“One day my Prince will come”, they said. And so it did – in the form of a project management qualification.

Welcome to the final part in this series about my experience of the PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner classroom course. The previous two posts – which you can visit here and here – covered three days of training in London, culminating in my encounter with the Foundation exam. Along the journey I’ve tried to provide tips for the would-be trainee, and insights into what to expect if you’re considering classroom-style learning.

To sit the Practitioner exam, a pass at Foundation level is an absolute prerequisite. Since I first entered the training centre a total novice to the subject of project management, I admit there was some doubt in my mind that I would be a certified Practitioner by the end of the week. Nevertheless, Foundation level was behind me. What lay in wait now, nobody could be certain of. However, I had a strong hunch that the course was going to be more in-depth, and perhaps even more intense.

Welcome to the second part of this series of blogs about my experience, as a newbie to project management, going through the PRINCE2 Foundation & Practitioner Classroom course. Part one covered my first day’s training at London’s Imparando Learning Centre. If you’ve considered taking an ILX classroom course and you missed that post, do go back and read it through. It covers useful tips for making the most out of being a PRINCE2 delegate and what else you can expect in the event that you attend.

This post will begin where the last left off, taking you through what happened during my second and third days’ training, and ultimately how it felt to come face-to-face with the PRINCE2 Foundation Exam. My hope is that, by reading it, you will get more valuable information about the course from the perspective of an average PRINCE2 trainee.

Have you ever thought about undertaking PRINCE2 training? If so, you’ve likely spent some time on the fence. When you’re looking to get certified, how to be sure what’s best between the e-learning course (allowing more personal time to complete but requiring more self-motivation) and the classroom-based version (the more intensive option, requiring up to five straight days of your time before becoming qualified in PRINCE2 Foundation & Practitioner)?

It’s not unusual for even the most adept project manager, with the firmest grip on organisation, to fall victim to the occasional overwhelming workload. This is especially true for managers who always say “yes” to more work, aiming to demonstrate their value, or to impress the stakeholders in a project. If you are taking on too many jobs though, it’s inevitable that you will end up with deadlines chasing faster than you can outrun them.

Collaboration is a fundamental requirement for delivering any project successfully. Project professionals and their teams cannot possibly hope to plan and execute their projects without involving contractors, suppliers and stakeholders. Projects that fail will invariably suffer a breakdown in collaboration between one or more parties.

As the Premier League title race draws to a close this weekend all eyes will be on the World Cup, and more to the point whether everything will be ready in time. Later this week, Brazil’s President, Dilma Roussell is set to declare Sao Paola’s new stadium officially open. With the acknowledgement that things tend to run a little late in South America by habit, perhaps things will be judged to have been a great success?

However, to say that this would be disguising a multitude of sins would be something of an understatement. Chaotic at best, disastrous at worst, the 2014 preparations have seen anti-world cup protests, damaged relations with FIFA, not to mention an awful lot of building work left to be done. We’ve taken a look at the success of this particular project, comparing it against key questions raised as part of the PRINCE2 methodology.

It is inconceivable for a project to succeed without collaboration between all parties responsible for its delivery. This has always been the case but today, more than ever, the size and scale of many of the projects being undertaken around the world are just too big and, more often than not, too costly for a single organisation to fund and manage.

Don’t know your yams from your tweets? Clueless about Ning and Ping? Fear not, for we aim to demystify social media and social enterprise so you can find tools that suit projects and pockets.

We’re often told of the value of ‘going the extra mile’ in the course of our interaction with customers. But what does the phrase actually mean? It’s surely about going above and beyond the call of duty.