PRINCE2 Plans

"Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential."— Winston Churchill

Planning helps the project management team think ahead — to mentally rehearse the project. PRINCE2's planning approach is built on three key principles:

1. You clearly define and agree on the objectives before time is spent on planning.
2. You limit the detailed planning to the horizon where details can actually be defined. Planning too far into the future is a waste of time.
3. The planning focuses on products produced in the project, not on activities.

Three Levels of Plans

PRINCE2 defines three levels of plans:

• Project Plan — A high-level plan covering the total lifecycle of the project.
• Stage Plan — A short-term, more detailed plan for the next "chunk" of the project. Adequate as a basis for day-to-day control by the Project Manager.
• Team Plan (Optional) — Team Managers may create Team Plans to control the production of their Work Packages.

Product-Based Planning

PRINCE2 plans are product-based, which is in contrast to activity-based plans. The approach is to define the end product, then break it into groups of deliverables (called products) in a Product Breakdown Structure, then map out the flow of the products.

Product Breakdown Structure

The plan is broken down into groups of major products, which are then further broken down until an appropriate level of granularity is reached. The resulting hierarchy is known as the Product Breakdown Structure.

Product Flow Diagram

When all products have been identified and broken down to the appropriate detail level, a Product Flow Diagram is created to define the sequence of their creation.