Project /program managing and Prince 2?

Misteek

For those who have done project managing.

Is Prince 2 worth doing ?

JReacher1

Not really. If you’re already a project manager it can be a useful qualification to have as some sectors still insist on the qualification. If you’ve never been a project manager having the prince2 qualification would not help you get a project management job. 

If you look on careers sites like totaljobs then you’ll see not many project management jobs ask for it these days. 

Sarahspangles

PMQ or Prince2 are the two recognised qualifications, one or other is required for many public/charity sector roles.  There’s a recent variant on Prince2, Prince2 Agile which is more useful for digital projects.

If you want to get into project management then the Prince2 Foundation qualification would get you an interview for lots of project support roles.  Employers who have in-house PMO often ‘grow their own’ project managers and will put you through the next qualification.

It’s in the nature of project management that you will work your way out of many jobs, so you may want to initially look out for an employer with a PMO, that is in a field that you’re interested in.  The PMO is a clue they may have a series/portfolio of projects to help you get a couple of years’ experience on your CV.

Misteek

Sarahspangles said:

PMQ or Prince2 are the two recognised qualifications, one or other is required for many public/charity sector roles.  There’s a recent variant on Prince2, Prince2 Agile which is more useful for digital projects.

If you want to get into project management then the Prince2 Foundation qualification would get you an interview for lots of project support roles.  Employers who have in-house PMO often ‘grow their own’ project managers and will put you through the next qualification.

It’s in the nature of project management that you will work your way out of many jobs, so you may want to initially look out for an employer with a PMO, that is in a field that you’re interested in.  The PMO is a clue they may have a series/portfolio of projects to help you get a couple of years’ experience on your CV.

Hi thanks for your great advice.
I've been asked to support the british heart foundation PM as a volunteer. So I'm trying to get some experience.

I've never really done PM work before . I wish I could do some research or something before I do the role so I get abit of a clue as to what to expect.  

Can you recommend me anything that will enhance my knowledge on some of the framework etc?

Sarahspangles

Misteek said:

Sarahspangles said:

PMQ or Prince2 are the two recognised qualifications, one or other is required for many public/charity sector roles.  There’s a recent variant on Prince2, Prince2 Agile which is more useful for digital projects.

If you want to get into project management then the Prince2 Foundation qualification would get you an interview for lots of project support roles.  Employers who have in-house PMO often ‘grow their own’ project managers and will put you through the next qualification.

It’s in the nature of project management that you will work your way out of many jobs, so you may want to initially look out for an employer with a PMO, that is in a field that you’re interested in.  The PMO is a clue they may have a series/portfolio of projects to help you get a couple of years’ experience on your CV.

Hi thanks for your great advice.
I've been asked to support the british heart foundation PM as a volunteer. So I'm trying to get some experience.

I've never really done PM work before . I wish I could do some research or something before I do the role so I get abit of a clue as to what to expect.  

Can you recommend me anything that will enhance my knowledge on some of the framework etc?

The best way is honestly to observe, but there are ‘cheat sheets’ on the dummies.com website that would help you grasp some of the jargon.  Projects are normally broken down into stages with gateways, and each stage has different key outputs, but a lot of the day to day activity is staying on top of updating trackers or spreadsheets, analysing data on progress and ensuring that communication flows.  It can be similar to administrative work except that you need to change approach as the project progresses - from high-level brief to detailed spec, and from describing to doing.

Misteek

Sarahspangles said:

Misteek said:

Sarahspangles said:

PMQ or Prince2 are the two recognised qualifications, one or other is required for many public/charity sector roles.  There’s a recent variant on Prince2, Prince2 Agile which is more useful for digital projects.

If you want to get into project management then the Prince2 Foundation qualification would get you an interview for lots of project support roles.  Employers who have in-house PMO often ‘grow their own’ project managers and will put you through the next qualification.

It’s in the nature of project management that you will work your way out of many jobs, so you may want to initially look out for an employer with a PMO, that is in a field that you’re interested in.  The PMO is a clue they may have a series/portfolio of projects to help you get a couple of years’ experience on your CV.

Hi thanks for your great advice.
I've been asked to support the british heart foundation PM as a volunteer. So I'm trying to get some experience.

I've never really done PM work before . I wish I could do some research or something before I do the role so I get abit of a clue as to what to expect.  

Can you recommend me anything that will enhance my knowledge on some of the framework etc?

The best way is honestly to observe, but there are ‘cheat sheets’ on the dummies.com website that would help you grasp some of the jargon.  Projects are normally broken down into stages with gateways, and each stage has different key outputs, but a lot of the day to day activity is staying on top of updating trackers or spreadsheets, analysing data on progress and ensuring that communication flows.  It can be similar to administrative work except that you need to change approach as the project progresses - from high-level brief to detailed spec, and from describing to doing.

Brilliant. Is there any spreadsheets, fomulas etcI should start learning now for the future.?

I haven't really used many spreadsheets for my previous roles .but I want to get ontop of it now.

Sarahspangles

There are lots of calculation methods and formulas used to calculate things like ‘internal rate of return’ but they are typically used in the Business Case stage and you probably won’t come up against them often.

If you’re supporting a project you are likely to be monitoring a budget, probably in Excel.  I’m sure there are lots of examples if you Google something like Excel Budget Spreadsheet.

Lots of project teams use spreadsheets to structure data.  For example if you Google Excel RAID (risks, actions, issues, decisions) you will see examples of the ways these are used to record and filter information.  The main Excel commands you need to understand are Sort and Filter.  

Some projects use charts created in spreadsheets to track process.  So having a play with charts is a good idea.  There’s also a special kind of progress plan called a Gantt chart.  These are often created in specialist software but it’s worth having a look at a few online.

Misteek

Sarahspangles said:

There are lots of calculation methods and formulas used to calculate things like ‘internal rate of return’ but they are typically used in the Business Case stage and you probably won’t come up against them often.

If you’re supporting a project you are likely to be monitoring a budget, probably in Excel.  I’m sure there are lots of examples if you Google something like Excel Budget Spreadsheet.

Lots of project teams use spreadsheets to structure data.  For example if you Google Excel RAID (risks, actions, issues, decisions) you will see examples of the ways these are used to record and filter information.  The main Excel commands you need to understand are Sort and Filter.  

Some projects use charts created in spreadsheets to track process.  So having a play with charts is a good idea.  There’s also a special kind of progress plan called a Gantt chart.  These are often created in specialist software but it’s worth having a look at a few online.

Oh brilliant thank you soo much.

This is exactly what I wanted. I need to familiarise myself with the right terminology etc. 

I did have a look online for the above. I will need to narrow down which applies to project managing. Seem to be so many different ones too.

I probably buy myself the Dummies book as well.

happyc84

Hi,
Most work can be split into phases - from start to finish, (each project tool that  is in fashion explains why they are the greatest thing since sliced bread. Most Projects and  Programmes need People. Resources and Time, and IMHO this has been a truth since they built the Pyramids and or Stonehenge.

Try to avoid using jargon and describe work scenario's in plain language. If the organisation is sound they should have processes in place, you would follow them, making changes as required.

Too many people have the badge but can't do the PM work.

DullGreyGuy

With the increased use of Agile Prince has somewhat lessened in importance. Indeed many places no longer have projects and project managers but value streams, product owners etc. You can also go down the rabbit hole of SAFe for large sale agile deployments.

The theory is all interesting, some of the tools are useful but every company has its own preferred way of working and so adaptation is necessary rather than a fixed toolset. Many are an odd mix of things that dont always make sense other than by understanding the Exec want to be cool and delivery value early so want Agile projects but like to have certainty of how much it'll cost in total and when it'll arrive so want Waterfall style business cases. 

Excel is used and misused in many ways, you can download examples of RAID logs, project budget, cost trackers, burn rate, business case on NPV etc. Some will be very simple, others a little more complex but really once you've mastered the basic formulas like sumif, x/vlookup, subtotal, then pivot tables and finally conditional formatting you are probably as far as most need to go... I've done a few things with macros in the past but that was just to make it easier and not strictly necessary. 

The main things your doing, when using excel properly, is calculating a business case which has benefits, implementation and running costs. Tracking the actual cost of implementation against the original business case and forecasting where it'll end up... you could be £100,000 over budget compared to where you thought you'd be but total spend has gone down by £200,000 because that expensive resource you hired is costing you more than you'd planned for but delivering well quicker than anticipated.

I know PMs that are really bad with excel and thats fine, they just spend a lot of time editing things whereas I'd parameterize  things so when someone announces an extra bank holiday in May I can just reduce the working day count by one and all my contract resource estimates for that month go down

Doshwaster

Classic PRINCE2 is fairly old hat now. Still looks good on a CV but it really isn't practiced any more especially in technology companies.

There is a new version called "PRINCE2 Agile" which claims the combine the best of both - the strong governance of PRINCE2 and the more flexible approach of Agile

When it comes to project/program management, it really doesn't matter how many certificates you have, in the real world it all comes down to experience and people skills as no project every goes by the text book.