Purpose
To Establish mechanisms to:
- monitor and compare actual achievements against those planned;
- to provide a forecast for the project objectives and the project’s continued viability;
- to control any unacceptable deviations.
Definitions
Progress
A measure to compare the actual achievement against the planned level of achievement of the objectives of a plan; It can be monitored for the Project Plan, Stage Plan and Work Package level.
Progress controls
The controls put in place to ensure that each level of the Project Management Structure can control the level below.
Tolerance
The deviation allowed for each of the six variables: Benefits, Cost, Quality, Risk, Scope and Time, without escalating the deviation to the next level of management. Tolerances are defined for each level in the Project Management Team.
Exception
A situation where it can be forecast that there will be a deviation beyond the agreed tolerance levels.
Approach to Business Case
The progress control tools used in PRINCE2 are:
- Delegating authority from one level of management to the level below.
- Dividing the project into management stages and authorising the project stage by stage.
- Progress reports and reviews, both time driven and event driven.
Delegating authority
Authority is delegated from each level to the level below in the form of tolerances
Management Stages
Are partitions of the project with management decision points.
The Project Board authorises each stage separately. In that way it can closely monitor the project progress in time.
Reporting Progress
Time driven reports take place at predetermined periodic intervals:
- Checkpoint Reports: show the progress of a Work Package for the Project Manager.
- Highlight Reports: show the stage progress for the Project Board.
Event driven reports take place when a specific event occurs:
- End Stage Report: Compare stage performance to Stage Plan.
- End Project Report: Compare project performance to Project Plan.
Raising Exceptions
Work Package level exceptions: The Team Manager raises an issue
Stage level exceptions: Issue Report / Exception Report. If requested, an Exception Plan.
Project level exceptions: Exception Report. This level of exception has to be reported to the Corporate/Programme Management by the Project Board.
Project Board controls
Authorisations:
Progress updates:
- Highlight reports - regular progress reports
Exceptions and Changes:
- Exception Reports - if expected to go out of tolerance
- Issue Reports - if out of tolerance or in need of advise
Project Manager controls
Authorisations:
- Agreeing and authorising work - Work Packages
Progress updates:
- Checkpoint reports - regular reports from Team Managers
Exceptions and Changes:
- Registers and Logs - compare plans with actuals; deal with issues and risks or escalates
At the end of each Management Stage, the Project Board:
- Checks is the project is still viable
- Checks overall progress by looking at the Project Plan
- Reviews the End Stage Report and the next Stage Plan
- Decides whether to continue on the next stage or not
- Commits resources and delegates authority for the next stage.
Technical Stages:
- Specialist work is done in technical stages
- Usually typified by the use of particular set of specialist skills or release
- Technical Stages can overlap, but Management Stages cannot
- A Technical Stage can span a management stage boundary.
The use of Management Stages is mandatory in PRINCE2.
The number of stages is flexible and is a process of balancing the:
- Amount of risk in the project
- Amount of control required
- Confidence of the Project Board and the Project Manager.
The length of stages depends on the:
The Project Manager monitors and controls the Controlling a Stage process
- Use the plans (Project, Stage and Team plans) as baseline
- Receive Checkpoint Reports from Team Managers with progress information on Work Packages.
- Use other management products for review and control:
- Daily Log
- Issue Register
- Product Status Account
- Quality Register
- Risk Register
Capturing and Reporting lessons: