Written by Bassil Hassan Alhartany
Bassil is an ambitious guy who always aims to grow fonder in Project Management by day to day experience amongst his colleagues in the PMO team.
In every day of our lives we set goals to achieve for this year, or probably the next five years, but when the deadline is reached or crossed, we fail to do so, but we don’t know why!
At a larger scale, some organizations set their strategic goals and subgoals to achieve the intended vision, mission, and values. However, some of these goals need to be treated differently like providing services or products. A product or services which need to be delivered to the customer or end user. Definitely will require to be delivered with milestones, deadline, against a specific budget, and with a certain quality. As a result, the organization dedicates some of its resources with specialties to work against the mentioned attributes to produce that particular service or product. That’s where project management is required.
Then how does an organization or program differs from a project?
There are four aspects where program and project differ:
1. Make-up: The components of a project are specific and exact. The scope and goals of a project are well-defined – while programs are typically less clear-cut. Furthermore, because a program covers multiple projects – a program team tends to be larger as it also incorporates the project managers and their project team members.
2. Effort: A project represents a single, focused endeavor. A program meanwhile is a collection of projects – together all the projects form a connected package of work. The different projects complement each other to assist the program in achieving its overall objectives. It’s likely the various projects within a program will overlap – the program manager will, therefore, assess these overlaps and work with the relevant project managers to ensure the program’s smooth progression.
3. Length: While some projects take several years – the typical project will not take very long to complete. In contrast – programs often take a very long time to complete as they intend to deliver more. It’s therefore common for programs to be organized into phases or tranches. An unusually long project may also be organized into multiple phases – but this is less common.
4. Benefits: Projects focus on achieving tangible outputs, i.e. what you gain upon completing the project. Programs focus on outcomes – which are often not tangible. The benefits provided by a program depend on the collective benefits of its projects. Examples of a program outcome include a cultural or political change within an organization – or a change in the way in which an organization operates.(1)
When and where PRINCE2 was founded?
Back in time 1975, UK government has thought of formalizing IT project management Techniques to make sure all the project stakeholders comply with the Government documentation and management policies. So, they came up with a TERM called PROMPT to make sure projects are running within time and budget. Later the UK GOV has improved to be PROMPTll to add few more standards. Then in 1989. By enhancing PROMPT II introduced Critical Path Analysis and project managers under the name of PRINCE (Project management in a controlled environment).
In 1996 PRINCE2 was brought to life, applying the engines for a successful project as PTP (Principles, Themes, and Processes) and the PRINCE2 methodologies survived to be used widely for the different types of projects.
Then Why PRINCE2?
PRINCE2 is the de facto project management standard. It provides the skills to make you confident about successfully managing projects. That's because PRINCE2 uses a common language, systems, and procedures. This allows you to control resources and risks. PRINCE2's controls lead to fewer mistakes, but the lessons log teaches you and your team how to learn from them. (2)
PRINCE2 is the best for your daily project operations!
The great thing about PRINCE2 that it can be tailored to suit your project. The main reason is to focus on product delivery and actualize benefits as per customer or end-user(s) expectations and make sure all project tolerances time, cost, scope, quality, risk, and benefits are under control.
You can save time, money and effort with PRINCE2. Best of all, it's adjustable. So no matter what the industry, company size, project size or even methods already in use, you can tailor PRINCE2 to work effectively. (2)
PRINCE2 as a work style
As a personal experience from experiencing PRINCE2, it helped a lot in planning better, manage risks, increased the focus on learning from previous experiences, reflect and improve, know the differences between types of reports and assures that our customer's expectations are met the best.
References:
Axelos, Certifications, P2, Prince2, ProjectManagement, ProjectPlan, ProjectsINControlledEnviroments,
