PRINCE2™ Process Overview – PRINCE2™ Stages

PRINCE2™ Process Overview – PRINCE2™ Stages (#4 in the series How PRINCE2™ Can Complement PMBOK® and Your PMP)
By Jay Siegelaub – MBA, PMP, PRINCE2

To provide the appropriate decision gates at the right level of the project, PRINCE2™ projects are broken down into Stages, much like the Phases of the PMBOK® process model. PRINCE2™ calls for decisions about the project as a whole to be made prior to looking at any developmental work. PRINCE2™ differentiates the start up, planning and close for the overall Project (“Starting a Project,” “Initiating a Project” and “Closing a Project”) from the activities to start up and close down each of the Stages (“Managing Stage Boundaries”).

The actual Executing and Controlling of the developmental work shows up at the Stage level, through “Controlling a Stage” and “Managing Product Delivery.” Project oversight (by the Project Board) occurs throughout the project through “Directing a Project.” “Planning” is a generalized process, accessed at all levels of the project, as needed.

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.