SU’s 1st three sub processes establish the project management team, The next two (SU4 and SU5) define the project’s objectives in sufficient detail to allow SU6 and Planning (PL) to schedule, cost and propose controls for the initiation stage of the project. ‘Initiation’ covers the development of the business case and the project’s (A.30) Project Plan. Put another way SU “plans the planning” that will be performed in the initiation stage by the sub-processes of Initiating a Project: also know as “IP” and the sub-processes of Planning aka “PL”.
Designing a Project Management Team (SU2) and Appointing a Project Management Team (SU3) are to some degree dependant upon Preparing a Project Brief (SU4) and Defining Project Approach (SU5) and vice-versa.
The
first reliable description of the project’s intended results is the (A.26)
Project Brief. It is created in SU4 but cannot be written without input from
the user community whose representative(s) is (are) selected and appointed in
SU2 & SU3. Equally it may be hard to define the right levels of user
involvement and clout that will influence SU2 and SU3’s selection of suitable
project participants until definition of the project’s goal is under way in SU4.
Very chicken and egg.
The same applies to choosing who is appropriate to represent the supplier interests and definition of the “how will we create the outcome” as defined by Defining Project Approach (SU5) within the (A.25) Project Approach document. PRINCE2® processes are discreet descriptions but their usage in the context of a project is integrated and iterative.
A fragment of corridor conversation such as “Could you drop by my office with Jane at 2:30? I have the Big-Co’s Ops manager at 3:00 to discus extension of managed services” encompasses much of SU2 and SU3, alludes to SU4 and SU5 and if this is the first you’ve heard may be SU1 and the arrival of a verbal (A.29) Project Mandate!
After SU1, 2 and 3 have put the team in place and SU4 and 5 have defined the “what” and “how” then SU6 creates the Initiation Stage Plan, It does this by using the Planning process PL. All planning in PRINCE2® is done using the sub-processes PL1 to PL7.
Next Planning