onwards be split into two.
The new french version of the manual is now available after many many month of hard work.
So, enjoy the Year 
the PMGURU Team.
During the Project Management show in Paris, we saw a big shift in interest for the method.
We have been present at the ‘Rencontres du Management de Projet’ now for the 4th time and this is the first year people came to us asking about and requesting information about PRINCE2®.
The other years we had to explain what the method was, and this year people knew.
We feel that our efforts are starting to pay off and that we are now truely in the first phase of development of the method in the french marketplace.
We will keep you informed of progress.
john higham
The french PRINCE2 expert in France.
Le Spécialiste PRINCE2 en France.
A lot of people have asked me to make my PRINCE2® summary chart available. so here is the English version.
[Download not found]
[Download not found]
You will have to register to access the file.
I hope you will find this useful.
Also let me know of any comments you may have.
There is also a French version available here :
[Download not found]
john
pmguru.com
Vous devrez vous enregistrer pour accéder au fichier.
Il existe également une version anglaise pour ceux que cela interesse.
[Download not found]
[Download not found]
J’espère que vous la trouverez utile.
A bientôt
John Higham
PMGURU.COM
Ik hoop dat jullie het interessant en nuttig vindt.
John Higham
We know the Business Case is owned by the Executive of the project.
The Executive being a ‘busy person’ will most likely ask the Project Manager to ‘write’ the Business Case.
The Project Manager may however not have all the knowledge or access to all the information required to create a full Business Case. But she/he must ensure it is done and ask the right people to give the right level of information to be able to finalise the document in IP3 (Refining the Business Case and Risks).
When you start using PRINCE2, the most difficult part of the Business Case is most likely going to be the identification and definition of Business Benefits of the project.
It helps to confirm what Benefits really are as often they are understood to be solely profits. This is not the case as there can be many more types of benefits beyond the simple profit defined as the result of turnover minus costs.
You can define legal benefits, technology benefits, human benefits, environmental benefits and many more depending on the exact nature of the project.
Some projects may never result in pure financial profits, some will even loose money to the company but they are nevertheless compulsory for the viability of the company.
A good example of this are projects of compliance with new legal or regulatory requirements, a new law or a new european directive.
Another example are data migration projects allowing various legacy systems to function together as one operational entity.
Projects of that nature will most of the time cost organisation money without bringing any direct profit. There are nevertheless essential to the good functionning of the business operation and should clearly be done.
When defining the benefits you’ve identified, ensure you make them as measurable as possible.
Don’t forget the Executive will do a Post Project Review of the project outside of the project once those benefits have become measurable, so we need to know how to analyse them in clear and unambiguous terms.
john higham
the french PRINCE2 expert based in France
When you start learning PRINCE2, remembering all its elements is not easy.
So i constantly try and find new ways to memorize items.
For a while i have been thinking about a sentence that would help us remember the 8 components of PRINCE2.
Let’s first line them up :
1. the Business Case
2. the Organisation
3. the Plans
4. the Controls
5. Quality (in a Project environment)
6. Risk (Management)
7. Configuration Management
8. Change Control
i simply remember them as B-O-P-C Q-R-CM-CC
But Carlo, one of my participants, started a nice sentence which i added a variation to and so got the following :
Big Open Projects Can Quickly Return Companies’ Management Crazy Cash.
so, there you have it, a strange sentence maybe, but something that might help some of you easily remember the 8 Components of PRINCE2.
keep in touch,
john higham
It is good practice to control the quality of what is produced during a project.
In PRINCE2 this is done in MP2 once the product has been created, manufactured or otherwise assembled.
In other circumstances, these quality checks are often called TAT or Technical Acceptance Test. In reality, PRINCE2 refers to those as product approvals (this can be applied to both management and specialist products).
The method of control for the final product will depend of the environment and will be defined in the Project Quality Plan (IP1) and confirmed for each simple product in the Product Description (in PL2). This Product Description is then added to the Work Package and agreed between the Project Manager and the Team Manager (if there is one) or the Team Member who will do the work (this happens in CS1-MP1).
Once products have been approved, they still need to be accepted by the Project Board.
This happens at the end of each stage during the End Stage Assessment (in DP3) for each product created during the previous stage, and at the end of the project for the final product (in DP5).
These are often referred to as UAT or Users Acceptance Tests.
Soon there will be a french version of the manual.
Currently, we expect there will be a french manual available early February, but that can still change at this stage.
A couple of very good signs however is that an ISBN number has been allocated for the manual and that there is some intensive pre-production work going on.
I’ll keep you informed as i’m told of progress.
take care and keep in touch,
john higham
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A lot of people have asked me to make my PRINCE2 available.
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john higham