8 Guidance point.

Refer Ebook 3, page 18

Foundation Digital Key

Each phase will have below 4 sub phases common
User stories are typically written in the format of "As a [user], I want [functionality], so that [goal]."

PRINCE2 (Projects IN Controlled Environments) is a structured project management method and

framework that provides guidance for organizations and individuals on how to go about managing
successful projects. It is based on seven principles, seven themes, and seven processes.

Prince 2 – 7 Principles

Prince 2 is a project management methodology of 7s. The principles, themes and processes all follow
this model. Here, we break down each one and discuss how they relate to each other.

PRINCE2 derives its methods from 7 core principles. Collectively, these principles provide a
framework for good practice:

Characteristics of the principles:

- Universal (apply to every project)

- Self-validating (proven in practice)
- Empowering

1. Continued Business Justification

A project must make good business sense. There needs to be a clear return on investment and the
use of time and resources should be justified.
2. Learn from Experience

Project teams should take lessons from previous projects into account. A lessons log is kept updated
for this purpose.

3. Define Roles and Responsibilities

Everyone involved in a project should know what they and others are doing. This includes knowing
who the decision makers are.

4. Manage by Stages

Difficult tasks are better off broken into manageable chunks, or management stages.

5. Manage by Exception

A project running well doesn’t need a lot of intervention from managers. The project board is only
informed if there is or might be a problem.

6. Focus on Products

Everyone should know ahead of time what’s expected of the product. Product requirements
determine work activity, not the other way around.

7. Tailor to the Environment

PRINCE2 can be scaled and tailored. Projects that adapt PRINCE2 to their needs are more likely to
succeed than projects that use PRINCE2 dogmatically.

7 Themes: BC Org Q Plan Prog Risk Change (BC OP2QR)

- Biz case (Less Prominent)

- Org
- Quality
- Plan (Prominent)
- Progress (prominent)
- Risk (Less Prominent)
- Change

Highlight reports are low-tech and focus primarily on how much is being delivered. o They appear
on information radiators where information can be pulled without the need for a formal meeting.
and Highlight Reports are produced by the project manager for the purpose of updating the
project board.

Checkpoint reports are usually informal and they may also appear on information radiators. o They
may be replaced by stand-up meetings if the delivery team is happy for the project manager to
attend.
Checkpoint Reports are produced by the project team managers for the purpose of updating
the project manager,

The 7 Processes

The PRINCE2 method also separates the running of a project into 7 processes. Each one is overseen
by the project manager and approved by the project board. Here is a breakdown of each stage:

1. Starting Up a Project (SU)

Create a project mandate, which answers logistical questions about the project. It explains the
purpose of the project, who will carry it out and how to execute it.

A project brief is derived from the mandate, lessons log and discussions with people involved in the
project.

A team is assigned and with the brief, they should have all the information needed for next process.
- The purpose is to establish solid foundations for the project, enabling the organization to
understand the work that needs to be done to deliver the project product before
committing to a significant spend.
- It is a lighter process compared to the more detailed and thorough initiating a project
process.
- The aim is to do the minimum necessary to decide whether it is worthwhile to even initiate
the project

2. Initiating a Project (IP)

This stage is about realising what needs to be done to complete the project. The project manager
outlines how the following performance targets will be managed:

Time

Cost

Quality

Scope

Benefits

Risk

- The purpose is to establish solid foundations for the project, enabling the organization to
understand the work that needs to be done to deliver the project product before
committing to a significant spend.
- It is aimed at laying down the foundations to achieve a successful project
- The project manager creates the suite of management products required for the level of
control specified by the project board
3. Directing a Project (DP)

This is an ongoing process from the beginning to the end of a project. The project board manages
these activities:

• Initiation
• Stage boundaries
• Ad hoc direction/guidance
• Project closure

- The purpose is to enable the project board to be accountable for the project’s success by
making key decisions and exercising overall control while delegating day-to-day
management of the project to the project manager.
- The objective of the process is to ensure that:
● There is an authority to initiate the project, deliver the project product, and close
the project
● Management direction and control are provided throughout the project’s life and
the project remains viable
● Corporate, program management, or the customer has an interface to the project
● Plans for realizing the post-project benefits are managed and reviewed

- The process covers the activities of the project board and is not concerned with the day-to-
day activities of the project manager.
-

4. Controlling a Stage (CS)

Project managers authorise work packages, which break the project down into manageable
activities. These are assigned to teams and their managers. The project manager then has these
tasks:

Overseeing and reporting on work package progress

Stepping in to correct problems

The team manager, meanwhile has these tasks:

- Coordinating daily work

- Communicating between team members and the project manager

- The purpose is to assign work to be done, monitor such work, deal with issues, report
progress to the project board, and take corrective actions to ensure that the management
stage remains within tolerance.
- Objective:
o Attention is focused on the delivery of the management stage’s products
o Risks and issues are kept under control
o The business case is kept under review
 o The agreed products for the management stage are delivered to stated quality
standards, within the cost, effort and time agreed, and the defined benefits
- More points:
o It describes the work of the project manager in handling the day-to-day
management of the management stage.
o It is normally first used after the project board authorizes the project, but it may also
be used during the initiation stage, especially for large or complex projects.
o Work packages are used to define and control the work to be done and also to set
tolerances for the team managers.

5. Managing Product Delivery (MP)

This is how the communication between the team manager and project manager is controlled. MP
consists of these activities:

- Accepting & checking a work package

- Executing a work package
- Delivering a work package

The purpose is to control the link between the project manager and the team manager by agreeing
on the requirements for acceptance, execution, and delivery.

- Work packages are used to define and control the work to be done and also to set
tolerances for the team managers.
- The role of the team manager is to coordinate an area of work that will deliver one or more
of the project product’s components. They can be internal or external to the customer’s
organization
- Team Manager ensures products are created & delivered:
o Accepting and checking authorized work packages from the project manager
o Ensuring that interfaces identified in the work package are maintained
o Creating a team plan for the work packages being assigned
o Ensuring that the products are developed in accordance with any development
method specified in the work package
o Demonstrating that each product meets its quality criteria through the quality
methods specified in the product description
o Obtaining approval for completed products from the authorities identified in the
product description
o Delivering the products to the project manager in accordance with any procedures
specified in the work package

6. Managing Stage Boundaries (SB)

Project managers and the board review every stage. The board decides whether to continue the
project. The project manager meets with the team to record lessons learned for the next stage. SB
consists of these activities:
- Plan the next stage
- Update the project plan
- Update the business case
 - Report the stage end or produce an exception plan

The purpose is to enable the project manager to provide the project board with sufficient
information to be able to:
- Review the success of the current management stage
- Approve the next stage plan
- Review the updated project plan
- Confirm continued business justification and acceptability of the risks.

More Points:
- A project needs to ensure that the products it creates will deliver the benefits being sought.
- If necessary, the project can be redirected or stopped to avoid wasting time and money.

7. Closing a Project (CP)

- Decommission the project

- Identify follow-on actions
- Prepare benefits and project evaluation reviews
- Free up leftover resources
- Hand over products to the customer

The purpose is to provide a fixed point at which acceptance of the project product is confirmed and
recognize that objectives set out in the original PID have been achieved, or that the project has
nothing more to contribute

https://www.knowledgehut.com/blog/project-management/project-initiation-document-in-prince2

More Points:

- The original objectives have been met

- The current project has run its course
- Either the operational regime must now take over the products from this project or the
products become inputs into some subsequent project or into some larger program
- The project management team can be disbanded
- Project costs should no longer be incurred
- It provides an opportunity to ensure that all unachieved goals and objectives are identified
so that they can be addressed in the future
- Transfers ownership of the products to the customer and terminates the responsibility of
the project management team

1. Closure activities should be planned as part of the stage plan for the final management
stage.
2. Work is required to prepare input to the project board to obtain its authorization to close
the project.
3. The executive should also notify corporate, program management, or the customer that the
project has closed.
4. The project board may wish to trigger a premature closure of the project under some
circumstances.
5. A number of actions specific to the project product may be required after the project and
these should be documented and planned for as follow-on action recommendations.
The PRINCE2 Agile role of customer subject matter expert (SME) is similar to the product owner if it
is inside a delivery team.

Just-in-time ( JIT) planning at these low levels of plan is sometimes referred to as rolling wave
planning or progressive elaboration planning or progressive elaboration

Emergent: It is a concept in agile that refers to creating solutions and making decisions in a way that
gradually converges on an accurate solution and does not involve a lot of upfront work.

Management products include baselines such as:

• Benefits Management Approach

• Business Case
• Change Control Approach
• Communication Management Approach
 • Plan
• Product Description
• Project Brief
• Project Initiation Documentation
• Project Product Description
• Quality Management Approach
• Risk Management Approach
• Work Package

Management products include records such as:

• Daily Log
• Issue Register
• Lessons Log
• Quality Register
• Risk Register

Management products include reports such as:

• Checkpoint Report
• End Project Report
• End Stage Report
• Exception Report
• Highlight Report
• Issue Report
• Lessons Report
PRINCE2 is suitable for any style of project and is not a traditional project management
approach as is typically contrasted to agile. PRINCE2 just needs to be tailored to suit any given
project.

PRINCE2 Agile provides guidance and tailoring of PRINCE2 in an agile context including principles,
themes, processes, production of PRINCE2 management products and mapping of roles.

The blending of PRINCE2 and Agile is not a binary setting. PRINCE2 Agile has an Agilometer
indicating how Agile we can allow ourselves to be. High degree of flexibility on scope, level of
collaboration, ease of communication etc. are indicators allowing a high degree of Agile blend into
the PRINCE2 method.
TESCo2
Question to ask: Mapping of agile roles to Prince 2 project management team structure / sync of
Prince 2 & agile roles

target embrace change

Is PM part of Scrum role?

project product is specific to project activities

product will cover as whole

Question:
Read about – Frequent Releases
Servant Leadership
Assessments:

Which describes a PRINCE2 principle? Tailor to suit the project environment, size, complexity,
importance, capability and risk is a PRINCE2 principle.

What is purpose of the change theme? The purpose of the change theme is to identify,
assess, and control any potential and approved changes to the baseline.

Which is a purpose of the closing a project process? The purpose of the closing a project
process is to provide a fixed point at which acceptance for the project product is confirmed
and to recognize that objectives set out in the original project initiation documentation have
been achieved (or approved changes to the objectives have been achieved) or that the project
has nothing more to contribute.

A work package is a set of information about one or more required products collated by the
project manager to pass responsibility for work or delivery formally to a team manager or team
member.

(1) The project manager is responsible for the project producing a result capable of achieving
the benefits defined in the business case. (2) The project manager has the authority to run
the project on a day-to-day basis on behalf of the project board within the constraints laid
down by them. The project manager's prime responsibility is to ensure that the project
produces the required products within the specified tolerances of time, cost, quality,
scope, risk, and benefits.

PRINCE2 Agile is only suitable for use on projects. A project addresses a specific problem,
opportunity, or change that is sufficiently difficult that it cannot be handled as BAU.

Scrum is an iterative timeboxed approach to product delivery this is described as a lightweight

framework that helps people, teams and organizations generate value through adaptive solutions
for complex problems.

PRINCE2 Agile provides guidance on tailoring PRINCE2 in an agile context and covers how to
map the common agile roles to the PRINCE2 project management team structure .

PRINCE2 Agile is for any project, not just for IT projects. PRINCE2 Agile does not see working in
an agile way as a binary condition (i.e. you either are or you are not working in an agile way). It
always sees agile as a question of how much (or how little) it can be used according to the
situation that exists.

Supplier Representatives:

• communicates guidance on areas of technical compliance.

• provides support on releasing into operational use when needed

The focus on products principle flexes what is delivered to make it easier to stay in control of the
project
Which statement explains how the manage by exception principle is applied in an agile
context?
- The PRINCE2 name for a big issue is Exception, which means the issue is outside
the agreed tolerance.
- It is at the heart of empowering people to self -organize and stay in control.
- Self-organization creates mutual respect on the project

Which statement explains the PRINCE2 Agile behaviour of exploration? Exploration uses
learning to improve the products produced by the project, through iterative feedback loops.

It is the responsibility of the role that is managing the team (i.e. the team manager) to manage
risk at the delivery level, and the responsibility of the role managing the project (i.e. the project
manager) to manage risk at the project level. That does not mean to say that the team-based
approach to risk management is no longer needed. The opposite is the case in that when using
PRINCE2 with agile the whole team should look out for risks and take ownership of risks when
appropriate, but ultimately the accountability for managing them lies with the person managin g
the team and/or managing the project.

One way to present a business case is to describe best-case and worst-case scenarios that
relate to the number of features that are planned to be delivered. These scenarios can only be
calculated when using high-level or (perhaps) intermediate-level requirements. It is unlikely that
detailed requirements can be mapped directly to the business case.
Both PRINCE2 and agile see change as inevitable.

Continuous integration (CI): A development practice that involves regularly merging code
changes into a shared repository and running automated tests to detect and fix issues early.

Test-driven development (TDD): A development practice that involves writing automated tests
before writing code to ensure that the code meets the requirements.

DevOps: A set of practices that combines development and operations teams to improve
collaboration, communication, and automation.

MVP (Minimum Viable Product):

- A basic version of a product or feature that includes only the essential features needed to
satisfy early customers.
- It is important to note that an MVP is about learning and may not go into operational use.
It may be in the form of a simple experiment or prototype.
- Benefit tolerance can fix or flex. Zero tolerance for the level that is defined as minimum
viability in the business case. Tolerance may be used above the level that is defined as
the minimum viability in the business case.

The suitability of using agile needs to be assessed for the first time as part of the two processes
starting up a project and initiating a project. This is assessed using the Agilometer. It is
specifically assessed during pre-project and again, in a more detailed way, during the
initiation stage.

- It is important to see each slider in isolation and not to create an average score across all
areas.
- The tool shows where there are risk areas and where there are benefits with using agile.
When combining PRINCE2 with agile, the managing product delivery process needs to be seen
as the linking process. It is the glue that joins together project management (where PRINCE2
provides lots of guidance) with product delivery (where agile provides lots of guidance).

In the managing a stage boundary process, what is the main focus? To review the amount
delivered || Tailoring guidance that may be appropriate to the managing a stage boundary
process includes reviewing how much is being delivered (and the quality of it) compared with
what had been planned. Throughout the stage the frequent delivery of products in an ite rative
and incremental style will mean that it will be clear how many features have been delivered and
their level of quality. This will give a clearer indication of progress than information relating to
time and cost.

Ratta

Which statement best explains the target embrace change for flexible delivery? The
embrace change target allows for a more accurate final product.

Which statement best explains the be on time and hit deadlines target for flexible delivery?

• The be on time and hit deadlines target allows the project to deliver early
realization of benefits.
• It also reduces the likelihood of cost overruns when resources are fixed.

Which statement explains the target protect the level of quality for flexible delivery? The
protect the level of quality target does lead to a lower cost of ownership throughout the lifetime of
the product.

Which statement about the keep teams stable target is correct?

- The keep teams stable target allows for team members to change if necessary, as the
needs of the project changes.
- Also does avoid the use of extra people to improve progress within a sprint.

Which statement about the accept that the customer doesn't need everything target is
correct?

- The accept that the customer doesn't need everything target delivers what the customer
really wants by prioritizing the features.
- It also states that features are the safest area in which to compromise.

Which statement about the embrace change target is correct? It is achieved by setting the
project baseline at the correct level.

What should the project board do during release planning? Provide information to ensure
that benefits are realized in the best order

Spiking is a temporary piece of work used to understand more about a given situation. It may
take the form of a prototype or some research and is often used to reduce uncertainty from a
technical or customer viewpoint. Experiments are similar.
Value is the benefits delivered in proportion to the resources put into acquiring them. It is
sometimes referred to as net benefit as it represents the benefits after the expenditure has been
factored in.

The term velocity is used to describe the rate of progress a team is making. For example, if a
team is completing 20 user stories per week then this is their velocity and it can be used to
empirically forecast their future rate of progress (assuming that the conditions remain the same).

Brainstorming is a technique that is used during a workshop (not in preparing for a workshop) to
generate ideas using sticky notes to aid discussion.

- Identifying any required prereading to be issued is part of workshop preparation.

A burn-up chart has two lines, one increasing to show the amount of work completed, and the
other showing the total amount of work to be done.

Which is a typical characteristic of team working agreements?

- They are built by caref ully building consensus and involving all delivery team members.
- They are designed to improve the ef f ectiveness of the self -organizing team by agreeing
values
- They are typically displayed on the team inf ormation radiator to enable them to evolve over
time.

What is NOT typically included in a user story? The f ully def ined solution to deliver the
requirement

Requirements at initiation stage should be at intermediate level (possibly more than 10, but less
than 100). They will possibly be captured in product descriptions or epics.

Release planning needs to be incorporated into the PRINCE2 plans. A project plan would need
to clearly show how many releases were expected throughout the project, when they will take
place, and what features are intended to be released.

- The project board needs to be aware of the significance of release planning

- A well-crafted release plan can prove beneficial to an organization and create feedback.
- To benefit from the advantages of frequent delivery, any release has to go into the
operational environment.
- However, this is not always possible. If a release does not go into operational use, it is
unlikely to generate any benefits or real customer feedback
- How a product is released, gradually over time, will have a direct effect on how benefits
are realized and can have a significant effect on whether or not the project can continue
to be justified. It is possible that a project needs to realize early benefits in order to fund
later parts of the project. The project board needs to be fully aware of the significance of
release planning. It is not something that just concerns the people working at the delivery
level.

The purpose of the risk theme is to identify, assess, and control uncertainty and as a result
improve the ability of the project to succeed.

The purpose of the managing a stage boundary process is to enable the project board to be
provided with sufficient information by the project manager so that it can review the
success of the current stage, approve the next stage plan, review the updated project plan,
and confirm continued business justification and acceptability of the risks .

The project product description is a special form of product description that defines what the
project must deliver to gain acceptance. It is used by the closing a project process as part of the
verification that the project has delivered what was expected of it. & that the acceptance
criteria have been met.

How does PRINCE2 Agile refer to the term agile? A collection of behaviours, concepts,
f rameworks, and techniques

The customer representative

- provides support to review the project's products.

- contributes specific information that may be of use to the project.

How is the tailor to suit the project principle applied in an agile context? By incorporating an
agile assessment tool - The tailor to suit the project principle uses the Agilometer to assess risks
such as how easy is communication.

PRINCE2 Agile behaviour collaboration? means that the team is greater than the sum of its
parts. People working together and providing cover is necessary to maximize team productivity.

PRINCE2 Agile behaviour of rich communication? allows information to pass freely in a

culture of commitment.

Where there is a high level of uncertainty the business case should be developed very
quickly and the assumptions tested rapidly. This approach could be described as taking a
leap of faith.

What is used as contingency on a PRINCE2 Agile project? Features

The frequent delivery of products that meet the appropriate acceptance criteria/quality criteria is
the primary source of information with respect to progress and provides the basis for
forecasting future progress.

Although the agile way of working may reduce many common risks (which is one of the reasons
for its growth in popularity) it does have risk areas of its own.

an empowered self-organizing team working at the delivery level should be free to handle
change quite dynamically as long as that change is at the detailed level and is within defined
tolerances.

Project closure may take a form of a workshop where the original baseline is checked in
relation to the final outputs and outcomes of the project, and preparation for closure
authorization can take place. This may include a review of the final release.

Timeboxing is considered an agile technique

EPICS: Initial customer requirements can initially be quite large or vague. This has given rise to a
different type of user story known as an epic. In effect this is a high-level or super-user story that
will over time be broken down into user stories at a level of granularity that the delivery teams
can work on.

Information radiator is a general term used to describe the use of walls or boards containing
information that can be readily accessed by people working on the project. It can contain any
information, although it would typically show such things as work to do and how work is
progressing.

As part of Lean Startup, understanding the customers needs and understanding them quickly
is vital. The ultimate goals are to get a better understanding of the customers needs (bearing in
mind that they themselves may not know them) and to speed up this learning.

The key roles involved in a release plan are the customer, the project board, the project
manager, and the delivery team. How a product is released, gradually over time, will have a
direct effect on how benefits are realized and can have a significant effect on whether or not the
project can continue to be justified. It is possible that a project needs to realize early benefits in
order to fund later parts of the project. The project board needs to be fully aware of the
significance of release planning. It is not something that just concerns the people working at the
delivery level.

MoSCoW typically works at higher levels and over longer timescales where requirements may
be grouped by function and dependencies exist between these functions. Ordering primarily
works at a lower level (or task level) where certain technical activities are taking place.

- Kanban and Scrum tend to use ordering rather than MoSCoW

- Ordering is most appropriate when there is little dependency among the items on the list

Agile typically looks at how much can be produced in a fixed timeframe such as a sprint or a
release (or how much value can be delivered). This is often shown at the start in the form of a
burn chart that can then be tracked ● This is in contrast to creating milestones representing how
long something will take and showing this on a Gantt chart, as this is of limited value. Gantt
charts may be of value at the higher levels of plan but they should be synchronized to the agile
way of working and should avoid the duplication of information that is being held in the form of
backlogs

agile comes with its own set of potential risks and these need to be proactively managed

Many agile techniques address risks, for example, daily stand-up meetings, frequent delivery of
products, frequent use reviews, customer interaction, and empowered teams organizing themselves
to deliver the right thing at the right time

Tracking progress will depend on the situation and what people need information on. If it is within a
sprint, then burn-up or burn-down charts may suffice. If it is across releases, then showing the value
accrued and how this relates to the business case may be more appropriate

Who is the Middleman between Project & Programme Management – Project Board
What is purpose of the change theme? The purpose of the change theme is to identify,
assess, and control any potential and approved changes to the baseline.
Overalap

The correct answer is suboptimal design. Compromising the quality level of anything delivered
during a project may result in reduced testing, incomplete documentation, suboptimal change, lack
of appropriate training, and noncompliance with standar