9.2 Principles – processes – tools

Principles         

The following table shows some of the discussed methodologies’ principles: similar principles appear in the same row. It is important to note that they are similar and not same. For example, PRINCE2 Continued business justification is much more documentation based than the other two, Lean and Agile. The latters are much more collaboration oriented.

 

PRINCE2

Lean

Agile

Continued business justification

Voice of the customer

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Learn from experience

Kaizen, Continuous Improvements, Amplify learning

 

Defined roles and responsibilities

 

Having minimal set of roles (PO, team members, SM)

Manage by stages

PDCA

Manage changes

Manage by exception

Quality at the source

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Focus on products

Constancy of purpose

 

Tailored to suit the project environment

 

 

 

Respect for People

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Table 9.1: Principle comparison from PRINCE2 viewpoint

Processes

Let’s see a similar table for processes. In case of processes the different methodologies’ similarity is much weaken than it was in case of principles.

PMBok

PRINCE2

Scrum (iteratively)

LEAN PDCA cycles

Initiation

Starting up a project

Form an initial Product Backlog

Preliminary PDCA cycle(s)

Plan

Almost all stages creates/ updates plans

Backlog prioritization and creating sprint backlog

Plan

Execute

Directing a project

Sprint

Do

Monitor & Control

Managing a Stage Boundary, Controlling a Stage, Managing Product Delivery

Daily scrum

Check & Act

Close

Closing a project

Delivery of product increment

Post PDCA cycle(s)

 Table 9.2: Process comparison from PMBok viewpoint

We have to mention that PMBok deals with a lot of essential project management processes, e.g. procurement, human resource management, that the others do not mention at all.

 

Tools

PRINCE2

PMBok

Lean

Agile

Risk Register

Risk Register

 

 

Product Breakdown Structure

Work Breakdown Structure

 

Features, epics, user stories

 

Gantt Chart

 

Burndown, burnup chart

 

 

Gemba

 

 

 

5S

 

 

 

Root Cause Analysis

 

 

 

Value Stream Mapping

 

Table 9.3: Tools comparison from PRINCE2 viewpoint

 

Overview

The previous three comparisons clearly show the major differences of the four different methodologies:

  • PRINCE2 is a mixture, it is principle and process oriented at the same time
  • PMBok is process oriented
  • Agile is much more principle oriented with some processes
  • Lean is principle oriented and much more an improvement framework than a project management method, however, it can be applied in this sense as well