The purpose of the Progress practice is to establish mechanisms to monitor and compare actual achievement against those planned, and to provide a forecast for the project objectives and continued viability of the project.
What Progress Controls Enable
Progress controls enable management at each level to:
- Monitor progress against plan
- Compare achievement level with the plan
- Review plans and options against future situations
- Detect problems and identify risks
- Initiate corrective action
- Authorize further work
PRINCE2 Progress Control Methods
PRINCE2 provides progress control through four key approaches:
Delegating Authority
Delegating authority from one management level to the next, with defined tolerances for each objective.
Stage-by-Stage Authorization
Dividing the project into management stages with formal end-stage assessment and authorization before proceeding.
Time and Event-Driven Reporting
Regular progress reports (time-driven) and event-triggered reviews (event-driven) to keep all levels informed.
Raising Exceptions
When tolerances are forecast to be breached, an Exception Report is raised to escalate the situation to the next management level.
Project controls are documented in the Project Initiation Document (PID). A PID template is available on the PRINCE2 Templates page.