After the development of IT, different companies use different types of project management methods according to their needs. A survey of CIO (2008) shows that in total around 62% of IT project failed and 25% of IT project get cancelled before completion. In investigating the reasons behind failure of project management, inefficient co-ordination between time and budget, unexpected increase in maintenance cost, failure to deliver business values are identified as common reason (Asay, 2008).
Alvarez (2003) identified seven major reasons behind project failure. Those are lack of user involvement, organizational structure/lack of management support, lack of clear vision, unable to manage team, unable to cope with project size, lack of training, lack of resources. Failure in project management may cause significant looses to the company.
Large British companies are wasting more than 13m a year each by not scrapping failing IT projects (Antony, 2004).A good combination of resources, skills, technology and ideas is the most important driver behind the success of a project management method (The Office of Government Commerce, 2009). PRINCE2 method of project management proved its efficiency in combining those skills. In this crucial stage of IT project failure, PRINCE methods of project management has been identified as one of the best adaptable approach for the management of almost all project (OGC, 2002).
Though it was developed for the IT project management for Central Government in 1989, later it has been adopted by many other public and private firms which were influenced by the statistics of the PRINCE2 method’s efficiency. PRINCE2 embodies several years of good practices in project management.The main aim and objective of this coursework is to find out whether the PRINCE2 method is the best approach of project management method.
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It would be done by comparing the benefits and problems that may arise from implementation of PRINCE2. Besides, PRINCE2 should also be compared with some other project management methods to checks its efficiency over them.PRINCE2 means PRojects IN Controlled Environment (PRINCE2, 2002). PRINCE2 is a registered trademark of The Office of Government Commerce (OGC, 2002). Though, PRINCE2 was first introduced in 1996, it had its root at 1975.
OGC (2002) published the following steps regarding the development stages of PRINCE2: 1975: Simpact Systems Ltd created a project management method known as PROMPT. 1979: PROMPT was adopted by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) as the standard to be used for all Government information system projects.1989: CCTA established PRINCE based on their previous project management method known as PROMPT.
After the establishment, PRINCE effectively superseded PROMPT within Government projects. PRINCE remains in the public domain and copyright is retained by the Crown. 1996: Having been contributed to by a consortium of some 150 European organisations, PRINCE2 published.Many people assume PMBOK and PRINCE2 are competitors, but in reality PMBOK and PRINCE2 are complementary and can be used in conjunction for effective project management (Copland, 2007).
PMBOK refers to Project Management Body of Knowledge (Project Management Partners, 2007). PMBOK identifies and describes the subset of project management which is accepted generally (PMP, 2007). Because of the difference in abstraction level it’s very hard to do comparison between PRINCE2 and PMBOK. PMBOK and PRINCE2 really serve different purposes and are therefore not directly comparable (Vancouver, 2002).However, some competitive advantages of PRINCE2 and PMBOK can be identified.
Jucan (2005) defines PMBOK as a guide and PRINCE2 as methodology. PMBOK is a collection of recommendations and standards which are US standard. For business organization, PMBOK is like a highway from where they can choose their own comfortable way (Jucan, 2005). In a word PMBOK deals with various procedures of doing a thing, whereas PRINCE deals with unique, clear and step by step process.PMBOK provides information on procurement, earned value management, time management, communication management, HR management, whereas PRINCE2 doesn’t cover those topics (Copland, 2007).
Unlike PMBOK, PRINCE2 offers several techniques and it emphasize mainly on product based planning, change control and quality review technique (Siegelaub, 2004). While PRINCE2 is designed for a variety of customer/supplier situations PMBOK has been written on the assumption that the project will be run for a customer with a single (prime) supplier involved throughout (Vancouver, 2002). Project Management Partners (2007) view PMBOK as a foundation enriched by the PRINCE2 method. Copland (2007) seen PMBOK and PRINCE2 as complementary, but they are not in complete and not mutually exclusive.RECOMMENDATIONSiegelaub (2004) recommend using both PMBOK and PRINCE2 to get best result.
After knowing about PMBOK, it can use PRINCE2 to structure their methodology (Siegelaub, 2004). Company can use key components and techniques like product descriptions, quality review, configuration management, change control, work packages from PRINCE2 and they can use PMBOK for depth, techniques, plus HR and procurement as needed. There is another project management method named as Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) which is also marked as best practice approach to information services after it combines with PRINCE2 project management tools (Cane, 2007).
