Exam Level Process Overview

At the highest level of summarisation the processes that comprise the stages are:

SU:      Set-up team and define the task ahead. Performed before the first stage and before PRINCE2®’s view of project start. SU’s results are assesses by Authorising Initiation (DP1).

DP:      All decision making above the level of the (B.5) Project Manager’s day-to-day control.

IP:       Creates all the sub-components of the terms of reference or (A.27) Project Initiation Document. IP defines the required quality, the resultant cost and timescale and thus (A.2) Business Case. IP defines controls matched to the project’s significance and risk.

CS:      Three themes:

1.         CS Theme One: with MP hand-out and confirm execution of the real work to required quality levels[1].

a)      Authorising Work-Package (CS1) creates an (A.36) Work Package and Accepting a Work-Package (MP1) confirms the team can deliver to constraints (MP1 uses PL to plan if confirmation needs to be calculated at this point. PL may have created a Team Plan that gives the required confidence during the last Stage Boundary))

b)      Executing a Work-Package (MP2) does the work of creating the products, including using the Quality Review Technique to confirm (A.1) Acceptance Criteria are met on a per-product level. MP2 reports achievements to Assessing Progress (CS2) which reports onwards to Reviewing Stage Status (CS5)

c)      Completing a Work-Package (MP3) hands over the completed product to relevant recipient (eg next team in the supply chain or the final users) and reports completion to the (B.5) Project Manager or (B.9) Configuration Librarian at Receiving Completed Work-Package (CS9) and thence to CS2 and CS5.

2.         CS Theme Two: reporting upwards, that is (B.6) Team Manager to (B.5) Project Manager using (A.3) Checkpoint Reports and (B.5) Project Manager to (B.1) Project Board using (A.14) Highlight Reports, and finally...

3.         ...CS Theme Three: handle any actual or potential situation where we will be off plan by more than agreed tolerance limits (IE in exception). Covered by PRINCE2®’s treatment of Change Control and the various types of (A.28) Project Issue within sub-processes CS3, 4 and 8.

CP & SB         Handles the transitions at closure. CP closes the project with confirmation of acceptance of results, lessons learned and (A.13) Follow-on Action Recommendations while SB handles transition at close of stage from specialist stage to stage with (A.10) End Stage Reports and (A.35) Stage Plans et.al.

PL:      Create plans at any level of detail from (A.30) Project Plan, (A.35) Stage Plan or team plan (which doesn’t have an appendix A reference). PL is performed ‘with-in’ SU, IP, MP and SB (for exam purposes) and within CS4 and CP2 in reality[2].

Exams: Required recall and reference for processes

For the open-book practitioner exam you may take your annotated PRINCE2 manual into the exam. You may not stick/ staple/ glue or otherwise attach or add anything to the manual but you can write in it. So you can take any crib-sheet you like so long as you have drawn into your manual by hand.

For the 1hr closed book multiple choice foundation exam the questions are limited to just process level for 6 of the 8 processes. That is SU, PL, DP, IP, SB and CP. Only in the two day-to-day processes of Controlling a Stage(CS) (CS 1 through CS9) and Managing Product Delivery (MP) (MP1 to MP3) is the lower sub-process detail required. You will need to know the ‘purpose’, ‘input’ and ‘outputs’ level of detail for the 8 processes plus the 12 sub-processes of CS & MP without reference materials at hand.

In the 3hr practitioner exam you will have your PRINCE2® Red Book with your hand-made notes. Neither prospect will be in the least bit daunting by the time you have covered the preparation materials.

To recap: there are 8 major processes and 45 sub-process. You will have to recognise (but not memorise) them and be comfortable to apply recall of their purpose to the 3hr Objective Tests Exam (OTE). As we get deeper into the materials we will describe all the details including their process steps, plus who is responsible plus the management products (things like (A.34) Risk Log and (A.14) Highlight Reports) that are created used or updated[3].

The Next Step is to look at the Process Model, starting with Starting-Up a Project (SU)