A major challenge for me as Project Manager on the digitisation of newspapers and journals has been learning about and implementing PRINCE2 for the first time in the Library.
PRINCE2 is a flexible, scaleable and structured project management method that navigates you through all of the essential elements for running a successful project, regardless of whether your project aims to build a house, construct a new motorway or digitise library collections.
Core to the method is organisation – successful projects demonstrate effective direction, management, control and communication – and PRINCE2 provides a defined organisational structure to unite the various parties in the common aims of the project. As Project Manager I report to a lean Project Board made up of user and supplier representatives that each have the authority to make decisions, to commit resources and to resolve conflict – PRINCE2 is all about getting the right people in the right meetings and freeing up the resources to actually undertake the work.
PRINCE2 is also big on risk management. Taking risks in projects is inevitable as projects are usually enablers of change and change always introduces uncertainty. PRINCE2 provides projects with a proactive and systematic approach to the appropriate management of risks – their causes, likelihood, impact, timing and our choice of responses. What will we do if the scanners breakdown? What happens if we can’t prepare enough newspapers to feed the scanners on time? What will we do if project funding is cut? These uncertainties are not and should not be left to chance.
If you want to become a registered PRINCE2 Practitioner you have to sit two exams – the Foundation and the Practitioner – and there are numerous accredited training organisations offering a variety of different approaches to study including e-learning.
Alan Vaughan Hughes