PRINCE2, like many other project management approaches, breaks the project down into phases, or what it calls ‘stages’.  But when using the PRINCE2 method it is important to realise that these are management stages and not technical stages.  You try to group technical stages within management stage boundaries, but there may be more than one technical stage in each management stage.  The management stage is a block of work that the board is willing to resource and authorise in one go.  The Project Manager will go away and get on with that block of work and the board will not normally meet until the end of it.  At that meeting, the members will check the project and authorise the next block of work – or close the project instead.  The stages are all defined in the project plan which is part of the vital document in PRINCE2, the Project Initiation Document or PID.

Making decisions

A key factor when deciding on management stages is “Does the Project Board need to make a decision at this point?”  The fact that a technical stage has finished and a new one is about to start does not mean that you need the Project Board to meet.

Can you imagine the Project Board meeting if you did?

Project Board:  Now Project Manager, what have you got to tell us?
Project Manager:  Well, technical stage 5 is finished and Team B have left the project, and technical stage 6 is about to start and Team E have arrived.
Project Board:  Er,  very interesting but what do you want us to do about it?
Project Manager:  Well, I thought you would like to know.
Project Board:  Well, we wouldn’t like to know.  We would have wanted to know if there was a problem and Team E hadn’t arrived or the start of the technical stage was delayed but other than that all this information is on the plan.
Project Board (again):  And anyway, if you wanted to let us know, why didn’t you use the phone or email?

Do you get the point?  There is nothing to talk about.  The board does not need to make a decision and the project is proceeding according to plan.  Board members can see from the plan that Tech stage 6 is due to start on this date and Team E will be joining the project.  They don’t need a meeting where there is nothing to decide and where the Project Manager will merely repeat information that is on a plan that they have already seen and approved.

Defining management stages

So how do board members decide the number of stages?  The first thing to say is that this is not based on some algorithm.  You can’t say, for example, that for a relocation project you should always have six stages.  That would refer to technical stages and not management stages.  Management stages depend on a lot of variable factors, not on the type of project.

The PRINCE2 management stages are a lot like a manager deciding how much he or she will supervise a staff member.  You simply can’t say you should always check staff members once a week.  The degree of supervision will depend on the individual staff member, the nature of the work and your own management style.  So too with Project Board supervision of a PRINCE2 project.  The stage boundaries are those points where the board will step in and check things out.

The factors

Here are a few of the factors for the board to consider when deciding on how many stages there should be in the project and where the stage boundaries should fall.  For much more detail, book a PRINCE2 Project Board course with Inspirandum or buy a copy of the book PRINCE2 for Dummies, published by John Wiley and written by Nick Graham of Inspirandum.

Time

The board may well decide to put a maximum on the length of time they are willing to go without having a meeting.  That could be three months.  In that case, if there is a block of work that will take five months, it would have to be broken into two management stages, perhaps one of three months and then one of two months.

Money

Similarly to time, the board may put a maximum on the amount of funding that will be authorised at any one time.  So, in a $25 million project, the board may say that they will never authorise more than $4 million at a time.  If there is a block of work that would cost $5 million, that block would need to be divided into two management stages so that each comes inside the maximum.

Another example of where funding is significant in deciding stage boundaries is where there is to be a major investment in the project, such as buying expensive equipment.  The norm here is to have a stage boundary just before, and not just after, that stage boundary.  If it comes just after and the board decide to stop the project, the money spent on that equipment has probably been wasted.  It is better to have a stage boundary and check that the business case is still viable, then authorise the next stage when the equipment will be purchased and the teams will carry on with the work.

The face of the Project Manager

The face of the Project Manager will also affect the number of stages in a project which is again why there is no algorithm to say on a particular type of project you should always have x number of stages.  This ‘face’ factor is to do with experience.  If the Project Manager is very experienced and has already run a project like this before, very successfully, six times then the board may be happy to authorise quite large blocks of work with relatively few points of intervention.  However, if that Project Manager is not available and a less experienced one is appointed who has limited project management experience and has never managed a project like this before, the board will want to authorise much less at a time and have more points of intervention.

Breaking a technical stage down

If there is a very long technical stage, or a very expensive one, and you need to break it into two management stages, the key in PRINCE2 is to use the product planning.  Find a product about the right way along where you want to break the stage.  When that product is built and delivered, that is the end of the first management stage and the remaining products in that technical stage fall into the next management stage; easy!

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