Exception Management – The Strengths of Prince2™

Exception Management – The Strengths of Prince2™ (#12 in the series How PRINCE2™ Can Complement PMBOK® and Your PMP)
By Jay Siegelaub – MBA, PMP, PRINCE2

In PRINCE2™, the process for handling exception situations is defined before execution, in the PID. The Project Board is not designed to micro-manage, but they will have a greater level of comfort with the Project Manager if agreement is made in advance as to where the Project Manager’s discretion lies. PRINCE2™ provides for interactive communication: “Taking Corrective Action” and “Escalating Project Issues” from the Project Manager’s side (“Controlling a Stage”) , and “Giving Ad hoc Direction” from the Project Board’s side (“Directing a Project”).

The Project Board sets performance thresholds through the concept of “Tolerance,” which grants the Project Manager discretion to execute work within agreed time and costs limits, as well as clear limits on scope, quality, benefits and risk (a total of six tolerance factors). Tolerance is set when planning the overall project (“Initiating a Project”), for each Stage of the project (“Managing Stage Boundaries”), and for Work Packages; the Project Manager monitors against project and stage Tolerances while “Controlling a Stage.”

Jay Siegelaub has over 30 years of professional experience delivering and supporting projects in information technology, insurance systems, banking, and nonprofit strategic planning, as well as in the pharmaceutical, financial service, consulting, and consumer products industries. As a recognized educator he has trained thousands of project managers over the past 23 years, including 13 years as the Project Management tutorial instructor for the Drug Information Association.

Jay’s recent responsibilities included leading the North American Change Management and Training practices for a UK-based management consulting firm, training corporate consulting professionals in project and program management, and supporting clients in managing the “people” issues of their business change initiatives. He has authored articles on training, project management and information technology for various publications, and often presents at conferences, including the PMI North American Congress (1999, and 2004 – 2007), ProjectWorld and ProjectSummit.

In addition to his PMP® certification, Jay has his MBA in Organization Management from New York University’s Stern School of Business, and is an accredited PRINCE2™ Practitioner, Instructor and Examiner. He has taught and consulted in PRINCE2™ in North America for 10 years (the first US-accredited PRINCE2™ instructor), and worked for the company (and with the authors) that wrote the PRINCE2™ Manual for the UK government.

He has provided Change Management and Project Management consulting and training (including PRINCE2) to companies such as Sun Microsystems, NATO, the United Nations Development Programme, Bechtel, IBM, Philip Morris, Credit Suisse, JPMorganChase and Diageo.

Jay also consults in Organizational and Professional Development.