Project Management
Question:
Discuss about the Importance Of Prince2 Methodology In Project Management To Increase The Project Success Rate.
A project is defined as a temporary finding that definitely has a beginning and an ending. A project also has resources and scope so that it can be defined clearly. Project Management is therefore an application where knowledge, tools, skills, and techniques are included to meet needs of the project (Axinte, Petric? and Barbu 2017). Project Management usually has five phases that includes initiating, planning, controlling, executing and finally closing. There are basically ten areas that project management works on. The project management follows scope of the project, maintains the time and cost of the project, integrate projects, improves the quality of the project, and maintains the procurement process of the project. Human resource of the project is maintained by project management, improves the communication among the members of the team, and maintains the risk and stakeholders associated with the project.
According to Nicholas and Steyn 2017, to achieve goals and the results with the particular budget and schedule, a planned project is scheduled by manager. Irrespective of the area or the sector of the project, some project management methodologies are very helpful for the managers who deal with the project from initializing the project up to the closing of the project. The main aim of this literature review is to provide us with the previous studies that are involved with PRINCE2 methodology. This literature review consists of PRINCE2 methodology, which helps in successful completion of project. The PRINCE2 methodology is one of the methodologies that help to increase the success rate of project completion.
Definition of PRINCE2 Methodology
Špundak 2014 illustrated that methodologies that are involved in a project is basically a model, that are employed by the project managers for designing the project, planning and implementing the project and finally achieve the objective of the project. There are different methodologies involved in project management that are beneficial for many projects. Out of all the project management methodologies, PRINCE2 methodology is one of the methodologies that is very helpful in successful completion of the project.
According to Kerzner and Kerzner 2017 the process of PRINCE2 project management methodology helps to find the roles of the project and assign new roles among different members of the project team. According to PRINCE2 methodology, the roles are divided on the basis of expertise. There are numerous numbers of positive cases that have been successful with the application of PRINCE2 methodology. The PRINCE2 methodology stands for Projects IN Controlled Environments. The PRINCE2 methodology has seven principles, seven themes and seven processes. All the principle, themes as well processes that are helpful in successful completion of the project are discussed below.
7 Principles of PRINCE2- The main principles that are involved in the PRINCE2 methodology for a good practice of project management methodology are as follows:
Business Justification: Joslin and Müller 2015 illustrated that there should be good business knowledge in a project. There has to be a return from all the investments that are done on a business project for a successful completion of the project. The time as well as the resources should be utilized properly.
Phases of Project Management
Learn from the Experience: The teams involved with the project should always take lesson from the previous cases of project. A log report is to be kept for updating the status of the project.
Define the roles and the responsibilities: All the team members who are involved in the project should know about the project clearly. They have to know all the decisions that are made by the team and know about the decision makers clearly.
Manage all the stages: To complete a project successfully, all the difficult tasks are to be broken into fragments so that tasks can be managed properly.
Manage the tasks by exception: A project that is already running does not need much intervention from the managers. The board of the project is only informed when there does some problem exist.
Main focus on the Products: The final product of the project should be known to the team members and what is expected from the project should also be known (Marcelino-Sádaba et al. 2014). The requirements of the product are also determined only by the work activity, not in any other way.
Tailoring the environment: The methodology of PRINCE2 is a tailored and scaled method. The projects implementing the PRINCE2 method is much more expected to succeed compared to other project methodologies.
7 Themes of PRINCE2 Methodology- There are seven themes that are involved in the methodology of PRINCE2 project management. The seven themes are as follows:
Business Case: According to Terlizzi, Meirelles and Moraes 2016, business case deals with the outlining the necessary conditions for a project to built up and ensures that the project objective remains the same throughout the life cycle of the project.
Organization: The organization mainly defines the roles of the project and the responsibilities that are involved in a project.
Quality: The quality ensures about the quality of the product that is produced and the quality should be the same as that was agreed for (Schwalbe 20115).
Risks: Risks involves any types of issues that the project is having or may have while dealing with the project.
Plans: Plans gives the details of the different stages that are implemented during the project.
Change: Changes shows any potential or some approved changes that are involved in the baseline of the objective of the project.
Progress: The progress involves the real progress of the project with that of the planned one.
Seven Processes of PRINCE2 Methodology- Binder 2016 elaborated that there are basically seven processes involved in the PRINCE2 methodology of project management. The project manager mainly keeps a look on all the processes that are involved in PRINCE2 methodology. The breakdown of the processes involved is as follows:
Starting up the project: As stated by Krysi?ski and Miller 2016, in this process, the project is created that solves all the queries related to project. The reason behind making the project, the way the project will be carried out, and about how to execute the project are all detailed in this process. A brief of the project is to be derived that shows the lesson log and the discussions with all the people that are involved in a project. In project starting, a team is assigned with all the brief about what the team will have to do are involved for all the processes that comes in the way of completion of the project.
Ten Areas of Project Management
Initiating the Project: In the initialization stage, the project manager should realize about what is to be done about completing the project (Svejvig and Andersen 2015). The manager of the project outlines the performance target of the project, which includes the time, cost of the project, quality as agreed, scope, benefits, as well as risks that are associated with the project completion.
Directing the Project: As stated by Verzuh 2015 this process includes the whole phase when the process is going on, from starting of the project to the ending of the project. The managers involved ensures the initiation, all the stages boundaries, ad hoc guidance or direction, or the project closure of the project.
Controlling the Stages: The project is generally broken down in to small stages that ensure the completion of the project in time and with the pre-defined cost. The parts of the project are then assigned to the teams and the managers (Tomanek and Juricek 2015). The project manager then manages the overseeing and the reporting of work packages that is in progress. The project manager also sees that if the correct steps are taken in to account while completing the project. The team manager looks into the fact that the daily work is coordinated properly or not, and there should be a good communication in between the team members and manager of the project. The work of team manager is to establish a good connection among the project team members for completing the project successfully.
Managing the Delivery of the Project: There should be a interaction in between the team manager and the manager who is dealing the project. Managing the delivery includes accepting all the packages, executing the project work package, and then delivering the package.
Managing the Stage Boundaries: Glukhov, Ilin and Levina 2015 stated that the managers involved in the project reviews every stage of the project. The board of managers decides the continuation of the project. The project manager of a team holds meetings so that the lessons are recorded for next stages that are yet to come. Stage boundaries involves activities such as planning next stage, update project plans, update business case, report stage and also produce exception plan.
Closing the Project: Closing the project involves decommission of the project, identify all the following actions that have been taken, prepare benefits and the evaluation of project review. Closing the project includes free up the resources that are left over and finally hand over the project or the product to customer.
Advantages: According to Warner 2014 PRINCE2 is the almost predictable methodology among all the methodologies. This is the best practice for completing a project successfully. PRINCE2 follows standard methods of working and is time and cost effective. The method of PRINCE2 is well tested and there is no boundation of using the PRINCE2 methodology.
Disadvantages: Along with all the advantages, the PRINCE2 methodology also provides some disadvantages. The PRINCE2 methodology does not offer flexibility to the project as other project management methodologies. The project management that is involved in the software industry has increased a level higher and the methodology of PRINCE2 cannot meet the needs of modern project management.
References
Axinte, S.D., Petric?, G. and Barbu, I.D., 2017, June. Managing a software development project complying with PRINCE2 standard. In Electronics, Computers and Artificial Intelligence (ECAI), 2017 9th International Conference on (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Binder, J., 2016. Global project management: communication, collaboration and management across borders. Routledge.
Glukhov, V.V., Ilin, I.V. and Levina, A.I., 2015, August. Project management team structure for internet providing companies. In Conference on Smart Spaces (pp. 543-553). Springer, Cham.
Joslin, R. and Müller, R., 2015. Relationships between a project management methodology and project success in different project governance contexts. International Journal of Project Management, 33(6), pp.1377-1392.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Krysi?ski, M. and Miller, P., 2016. The Role of Conflict in Project Management in the PRINCE2 Methodology. Ekonomika i Organizacja Przedsi?biorstwa, (6), pp.3-12.
Marcelino-Sádaba, S., Pérez-Ezcurdia, A., Lazcano, A.M.E. and Villanueva, P., 2014. Project risk management methodology for small firms. International journal of project management, 32(2), pp.327-340.
Nicholas, J.M. and Steyn, H., 2017. Project management for engineering, business and technology. Taylor & Francis.
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Špundak, M., 2014. Mixed agile/traditional project management methodology–reality or illusion?. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 119, pp.939-948.
Svejvig, P. and Andersen, P., 2015. Rethinking project management: A structured literature review with a critical look at the brave new world. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.278-290.
Terlizzi, M.A., de Souza Meirelles, F. and de Moraes, H.R.O.C., 2016. Barriers to the use of an IT project management methodology in a large financial institution. International Journal of Project Management, 34(3), pp.467-479.
Tomanek, M. and Juricek, J., 2015. Project risk management model based on PRINCE2 and SCRUM frameworks. arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.03595.
Verzuh, E., 2015. The fast forward MBA in project management. John Wiley & Sons.
Warner, J., 2014. PRINCE2 60 Success Secrets-60 Most Asked Questions On PRINCE2-What You Need To Know. Emereo Publishing.