Applying the PRINCE2 principles, themes and processes in an agile context
Tailor, don't abandon
The seven principles are applied through agile behaviour: 'learn from experience' becomes retrospectives and reviews; 'focus on products' becomes the definition of done and acceptance criteria; 'tailor to suit the project environment' is exactly what the Agilometer informs; 'manage by stages' still means stage boundaries and continued business justification at each one.
Theme tailoring in brief: business case - value is defined by the customer, kept light and reviewed frequently, with early delivery realising benefits sooner; organization - project board, project manager, team manager and delivery team, with roles such as Product Owner allocated to the right people; quality - acceptance criteria, definition of done and quality tolerances rather than heavy product descriptions; plans - a high-level project plan plus release plans and sprint/team plans, planned in rolling waves; risk - risk appetite set by the board, with frequent delivery and transparency reducing exposure; change - change is expected, handled through the backlog with delegated authority and a change budget; progress - measured by delivered, working products and burn charts rather than percentage complete.
Processes remain: starting up a project (project brief, outline business case, Agilometer), initiating a project (PID including the agile way of working), controlling a stage and managing product delivery (work packages delivered as timeboxes), managing a stage boundary and closing a project.
Traps: stage boundaries and tolerances do not disappear; 'manage by exception' still applies; the project board does not run daily stand-ups; and percentage-complete reporting is replaced, not supplemented.
Rule of thumb: for each theme, ask 'what does PRINCE2 require, and what is the lightest agile artefact that satisfies it?'