PRINCE2 Certifications

Courses and Certifications

PRINCE2 Foundation (3 day course) -> PRINCE2 Foundation Certificate
PRINCE2 Practitioner (2 day course) -> PRINCE2 Practitioner Certificate

What is PRINCE2® ?

PRINCE2® is a structured project management method.

Why is project management important?

Most organisations need to add new services, improve services, change services, re-organise or just generally change.

Change is accomplished through projects. E.g. new offices, new products, new processes.

Why have structured project management?

Without structured project management

• Teams tend to be inefficient
• Higher cost
• Longer schedule
• Higher risk
• Lower quality
• Too much time spent fire fighting
• Too many surprises for senior management

Structured project management means managing the project in a logical, organised way, following defined steps. A structured project management method is the written description of this logical, organised approach.

What does PRINCE2® cover?

PRINCE2® says that a project should have:

• An organised and controlled start, ie organise and plan things properly before leaping in;
• An organised and controlled middle, ie when the project has started, make sure it continues to be organised and controlled;
• An organised and controlled end, ie when you′ve got what you want and the project has finished, tidy up the loose ends.

PRINCE2® does not cover people management skills

What are the benefits of PRINCE2®?

PRINCE2® is about doing the right projects, at the right time, for the right reasons. It gives you common systems, procedures and language for projects. PRINCE2® also provides:

• Better control and use of resources
• A means of managing risks and issues
• Flexible decision points
• Regular reviews of progress against the project plan and business case
• Assurance that the project continues to have a business justification
• Early visibility of possible problems
• Good communications between the project team and other stakeholders
• A mechanism for managing deviations from the project plan
• A process for capturing lessons learned
• Ability to change anything in the project once it has started but still avoid scope creep

Putting all of this together should enable you to save time and money while delivering projects more effectively.

Where did PRINCE2® come from?

PRINCE2® was developed by the UK government in 1996 based on earlier methodologies. It has become the de facto standard in the UK and its use has spread globally.

The PRINCE2® methodology and standards are administered by the UK APM Group who have a branch in Canberra. All training, exams etc are accredited by them.

How does PRINCE2® help my organisation?

PRINCE2® can help your organisation manage their projects in many ways.

• It is best practice
• It provides a consistent methodology that works across the organisation and can be taught
• It can be tailored to suit your organisation
• It increases reliability of project delivery
• It reduces project surprises
• It provides strong project governance and yet decreases the time that senior management need to be involved in projects
• If you are a council or otherwise work with State Government, then it will help you work with other government agencies.

What sort of projects can PRINCE2® be used for?

PRINCE2® is suitable for projects of all types.

• Any size
• Any type
• Small, medium or large
• IT, or non IT

Who uses PRINCE2®?

• PRINCE 2® training is now delivered in 57 countries
• Worldwide
  • Approx 4000 people per month sit the PRINCE2® Foundation Exam
  • Approx 2000 per month sit the PRINCE2® Practitioner Exam
• PRINCE2® manuals are now published in 18 languages
• PRINCE2® is refreshed approx every 2 years
• It′s a de facto standard in the UK – virtually all Organisations use PRINCE2® (e.g. the Scotland Yard Homicide squad)
• It′s heavily used across Europe
• Widely used in Australia e.g.
  • It is widely used in the Victorian and other state governments
  • Used at the Federal level
  • Many companies who have head offices in the UK or Europe
  • A number of local councils
  • A number of large publicly listed Australian companies
  • A number of small (approx 20-100 staff) consulting/service companies
  • Organisations in the health and education sectors

It′s not just the IT departments using this. At least half of the use of PRINCE2® is for non IT projects. Examples of non IT PRINCE2® projects are

• Drafting new government policy
• Drafting new government legislation
• Creating a local council strategy
• Building roads, bus stops, public toilets
• Reconfiguring manufacturing floor plans
• Process improvement
• Annual budget rounds of large organisations.
• Social research
• Consultancy assignments
• ..and so on

Why should I learn PRINCE2®?

Becoming qualified in PRINCE2® can bring many advantages

• It is useful and well recognised as an international qualification
• It is becoming almost a mandatory requirement if you are to run a Government project
• A great route into project management
• Even experienced project managers find they learn something

What is PMBOK and what is the difference?

PMBOK stands for the Project Management Body of Knowledge – a US-based project management methodology. It is also used in Australia.
It takes a very different approach

• PMBOK talks about the theory of project management, listing many of the possible tools and approaches. Broadly leaving it to the Project manager to decide which tools to use and how to apply them.
• PRINCE2® provides an easy to follow set of processes and templates.

PRINCE2® is much easier to learn and apply. It is appears that PRINCE2® is far more popular in Australia.

I tried PRINCE2® and it′s got too much paperwork. I tried PRINCE2® and it′s too bureaucratic!

Many people have said this but….

• Were you actually trained in PRINCE2®? Trying to use the templates or follow the book without training is just about impossible.
• Were you trained to pass the exam or use the methodology? – Because they are two separate and very different things.
• Were you given hints and tips about tailoring the methodology to your organisation, to your type of project, to your size of project?
• Were your offered a follow up service providing easy advice on suitable use?
• Did your trainer discuss how it could be used for really small projects?

Why use Advanced Training instead of one of the many other PRINCE2® companies out there?

Advanced Training has built up a solid reputation for high quality, engaging, and practical training

• We have a very experienced instructor (Dan Skelsey) (approx a 2500 people trained in approx 250 courses in 5 continents)
• He always gets good feedback
• He is also an actual Project Manager
• Our Foundation course is three days – not four days
• We offer the exam guarantee – a free second try
• Our course includes
  • Worked examples of PRINCE2 course documentation (a number of courses don′t seem to offer this)
  • A free copy of the “Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2”
  • The ability to consult the trainer after the course on practical application – usually free by phone and email.

PRINCE2® won′t work with Rapid Application Development and similar new approaches to software development!
Yes it will and our trainer has worked on merging the two. They are actually very complimentary

PRINCE2 Foundation Syllabus

The PRINCE2 Foundation examination is aiming to measure whether a candidate would be able to act as an informed member of a project management team using the PRINCE2 methodology within a project environment supporting PRINCE2.
To this end they need to show they understand the principles and terminology of the method, specifically, candidates must be able to:

• Describe the purpose and major content of all roles, the seven principles, the seven themes and the seven processes.
• State which management products are input to, and output from the seven processes.
• State the main purpose, and key contents, of the major management products.
• State the relationships between processes, deliverables, roles and the management dimensions of a project.

The PRINCE2 Foundation course suits:

• New and experienced project staff
• People who may go on to Practitioner training
• Consultants/contract staff operating in a PRINCE2 environment
• Project Managers considering a career in a PRINCE2 environment

The PRINCE2 Foundation exam

• Multiple-choice
• One hour duration
• 75 questions
• 38 correct answers are required to pass
• Closed-book

PRINCE2 Foundation Examination

PRINCE2 Foundation Exam Syllabus

The Foundation is the first of the two PRINCE2 Examinations you are required to pass to become a PRINCE2 Practitioner. This level is aiming to measure whether a candidate would be able to act as an informed member of a project management team using the PRINCE2 method within a project environment supporting PRINCE2. To this end they need to show they understand the principles and terminology of the method, specifically, candidates must be able to:

• Describe the purpose and major content of all roles, the seven principles, the seven themes and the seven processes.
• State which management products are input to, and output from the seven processes.
• State the main purpose, and key contents, of the major management products.
• State the relationships between processes, deliverables, roles and the management dimensions of a project.

PRINCE2 Foundation Examination Format

• 75 questions per paper
• 5 questions to be trial and not counted in scores
• 35 marks required (out of 70 available) to pass – 50%
• 5 of the 70 questions will be select style
• 5 of the 70 questions will be negative style
• 5 of the 70 questions will be missing word style
• The remaining 60 questions (including trial questions) will be standard style
• All sequencing questions have been removed from the paper and are not used in the PRINCE2 Foundation papers

PRINCE2 Practitioner Qualification

PRINCE2 Practitioner certification is the highest level of PRINCE2 qualification.
PRINCE2 Practitioner certification can be gained by completing a combined PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner course.
If you have already passed PRINCE2 Foundation then you can complete a PRINCE2 Practitioner upgrade course.

PRINCE2 Practitioner Syllabus

The Practitioner is the second of the two PRINCE2 examinations you are required to pass to become a PRINCE2 Practitioner.

This PRINCE2 examination is aiming to measure whether a candidate would be able to apply PRINCE2 to the running and managing of a project within an environment supporting PRINCE2. To this end they need to exhibit the competence required for the Foundation qualification, and show that they can apply and tune PRINCE2 to address the needs and problems of a specific project scenario, specifically, candidates must be able to:

• Produce detailed explanations of all principles, themes and processes and worked examples of all PRINCE2 products as they might be applied to address the particular circumstances of a given project scenario.
• Show they understand the relationships between principles, themes and processes and PRINCE2 products and can apply this understanding.
• Demonstrate that they understand the reasons behind the principles, themes and processes of PRINCE2, and that they understand the principles underpinning these elements.
• Demonstrate their ability to tune PRINCE2 to different project circumstances.

The PRINCE2 Practitioner course suits:

This course is aimed at anyone wishing to gain the qualification, ideally having already achieved the PRINCE2 Foundation level qualification. This course would benefit:

• Project Managers
• General Managers
• Programme Managers
• Team Managers and support staff
• Staff who will have a defined role
• Project Management Consultants

The new PRINCE2 Practitioner examination format

• 9 questions, with a scenario background and appendices.
• Each of the 9 questions is worth 12 marks.
• An overall score of 59 out of a possible 108 is required to pass.
• 2.5 hour duration.
• Open-book examination (only the PRINCE2 Manual is allowed)

Changes to the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam format

On the 1st of September 2007 the PRINCE2 practitioner exam changed from a multiple choice (aka “OTE” – Objective Testing Exam) format as detailed above.
It is expected that the new PRINCE2 Practitioner exam format will mean that exam results are delivered quickly and that there is a greater consistency to the marking. This new PRINCE2 Practitioner exam format will also be more acceptable to the growing international market.
At first glance, it may seem that the change in format will make the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam slightly easier, however a broad knowledge is still required to pass and initial feedback confirms that the exam is very much at the same level as the previous format.