PRINCE2 Practitioner key terms

The justification for starting and continuing a project, setting out the reasons, expected benefits, costs, risks and timescales, and reviewed at every stage boundary so the project is stopped if it stops being worthwhile.

The PRINCE2 principle that a project must always have a justifiable reason to continue, checked at each decision point rather than assumed once at the start.

The preliminary version of the business case produced during starting up a project, containing enough reasoning to let the project board decide whether detailed planning is worth funding.

A document defining how and when the project's expected benefits will be measured, who is responsible for realising them, and how the results will be reported after the project closes.

A planned post-project check that measures whether the promised outcomes actually materialised, comparing realised benefits against the business case forecasts and recording lessons for the organisation.

The trigger document that starts a project, giving at least enough information to identify the client, the reason for the work and the expected outcome before any planning is authorised.

The group accountable for the project's success, comprising executive, senior user and senior supplier roles, which takes key decisions and authorises each stage and any exception plan.

The single individual on the project board who owns the business case, provides the business perspective, and is ultimately accountable for the project delivering its objectives and benefits.

The project board role representing those who will use the project's outputs and who will realise the benefits, responsible for specifying user needs and confirming that solutions meet them.

The project board role representing the parties building the products, accountable for the technical integrity of the solution and for the resources and skills committed by suppliers.

The role responsible for day-to-day management of the project, delivering the products within the constraints agreed with the project board and escalating issues that exceed delegated tolerances.

The role that takes responsibility for producing specific products, managing the team's work to agreed quality, cost and time constraints, and reporting progress to the project manager.

An independent monitoring and verification role, performed by people acting for the project board, checking that the project's processes, plans and products meet the agreed standards.

A structured statement of a product's purpose, composition, quality criteria, quality method, and the skills needed to create it, agreed before work starts and used to verify the result.

The measurable characteristics a product must have to be accepted, defined in the product description so that reviewers can test it objectively rather than rely on opinion.

A log recording the quality activities planned and completed for the project, including who will perform each check, when it happens and the outcome, providing evidence for acceptance.

The document describing how the project will achieve quality: the standards to be applied, responsibilities, review techniques, records kept and how acceptance of products is obtained.

A structured, planned inspection of a product by a small group of defined roles, following an agenda that checks the product against its quality criteria and records agreed actions.

The broader organisational function that independently checks whether the project's quality methods and standards are being applied correctly, feeding findings to project assurance and the board.

The top-level plan showing the major products, activities, resources, timings and control points for the whole project, used by the project board to authorise and monitor the work.

A detailed plan for a single management stage, produced by the project manager near the end of the previous stage and used as the baseline against which day-to-day progress is measured.

A hierarchical diagram decomposing the project into its component products, showing what must be produced rather than the activities needed to produce it.

A diagram showing the order in which products are created and the dependencies between them, used to derive the sequence of activities in a plan.

The point between management stages where the project board reviews progress, the updated business case and the next stage plan, and decides whether to continue, change or stop.

A report from the project manager at a stage boundary summarising actual versus planned performance, issues and lessons, giving the board the evidence it needs to authorise the next stage.

A regular, concise progress report from the project manager to the project board summarising status, this period's achievements, next period's work and any actual or potential deviations.

A frequent progress report from a team manager to the project manager covering work completed, work planned, quality results and any problems, at intervals set in the work package.

A report raised when a forecast breach of tolerance is identified, describing the cause, impact and options, so the next level of management can decide how to respond.

The permissible range of deviation from planned targets for time, cost, scope, quality, benefit or risk, delegated to a management level and triggering escalation if likely to be exceeded.

A plan prepared after a tolerance has been breached, showing how the project or stage will recover from the current position and replace the remainder of the approved plan.

An uncertain event that, if it occurs, will affect the project's ability to meet its objectives; each is assessed for probability and impact and assigned an owner and response.

The document setting out the project's risk procedures: how risks are identified, assessed, responded to and reviewed, plus roles, scales and reporting thresholds used.

The log of all identified risks, recording for each the cause, event, effect, probability, impact, proximity, owner, agreed response and current status.

The named person responsible for managing a particular risk and implementing its agreed response, distinct from the person who raises or records the risk.

The amount of risk an organisation or individual is willing to accept in pursuit of objectives, which guides how much tolerance is delegated and how risks are prioritised.

Any relevant event that has happened, is happening or is forecast to happen which is not already covered by the plan and requires management action, recorded in the issue register.

A log capturing all issues raised on the project, their type, severity, owner, current status and the decisions taken, used to track them through to closure.

The procedure for capturing, assessing the impact of, and deciding on proposed changes to baselined products, ensuring decisions are made at the right authority level and recorded.

The role or person to whom the project board delegates authority to approve or reject change requests within defined limits, keeping low-impact decisions out of the board.

The discipline of identifying, controlling and accounting for the project's products, including their versions and status, so that the right versions are worked on and delivered.

A record of lessons identified as the project progresses, each with a recommendation and owner, reviewed at stage boundaries so improvements are applied rather than lost.