Is Prince2 the Answer?
I spent last week on a Prince2 course, delivered in Leeds by SkillSolve.
That said, the course was not really the learning exercises, it did reinforce the contents of the Prince2 Manual
Is Prince really useful though? or is it just an excuse to generate huge amounts of paperwork? Actually I think we do 90% of it already, when I stop and think about it. Maybe I don’t document something, and other things are assumed (like using the company quality system on every project), but overall I was left, and still am, rather excited. And one of the good things about where I work is that I can now start putting some of it in to practise.
That makes me excited, which is good, as it sure helps me get out of bed in the morning!
I always believed that anyone who is half-sensible would feel slightly underwhelmed by Prince2, since most of it is stating the bleedin’ obvious. However, experience has shown how badly most projects are actually run, so I lean towards it being useful, especially as a stick to reign in other people!
Of course, I’ve yet to see anyone actually implement Prince2 as-written. For example, when I worked at Imperial the Powers That Be decided that the bit around stage boundaries wasn’t important, and that you can carry on from stage to stage without needing any reviews or authorisations to proceed to the next stage. Which kind of kicks the ass out of the whole thing and is a classic “How did we blow X million on something that isn’t needed”. I think one of the key thing when doing Prince2 project management is to take the time to tick the boxes and make sure the checks and balances aren’t being skipped for expedience’s sake.
It is actually a very good question. I suppose the answer is Yes if done properly. The idea of having a control framework in order to increase the chances of delivering a successful project can not be wrong. One of the most important concept in PRINCE2 is to tailor it and develop your own PRINCE2 method which can be benefitial in the long run.
In terms of paperwork, as you said, you probably already do 90% of it. So why not do it in a systematic way.