DG Company has made a significant investment in a project to develop a new client management IT system, which when implemented should help give the company a competitive edge. However, all is not well with the management of the project and B, the project sponsor, is particularly concerned about the progress.
There appear to have been a series of problems throughout the project which B feels she should have been alerted to. The result has been that the project manager she had appointed has now resigned, complaining that he was unclear on his role in the project, and that B was constantly interfering.
Explain how using a project management methodology, like as PRINCE2, could help minimise the problems that have occurred in the client management IT system project.
PRINCE2 is an acronym for Projects In Controlled Environments and is a structured approach to project management. Fundamentally it provides a project framework with a set of project tools, guidelines and standards. It contains bureaucratic controls on the planning and implementation so that any potential problems that may increases are identified and can be resolved early in the process. Whilst it could be argued that aspects of PRINCE2 could be considered to be just good project management, the dissimilarity is in the level of structure and documentation needed.
The key processes of PRINCE2 methodology offer a number of features that would help the client management IT system project, containing:
- A explained management structure of roles and responsibilities
- A system of plans
- A set of control procedures
- A focus on product based planning