PRINCE2 Document Management
Document Management underpins PRINCE2...
Document Management is a key underpinning activity for running
a project in
line with the PRINCE2 method. It supports the Configuration
Management and Change Control components.
...so how do you do it?
Like many aspects of implementation PRINCE2 does not specify
how you are to achieve this
in practice. PRINCE2 tells you the what but not the how. While this makes perfect
sense, because the
method can accommodate all kinds of document management systems from
the
homespun to the full-blown corporate knowledge management database, it
does leave
you with the question:
“How are you going to
do the document management?”
This is a common problem particularly for individuals
promoting PRINCE2 and smaller
organisations trying to adopt a true project culture for the first
time.
On the one hand your team can see the
benefits that using PRINCE2 will bring – on the other you have the
question
hanging in the air:
“You mean we are going to have to write all these new documents and do configuration management and do change control on them all?”
Yes that’s right – and deliver the project to time and cost
constraints
just like before! All of a sudden PRINCE2
starts to look a bit difficult. Let’s
unpick some of the issues.
Lots of Document Types
PRINCE2 describes over thirty different management product (document) types that you may or may not use on any given project. In practice you may choose to combine some of these and not use others, but there will always be a large core of mandatory documents you will need to employ.
Remember these are the just thirty or so document types. Some
of them get repeated in the project or in each stage.
That’s a lot of documents. There
are plenty of resources for document
templates - OGC being the primary one –
but you have to configure them for your team, prescribe which ones to
use where
and when.
Configuration Management
In PRINCE2 Configuration Management is one of the eight named
components. It lays out a classical
method for controlling the configuration of a system (the project) that
consists of many parts (the products).
This
is a concept borrowed from conventional engineering, and latterly
software engineering. I have to be honest
and say that it is
really quite hard to do properly in a project setting.
If you think you are doing it well, particularly in a
small organistion, please write because we are keen to see and learn
from examples of best practice.
I believe the difficulty arises from a mix
of culture and lack of support tools.
Culture
Culturally, engineers are brought up thinking about
“configurations” and
version control in their plans and designs.
Even software
developers, who often don’t want to have the discipline imposed on
their
creativity, are normally exposed to the version control culture.
It is enforced by using a version control system like CVS or Source
Safe.
By contrast, imagine a typical non-technical project team with
a
multi-disciplinary crew. They are not doing a
civil engineering project but, say, a marketing campaign. The
idea of
configuration management will be new.
It
may seem like a good idea right up until the point when
you have to
do it in practice.
How PROJECT in a Box can Help
In a nutshell, PROJECT in a Box is the tool that can help you
bridge the gap
between theory and practice in the key PRINCE2 activity of
Configuration
Management.
Your team can write Word documents, Excel
spreadsheets, project plans, drawings just like normal, and PROJECT in
a Box puts them in the PRINCE2 project context - doing your
configuration mangement along the way.
(By the way, it also has reporting, portfolios,
team sharing - other tools you need run the project.)