Concept of Progress control in PRINCE2

PRINCE2 provides two types of progress control throughout the life of a project:

1. Event driven controls :

Event driven controls takes place when a specific event occurs. This could be, for example, the end stage to completion of the project initiation, documentation or creation of an exception report. It could also include organizational events that might affect the project. So these are controls that are driven by an event.

2. Time driven controls:

These take place in predefined periodic intervals. This could be, for example, producing monthly highlight reports for the project board on weekly check point reports, showing the progress of a work package. Monitoring and reporting requires a time based approach. It is only possible to control the level of resolution in the plans, i.e. if you want a checkpoint report weekly, you need to note in the stage plan what you expect to achieve week by week. If your planning is done on a month by month basis you are necessarily now at the end of a particular week how much you should've done by that time. The following management products assist the project manager in establishing baselines to progress control:

• The Project Plan: Which will include the project level performance targets and tolerances

• Stage Plans: That form the basis of the day to day control of the stage

• Exception Plans: Which the project board may request to consider an exception report during the process directing a project. By the way an exception plan will be produced to the same level as the plan that it replaces

• Work Packages: The project manager authorized to work package in order to trigger an individual team member, or a team manager to undertake a piece of work during a stage

Work package authorization is particularly used for control, when dealing with contractors or subcontractors. An individual or a team monitors progress against the work package, and report back to the project manager by what it is called a checkpoint report. As part of controlling a stage the project manager will regularly review the progress of work through checkpoint report and maintain a set of project registers and logs. The project manager will use this information to update the stage plan with actual progress achieved. The frequency of checkpoint reporting required may change according to the needs of individual work packages. It would be useful to look at trends to get a view of overall health of the stage. For example the stage may seem to be progressing well in terms of the products that is being completed against the schedule. However the issue register may reveal an increasing number of issues which are not being resolved. Similarly, high number of outstanding items against a product in the quality register may show design issues with that product.

Project actions may arise from many sources including checkpoints quality reviews, and stage assessments or add whole conversations. Small actions may simply be recorded on the day the look and mopped off when completed. The project manager can use the issue register and can request a product status account.

Project manager may wish to increase the frequency of reporting a tool sufficient confidence has been gained on the capability of the team. We have the highlight report that the project manager produces and this reports on the management stage progress for the project board. The frequency of highlight reports will be documented in the communication management strategy. You have the end stage report which is produced by the project manager at the end of each management stage, and provides the project board with the information they need on progress to date. And then there is an end project report which is produced by the project manager at the end of the project and is used by the project board to evaluate the project and authorize closure. The output from reviewing progress yields a decision to whether the work package stage plan or project plan remain or a full cost to remain within agreed tolerances. Project manager should be kept informed of progress through regular checkpoint reports. The project board may request a project manager to produce an exception plan for the whole project.