At first glance, the UK Government Business Office’s PRINCE2 approach and the PMP certification look like two project management standards on opposite sides of the Atlantic. However, upon closer examination, the two approaches are not only interchangeable but also highly complementary. Before we look at this in detail, let’s discuss them in turn.
Prince2 certification is a management approach. As with all approaches, it defines three main areas.
- Roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders, including executive managers, project managers, senior users, senior suppliers, and work package managers. These roles and responsibilities are detailed and fully described.
- Templates for the key documents needed for day-to-day management. These are very detailed and complete and include over 200 documents.
- A complete management process for each stage of the process, from call to close.
In this way, Prince2 certification defines what is needed to complete a project, which stages to go through, and which documents to prepare. However, in general, PRINCE2 is not very complete in defining how these processes should be completed. For example, it mentions a budget for the PMP, but does not explain anything about how that budget will be determined.
The PMI PMP is based on the PMI BoK Body of Knowledge Guide. It defines at a high level the general processes that project managers must follow and provides detailed guidance on the skills managers need to complete a project. For example, it provides guidance on the various techniques that can be used to estimate budgets. However, as a body of knowledge, it does not provide guidance on project management roles and responsibilities, documentation, and requirements as PRINCE2 does.
Our PMP and PRINCE2 complementary?
For many people, there are two different approaches to achieving the goal of “making a project successful. The world seems to be divided into those who believe in PRINCE2 and PMP and those who do not. However, both approaches are very beneficial to project managers because Prince2 training provides detailed templates and PMP BoK provides the skills and knowledge needed to manage these processes effectively. A good project manager recognizes the value of a variety of different approaches.
They combine their knowledge of different techniques such as costing, earned value management, bidding, clearly defined roles and responsibilities, project documentation templates and detailed processes. Combined, these are powerful techniques for successful project implementation.
