PRINCE2 7 Foundation study guide
PRINCE2 7 Foundation · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The PRINCE2 Project Management Foundation (Version 7) is an entry-level project management certification offered by PeopleCert. It is built on a best-practice method that PeopleCert describes as trusted by over 2 million professionals worldwide, and it is intended to give candidates a strong foundation for a career in project management. The PRINCE2 7 Foundation study guide has 6 sections and about 1,845 words.
01Projects and the PRINCE2 project context
PRINCE2 defines a project as a temporary organisation created to deliver one or more business products according to an agreed business case . That definition carries the characteristics examiners test: projects are temporary (defined start and end), unique (a defined set of products), cross-functional, uncertain, and they exist to bring about change .
277 words, about 1 min02PRINCE2 principles
The principles are the universal, enduring obligations of a PRINCE2 project: continued business justification , learn from experience , defined roles and responsibilities , manage by stages , manage by exception , focus on products , and tailor to the environment . They are the reason PRINCE2 works, and they are what makes an approach 'PRINCE2'.
331 words, about 2 min03People
Projects are delivered by people, and most project failures are traced to behaviour, communication and change resistance rather than technique. The People guidance in PRINCE2 therefore sits alongside the principles and practices and is applied through all of them; it is not a practice and not a process , so questions that call it one are wrong.
277 words, about 1 min04PRINCE2 practices
Business case (why), organising (who), plans (what, how much, when), quality (what does good look like), risk (what if), issues (what is happening now), and progress (where are we now, where going next). Each has a purpose, an approach tailored to the project, roles and responsibilities, and a set of management products.
310 words, about 2 min05PRINCE2 processes
Starting up a project (pre-project: appoint the executive and project manager, capture lessons, outline business case, choose the project approach, assemble the project brief, plan initiation) → Directing a project (authorise initiation, the project, each stage or exception plan, give ad hoc direction, authorise closure) → Initiating a project (refine the business case, set up controls, create the project plan, prepare the approaches, assemble the PID) → Controlling a stage → Managing product delivery → Managing a stage boundary → Closing a project . Key ownership: the project board directs, the project manager controls the stage, the team manager manages product delivery.
324 words, about 2 min06Tailoring PRINCE2 to the project environment
' Tailor to the environment ' is one of the seven principles, so every PRINCE2 project must be tailored - but only the practices and processes are adapted; the principles always apply in full. Tailoring happens at two levels: the organisation may define a standard approach, and the project then tailors that further to its size, scale, complexity, risk, delivery approach and governance constraints.
326 words, about 2 min