Practices Flashcards

1
Q

What is a practice?

A

Practices are activities that you do at the start of the project to set it up and then use to monitor and maintain the project throughout its lifecycle.

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2
Q

What are the 7 practices?

A

Business Case
Change
Organization
Plans
Progress
Quality
Risk

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3
Q

What is the purpose of the business case practice?

A

To provide a structure to judge whether the Business Case is desirable, viable, achievable and worth the continued investment that is made during the project

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4
Q

____ (tangible product) results in _____ (result of change) which results in ______ (measurable improvments)

A

Output
Outcome
Benefits

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5
Q

What are the 4 stages of the business case practice?

A

Develop
Verify
Maintain
Confirm the Benefits

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6
Q

Explain the steps taken when developing the business case.

A

(Starting up a project)
The business case information is taken from the project mandate and copied into the outline business case.

(Initiating a project)
The outline business case is extended into the business case document and becomes part of the PID.

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7
Q

Name 4 examples of likely points you could verify the business case?

A

Point 1: At the end of the Starting up a Project (Pre-Project) process.

Point 2: At the end of the Initiating a Project process.

Point 3: At the start of each new delivery stage, in the Managing a Stage Boundary process.

Point 4: Any update or review

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8
Q

What is meant by maintaining the business case and when may this be done?

A

Keeping the Business Case up to date to reflect what is happening in the project. It may be done when assessing Risks or Issues, or at the end of a stage.

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9
Q

What is meant by confirming the benefits and when may this be done?

A

Using the benefits management approach the benefits will be assessed whenever realized, as well as post project to assess if they have been realized.

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10
Q

What is the purpose of the benefits management approach?

A

Define clearly how to measure the benefits.

Define the activities required to measure the expected project’s benefits.

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11
Q

Describe the 5 step process of the benefits management approach

A
  1. Created by Project Manager in the Initiation stage with information provided by the Senior User
  2. Project Board approves the Benefits Management Approach
  3. Check the realised benefits at the end of each stage
  4. Plan the Benefits Review after the project (post project)
  5. Check for realised benefits (post project)
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12
Q

What is the purpose of the change practice?

A

The purpose of the knowledge in the Change practice is to help you identify, assess and control any potential changes to the products that have already been approved and baselined.

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13
Q

What is configuration management?

A

Configuration management is the technical and administrative activity concerned with the creation, maintenance and controlled change of the configuration of a product.

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14
Q

What is an issue?

A

PRINCE2 uses the term issue to cover any relevant event that has happened that was not planned and that requires some management action.

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15
Q

Name and explain the 3 main types of issue?

A

Request for change: change to a baselined product

Off specification: was agreed to be done by the supplier but is not provided by the supplier

Problem/concern: any other issue the PM needs to escalate

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16
Q

What 5 management products are relevant to the change practice?

A

Change management approach
Configuration item record
Daily log
Issue register
Issue report

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17
Q

What is the purpose of the change authority?

A

The Change Authority is a person or group who consider requests for change and off-specifications. It is the responsibility of the Project Board, so they can do it themselves, which is more common where few changes are expected, or they can assign this to other persons.

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18
Q

What is the change budget?

A

The Change Authority will have a change budget, which is a sum of money that the customer and supplier agree to use to fund the cost of Requests for Change.

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19
Q

What are the 5 steps to issue and change management?

CEPDI

A

Capture
Examine
Propose
Decide
Implement

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20
Q

What are the tasks for the PM in the change practice?

A

Manage the Configuration Management procedure.

Manage the issues and change management approach.

Create and maintain the Issue Register and Implement corrective actions.

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21
Q

What is the purpose of the organization practice?

A

To help define and establish the project’s structure of accountability and responsibilities; in other words, identify the “Who” of the project.

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22
Q

What is a project?

A

PRINCE2 defines a project as:

“a temporary organization that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to an agreed Business Case”

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23
Q

What is a role?

A

PRINCE2 places project responsibilities into roles, not persons. These roles can then be assigned to persons. In this way, one person can have more than one role.

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24
Q

What is a stakeholder?

A

A stakeholder is any person or group that can be affected by the project or have an effect on the project.

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25
Q

What are the 3 primary categories of stakeholder?

A

Busines Interests
User Interests
Supplier Interests

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26
Q

What are the 4 levels of project organization?

A

Commissioning (Business layer)
Directing (Project board)
Managing (PM)
Delivery (Team manager)

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27
Q

What does the project board consist of?

A

The Project Board consists of the Executive, the Senior User and the Senior Supplier.

Only one person can be the Executive while both the Senior User and Senior Supplier’s roles may be assigned to one or more persons.

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28
Q

What is project assurance and who can fulfill this role?

A

Project Assurance persons should support the Project Manager, that is, to make them aware of standards which they should use in the project.

The Project Board can decide to do this assurance themselves or they can assign these assurance tasks.

29
Q

What is the communication management approach?

A

A document that defines in detail how communication will be done during the project (e.g., what is being communicated, to whom is it being communicated, and how often).

30
Q

What is the purpose of the plans practice?

A

The purpose of the information in the Plans Theme is to provide a framework to design, develop and maintain the Project Plans, which are the Project Plan, Stage Plan, Exception Plan and Team Plan.

31
Q

Name and explain the 3 levels of plan and when are they used?

A

Project Plan is used at the Direction Level and therefore is used by the Project Board. It is created during the Initiating a Project process and is a high-level plan for the whole project.

The Stage Plan is used at the Management Level. It is created for each stage (e.g., for a period of 2 months), and is used by the Project Manager on a day-to-day basis.

The Team Plans are used at the Delivering Level. They are created and used by the Team Manager in the Managing Product Delivery process.

32
Q

What plans does the product based planning consist of?

A

Product breakdown structure
Product descriptions
Product flow diagrams

33
Q

What is an exception plan?

A

Exception Plans are plans that can be used to get the project or stage back on track if the project or stage goes out of tolerance. The Exception Plan picks up from where the current plan left off and goes to the end of the plan.

34
Q

What is the 6 step planning process?

A

Design the plan
Define and analyze products
Identify activities and dependencies
Prepare estimates
Prepare the schedule
Document the plan

35
Q

What is the purpose of the planning practice?

A

To establish how to monitor and then compare actual achievements against those planned during the project.

To provide a forecast for the project objectives and the project’s continued viability.

To be able to control any unacceptable deviations.

36
Q

What three principles are represented in the progress practice?

A

Manage by stages
Manage by exception
Continued business justification

37
Q

What is the difference between an exception and a tolerance?

A

A tolerance is a pre-agreed level of deviation against one of the 7 tolerances.

An exception is a deviation or a forecasted deviation above these tolerance levels.

38
Q

Who sets these tolerances
- Project tolerance
- Stage tolerance
- Work package tolerance

A

Corporate (Business Layer)
Project Board
Project Manager

39
Q

What are the 3 project board controls?

A

Authorizations
Progress Updates
Exceptions and changes

40
Q

What progress reports may be requested by the project board?

A

Highlight report
End stage report
End project report

41
Q

Name 2 event-driven controls, and 2 time-driven controls

A

Exception Report
End Stage Report

Checkpoint Report
Highlight Report

42
Q

What is the purpose of the quality practice in Prince2?

A

The quality practice aims to define and implement a system that will create and verify that products are fit for use and meet requirements.

43
Q

Define quality

A

The total amount of features or characteristics of a product, such that it meets expectations and satisfies the stated needs.

44
Q

What management products detail the project product scope?

A

It is defined using the product breakdown structure and the product descriptions.

45
Q

Who is responsible for quality assurance?

A

Corporate - Outside the project management team

46
Q

What questions must be asked in quality planning?

A

What are the customer’s Quality Expectations?

How can we prove that we meet each specification?

What acceptance criteria will the customer use to accept products during or at the end of the project?

47
Q

What is the quality management approach?

A

Quality Management is defined as the activities to direct and control an organization concerning quality. Some of these activities are: defining quality, quality control, quality assurance, and quality improvement.

48
Q

What is the quality register used for?

A

Plan Quality,
Control Quality
Provide a history of quality activities in a PRINCE2 project.

49
Q

What is the purpose of the risk theme?

A

To identify, assess and control uncertainty during a project and as a result, improve the ability of the project to succeed.

50
Q

What is a risk?

A

Risk is a set of events that, should they occur, will have a POSITIVE or NEGATIVE effect on achieving the project objectives.

51
Q

What are the 5 stages of risk management?

A

Identify
Assess (likelihood x impact )
Plan
Implement
Communicate

52
Q

Name two management products associated with the risk practice.

A

The risk management approach
The risk register

53
Q

What is the risk management approach used for?

A

The Risk Management Approach describes the specific risk management techniques and standards to be applied during the project, and the responsibilities to provide a good and consistent risk management procedure.

54
Q

The last stage of risk management is communicate, what documents would be used to do this?

A

Checkpoint report
Highlight report
End stage report
End project report
Lessons report

55
Q

Identify the missing word in the following sentence:

The purpose of the_____ practice is to facilitate communication and control by defining the means of delivering the products.

A

Plans

56
Q

Which process identifies, asses, and controls modifications to the baseline?

A

Change

57
Q

Which type of issue should be raised if a new product is required after a team has started work?

A

A request for change

58
Q

Which type of issue should be raised by a team manager if a team member has become ill and the target end date for a work package will be delayed by one week?

A

A concern

59
Q

To implement the controls required to manage by exception

What practice is this a purpose of?

A

Progress

60
Q

Which role is responsible for ensuring risk management practices are in line with the risk management approach?

A

Project assurance

61
Q

To set the tolerance on the cost of resources

What practice is this a purpose of?

A

Progress

62
Q

To enable the assessment of continuing project viability

What practice is this a purpose of?

A

Progress

63
Q

What 4 management products are a minimum requirement of the plans practice?

A

Project product description
Product description
Product breakdown structure
Project plan

64
Q

What is the meaning of ‘business as usual’?

A

Business as usual is the term used for activities that maintain current business operations

65
Q

Which stage aims to ensure all parties understand the project objectives?

A

Initiating a project

66
Q

In which process is the project brief introduced?

A

A project brief is used to provide a full and firm foundation for the initiation of the project and is created in the starting up a project process

67
Q

In which process are periodic reviews carried out to approve completed products within that stage?

A

Products are assessed and approved when they are completed, during the managing product delivery process. These quality checks are not left until the end of the stage.

68
Q

What is the purpose of the initiating a project process, specifically concerning management products?

A

To create the management products required to control the project

69
Q

At what stage should a prospective project executive be identified?

A

Prior to starting up a project