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PRINCE2® is an extremely adaptable and powerful project management method that can help you plan and control projects better, faster and more easily. But many people misunderstand it and make criticisms that appear justified unless you know how PRINCE2 really should work and can work.

"PRINCE2 makes a mountain of paper"

Absolutely not. It doesn’t have to use much paper at all. The amount of formality can be adjusted and many of the controls and communications can be very informal if required. For example, PRINCE has a number of reports, but of course reports can be verbal.

The method includes a Communication Plan in the Project Initiation Document (the main plans for the project) and in the Communication Plan it is said how each particular communication will be made. This may be formal with a letter or memo, or by a meeting, or by email, or by putting information on a project web site, or by phone call, or by carrier pigeon if you like!

"PRINCE2 is only for big projects"

Actually it isn’t. It is amazing just how small PRINCE2 will ‘zip down’ if you need it to. For example, what do you think the minimum number of people is on a "full" PRINCE2 project – including team members? In fact it is just 2 people and even then only part time. Part of the skill in using the method is to know how to apply it appropriately to each individual project.

"We simply don’t have time for PRINCE2"

Oh yes you do! You always have time to project manage, and in fact it is usually the case that the less time you have, the more management and control you need. If it doesn’t matter when you finish the project, you needn’t control it too much. If it matters very much when you finish the project you need good controls.

Let’s think about this, using a financial example. Who has to plan the use of their money more carefully, someone with money to spare or someone on the ‘bread line’. Obviously, the person on the bread line; they must plan carefully for even the smallest expenditure. The less you have of something, the more careful you have to be, not the less careful.

But it is not just a matter of project management principles, there is significant misunderstanding behind the "we don’t have time on our projects" statement. That misunderstanding is that PRINCE2 is a method that cannot be used in a simple or rapid way. That is just not true. There are a number of ways to make things move very rapidly indeed. Sometimes that is accompanied by risk, but then fast moving projects with a fixed end date are usually high risk anyway. Perhaps you need some good risk management then … and guess what PRINCE2 includes!

"Methods like PRINCE2 kill ideas and creativity"

Wrong again. Now you have to be careful in a project because changes cost money; sometimes a great deal of money. We can’t have people doing anything they like or costs will run out of control and the project may never be finished (scope creep). But if someone has a good, creative, idea that is worth doing, PRINCE2 has the mechanism for that idea to be considered and then resourced.

So, far from stopping creativity, it resources it! In fact it is better at doing this than informal project approaches. Where there is no proper control, projects often end up imposing a ‘change freeze’. When that happens, nothing can get added no matter how creative and worthwhile it is.

"It’s much too big an overhead. 
   I have got enough to do already in managing this project."

That is a rather like a carpenter saying "I have got enough to do building this table without using chisels and a mallet as well!". PRINCE2 is a bit like a toolkit and helps you do the job. You don’t manage the project as well as having to do PRINCE2, you manage the project using PRINCE2. It is a superb, best practice, method and used properly will be a real help with the job of planning and controlling a project.

"I don’t have time to learn PRINCE2"

Well it does take some time. At Practitioner level it takes 5 days on the Inspirandum course if you include time for the Practitioner exams. But how much time do you lose in a year when you don’t have a good approach and good tools to manage the project? Probably much more than 5 days. In his "7 habits of Highly Effective People", Steven Covey has as the 7th habit, "Sharpening the saw". By this he means that we all need to be developing new skills to make our job easier.

He uses the illustration of someone working away like mad with a saw to cut down a tree. The saw is blunt so it is very hard work, and someone asks why the person doesn’t stop to sharpen the saw and so do the job more quickly and with less effort. The person replies that they don’t have time, they are too busy sawing down the tree. Sharpen your saw – learn PRINCE2 which is a highly effective, best practice, proven method.

For immediate information to get going with PRINCE2, and in a highly readable and practical format, why not get hold of a copy of 'PRINCE2 for Dummies'?

"Methods are not flexible ... and we need to be"

PRINCE definitely is flexible and extraordinarily so. There is just about nothing in the method that you cannot adjust, so you can fine tune it to the exact needs of the project. This is true of projects where even the manual itself hints that you can’t use PRINCE2. You can if you understand how to apply it well, and that begins with getting training from an experienced PRINCE2 user from a training company with an objective to teach how to get the power out of PRINCE2, not merely to pass exams and recite what is in the official manual!

"PRINCE is just for government projects."

That is simply not true. It is for all projects, but including government ones. But the bulk of the work to design PRINCE2 was done by private sector companies, and indeed the method was originally developed by a private sector company. It was after it was first developed that the rights to it were bought by the UK Government.

PRINCE2 will work really well for you, public or private sector. It is a ‘best practice’ method. But as with anything, you need to know how to use it well to get the power out of it and make it ‘earn its keep’. Choose a training company that will show you the practicalities of using PRINCE2, not just do ‘exam cram’ to get qualifications and then leave you without the practical understanding needed to apply the method effectively and productively.

Don’t miss out on a powerful help in projects because of incorrect criticisms from people who just don’t understand the PRINCE2 methodology.

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Practical advice on how to use PRINCE2. Available from leading bookshops.

Written by Nick Graham of Inspirandum

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