About the Prince2 Exam
I’m personally not very familiar with the Prince2 exam. I found this video and wanted to share it with you, in case you are interested in some (very basic) information about this particular project management certification.
Bill Duncan and Dr. Paul Giammalvo are regular commenter and contributors to pmStudent.com, and I know they are proponents of the IPMA/asapm credential. Bill and Paul, I’m very interested to get your take on the Prince2 exam. What do you think about it?
I’m obviously very interested in everyone else’s opinion too! Leave a comment!
About the Prince2 Exam
We invite you to leave a comment, and with your friends. ~Josh
Jul 9th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Twitter Comment
PM Student: About the Prince2 Exam [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
Jul 10th, 2009 at 2:20 am
Hi Josh,
Loving the Maven Training video. I’ve just tweeted a link to all our pods and vods – keep an eye on there, soon we’ll be publishing a new one on the PRINCE2:2009 proiject.
Reply
Jul 17th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
This credential is strictly exam based. No experience required. No proof of on-the-job performance. No assessment of qualifications, skills, experience.
If (a) your organization has decided to use PRINCE2 as their project management approach, or (b) you’re thinking of sending out some resumes and you want to increase your chances of being considered by PRINCE2 organizations, it makes a sense to get this certification. But with regards to (b), keep in mind that there is no recertification: you have to take the exam again to maintain your credential, so don’t send in your roughly $400 too quickly.
As to the exam itself, I am ignorant. I don’t know anything about the quality of the questions or the depth of training and studying needed to pass.
I remain committed to developing, improving, and promoting performance-based credentials. When you see someone with an asapm credential, you know exactly what you are getting since the entire process is open and above board.
Duncan
Reply
Glen B. Alleman Reply:
July 18th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Prince2 is a METHOD. The exam assesses knowledge and application of the METHOD.
Possessing a Prince2 credential is a necessary but not sufficient condition for project success. What the users of Prince2 are seeking is staff knowledgeable of the METHOD in a similar way to CMMI-Dev V1.2 shops seeking staff knowledgable of the Process Areas of CMMI-Dev V1.2
That way we don’t have to explain the fundmentals of the processes on day one.
Reply
Josh Nankivel Reply:
July 18th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
I’ve heard it’s different than the PMBoK in it’s scope, but both PRINCE2 and PMBoK seem like frameworks or approaches to me. Admittedly I do not know much about PRINCE2, but it doesn’t sound like it gets into the methodology.
Any opinions out there on this are appreciated!
Reply
Glen B. Alleman Reply:
July 18th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Josh,
I’d start here
http://www.prince2.com/what-is-prince2.asp
Prince2 and OGC are the pm-culutre of the UK government. The “government” means nearly everything from MOD (their DoD) down to the local council (city). Focused mostly on IT, OGC and Prince2 provide a framework for managing projects that is beyond that of PMBOK. Step-by-step processes are defined, assessment of maturity of the organization and other “guidance” is available.
For example PMI has OPM3 which is a consultants dream come true. with many 100’s of processes. OGC’s Project, Program, and Portfolio Management Maturity Model (P3M3) is a clean straight forward assessment process – and “call a priest it’s a miracle” it’s free.
One major problem with PMBOK is it a mashup of a lot of different ideas. Some are well formed, some are poorly formed. The risk management area for example is poorly formed when compared to OGC’s risk management process, which is highly influenced by MOD and a UK tool – Active Risk Manager – which is the defacto standard at NASA and many defense firms (along with the ARES risk tools).
So one reason to look at Prince2 – and there are materials on the web, books in the store, and sales people to return your calls – is it is a “well formed” approach to managing projects with a framework AND a set of work processes to go with it.
That said it is not an assessment of how good you are as a project manager. There is likley nothing that can do that except a resume of successful projects. It is not a foll proof way to getting to “done.” There are many examples of failed projects using Prince2, just like there are many examples of failed programs using the absolute best practices of DoD. I can see one of those from my house here in Boulder. SIBRS is the poster child of failure – until recently.
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/sp97/sbirs.html
But Prince2 is worth a look. The core problem I see on our commerical practice – which is why I stay on the defense side of the house – is the commerical guys are simply not motivated to improve their processes unless threatened in some way. “Your fired,” is one way that seems to work.
But don’t let people tell you it’s not of any use. Our UK colleagues in IT and MOD use it all the time to great advantage. As well EV is much more mature in the civil and commerical side in the UK than it is here. SOX compliance was a complete bust in terms of IT project performance managemment. The UK had equally busted projects – national health service – but they actually tool action to “stop doing stupid things on purpose,” as we used to say at Rocky Flats.
Reply
Simon Buehring Reply:
August 27th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Hi there
I’m an approved PRINCE2 trainer here in the UK and have been delivering training on PRINCE2 for the last 3 years. For any work these days in the UK in a project management role, then the PRINCE2 Practitioner qualification is a must-have. It is a requirement in almost all PM-related job adverts these days.
Whilst it used to be only used in the public sector, interestingly, it has been adopted by more and more large private sector organisations because they appreciate the benefits of applying a proven framework to their projects. In my humble opinion, PRINCE2 represents the most up to date best practices in project management and in fact, the most recent edition of the PRINCE2 manual, which was only released 2 months ago describes these best practices.
PRINCE2 is different from the PMI’s PMBOK in the sense that PRINCE2 focuses on the roles and responsibilities of the level of management above the project manager and one of its core principles is that any project must have continued business justification. This therefore drives the decisions on a project. In my opinion, PMBOK concentrates on the aspects of management performed by the project manager, whereas PRINCE2 puts this work in the context of the control required by senior management. PRINCE2 does not describe in detail how to schedule work, or perform critical path analysis because these aspects of project management are covered by other methods. In essence then, PRINCE2 is a framework with which an organisation may exercise better control over it’s projects.
Regarding courses and exams. A 5 day course including exams is standard in the UK. That entails preparation work of 4-5 hours, plus homework of another 2 hours per night. The course is intensive, but the fact is that people wouldn’t be prepared to pay for a course longer than 5 days, even though in an ideal world, it would be longer than a week.
Reply
Josh Nankivel Reply:
August 29th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Thanks for the comment Simon!
Although I’m unfamiliar with specifics about Prince2, I have come to the position that I never endorse short “boot camps” for any certification.
I had bad experiences with people doing this for the MCSE certification back when it was popular, and I’m seeing the same thing now. These boot camps enable people to memorize enough to pass the test, but their lasting impact and real benefit is greatly diminished when you compare it with a sustained regimen over a period of months.
I’m always interested in other opinions, but I’m skeptical that you will be able to persuade me to change my mind on this issue.
Reply