Introduction

InventX^™ SP² and the PRINCE2 methodology

InventX SP²M (Strategic Project Portfolio Management) is designed to plan and manage a portfolio of projects in alignment with business objectives. Based on the PMI-PMBOK standard, it also incorporates all key elements of the PRINCE2 project management methodology.

Both the Project Management Institute (PMI) and PRINCE2 methodologies emphasize a structured approach to project management. The PRINCE2 system has been widely adopted by government and industry in the UK to reduce the risk of project failure due to:

	Lack of coordination of resources and activities.
	Lack of communication with interested parties, leading to products being delivered that do not match customer expectations.
	Poor estimation of project duration and costs.
	Insufficient measurables
	Inadequate planning of resources activities and scheduling
	Lack of control over progress so that project status is not clear.
	Lack of quality control.

Each of these potential problems can be substantially reduced by using the InventX SP²M solution:

Coordination of resources and activities:
Scheduling of multiple projects in SP²M Portfolio module allows resources and activities to be fully coordinated across an organization. At any point, managers can review planned and actual resource loading across all their projects. This enables resource conflicts to be identified in time to take remedial action. Critical project activities, for example customer deliverables, can be tracked to ensure successful, on-time completion. Team members can use Task Manager module to report their progress on tasks and propose changes to the project schedule.

Communication with customers and project stakeholders:
Customer requirements and product specifications are tracked in the SP²M, Requirements module. These may be linked explicitly to elements of the project plan. During project execution, the project manager and team members can continuously monitor project status with respect to customer expectations. The use of automatic e-mail event notification throughout the application allows all project stakeholders to receive real-time communications regarding project status, milestones and deliverables. If required, customers can be given direct ‘keyhole’ access to specific areas of project information.

Estimation of project duration and costs:
Detailed schedule and budget algorithms in the SP 2M Portfolio moduleare used to provide continuous estimation of project duration and costs, throughout the project lifecycle.

Insufficient measurables:
SP²M tracks and presents reports on a wide range of project metrics, designed to provide managers with real-time information about the ‘health’ of their projects. In addition to over 50 pre-built reports, including project and portfolio dashboards, resource utilization reports, and budget reports, the powerful reporting engine makes it easy to design and implement custom reports to meet specific organizational needs. The use of multiple baselines allows continuous comparison between the ‘current’ project schedule and previous baselines taken, for example, at each major stage gate. This allows the generation of variance reports showing the delta between planned and actual project duration, resource utilization, and cost.

Improved project planning:
A detailed project plan can be built and maintained in SP²M Project Planner module. This includes detailed information on project stakeholders, goals and objectives, checklist, deliverables, and constraints. The use of customizable templates makes it easy to support a common project methodology (e.g. stage gates, standard checklist and deliverable list, etc.) across the organization.

Control over project status and progress:
In SP²M, each element of the project plan can be linked directly to a scheduled activity and its status monitored. As the project progresses, this makes it easy to make sure that key goals and objectives have been achieved as planned. Within Portfolio module, tasks that are critical to overall project success can be tagged as ‘Watch List Tasks’. Any change to a project schedule that affects one or more of these tasks is immediately brought to the project manager’s attention. This allows potential problems to be identified and dealt with before they become hard to manage.

Quality Control:
SP²M Portfolio module is designed to track any issues, defects, or risks associated with a project or product development process. Each issue can be assigned to one or more resources and tracked until successfully closed.

The PRINCE2 methodology provides a structured workflow process for managing projects:

Quality Control:
SP²M Portfolio module is designed to track any issues, defects, or risks associated with a project or product development process. Each issue can be assigned to one or more resources and tracked until successfully closed.

Each of these stages can be readily modeled in SP 2M:

Directing a Project (DP):
This process runs from project start-up to completion. The key group involved in the Project Board, which manages by exception, monitors progress via reports and controls through key decision points. In SP²M, the Project Board represents a special group of stakeholders who are assigned a role granting them access to specific project status and exception reports. They are established as electronic sign-off authorities for approving stage boundaries and project closure.

Starting up a Project (SU):
This is a ‘pre-project’ process, designed to ensure that the prerequisites for initiating the project are in place. In SP²M, four activities contribute to this process:

	Ensuring that project information is available to the team, by adding all project reference materials to the document repository;
	Setting up the project team by creating appropriate system roles and permissions in Admin and Resource Manager module;
	Creating the Initiation Stage Plan in Project Planner and Portfolio modules.

Initiating a Project (IP):
The decisions taken during this stage would all be built into the checklist in SP2M Project Planner module. These would include and agreement to proceed with the project, confirming a business case (which once approved, would be added to the document repository), and agreement to commit resources. Project risks and constraints would also be documented at this time.

Managing Stage Boundaries (SB):
Stage boundaries in SP²M separate distinct project phases. Members of the Project Board would be assigned authority to approve each stage transition. Following completion of each stage, a report would be added to the document repository for future reference.

Controlling a Stage (CS):
During this process, the Project Manager monitors and controls day-to-day activity on the project. In SP²M, this would be achieved through management of the project schedule in Portfolio module, with regular input from team members using Task Manager.

Managing Product Delivery (MP):
Successful product delivery requires that key outputs are on time, meet customer expectations and also satisfy quality requirements. In SP²M, this process is managed in Portfolio and Requirements modules.

Closing a Project (CP):
Project closure represents an approval process, controlled by the Project Board. Using SP²M status and exception reports, they would gather the information required to confirm the project completion.

Planning (PL):
Planning is a repeated process throughout the project lifecycle. In SP2M, the project plan and schedule are built and maintained in Project Planner and Portfolio modules, respectively. The planning structure and stage boundaries would be reflected in the checklist, within the project plan, and the detailed work breakdown structures of the project schedule.

Overall, the InventX SP²M solution provides a powerful and but easily-used tool to implement PRINCE2 methodology throughout an organization. Because it is fully web-based, SP²M provides real-time access to critical project information for team members, managers and customers from any location in the world. The InventX SP²M solution emphasizes team collaboration and communication, while at the same time reinforcing a strong and consistent project management regime.

InventX^™ offers numerous benefits to being a member of InventX^™ alliance program. We request you to send your complete details on biz@inventx.com in order to become a member of InventX^™ Alliance.