What’s New in PRINCE2 7 at SKILup Days 2024

Welcome. Today we're talking about project management driving digital transformation and we'll be leveraging Prince two. My name's James Bry, and to give you a bit back bit of background about myself, I've got 25 years experience in delivering large scale transformational change, and that's through programs and projects.

I've also got 20 years teaching, so I started teaching Prince two and I've, uh, also been teaching a number of other people's products as well. I've got 10 years teaching at master's level as well. Uh, focus around project and program management.

I've worked across a number of different industries, including government, infrastructure, defense, banking, finance and insurance. And my focus areas have been over the last 25 years, business transformation, reviewing large scale programs and projects, education as well as digital. So my company PM Logic, we've developed a couple of tools.

One of them is called sip, that's the strategy implementation platform. And a second is B Radical and Be Radical is, uh, a list of registers. So benefits, risks, actions, issues, decisions, assumptions, uh, lessons learned.

As you can see in front of you, I've got a number of qualifications and certifications. So the first is I'm a, uh, a certified practicing project director, and that's from the Australian Institute of Project Management. I'm also a chartered project profession.

I'm a fellow of A IPM, as well as a PM, and I'm an IPMA level A projects director. I've worked across multiple countries, which is, as you can see from the flags. And I've written a book called the Strategy Implementation Gap and that this book here was co-authored with Michael Young, a fellow um, colleague who has also got a similar amount of experience as myself.

So today what I'd like to cover with you is insights from the latest project management methods, and we'll be focusing mostly on Prince two seven. We talk about sustainability and digitization, setting up projects for success, and there's also a competition where you have an opportunity to win one of the latest PRINCE two manuals. So the PRINCE two manual, just so you can see the right one looks like this.

So you could win this manual. So first of all, I'd like to cover off some of the insights, so it will be remiss of me not to talk about what is a project to kick off. So a project, as you can see in front of you, is a temporary organization that's created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to an agreed business case.

And I've underlined the business case 'cause as I mentioned, I've got over 20 years experience in reviewing projects and programs. And I find often the business case is where projects go wrong, it's missing or it's not kept up to date. And so page two recommends the business case is updated on a regular basis at the end of each stage, um, and it makes sure that the business case is still valid.

So it's the driver of the project. So when we look at the characteristics of a project, projects, uh, are cross-functional, they have a high level of uncertainty, they're temporary, they're unique, and they change something. What they're not and what PRINCE two doesn't cover off is specialist techniques like building codes or in cybersecurity, the essential eight.

It doesn't have techniques like earned value management, design thinking, process mapping, systems thinking. So these are the things that you'd need to draw on if you're using Prince two on other frameworks and methods as well. So PRINCE two does have five integrated elements, which are people, so people sits at the center of the latest PRINCE two seven methodology, and it's supported by processes, principles, practices, and project context.

So why is PRINCE two? Well, PRINCE two has been around since 1996 and I first started using it, uh, formally in 2001, and I'm pretty sure I was using it. Uh, I started my career at Rolls Royce, PLC, in the UK as a graduate trainee.

And I'm pretty sure there was elements of PRINCE two that were using even before 2001. We actually won in 2001 or 2002, the best implementation of Prince two, that was a company called, that I was working for. So PRINCE two has been updated seven times, um, that's why it's version seven.

And the latest versions had over a thousand people contribute to it across the globe, uh, including myself. So you'll see my name in the method. PRINCE two is universal.

In other words, it can be applied to any project. It's flexible, so it isn't over bureaucratic. You can actually tailor it to meet the needs, the context of the project that you're running and the organization, the project's running in.

And in fact, it's the most used project management method globally. It's used in over 150 countries and it contains common language and concepts as well. And it's been translated into a number of different languages as well.

So PRINCE two is outcome focused, and for those organizations that use it to help increase maturity, it's an integrated suite of other methods such as portfolio, program, PMO, and risk management. So for you, the benefit in using PRINCE two is globally recognized. It has a start, middle and end like baking a cake.

So you plan what type of cake you want, you assemble the ingredients, you make the cake, and then you eat it. You're enjoying the benefits of that cake. So whereas other methods, like PMBOK is a good example, uh, guide, so the latest is version seven as well.

And they've moved from, uh, knowledge areas to a principle based approach focusing on eight performance areas. So that's where you can combine the two, you can use Prince two as the lifecycle, and you can then add to it the performance areas from PBO and other methods and frameworks as well. It can improve your career prospects because organizations typically ask for prints two when seeking project managers.

So by having a certification may help you get your next job or next career move and how to structure a project, both the, which I'll talk about later. So when you think about a project, it has a life cycle, as I've mentioned, and Prince two defines it as planning, delegating, monitoring, controlling, and as I mentioned, it puts people at the center of the method now, and that's where motivating comes in common. Uh, other frameworks or life cycles that I've come across is, uh, PDCS.

So plan, do, check, act, and it's a similar life cycle, but obviously as I mentioned, the focus here is on motivating. It's on the people. So when we look at, at the aspects of project performance and PRINCE two has seven key aspects.

So you've may have heard of the triple constraints or the Iron Triangle as it's often referred to. So time, cost, scope, prince two six, um, included quality, risk and benefits. So that's, um, six items.

And then Prince two seven has added sustainability. So sustainability and I believe sustainability is a core part of, uh, uh, a suitable and effective project. The other thing that Prince two has included from day one is three different contexts.

So the there's organization and there's the people side that I've mentioned. There's a delivery method, there's scale, there's the commercial context, and then as I mentioned, sustainability, which is very important. And you'll see if you do get a chance to read my book, you'll see that that's heavily focused on sustainability as well.

So when we look through those three contexts that I mentioned, there's the user, the supplier, and the business. So the sponsor, if I use a common term, is, is often responsible for the project and they're ultimately accountable in the print two term. So you can see on the far right, the sponsor is, uh, representing the business and they provide the mandate, they provide the structure, they agree the governance, how this project will be run, and the sponsor or the business is then supported by users and suppliers.

So the user specify the outputs and they specify, if you give me this output, I'll be able to use it in this way to achieve these benefits. The supply then provides the resources to the project, and they, they help to make sure that the resources and that's people and equipment, material, are available in accordance with the plan. So when you think about the bigger picture of where a project sits, projects can sit within a, an organization, um, it can sit within a program, and projects can also sit within a portfolio.

So they can be nestled at multiple different levels. Prince tool also allows you to, uh, approach, um, a project using different types of delivery techniques. So some of the common ones are linear, so that's where you have a sequential approach, starting from initiate, plan, develop, execute, and then close.

You may be running ative or agile based approach. So that's where you can use a iterative approach to delivering something that is less certain, less predictable, or you may have a hybrid type approach. And this is quite common in government organizations where they want to specify or some sort of specification statement of work at the start.

Then they go through an initiative type approach to deliver the, the detailed elements of the project, and then they may end up back into a, a more linear type approach to finalize the project. When we think about the five integrated elements, and I mentioned people as a core one, the people prince two considers is those working on the project and those affected by or perceived to be affected by the project. So that perceived as a, a key one that's introducing this LAC method.

So when you're thinking about who's impacted, who's gonna influence your project, always think about those that are perceived to be impacted because they may impact your project adversely if they're not satisfied that they're being communicated with effectively. The other areas that I mentioned briefly are principles. So in Prince two principles include the roles and responsibilities, justification, learning, focus on products management by stages and exception and tailoring.

So the key thing here, this management by exception is, is reducing the, the amount of meetings. The intent is that the delegation to the project manager, to the team manager is provided and they get on with the job or against the schedule or the plan and report regularly. And that's how the various governance levels managed by exception.

Next, the practices. So the practices include the business case, organization plans, quality, risks, issue and progress. And if you think about an example, if you've got a, a digital and a data management approach, then it's really important to include that as part of a practice.

How are you gonna man manage information and data and ultimately knowledge. The fifth and final area is the processes. So here's the example of the process model.

Um, so PRINCE two is a process based approach, and you can see it's got the pre-project process, which is called starting at the project. So typically this happens before a project budget is set and it's about us assessing at a high level how long, how much who needs to be involved, what level of risk is this project gonna take on, and then the, and setting up the organization as well. So who is the business, the senior user, the senior supplier that I mentioned earlier.

Then the project can then move into the initiation stage. So this is the planning stage and this is where, um, PRINCE two creates what's called a project initiation document, and that's like A-P-M-P-A project management plan. And I think of this pit or PMP as the contract between the project manager delivering the elements of the project and the organization.

So it must be kept up to date. Then there's stages as I mentioned. So think of stages as go no decision points.

And there's two key elements that will help with working out how often to put stages in. The first is where is a key decision across the life of the project. And the second is planning horizon's often very well.

It is difficult to plan long term in the future with a great level of detail. So by having these stages, it allows you to replan as you go through the life of the project. So following a wave based planning approach, then there's a final stage and that's include closing a project.

And in closing, you are making sure that what you plan to deliver has been delivered plus any agreed changes as you went through the process. So one of the key elements or the the second key element that I mentioned that will cover off is, uh, sustainability and digitization. And PRINCE two has added, as I mentioned, in in Prince two seven, sustain, um, sustainability.

So what is sustainability in project management? So sustainability is the project profession approach to the balance of environmental, social economic aspects of a working to meet the current needs of the stakeholder without compromising or overburdening future generations. So this definition that I've taken from the Association of Project Management Body of Knowledge, and that's in the seventh condition as well.

So a good example of this is the company that I founded called PM Logic. We've been running for 13 years now. We actually certified as what's called a B Corp, uh, last year.

And that's, uh, certification was undertaken by, uh, an organization called B Labs. And it's for organizations that meet the highest standard of social environmental performance, transparency and accountability. So sustainability is very important to PM logic and I'm, I'm really glad to see that it's included as a core element of print two.

So when we drill down into sustainability, some of the things to think about and consider when you are considering sustainability in your project is the long term viability. It's ensuring that what you're delivering has a certain level of, um, well certainty that you're not depl depleting resources or harming the environment. Ethical responsibility.

And as I mentioned when I went, uh, I'm a charter approach professional, and I went through and became, um, a charter project. Profess went through the assessment process. One of the mandatory areas I I'm now an assessor of chartered approach professionals and one of the mandatory areas is ethics.

So it's, it's making sure that you have included and you are ethical. So having an ethical responsibility is really important to meet the needs of present, but also consider the impact of future generations is how you can include it in your projects economic benefits. So projects should be, they should deliver a value for money product as prince two call it, or deliverable Regulatory compliance is another area.

So another many regions have regulations promoting sustainability. Incorporating these principles can avoid legal, uh, and penalties as well for these organizations. Social impact is another one.

So it sustainability is, is not just environment, it's, it's important to include social as well. So that's having a positive impact on communities by promoting social equity and improving the quality of life environment. So that's where obviously you're protecting and minimizing the impact, adverse impacts on the environment, preserving tip for future generations, then you've got more traditional market demand.

So actually when you look at sustainability, there is a growing demand for sustainable products. And I know a lot of the products or all the products that we use now, um, are sustainable. So we make sure that we source sustainable products and many organizations are doing this as well.

And then finally, risk management. So incorporating sustainability can help mitigate the risks associated with environment, with, um, social and the regularly changes. So in summary, sustainability is a holistic approach that balances environment, social economic factors to ensure success and longevity of projects.

So it's not just about environmentally friendly, it's about creating value that endures and benefits all stakeholders involved. So that's the environment. Now let's look at digitization.

So when we think about digitization, um, Microsoft developed and has recently launched copilot. So I hope you've come across copilot. I I think it's a great tool and I use it in all the projects and programs that, uh, we now run.

Um, and how I, how I use it for example is by prompts. So, uh, examples that you can use co-pilot for is putting a prompt in why is the inclusion of sustainability and projects important and it'll give you some guidance on that. Or if you're starting a project and you haven't, um, undertaken a project in, in that particular industry on that environment, it can give you some prompts to start with risks as a good example.

So you could ask if you are, um, building a new home, what risk should I consider in my new house building project? Or if you are developing or rolling out a new customer relationship management system, what generic benefits should I consider when delivering a new CRM system? So we're talking about digital transformation today.

So I thought I'd ask co-pilot to assist with setting up my digital transformation program. So I've asked it, how can copilot, how can you assist me with setting up my digital transformation program? And it's provided me some guidance here.

So it's saying include strategic planning, best practice, project management, resource allocation, risk management, continuous learning and custom solutions. So make sure you're tailoring ultimately copilot also provides references. So one of the differences between copilot, uh, using copilot and say chat GPT and other AI tools is co-pilot, um, uses a search engine and it provides references.

So you may have come across hallucinations or the concept of hallucinations, and that's where these AI tools make up information. So copilot, because it's referencing actually you can check to make sure it hasn't made up information that doesn't make sense. The other thing that copilot does is it actually, um, makes sure that the information you are putting in is not stored.

So it's not retrievable, it's not searchable. And that's one of the key elements is particularly when you're talking about sensitive information, making sure you're not sharing that to platforms that others can actually search and find that sensitive information. So with data, be careful, uh, would be my recommendation and it's important to, I think to use it.

Um, one of the expressions that often can use is you won't be replaced by an AI tool, but you may be replaced by somebody using AI tools. So if you haven't jumped on the bandwagon in using AI to help you with your projects and programs, then I definitely recommend you do and co-pilot's a great start. So when we think about digital and data management, the purpose in print two talks about how technology can be used to support project management.

So those were some of the examples I gave you with co-pilot and how data and information can be created, used and managed. So this is not just a focus on project, um, it's delivering, but also the project itself. So when you think about the project itself, it you can think about what data or information is needed or will be created by the project.

For example, reporting information. Where will that data come from? Where will it be held?

How will the data be kept secure? If you've got testing information as a good example, what level of privacy is required for those users and parti? Um, if you have clients in as part of the test, can you sense, um, sensitize that information, how the data or information will be analyzed, curated, and presented?

Who will have access rights and how would you make sure integrity will be insured? How would data quality be assured is another one? And often that's where in when I review projects and programs, this is the key challenge around who owns the data.

And my recommendation is the business should always own the data. However, it, um, so information technology or ICT, they should own the infrastructure. So they should own the application, um, if it's cloud-based, the environment that the data sits within.

So therefore they need to work together to make sure that the data quality can be accessed as well and what will happen to the data after the project completes. So this is where it's really important to have that closure that I, I mentioned as part of the PRINCE two lifecycle and archiving information. So here in Australia we've got various acts, and I'm sure it's the same in many other countries where government projects as an example, have to comply with the archives act and therefore it's important to store information.

Um, tax records is a good example. So again, records often need to be kept for a period of time, seven years here in Australia. So they need to be stored.

You need to agree what needs to be stored and make sure they can be retrievable if, if you're going to be ordered at some point in the future. So when we think about tailoring projects, as I mentioned, projects are able to, um, or PRINCE two can be tailored to meet, uh, project context. Uh, and the controls can be, uh, changed to represent the project scale complexity importance, the, the team capability and the level of risk as well.

So as an example, when tailoring projects, you can have, um, external to the project such as organizational context, sustainability, commercial context, and then when you're looking into the project, the delivery method, so is it linear, hybrid, um, or agile? Are you using other types of delivery techniques, design thinking, et cetera. And then finally the project scale as well.

So how complex is it? Then in the middle of this um, slide, you've got the tailoring and then applying. So that's taking prince two as well as other guides.

And then working out how to apply the elements, um, to your project context ultimately. And that's where you can apply differently for different stages as an example in PRINCE two. So you may choose to have, um, a planning stage or maybe it's a requirements gathering and that could be linear and then you move into delivery, uh, or development.

And that could be iterative and maybe testing then goes back to a linear approach. So again, print two allows that flexibility in the delivery method and model you use based on the context of what you're delivering. And on the right hand side, you can see here project specific arrangements include the project initiation document or pit, uh, called PMP in, in pmbok.

And then you've got a project plan, stage plan and team plan. So when you think about a simple project as an example, you may have uh, a mandate. So that's the, the, the trigger for starting your project.

And that could be sent by email, could be a conversation with the sponsor to you, the project manager. Then you develop a simple pit or PMP, you have one log and that's that be radical that I mentioned earlier. So benefits, risks, actions, decisions, issues, changes, assumptions and lessons learned.

Then you have some verbal highlights and checkpoint reports. So that's a team report coming up. You may not have any stage plans, work packages, team plans, end stage reports or issue reports.

So it may all just be captured within the B radical and RA band. So again, it's really important to make sure you don't create too much bureaucracy around tailoring the PRINCE two to your particular project. So as I mentioned, um, we have a competition and so, uh, there's this manual here.

So there was a, a QR code at the start of this presentation. I wish you good luck, uh, with answering the questions. They, I have talked through all the answers as we've gone through and I look forward to hearing your questions.

Thank you very much for your time. I.