PRINCE2 – Practitioner Exam – Quiz 08

The project manager creates the project brief, which the project board reviews when deciding whether to authorize the initiation of the project, during the starting up a project process. The project brief defines and scopes the project at a high level. It answers basic questions, such as why the project is being done, what the project is to deliver, who will be involved with the project, when the project will start and finish, and which approach will be used to deliver the products.

In a small project, the project support and the project manager roles can be combined. The project support role is the responsibility of the project manager. The project manager can delegate the work of project support to a separate person or people. If no one is available to delegate project support activities to, the project manager will need to carry them out himself.

One purpose of the organization theme is to define the project’s approach to communicating and engaging with the stakeholders. This is documented in the communication management approach (option C). Option A is a purpose of the risk theme Option B is a purpose of the plans theme. Option D is a purpose of the quality theme.

Each role on the project board—the executive, the senior user, and the senior supplier— has a project assurance responsibility aligned to its area of interest (option A). Options B and C are incorrect—project assurance is responsible for auditing the project manager and project support, so neither of these roles can also do project assurance, as this would create a conflict of interest. Option D is incorrect—the project manager is responsible for creating the communication management approach.

The senior supplier is responsible for ensuring that the project’s products have the technical integrity to meet the users’ needs (option D). Option A is incorrect— the senior user represents those who will benefit from using the products. Option B is incorrect— corporate, programme management, or the customer is responsible for commissioning the project. Option C is incorrect—the executive is responsible for ensuring that the project is following a cost-conscious approach.

The communication management approach facilitates engagement with stakeholders through the establishment of a controlled and bidirectional flow of information. The communication management approach details the requirements for reporting to the project’s stakeholders, including the stakeholders who must be notified of the project closing.

The project board represents the directing level of management. They allocate stages with associated tolerances to the project manager. If the project manager realizes that a stage will breach those stage tolerances, he must escalate this situation to the project board, which has the authority to authorize any deviation that exceeds stage tolerances (as long as the situation does not also exceed project tolerances, in which case corporate, programme management, or the customer would need to authorize the deviation).

A minimum requirement of the organization theme is to ensure that all the responsibilities in the PRINCE2 role descriptions are fulfilled (option D). Option A is incorrect—in some circumstances, where work is outsourced to an external company, that company might decide to set up their own project board, but this is not an organization theme minimum requirement. Option B is incorrect—when the project is part of a programme, the programme’s design authority might take on the role of change authority, but this is not an organization theme minimum requirement. Option C is incorrect—the project must ensure that all the responsibilities described in the PRINCE2 role descriptions are fulfilled, but sometimes one person might take on more than one role.

The executive represents the business interest in the project. It is his responsibility to secure the funding for the project. It is very important to note that the executive represents the business perspective on the project board and is the ultimate decision-maker. He must secure the funding for the project and ensure that the project provides value for the money.

The senior user is responsible for both forecasting the benefits from the project and then realizing the benefits by using the project’s products. The project manager will work with the senior users in order to create this management product. The project product description contains the customer’s quality expectations and the measurable acceptance criteria that the final products should conform to when finished.

The executive creates the outline business case in the starting up a project process (option A). This is part of developing the business case. Option B is incorrect—this is an example of a verify activity. Option C is incorrect—this is an example of confirmed activity. Option D is incorrect—this is an example of a maintenance step.

The executive ensures that the benefits forecast in the business case represents value for money and aligns with the organization’s objectives. The executive is focused on whether the project is providing good value for the money invested, whether the products of the project meet a business need that justifies the investment in the project, and whether an adequate return on the project’s investment will be achieved.

The detailed business case is created in the initiating a project process. During the initiating a project process, the project manager refines the outline business case to create the first detailed business case. The project manager also creates the benefits management approach, which describes how the achievements of the project’s benefits will be measured and what management actions might be required to ensure that the benefits will be realized.

An output from a project is the specialist product the project produces. Option B, new computer software, might be an output from a project. Option A, benefits management approach, is an example of a management product, not a specialist product. Option C is the result of the change of using some products, so it’s an outcome. Option D is the measurable positive consequence of a project, so it’s a benefit.

The project manager records management actions that need to be put into place to ensure that the project’s outcomes are achieved in the benefits management approach (option D). Option A is a minimum requirement of the plans theme, option B is a minimum requirement of the quality theme, and option C is a minimum requirement of the change theme.

One of the purposes of the business case theme is to establish and review the viability of the project throughout the initiative (option A). Option B is the purpose of the quality theme, option C is the purpose of the organization theme, and option D is a purpose of the risk theme.

The benefits management approach describes both how and when the benefits will be reviewed and also how the performance of the project’s products will be reviewed. This is because it plans how to measure the returns from the project and plans any management actions that need to take place (often post-project) to ensure the project’s products are used as envisioned

Product-based planning helps to identify the products that are in and out of the scope of the plan by creating tools such as the product breakdown structure. A product-based planning approach ensures that the project management team is very clear about which products will be created before they start to plan the necessary activities and resources.

Creating a project product description is the first step in the recommended approach to defining and analyzing the products. Defining and analyzing the products should be done at least once before going on to the next steps. The next three steps—identifying activities and dependencies, preparing estimates, and preparing a schedule—are primarily focused on what PRINCE2 calls activity-based planning. So in the approach to planning, there is both product-based planning, which focuses on what to create and activity-based planning, which focuses on how to create the products.

The product-based planning approach is recommended to help define and analyze products. Defining and analyzing the products is done at least once before going on to the next steps. The next three steps—identifying activities and dependencies, preparing estimates, and preparing a schedule—are primarily focused on what PRINCE2 calls activity-based planning. So in the approach to planning, there is both product-based planning, which focuses on what to create and activity-based planning, which focuses on how to create the products.

Option A would take place in defining and analyzing the products step. Option B would take place in the preparing estimates step. Option C would take place in analyzing risks to a plan step.

It may be a requirement to align the end of a management stage with a programme milestone review. This will allow the project to contribute fully to the assessment of the ongoing viability of the programme.

The team plan may be created by teams that are working for separate organizations following different project management methods. The team plan is optional, however, as the stage plan alone may provide enough detail for the team.

The manage by exception principle is implemented by specifying that each PRINCE2 plan includes time, cost, and scope tolerances. Option A describes how the plans theme implements the learn by experience principle. Option B describes how the plans theme implements the manage by stages principle. Finally, option D describes how the plans theme implements the focus on products principle.

A minimum requirement of the plans theme is that a project must have at least two management stages (option A). Option B is a minimum requirement of the quality theme. Option C is a minimum requirement of the change theme. Option D is a minimum requirement of the business case theme.

Customer quality expectations give a high-level description of the overall outputs of the project and the quality expected of those outputs (option C). Option A is incorrect—the quality register would show a summary of the quality activities planned for the project. Option B is incorrect—a product description’s quality criteria would describe the measurable attributes of a product. Option D is incorrect—the measurable improvement resulting from an outcome is a benefit.

Quality criteria specify the measurable attributes that will make a product fit for its purpose. Therefore, specifying quality criteria helps the project management team apply the focus on products principle.

One of the minimum requirements for applying the quality theme is collecting quality records after each quality test has been carried out on a product. These quality records could be in any format—for example, a form signed by the reviewer—but should always provide evidence that the quality activity occurred. The other options—using the quality review technique, quality inspections, and in-process and appraisal methods—are possible ways of carrying out quality control but are not mandatory requirements of the quality theme.

The project product description defines what the project will need to deliver in order for it to be acceptable to the users (option A). Option B is incorrect—the quality management approach describes the management approach, which helps the project deliver products that will be fit for their purpose. Option C is incorrect—the risk management approach defines how the project will control uncertainty. Option D is incorrect—the change management approach defines how the project will control proposed modifications to the project’s products.

Quality control is about checking that the project’s products have been created correctly. This is done by using quality methods, which are different ways of comparing a product to its quality criteria and keeping evidence that the quality checks have taken place in the form of quality records and entries in the quality register.