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tags, relates-to, note
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Starting my own game company | literature |
Definition
Project management method Can be used on any project of any size
Features
- Continued business justification - the WHY of the business and long term value
- Defined organisation structure - Ownership of people so they know what is expected of them
- Product-based planning - product-first, good descriptions and breakdown structure
- Stage - divide the project into manageable phases
- Tailorable
Project variables
Six aspects of Project performance:
- Time - when will the project be finished ?
- Cost - what is the cost and the return of investment
- Quality - usable software that passes quality checks and is usable
- Scope - the scope must be clear for all Stakeholder through the PPD
- Benefits - benefits must be known, agreed upon and measurable
- Risk - risk must be manageable
Project definition
A project is a temporary organization that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to an agreed business case.
- The word organization refers to the project team (people involved in the project)
- The word temporary refers to the fact that each project as a definite start and end date.
- The business case includes: reasons for the project, expected benefits, costs and time
Core principles
Continued business justification
The project must have a business case that shows that the project is value for money, i.e. there must be a reason to start and continue the project with a clear return on investment.
“Does the project have business justification?” = “Does the project have a valid business case?”
The Business case document should feature:
- full business case
- why the project should be done
- costs
- expected benefits
- timescales It should be checked regularly at least at each Stage of the project.
Learn from experience
A project should learn from the experience of previous projects and it is the responsibility of everyone involved to do so. Projects are unique and therefore always bring something new and valuable for others to learn from. Learn from experience should cover the whole length of the project. All lessons should be documented, passed on and made available to other and future projects.
Defined roles and responsibilities
People need to know what is expected from them and what they can expect from others. A team should have a clear available structure that is known and accepted. A PRINCE2 project has three primary stakeholders:
- Business sponsors - make sure the project delivers value for money
- Users - use the project product and receive the benefits
- Suppliers - provide resources and expertise to produce the product. These must be represented in the Project management team description and in the Project board. This principle answers the questions:
- What is expected of me ?
- What can I expect from others ?
- Who makes what decisions ?
Manage by stages
A PRINCE2 project must be planned, monitored and controlled on a Stage basis and each stage is separated by a Project board decision. At the end of a stage, the project board decides weather the project should proceed to the next stage or stop. Increasing the number of stages increases control over the project at the cost of added work for the project board. Advantages of stage are:
- dividing to conquer the project
- having both a very detailed and high level project plan
- Learn from experience from stage to stage
Manage by exception
Manage by exception is to allow a layer of management to have some control over another layer while letting them room to work. The lower layer works as it can and only informs the upper managing layer when a big issue (i.e. an exception) is outside of their ownership. An exception is a big issue that takes a level out of their agreed tolerance. Therefore, a PRINCE2 project has defined tolerances for each project objective to establish limits of delegated authority, as defined by Defined roles and responsibilities. There are 6 tolerances that can be set:
- Time - time it takes for an exception
- Cost - cost it takes for an exception
- Quality - redefining the quality to address the exception
- Scope - redefining the scope to take into account the exception
- Benefits - benefits for the stakeholders in ways to deal with the exception
- Risks - risks to which a value can be assigned to deal with the exception This is meant to provide the above management layer a system to control the lower management layer.
Focus on products
A product must be described in great details so the stakeholders all have the same idea on what the product should be. A detailed description will also help the managers to determine resource requirements, dependencies, scope and activities accurately.
Tailoring
The PRINCE2 methodology should adapt to a project requirements to suit its team, size, environment, complexity, importance, capability and risk. The purpose of tailoring is to:
- Ensure that the project method is project’s environment into account. (i.e., if working in a financial environment, then align it with the existing management structure).
- Ensure with the project board that the project’s controls are based on the project’s scale, complexity, importance, capability, and risk.
Themes
Themes are knowledge areas, a part of the project that should be continually addressed. Each theme provides knowledge on a specific area of project management such as business case, planning, quality, risk, etc. They should be tailored to the needs of the project depending on their gravity given the needs:
- Business case: Why? ROI? Benefits?
- Organization: Who? Responsibilities?
- Quality: Level of quality for each product characteristic?
- Plans: How? How much? When? What (Product description)?
- Risk: What if X happens?
- Change: How to deal with changes requests and issues?
- Progress: Where are we now compared to the plan, show progress
Theme 1 - Business case
This theme should provide information to help make better decisions regarding the business case to judge weather it's:
- Desirable: Determine if the output is really required by the users
- Viable: Is it technically possible to deliver this product?
- Achievable: Is it possible to deliver the future benefits? At every moment during the project, Continued business justification states that the business case should be valid, which this theme documents and in order to assess as such.
Theme 2 - Organisation
This theme aims to help define the project's structure of accountability and responsibilities. A PRINCE2 Project should:
- Have correct business, user, and supplier representation
- Have defined responsibilities for directing, managing, and delivering the project
- Have regular reviews (end of each stage) of the project to check that all is on track
- Have a good communication flow to and from stakeholders So, each project needs to have direction, management, control, and communication. Stakeholder: A stakeholder is any person or group that can be affected by the project or can affect the project. This includes the project team, potential users and other persons external to the project as well as those who may be negatively affected.
Theme 3 - Quality
This theme aims to implement that will verify that products are fit for use and meet user requirements. This should ensure that the products meet the user's expectations and can be used as intended. Focus on products states that products should be clearly defined before development starts. Product descriptions must include the quality criteria information so that all project stakeholders have a common understanding of the products that will be created.
Theme 4 - Plans
This theme aims to provide a framework to design, develop and maintain the project plans to facilitate communication and control over the project. This theme aims to answer the following questions:
- What is required to be delivered?
- How will it be delivered and by whom?
- What is the best approach to creating the products?
- What will the execution steps be?
- How can product-based planning be done?
- What quality has to be reached and how to define this?
- How much will it cost to deliver the products and the project?
- The level of detail required for each plan? Plans provide the backbone of information used to manage the project and compare progress to.
Theme 5 - Risk
This theme aims to provide an approach to identify, assess and control uncertainty during a project to improve the ability of the project to succeed. Risk is defined as a set of events that, should they occur, will have an effect (positive or negative) on achieving the project objectives, i.e. the six aspects of Project performance. Risk management is about actions you take to enable you to identify, assess and control risk. It is defined in three steps:
- Identification: Identify, capture, and describe the risk
- Assess the risk: Likelihood of the risk and impact on objectives
- Respond: How best to respond to a risk and responsibilities
Theme 6 - Change
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