One of the fastest ways to kill a PRINCE2 implementation is to introduce everything at once. Arriving at a team with a stack of templates, a revised governance structure, new reporting requirements, and an entirely new vocabulary — all in one go — is a shock. People resist shocks.
Introduce PRINCE2 One Piece at a Time
The most successful PRINCE2 implementations introduce the framework incrementally, starting with the elements that deliver the most immediate, visible value. This approach builds credibility and trust before asking the organisation to absorb the full method.
A recommended sequence:
- Start with the Mandate. Introduce a simple, standardised Project Mandate form. This immediately improves how projects are requested — it forces requesters to think through the basics before consuming project management resources.
- Add the Project Brief. Once mandates are working, introduce the Project Brief — the document that captures what has been agreed before the project formally begins. This is usually the step that most visibly reduces "projects that shouldn't have started."
- Add the Business Case. Once briefs are routine, introduce the formal Business Case requirement. This is the step that ties the project to measurable organisational value and enables benefit tracking.
- Add stage governance. Introduce stage boundaries, stage-end reviews, and End Stage Reports. This is the step that gives the Project Board meaningful control at natural decision points.
- Add detailed control mechanisms. Work packages, quality registers, detailed risk management — introduce these when the organisation is ready to absorb them.
Why This Works
Each step delivers visible improvement before the next step is introduced. The organisation has time to adapt, learn, and develop confidence. The Project Manager has time to become competent with each element before adding the next. Resistance is minimised because each new element is introduced when its value is already understood in context.
The alternative — implementing everything at once — typically results in partial adoption. People implement the parts they understand and quietly drop the parts they don't, creating an inconsistent, hybrid approach that delivers neither the flexibility of informal management nor the rigour of PRINCE2.
See the 10-Step PRINCE2 Implementation Guide for a structured approach to rolling out PRINCE2 across an organisation.