Revising the Controlling a Stage Process

The Controlling a Stage process is basically so simple that if it didn’t already exist, you could quickly design it yourself. When I’m delivering a training course, I often get those on the course to do pretty much that. Without them looking at the book or any other notes, and before we’ve done the course session on the process, I ask them to tell me exactly what the activities are going to be. ‘And’ I tell them, ‘I do mean exactly!’ And they do; often much to their surprise, but they do because they can put together things I’ve taught them earlier on the course. Because PRINCE2 is basically logical, it’s also very predictable. Picking up my approach from the course, what is the Project Manager doing day to day then?

Controlling the flow of work out to project teams

• Giving out work assignments (Work Packages) to Team Managers

• Checking progress on the Work Packages

• Getting the work back when it’s finished

Dealing with any new issues and risks that are sent in

Checking how the stage is going against its plan, and whether the risk situation has changed or whether anything is affecting the Business Case

If the stage is going off track, taking action in one of two ways:

• Dealing with it if it’s within the Project Manager’s delegated authority; that may involve changing the plan a bit, and so affects how further Work Packages are given out to teams

• Referring the problem to the Project Board if it’s beyond the Project Manager’s authority to deal with – such as when a stage will go significantly over its planned time no matter what the Project Manager does

Reporting progress to the Project Board with the information and at the frequency set down in the Communications Management Plan or the ‘Controls’ section of the Project Initiation Documentation (PID)

There’s nothing difficult about that bullet-point list. When you see the activities in groups – such as the three activities dealing with the control of Work Packages – then the process actually becomes very easy to absorb. The underlying logic of the process can drive your memory and your understanding and make revising that much easier.

To help plan your revision, have a look at the following two checklists. If you can’t confidently put a tick against any item, then highlight that point for extra revision and have a closer look at it. If you’ve already done Foundation and are revising for the Practitioner exam, do cast an eye over the Foundation checklist nonetheless, to be sure that you’ve retained an understanding of all those areas. Don’t just focus on the additional areas needed for the Practitioner exam.

Revision checklist – Foundation

Work Packages – an instruction pack asking a Team Manager to build a product, or more than one if it makes sense to do them together.

Work Packages as a control – Team Managers don’t just start work when they feel like it, but when they are instructed to do so with the issue of a Work Package.

Each team involved in the stage will work through one or more Work Packages in that stage. A team may have a whole series of Work Packages or just one or two.

The boundary between the process Controlling a Stage and Managing Product Delivery is usually the customer–supplier interface. If you have supplier teams, their Team Managers will be involved with the Managing Product Delivery process.

The Controlling a Stage process repeats for as many stages as there are in the project.

The activities in the process – look at the process model and check that you know what each activity is about and what management products it involves, either to update or create those products.

Controlling a Stage drives the delivery stages but ‘calls’ other processes for parts of the work. For example, it calls the Managing a Stage Boundary process towards the end of the stage to prepare for the End Stage Assessment and to produce the Stage Plan for the following stage. That’s with the exception of the final stage in the project, where the Closing a Project process is called instead.

The Highlight Report – the progress report produced by the Project Manager on a regular, timed basis and sent to the Project Board and any others who need to see it, as set down in the Communications Management Strategy.

The two levels of action if a stage deviates from its plan. If Project Managers can resolve the matters within their own authority limits, they will ‘Take corrective action’. If they cannot resolve matters within their delegated authority limits they must use the activity ‘Escalate issues and risks’ to refer the matters to the Project Board.

Not all issues go to the board. Project Managers deal with most issues within their delegated authority. If issues are beyond Project Managers’ authority, they must go to the board or, if a matter is to do with a change and a Change Authority has been put in place, by referring it to that Change Authority.

Inbound issues can be dealt with formally or informally, and that makes a difference in how they are captured in the activity ‘Capture and examine risks and issues’. There’s more on risk handling and issue handling later in the chapter in the section ‘Clarifying Some Key Points’.

The use of the Issue Report and the information it contains.

Revision checklist – Practitioner

Check out these additional areas for your Practitioner revision:

The Work Package function to specify the interface between the Controlling a Stage process and Managing Product Delivery. In other words, how it sets down the way in which the Team Manager and Project Manager will work together while a particular part of the work is being carried out, such as the requirements for progress reporting.

The default in PRINCE2 is for the Project Manager to come from the customer side of the customer/supplier environment, not the supplier side.

The products of Controlling a Stage – are you sure that you understand all the headings in each product and how that product is used in the process?

• Configuration Item Record

• Exception Report

• Highlight Report

• Issue Register

• Issue Report

• Lessons Log

• Product Status Account

• Quality Register

• Risk Register

• Stage Plan

• Work Package

The adjustment of products to fit the needs of the project.