Plans Theme Flashcards
What information is provided through plans? (5)
- What products need to be delivered
- The risks, including opportunities and threats
- Any issues with the definition of scope
- Which people, specialist equipment and resources are needed
- Whether the targets for time, cost, quality, scope, risk and benefits are achievable
What are the levels of planning Prince2 suggests?
- Project Plan
- Stage Plan
- Team Plan
What is the definition of a Project Plan and when is it developed?
A high-level plan showing the major products of the project, when they will be delivered and at what cost
An initial project plan is presented as part of the PID
What is a Stage Plan?
A detailed plan used as a basis for project management control throughout a management stage
What are Team Plans?
Team Plans cover the work of a team during a stage or for a work package. These are optional.
What do we need to consider when defining stages? (5)
- How far ahead is it sensible to plan
- Where the key decision points are needed (e.g. before a major commitment like awarding a contract)
- The amount of risk in the project (more risk usually means more stages)
- The length of different stages
- How confident the Project Board and the Project Manager are in proceeding
With what may we wish to align management stages?
With delivery stages, such as design, build and test.
What is the difference between management stages and delivery stages?
Management stages are about commitment of resources and authority to spend. They are always sequential.
Delivery stages may span a management stage or go beyond. They should align to the extent that products should be complete at the stage boundary (or their progress should be defined clearly)
Typically, delivery stages are broken into small chunks to align with management stages.
What are the seven planning steps?
- Designing a Plan
- Defining and analysing products
- Identifying activities and dependencies
- Preparing estimates
- Preparing a schedule
- Analysing risks to the plan (at every step from 2-5)
- Documenting a plan
Under the Plan Theme, what are the minimum requirements for a Prince2 project? (7)
- Ensure that the plans enable the business case to be realized
- Have at least two management stages
- Produce a Project Plan for the whole project and a stage plan for each management stage
- Use the products-based planning technique for project, stage and exception plans
- Produce specific plans for managing exceptions
- Define the role and responsibilities for planning
- Use lessons to inform planning
Which four products must be produced and maintained under the Plan Theme?
- Project product description
- Product descriptions
- Product Breakdown Structure
- A plan
A 5th is recommended: a product flow diagram
How does the Project Board use the Project Plan?
A Project Plan provides the business case with planned costs and timescales as well as identifies major control points, such as management stages and milestones.
It is used by the Project Board as a baseline against which to monitor progress stage by stage.
How are Stage Plans different from Project Plans, and when are they finalised?
Stage Plans are similar to Project Plans, but require a higher level of detail to enable day-to-day management of the stage
Each stage plan is finalised near to the end of the previous stage.
What are team plans, and when are they produced, and by whom?
Team plans are optional plans, and there is no prescribed format. Team Managers produce them in parallel with the production of a stage plan, or when a work package has been accepted during the managing a product delivery process.
What is an Exception Plan and how is it prepared?
When it is predicted that a plan will no longer finish within the agreed tolerances, an exception plan may be produced to replace that plan at the same level of detail as the one it replaces.
An exception plan starts from the current plan’s actuals and continues to the end of that plan.
