Project Management Professional / PRINCE2 The Practice Themes (Part 2): Plans, Risk, Change and Progress Syllabus

The Practice Themes (Part 2): Plans, Risk, Change and Progress syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for The Practice Themes (Part 2): Plans, Risk, Change and Progress in Project Management Professional / PRINCE2, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Plans Theme

   4 topics

   • Purpose and levels of plan
     • Project Plan, Stage Plan and Team Plan
     • Exception Plan as a recovery plan after an exception
   • Product-based planning technique
     • Writing the project product description
     • Creating the product breakdown structure
     • Writing product descriptions
     • Creating the product flow diagram
   • The PRINCE2 approach to planning
     • Designing the plan and defining/analysing products
     • Identifying activities, dependencies, resources and estimates
     • Scheduling, analysing risks and documenting the plan
   • Plans theme responsibilities and tailoring
     • Roles in producing and approving plans
     • Tailoring planning to project scale and delivery method
2. 2

   Risk Theme

   4 topics

   • Risk concepts and management approach
     • Threats and opportunities; risk as uncertainty of outcome
     • Risk appetite, risk tolerance and risk budget
     • Risk Management Approach and Risk Register
   • The risk management procedure
     • Identify (context and risks)
     • Assess (estimate and evaluate)
     • Plan, Implement and Communicate
   • Risk responses
     • Threat responses: avoid, reduce, transfer, share, accept, prepare contingency
     • Opportunity responses: exploit, enhance, share, reject
   • Risk roles and risk ownership
     • Risk owner and risk actionee distinction
     • Expected monetary value and probability/impact assessment
3. 3

   Change Theme

   4 topics

   • Change concepts and issue types
     • Request for change, off-specification and problem/concern
     • Baselines and the role of change control
   • Change Control Approach and registers
     • Issue Register and Issue Reports
     • Configuration item records and product status accounts
   • Issue and change control procedure
     • Capture, examine, propose, decide and implement
     • Formal versus informal issue handling
   • Change budget and change authority
     • Setting and using a change budget
     • Decision thresholds and escalation of changes
4. 4

   Progress Theme

   4 topics

   • Progress concepts and tolerances
     • Tolerances across the six aspects at project, stage and work package levels
     • Manage by exception applied to progress
   • Controls for progress
     • Time-driven and event-driven controls
     • Baselines, reviewing progress and capturing/reporting
   • Progress reporting management products
     • Checkpoint Reports and Highlight Reports
     • Exception Reports and End Stage/End Project Reports
   • Raising exceptions and forecasting
     • Escalation when tolerances are forecast to be breached
     • Use of logs and registers as progress data sources

The Practice Themes (Part 2): Plans, Risk, Change and Progress flashcards for Project Management Professional / PRINCE2

20 of 60 cards from the The Practice Themes (Part 2): Plans, Risk, Change and Progress deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What are the four levels of plan in PRINCE2 (PRINCE2 7), and which one is optional?

   Project Plan, Stage Plan, and Team Plan, plus the optional Exception Plan. The Team Plan is itself optional, and the Exception Plan replaces a Project or Stage Plan that is forecast to exceed tolerances.

2. Define a 'plan' in PRINCE2.

   A document that describes how, when and by whom a specific target (or set of targets) is to be achieved. It contains the products, activities and resources required, not just a timeline.

3. What is the purpose of the Project Plan?

   It provides a high-level statement of how and when the project's objectives are to be achieved, showing major products, activities and resources. It is the baseline against which the Project Board monitors project progress, stage by stage.

4. What is the purpose of a Stage Plan and who uses it?

   It provides the detailed, day-to-day basis for a single management stage, used by the Project Manager to plan and control work within that stage.

5. What is an Exception Plan and what does it cover?

   A plan prepared to recover from the impact of a tolerance deviation. It covers the period from the present time to the end of the current stage (or project) and, once approved, replaces the plan it supersedes.

6. Name the four steps of PRINCE2's product-based planning technique in order.

   1) Write the project product description; 2) Create the product breakdown structure; 3) Write the product descriptions; 4) Create the product flow diagram.

7. What is the Project Product Description and when is it first created?

   A special product description for the project's overall final product (the project's main outcome). It defines what the project must deliver to gain acceptance, including acceptance criteria, and is created in the Starting Up a Project process.

8. What is a product breakdown structure (PBS)?

   A hierarchy of all the products to be created by a plan, showing how they break down into their constituent sub-products (a hierarchy of products, not activities).

9. What is the difference between a product breakdown structure and a product flow diagram?

   The PBS is a hierarchy showing what products are needed; the product flow diagram shows the sequence and dependencies in which those products must be created.

10. What does a product description contain?

    The product's purpose, composition, derivation, format/presentation, development skills required, and quality criteria, quality tolerances, quality method, and quality responsibilities.

11. Why does PRINCE2 advocate product-based planning over activity-based planning?

    Because identifying the products first focuses the plan on the required deliverables and their quality, reduces the risk of missing scope, and makes activities and dependencies easier to derive from clearly defined products.

12. List the typical steps of the PRINCE2 approach to planning a plan.

    Design the plan; define and analyse the products (product-based planning); identify activities and dependencies; prepare estimates; prepare the schedule; document the plan; and analyse risks throughout.

13. In the Plans practice, who is accountable for the Project Plan versus the Stage Plan?

    The Project Manager creates both, but the Project Board (Executive) approves the Project Plan, while the Project Manager produces and uses Stage Plans (approved by the Project Board at each stage boundary).

14. Give two examples of how the Plans practice can be tailored.

    Combining the Project Plan and Stage Plan for a very short project; and varying the formality, number of stages, or planning tools (e.g., agile backlogs and sprint plans) to suit the project's scale and environment.

15. Define 'risk' in PRINCE2.

    An uncertain event or set of events that, should it occur, will have an effect on the achievement of objectives. A risk has a cause, an event, and an effect, and can be a threat or an opportunity.

16. What is the difference between a threat and an opportunity in PRINCE2 risk management?

    A threat is an uncertain event that would have a negative impact on objectives; an opportunity is an uncertain event that would have a positive (favourable) impact on objectives.

17. What is the purpose of the Risk Management Approach document?

    It describes how risk will be managed on the project, including the procedures, techniques, roles and responsibilities, tools, reporting, scales for assessing probability and impact, risk tolerances, and the format of the risk register.

18. Distinguish risk probability, risk impact and risk proximity.

    Probability is the likelihood the risk will occur; impact is the effect on objectives if it occurs; proximity is how soon (in time) the risk is likely to materialise.

19. Name the five steps of the PRINCE2 risk management procedure.

    Identify, Assess, Plan, Implement, and Communicate. (Communicate runs continuously alongside the other four.)

20. What two activities make up the 'Identify' step of the risk management procedure?

    Identify the context (understand the project's objectives and the Risk Management Approach) and identify the individual risks (capturing cause, event and effect).

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