PRINCE2 – Practitioner Exam – Quiz 14

During the controlling a stage process, the project manager delegates work to the teams by handing over work packages (option A). Option B is incorrect—the project manager creates the project plan during the initiating a project process to enable the commissioning organization to understand what work needs to be done during the project. Option C is incorrect—a purpose of the directing a project process is to enable the project board to be accountable for the project’s success. Option D is incorrect—the project manager uses managing a stage boundary to provide the information to the project board so that they can decide whether to authorize the next stage.

The team manager and the team create specialist products within the constraints set by the work package, which defines how the products will be created and checked (option B). Option A is incorrect—a purpose of the closing a project process is to provide a point in time when the client, users, and/or the operations team can establish whether they are happy that the correct products have been created. Option C is incorrect—taking corrective action to ensure the stage remains within tolerance is a purpose of the controlling a stage process. Option D is incorrect—one of the purposes of the starting up a project process is to ensure that the project management team is ready for initiating the project.

The project manager triggers work packages during the controlling a stage process. During the controlling a stage process, the project manager delegates work to the teams by assigning work packages. These work packages contain product descriptions that show the teams the quality expectations for the products to be delivered and how they should be checked. Later, when the project manager receives the completed work packages, he will want to see evidence that the products have been checked and approved by the relevant people described in that product’s product description.

During the managing a stage boundary process, the project manager reviews and, if necessary, updates the project initiation documentation. He particularly reviews the business case section of the project initiation documentation to check there is still justification for the project to continue. Option B is incorrect—the project manager creates highlight reports during the controlling a stage process. Option C is incorrect—the team manager (or the team) accepts work packages during the managing product delivery process. Option D is incorrect—the project manager signs off on completed work packages during the controlling a stage process.

During the controlling a stage process, the project manager ensures that the business case is taken into account when decisions are made on actions such as how to deal with issues, risks, or exceptions (option D). Option A is incorrect—the project manager produces the end-stage report in the managing a stage boundary process. Option B is incorrect—the project manager ensures that those who take control of the project’s products post-project can support those products during the closing of a project process. Option C is incorrect—the project board provides management direction and control by making key decisions in the directing a project process.

The benefits management approach defines the benefits management actions and benefits reviews that will be put into place to ensure that the project’s outcomes are achieved and to confirm that the project’s benefits are realized.

The closing a project process ensures that the project has a clear end. The closing a project process provides a fixed point in time at which acceptance of the main outputs of the project can be confirmed. If the project were to build a hotel, the hotel would be officially “signed off” during the closing a project process.

The directing a project process ensures that there is a two-way flow of information between the project board and corporate, programme management, or the customer. After the closing a project process, the project board uses the directing a project process’s authorize project closure activity to make the final decision whether the project can now close.

Option C is correct—the project board has the authority to close the project during the directing a project process. Option A is incorrect—the project manager obtains acceptance records during the closing a project process. Option B is incorrect—the project manager creates the end project report during the closing a project process. Option D is incorrect— the project manager prepares the stage plan for the last management stage during the managing a stage boundary process.

The directing a project process enables the project board to be accountable for the project’s success (option C). The project board uses the directing a project process to decide whether to authorize the closure of the project.

In the closing a project process, the project manager creates the follow-on action recommendations, which include continuing threats to the project’s products in their operational life (option D). Option A is incorrect—PRINCE2 does not manage the operational phase for the project’s products. Option B is incorrect—the managing a stage boundary process is used to request authorization to start the final stage. Option C is incorrect—the directing a project process enables the project board to provide authority to close the project.

The lessons report passes on useful experience to those who have responsibility for quality improvement within an organization (option D). Option A is incorrect—post-project actions specific to the project’s products are described in the follow-on action recommendations. Option B is incorrect—the benefits management approach plans how and when the project’s benefits will be reviewed. Option C is incorrect—the lessons log is used to collate lessons that could be applied to the current project.

The quality management approach defines the quality standards and techniques to be applied throughout the project. It defines how quality management will be conducted during the project.

Customer quality expectations describe the quality expected of the project’s products as well as the standards and processes that need to be applied in order to create that quality. They could be more ambiguous than the measurable set of acceptance criteria.

The project product description describes the overall outputs of the project. The recommended approach to defining and analyzing products involves four steps: writing a project product description, creating a product breakdown structure, writing product descriptions, and creating a product flow diagram.

The risk management approach describes how the project management team will manage uncertainty. At the outset (during the initiation stage), the project manager writes a risk management approach, which specifies how the project management team will manage risk.

Stakeholders perceive a dis-benefit, not a benefit, as negative. A benefit is a measurable improvement that results from the outcome. In a hotel project, for example, a measurable benefit might be that selling rooms in the new location have increased sales by 20 percent. In the new financial process project example, a measurable benefit might be a $10,000 decrease in administrative costs resulting from processing invoices quicker.

Option B is correct—accepting the project’s products helps the project management team to focus on products. The project manager creates stage plans and exception plans using a product-based planning approach to ensure that product descriptions are available for each product to be delivered in the stage. The project manager gives the teams the product descriptions to ensure that they deliver products to the correct specifications.

The work package describes people with whom the team manager might need to liaise during the delivery of the specialist products. These people would be listed under the development interfaces section.

The project manager is primarily responsible for the activities in the controlling a stage process, although project assurance and project support are also involved. The controlling a stage process covers how the project manager delegates work to the teams, deals with reporting, and handles problems and issues.

Progress reporting is done on a regular frequency rather than being driven by any particular event. Progress reporting is known as time-driven control. Event-driven controls occur after some sort of events, such as the end of the stage or the end of the project. For example, the end-stage report is an event-driven control and is driven by the end of the stage occurring. Another example is the exception report, which is driven by a forecast breach of stage tolerances.

The factors to consider when dividing the project into management stages include: how far ahead to plan, how risky the project is, how confident the project management team is, in proceeding, and which delivery steps will be used during the project.

The work package describes the frequency and format of the checkpoint reports that are sent from the teams to the project manager. The work package contains the product descriptions of all the products that the team needs to create, such as the product description for the swimming pool. The team accepts the responsibility for creating the pool in their managing product delivery process. The project manager and the teams would review the planned quality checks of the pool shown in the quality register with project assurance to see if any further reviewers are necessary. If so, they update the quality register with the names of these additional reviewers.

External suppliers who are not using PRINCE2 can use the managing product delivery process to determine how to interface with the rest of a PRINCE2 project. Managing product delivery covers the day-to-day work of the people creating products in the project. The activities detail accepting work, creating it, reporting progress, and delivering work.

Stage tolerances define the authority of the project manager and allow the project board to manage the project manager by exception. The project manager proposes suitable tolerances to the project board in the stage plan created in managing a stage boundary.

The risk register is used to capture information on all risks identified during the project. Risks can be either threats or opportunities. The project manager updates this register to show information on any new issues or risks that the work package will introduce. The project manager would discuss the issues and risks that might affect the work package with the teams.

All the PRINCE2 processes and activities are always performed, but what might be adapted is who is responsible for performing the activities. The project management team must make sure that any tailored process still achieves these purposes and objectives.

The business case must drive decision-making in a PRINCE2 project. The rationale behind the project, which is documented in the business case, drives decision-making in a PRINCE2 project.

Option B is an example of understanding the proximity of a risk, not its impact. Options A and C are the correct ways of understanding a risk’s impact on costs and schedules. Option D is also correct—PRINCE2 recommends forecasting the impact of a risk both before and after a risk response has been applied.

Writing a project product description is the first task of the approach to defining and analyzing products. Defining and analyzing the products is done in the second step of the planning procedure.