A Visit to Directing a Project (DP)

Still with reference to the overview diagram:

As soon as a (A.29) Project Mandate arrives the Starting Up a Project (SU) sub-processes begin. The first three of which appoint people to roles. Of special interest is the appointment of the decision makers who sit on the (B.1) Project Board and carry out the Directing a Project (DP) processes.

The (B.1) Project Board represents customer and supplier. Customer interests are further described as user and business. The (B.1) Project Board represents the interest of 1) those impacted by the project’s products: the user community represented by the (B.3) Senior User and 2) the suppliers who provide the specialist skills to create the products. Suppliers are represented by the (B.4) Senior Supplier.

The (B.1) Project Board’'s decision maker is the (B.2) Executive. The (B.2) Executive has the only vote on the board and is expected to balance the interests of customer and supplier.

All board members are accountable for ensuring the quality of work done within the project is fit and proper for their purposes and responsibilities. The responsibility for ensuring the results are right is separately described in the (B.7) Project Assurance role. (B.7) Project Assurance is a subset of each (B.1) Project Board member’s role and is generally expected to be delegated by the senior decision makers to someone with the time and expertise to carry the assurance responsibilities on behalf of one or more (B.1) Project Board members.

Those suitable for inclusion on the (B.1) Project Board are recognisable as members of the customer and supplier organisations who have authority to commit resources capable of specifying requirements, performing acceptance activities and building the products.

There is a Directing a Project (DP) sub-process at the end of every management stage and aditionally after stat-up and when ever a stage is in danger of being in exception. In addition from the moment they are appointed the (B.1) Project Board are available to the (B.5) Project Manager on an as-needed basis through the definition of the sub-process Giving Ad-Hoc Advice (DP4).

The (B.1) Project Board make their first official decisions when the plan for the Initiation Stage together with SU’s other results[1] are presented to the Project Board for approval at Authorising Initiation (DP1). DP1 ratifies:

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team and task (formally The Project Organisation Structure and job descriptions[2]),

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(A.26) Project Brief (the rewritten and extended (A.29) Project Mandate that says “What the project is about”), and the

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(A.25) Project Approach which explains how to obtain/ or create the final solution.

In practice the (B.1) Project Board must have been engaged in SU2 and SU3 to appoint staff to the necessary team roles to define and build the projects products.

At the end of the initiation stage the (B.5) Project Manager will present the outputs of the IP (and PL) sub-processes plus results of the SB (and PL) sub-processes to the (B.1) Project Board at sub-process Authorising a Project (DP2). DP2’s inputs are the (A.27) Project Initiation Document, the (A.35) Stage Plan of the next stage plus the (A.10) End Stage Report covering the initiation stage. Assuming approval is granted the (B.5) Project Manager begins assigning work at Authorising Work-Package (CS1).

When a stage after the first comes to an end it may be the last, in which case the (B.1) Project Board receive the results of Closing a Project (CP) at Confirming Project Closure (DP5) or it may be an interim control point, the end of a stage other than the first and last in which case the (B.1) Project Board receive the results of Managing Stage Boundaries (SB) at Authorising a Stage or Exception Plan (DP3).

DP3 normally constitutes an End Stage Assessment (ESA) by considering a newly produced (A.35) Stage Plan. DP3 may alternatively be constituted as an Exception Assessment (EXA) to consider the approval of an (A.11) Exception Plan.

Next Getting the Real Work Done


 


 

[1]      Collectively all the PRINCE2® documents are called Management Products. The ones PRINCE2® considers significant have a template in Appendix A but your local needs may add, subtract to the set or the contents of any item

[2]      No Appendix A entries