Based on AXELOS PRINCE2® material. Material is reproduced under licence from AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved. PRINCE2® is a [registered] trade mark of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.
Lesson 5—Organisation Theme
● Define key terms in Organisation theme
● Explain the PRINCE2® approach to Organisation theme
● Identify the roles and responsibilities in an Organisation theme
Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
Purpose of Organisation Theme
The purpose of the Organisation theme is to define and establish the project’s structure of
accountability and responsibilities (the who?).[1]
● This theme is based on the principle of Defined Roles and Responsibilities.
● Projects are generally based on customer/supplier relationship.
Customer
Specifies the desired result and probably pay for the project.
Supplier
A programme is a temporary flexible organisational structure created to coordinate, direct and oversee the implementation of a set of related projects and activities, in order to deliver outcomes
and benefits related to the organisation’s strategic objectives.[2]
● Programme has a longer life than a single project.
● A project can be a standalone entity or it can be a part of a programme of related projects.
Project is a temporary organisation that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more
business products according to an agreed Business Case.[3]
● Roles and jobs in a Project—PRINCE2® does not define management jobs to be allocated to
people on a one-to-one basis. It defines roles, each of which is defined by an associated set of responsibilities.
● Roles might be shared or combined according to the project’s needs but the responsibilities must
always be allocated.
Project—Introduction
PRINCE2® defines a project as a temporary organisation that is created for the purpose of delivering
one or more business products according to an agreed Business Case.[4]
The PRINCE2® principle of defined roles and responsibilities states that a PRINCE2® project will always have three primary categories of stakeholder. They are Business, User and Supplier.
The functions of three project interests are:
Three Project Interests (contd.)
● Ensures that investment in the project is worthwhile and project
provides value for money.
● Executive represents the business view point.
Business
● Uses the output to realise the benefits.
● Operate, maintain or support the project’s outputs.
● Will be impacted by the project’s output.
User
● Provides the necessary skills and produce the project’s product.
● May be in-house or external.
For the project to construct the Sydney Opera House, the following were the business, user and supplier:
Examples of Three Project Interests
Business: NSW State Conservatorium of Music and Ministry of Public Works. User: The Australian Ballet, Sydney Theatre Company and Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
PRINCE2® Approach to Organisation
The levels of organisation in PRINCE2® are:Figure 5.2. The four levels of management within the project management structure. Copyright
Corporate or programme management
Directing—Project Board
Managing—Project Manager
Delivering—Team Manager
Pr o jec t m an ag e m e n t te am
Levels of Organisation
● Is outside the project team. ● Commissions the project. ● Identifies the Executive. ● Defines project-level tolerances. Corporate or programme management
The four levels of organisation as defined by PRINCE2® are:
Project Board is
accountable for the success of the project.
Directing
The Project Manager is responsible for the day-to-day management of the project.
Managing
Team members/managers are responsible for delivering the project’s products within defined time and cost and as per the quality expectations.
Project Management Team Structure
PRINCE2® suggests a strong project management team structure.
Figure 5.3. Project management team structure. Copyright © AXELOS Limited 2013. Material is Lines of support/advice
Roles of an Executive are the following:
● Executive is appointed by corporate or programme management.
● Ultimate accountability for the project's success is with the Executive.
● Executive is responsible for the Business Case.
● Ensuring that project gives value for money.
● Appointment of the rest of the project management team is also a responsibility of
Executive
Role of Executive
Role of Project Manager
Roles of a Project Manager are the following:
● This role should NOT be shared.
● Responsible for day-to-day management of a project.
● Project Manager is responsible for the work of all the
PRINCE2® processes except Managing Product Delivery, Directing a Project process and appointing the Executive and the Project Manager in the pre-project, Starting up a Project process.
● Responsible for liaison with the Project Assurance and
the Project Board.
● May delegate responsibility for developing specialist
products to the Team Managers.
● Manages the Team Managers and Project Support.
● Normally from customer organisation, may also come
from supplier organisation.
Figure 5.4. The many facets of the project manager role. Copyright © AXELOS Limited 2013. Material is reproduced under licence from AXELOS. All rights
Roles of Senior User are the following:
● Represents the interest of those who will use the project’s products.
● Specifies the needs of the users for the specialist products.
● Responsible for verifying the specialist product against the requirements.
● Commits the user resources.
● Specifies the benefits.
● Accountable for demonstrating the realisation of benefits.
● May be involved in post-project life.
Represents the team that would be involved in designing, developing, facilitating, procuring and implementing the project’s specialist products.
The Senior Supplier:
● is accountable for the quality of products.
● is responsible for the technical integrity of the project.
● provides supplier resources.
Project Board consists of Executive, Senior Supplier(s) and Senior User(s). Roles of Project Board are the following:
● Project Board is accountable for the success or failure of the project.
● Project Board provides the resources and authorises the funds necessary for the successful
completion of the project.
● Project Board ensures effective communication both within the project team and with external
stakeholders.
Role of Project Board
Characteristics of Project Board are the following:
Role of Project Board (contd.)
Ability to delegate
Keep Project Board activity at the right level.
Availability
To make decisions and provide direction to the Project Manager.
Authority
To make strategic decisions.
Credibility
The Project Board may not have skills, knowledge and/or time to perform the assurance activities. Roles of Project Assurance are the following:
● The Project Board appoints other members to take Project Assurance role.
● Team members of Project Assurance report to Project Board.
● Responsible for giving advice and guidance on issues.
● This role should not be assigned to Project Manager.
● Members of this team may come from an organisation’s Project Management Office (PMO).
Role of Project Assurance
Environment Canada’s Project Delivery Office guides and advices the Project Manager on project management and its best practices.
Project Board is responsible for agreeing to each change before it is implemented. Roles of Change Authority are as follows:
● Projects in a dynamic environment which expects lots of requests for change may appoint a
separate Change Authority.
● Project Manager and/or the people with delegated Project Assurance responsibilities may act as
Change Authority.
● Change Authority may need to have technical knowledge to evaluate potential changes.
● Request for change could be handled by Corporate or programme management, Project Board,
Delegating to the Change Authority or Delegating to the Project Manager, depending on the impact of the Change.
Project Manager may be Team Manager depending on the project, so this role is optional. Roles of a Team Manager are the following:
● The Team Manager reports to Project Manager.
● Looks for direction from Project Manager.
● The Project Manager should plan the role during the starting of the project process and at each
stage in managing a stage boundary process.
● The Work Packages are allocated to the Team Managers.
● The Team Manager is responsible for production of the allocated products as per the Work
Package.
This role is not optional. Project Support defaults to the Project Manager if it is not otherwise allocated. Roles of Project Support are the following:
● Responsibility of Project Manager.
● Responsible for administering any Configuration Management procedure and tools defined in
the Configuration Management Strategy.
● Project Support and Project Assurance roles should be kept separate to maintain the
independence of Project Assurance.
Role of Project Support
Knowledge of different types of personalities and how they work together help the Project Manager in assembling balanced teams that can work effectively during a project.
● Extra care to be exercised by the Project Manager in case of part-time teams.
● At the start of the project, team members may need training.
● Few examples of trainings are:
o Training on any process and standard to be used on the project, i.e. Configuration
Management procedures, progress reporting and quality methods.
o Training on introduction to the project and its goals.
There are usually two structures in a corporate organisation. They are the following:
Working with the Corporate Organisation
Line management/functional management
Project Managers can find difficulties when managing cross-functional projects due to the disagreement on overall leadership from various groups.
Centre of excellence concept
This structure consists of a central standards unit, which defines standards (such as processes, templates and tools) and provides skills, training and possibly independent assurance functions to a number of projects.
Stakeholders: Individuals or groups who may or may not be a part of the project management team but may affect, or be affected by the project.
They are individuals who can:
● Support, oppose or be indifferent to the project
● Gain or lose as a result of the project delivery
● Consider project as a threat or enhancement to their position
● Active supporters or blockers for the project and its progress
Procedure for Stakeholder Engagement
Six-step procedure for stakeholder engagement is as follows
Transport for London regularly sends out emails to its customers asking for their opinions before taking major decisions. The customers who have registered on the website are included in this mailing list.
Identifying stakeholders (Who?) Creating and analysing stakeholder profiles (What?) Defining the stakeholder engagement strategy (How?) Planning Stakeholders’ engagement (When) Engaging stakeholders (Do) Measuring effectiveness (Results)
ANZ Bank states that “stakeholder engagement helps to minimise risks, identify ideas for new products and services”. Hence, for a project, they typically do the following:
Procedure for Stakeholder Engagement—Example
Identifying stakeholders: By conducting regular dialogue across a number of business and functional areas on an annual basis.
Defining stakeholder engagement strategy: ANZ’s strategy is based on the
principles of Congruence, Consultative, Collaborative, Creative, Communicate and Commitment.
Engaging stakeholders: ANZ holds forums for specific stakeholder groups each year to seek formal input into their business agenda.
Communication Management Strategy describes the means and frequency of communication to all the stakeholders including internal and external. The other features of this strategy are the
following:
● Facilitates controlled and bi-directional flow of information.
● Includes communication procedure/communication method to be used.
● May specify the tools that need to be used for communication.
● Includes information needs for each interested party.
● The Project Manager is responsible for documenting the Communication Management Strategy.
● Should be reviewed at each stage boundary and while planning the final stage.
Communication Management Strategy
For composition of Communication Management Strategy please refer PRINCE2 Manual Appendix A.
Roles and Responsibilities in Organisation Theme
The table depicts the responsibilities of different roles in Organisation theme.
Role Responsibilities
Corporate or programme management
● Appoint the Executive and (possibly) the Project Manager.
● Provide information to the project as defined in the Communication Management Strategy. Executive ● Appoint the Project Manager (if not done by corporate or programme management).
● Confirm the appointments to the project management team and the structure of the project management team.
● Approve the Communication Management Strategy. Senior User ● Provide user resources.
● Define and verify user requirements and expectations. Senior Supplier ● Provide supplier resources.
Roles and Responsibilities in Organisation Theme (contd.)
Role Responsibilities
Project Manager ● Prepare the Communication Management Strategy.
● Review and update the Communication Management Strategy. ● Design, review and update the project management team structure. ● Prepare role descriptions.
Team Manager ● Manage project team members.
● Advise on project team members and stakeholder engagement. Project Assurance ● Advise on selection of project team members.
● Advise on stakeholder engagement.
● Ensure that the Communication Management Strategy is appropriate and the planned communication activities actually take place.
Project Support ● Provide administrative support for the project management team.
The table depicts the responsibilities of different roles in Organisation theme.
QUIZ
a. b. c. d.
The purpose of the Organisation theme is to: 1
establish mechanism to judge whether the project is (and remains) desirable, viable and achievable
implement the controls required to permit management by exception establish a strategy for communication between all interested parties of the project
QUIZ a. b. c. d. Answer: d.
Explanation: The purpose of the Organisation theme is to establish a strategy for
communication between all interested parties of the project. The purpose of the Organisation theme is to: 1
establish mechanism to judge whether the project is (and remains) desirable, viable and achievable
implement the controls required to permit management by exception
establish a strategy for communication between all interested parties of the project establish tolerances around the resources utilised on the project
QUIZ
a. b. c. d.
Which of the following statement is not true? 2
The Project Manager and Executive roles cannot be shared The Executive and Senior User roles can often be combined
The Project Board should represent all interest groups (business, users and suppliers)
The Project Manager and Project Board decision making accountability can be delegated
QUIZ a. b. c. d. Answer: a.
Explanation: The Project Manager and Project Board decision making accountability cannot
be delegated.
Which of the following statement is not true? 2
The Project Manager and Executive roles cannot be shared The Executive and Senior User roles can often be combined
The Project Board should represent all interest groups (business, users and suppliers) The Project Manager and Project Board decision making accountability can be delegated
QUIZ
a. b. c. d.
Corporate or programme management Project Board
Project Support Project Manager
Who appoints the Executive? 3
QUIZ a. b. c. d. Answer: b.
Explanation: Corporate or programme management appoints the Executive.
Corporate or programme management Project Board
Project Support Project Manager
Who appoints the Executive? 3
QUIZ a. b. c. d. Project Support Project Assurance Team Manager Senior Supplier
Who provides the necessary skills to produce the project product? 4
QUIZ a. b. c. d. Answer: a.
Explanation: Senior Supplier is responsible for the technical integrity of the project and also
accountable for the quality of products. Project Support
Project Assurance Team Manager Senior Supplier
Who provides the necessary skills to produce the project product? 4
QUIZ a. b. c. d. Project Manager Project Board Project Assurance Project Support
Who is responsible for the overall direction and management of the project within the constraints set out by the corporate or programme management?
QUIZ a. b. c. d. Answer: c.
Explanation: Project Board is responsible for overall direction and management of the
project.
Project Manager Project Board Project Assurance Project Support
Who is responsible for the overall direction and management of the project within the constraints set out by the corporate or programme management?
QUIZ a. b. c. d. Project Manager Project Support Project Assurance Team Manager
Who is responsible for the day-to-day management of the project within the constraints set out by the Project Board?
QUIZ a. b. c. d. Answer: b.
Explanation: Project Manager is responsible for day-to-day management of the project and
reports to the Project Board.
Who is responsible for the day-to-day management of the project within the constraints set out by the Project Board?
6
Project Manager Project Support Project Assurance Team Manager
QUIZ a. b. c. d. Executive Project Manager Project Assurance Project Board
Who is responsible for the Project Support? 7
QUIZ a. b. c. d. Answer: c.
Explanation: Project Support defaults to the Project Manager if it is not otherwise allocated.
Project Support is the responsibility of Project Manager. Who is responsible for the Project Support? 7
Executive
Project Manager Project Assurance Project Board
QUIZ a. b. c. d. Project Board Project Support Senior User(s) Team Manager
Which of the following role is optional? 8
QUIZ a. b. c. d. Answer: a.
Explanation: Project Manager can act as Team Manager if the project size is small.
Which of the following role is optional? 8
Project Board Project Support
Senior User(s) Team Manager
QUIZ a. b. c. d. Credibility Availability Scalability Authority
Which of the following is not a characteristic of a Project Board? 9
QUIZ a. b. c. d. Answer: d.
Explanation: Characteristics of Project Board are: Authority: To make strategic decisions,
Credibility: Ability to direct the project, Ability to delegate and Availability. Which of the following is not a characteristic of a Project Board? 9
Credibility Availability Scalability Authority
QUIZ a. b. c. d. Project Board Senior Supplier Senior User Project Manager
Whose responsibility is it to agree to each potential change before it is implemented? 10
QUIZ a. b. c. d. Answer: b.
Explanation: It is the Project Board’s responsibility to agree to each potential change before
it is implemented.
Project Board Senior Supplier Senior User Project Manager
Whose responsibility is it to agree to each potential change before it is implemented? 10
● Purpose of the Organisation theme is to define and establish the project’s structure of accountabilities and responsibilities
● The PRINCE2® principle of defined roles and responsibilities states that a
PRINCE2® project will always have three primary categories of stakeholder. They are Business, User and Supplier
● The four levels of organisation as defined by PRINCE2® are Corporate or
programme management, directing, managing and delivering
Summary
Here is a quick recap of what we have learnt in this lesson:
Thank You
[1] Based on Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2®, by AXELOS. Organisation, Purpose. [2] Based on Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2®, by AXELOS. Organisation, Programme. [3] Based on Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2®, by AXELOS. Organisation, Project.
[4] Based on Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2®, by AXELOS. Organisation, Three project interests.
