Roll up roll up!

We have recently added a great selection of classic games with a project management twist. Race around to collect jewels in Inca Treasure, or see who can make it to the end of the Snakes and Ladders board.

You’ve just earned your PRINCE2 Foundation certificate and your first job is to manage Brexit. Not for a company, I mean for the whole country. Yep, you’re just that good at job interviews. And maybe all the Practitioners were busy on other projects. Either way, here are the key tasks you need to organise.

Projects are often very complex endeavours, but PRINCE2 is a project management method proven to deliver them successfully. Projects can vary greatly in their nature. The activities carried out by the project manager at any one time can be quite diverse. They depend on the exact nature of the project and where it is in its lifecycle. However, there are certain common activities that a PRINCE2 Certified Project Manager will carry out almost every day. Below we’ve highlighted a few key daily activities, these have been drawn from the PRINCE2 2017 A3 Process Map, which is available for free download.

Project Managers often have chameleon-like adaptability, infallible common sense and unmatched efficiency. The best PMs combine these traits with relevant training for even better results. Do you watch people tackle tasks and think “Why would they go about it that way?” Does it baffle you when others can’t multitask? Are you rarely surprised by so-called “unexpected” events at work? You sound like a Project Manager.

This month’s blog entry comes from a great guest blogger. Phil Doyle has worked in a variety of project management roles, particularly in the IT sector. Certified in Project Management Professional, PRINCE2 and Managing Successful Programmes (MSP), Phil has a strong interest in metrics and process improvement. He is also passionate about what he describes as the ‘fusion of the theoretical and the actual’, how best practice methodologies could have helped real-life projects. To see more of Phil’s work, he writes regular blogs for Project Health Check.

We’re getting closer to the end of 2017. This means there’s only a few months until PRINCE2 officially switches from 2009 to 2017. This is the first major update to PRINCE2 in eight years. Currently, both PRINCE2 2009 and PRINCE2 2017 are available. According to AXELOS, this crossover should ‘facilitate an optimal transition.’ This is to minimise disruption to those studying for the PRINCE2 2009 exam.

In September 2016, Sony Professional Solutions Europe implemented PRINCE2 Agile in its Media Solutions Department. Why did they make this decision? How did they implement it? What differences has it made looking back a year later?

Is virtual instructor-led training (VILT) right for you? It gives you the freedom to learn at home, like e-learning. At the same time, it has the interactivity of a traditional classroom course. Here are five benefits to virtual classroom training.

Low maturity organisations often invest in PRINCE2 training and then expect immediate benefits. A lot of people with certificates don’t get to use PRINCE2 at all. Other times, they run PINO (PRINCE2 In Name Only) projects, which seem to use PRINCE2 but don’t actually follow the processes. You can avoid falling into these patterns by following this advice.

No matter how good the team is, every project needs clear priorities to achieve its potential. When you have many stakeholders with different views, this can be a challenge. On top of that, anyone familiar with risk management will tell you to expect a fair number of surprises along the way. With the right strategy, this is all manageable.