PRINCE2 Foundation (PRINCE2) cheat sheet

There are exactly seven principles, and they apply to every PRINCE2 project regardless of scale, type, or delivery approach.

Continued business justification: a project must have a justifiable reason to start and that justification must remain valid and documented throughout.

Learn from experience: lessons are sought, recorded, and acted upon at the start, during each stage, and at project closure rather than only at the end.

Defined roles and responsibilities: every project has a defined organisation structure with agreed roles, accountabilities, and a documented project management team.

Manage by stages: the project is planned, monitored, and controlled on a stage-by-stage basis, with at least two management stages (initiation plus delivery).

Manage by exception: tolerances are set for time, cost, scope, quality, risk, and benefit, and management intervention occurs only when a tolerance is forecast to be exceeded.

Focus on products: the project is driven by the definition and delivery of products, with each product described by quality criteria and a product description.

Tailor to suit the project environment: the method is adapted to the project's size, complexity, importance, capability, and risk, but the principles themselves are never tailored away.

Seven themes: Business Case, Organisation, Quality, Plans, Risk, Change, and Progress; each theme is applied continuously across all processes.

Business Case theme uses the business case document, the benefits management approach, and outputs/outcomes/benefits distinction; the senior user is accountable for benefits realisation.

Organisation theme defines three project interests (business, user, supplier) and four management levels: corporate/programme, directing, managing, and delivering.

Quality theme uses the quality management approach, product descriptions, the quality register, and the plan-do-check-act cycle of quality planning, assurance, and control.

Plans theme defines three plan types: project plan, stage plan, and team plan; exception plans are produced when tolerances are forecast to be exceeded.

Risk theme follows the risk management approach and a procedure of identify, assess, plan, implement, and communicate; risk is assessed by probability and impact.

Change theme uses the change control approach, issue register, change budget, and configuration management (identification, control, status accounting, verification).

Progress theme compares actual against planned performance using baselines, tolerance, management by exception, and progress reports (checkpoint, highlight, end stage, end project).

Seven processes: Starting up a Project, Directing a Project, Initiating a Project, Controlling a Stage, Managing Product Delivery, Managing a Stage Boundary, Closing a Project.

Starting up a Project creates the project mandate, project brief, and daily log, and appoints the project management team before initiation.

Directing a Project is owned by the Project Board and runs throughout; it authorises initiation, each stage, exception responses, and project closure.

Initiating a Project produces the project initiation documentation (PID), which includes the business case, plans, controls, and the project approach.

Controlling a Stage covers authorising work packages, monitoring and reporting, handling issues and risks, and reviewing stage status.

Managing Product Delivery is the supplier-side process that accepts, executes, and delivers work packages and reports completion.

Managing a Stage Boundary produces the end stage report and next stage plan, and is triggered before each new stage except the first.

Closing a Project confirms acceptance of products, reviews benefits, and produces the end project report and lessons report.

Tailoring is mandatory under the tailor-to-suit principle; the project manager records tailoring decisions in the project initiation documentation.

Tailoring factors include project size, complexity, importance, team capability, and risk; the level of tailoring is agreed with the Project Board.

A project is a temporary organisation created to deliver one or more business products according to an agreed business case; it is distinct from business-as-usual.

Projects may exist within a programme or a portfolio; in a programme context, the programme provides the project mandate and may set tolerances.

The project manager's role is defined by the Project Board; in a small project these roles may be combined, but the three project interests must still be represented.

Commercial customers and suppliers may be involved; a customer/supplier context affects the business case, contracts, and the supplier's role in the organisation.

Agile and other delivery approaches can be used with PRINCE2; the method is delivery-agnostic and can be tailored to iterative or incremental delivery.

Projects have four levels of management (corporate/programme, directing, managing, delivering); tailoring determines how much of the method is applied at each level.