How Practical / Useful Do you find PRINCE2?

[kaiser78]

Try using PRINCE2 to deliver anything other than a product.

I grimaced as I watched a PRINCE2 PM completely unable to fathom why it didn't work for a infrastructure migration project. He was determined but totally stressed out, but after two weeks of spinning round in circles trying to break down the project into 'products', another PM was assigned. The next one hadn't done that type of project either but ended up throwing out the rule books and using common sense.

Maybe the P2 PM in question was just not a good PM ?

I have delivered infr migration projects using certain elements of P2, rather successfully I hasten to add.

[MattZani]

Hello, I am thinking of shifting towards project management and have started reading about Prince2 and other pm qualifications.

Is there a common path to enter the pm world? Like...where do people usually start from? Project support/project coordinator/... and then?

I'd be interested in hearing from project managers in the forum about their career progressions and timescales. Where did you start from and how long did it take you guys to get to the "£500 per day pm role"

Cheers

[tom26]

project management

I am new to the contracting side of things (so new in fact that I have not actually started one as yet but am busy searching and reading up all I can, with some irons in fires that hopefully will convert in the next few weeks)

I have been a project manager for 14 years now in permanent roles, am now looking for a contract role and where I am (Scotland) this is not straightforward (but I never expected it to be)

Prince2 still seems to appear most often as the required qualification but Agile is not far behind. £500 up here is very rare from what I can see and certainly well above what I am expecting. I have the Prince2 qualifications (along with MSP) but it will be Agile i will go for next

Even with 14 years experience I am not finding it easy to get talking to prospective contracts although I realise that my lack of contracting background will not help here.

In terms of how people get started, from my experience, there is no consistent way in, it is something people come across by showing an interest, they were usually ex techs and having more knowledge than pure project management appears essential also. Personally, I was a trainer of software with an interest in coding and someone thought that this would make me a project manager - is working so far

[oilyrag]

PRINCE2 = How to run a project
PMP= How to be a project manager
agile= How to manage product delivery

They are complimentary. Borrow bits from the above to suit the needs of your project and customer.

[oilyrag]

Hello, I am thinking of shifting towards project management and have started reading about Prince2 and other pm qualifications.

Is there a common path to enter the pm world? Like...where do people usually start from? Project support/project coordinator/... and then?

I'd be interested in hearing from project managers in the forum about their career progressions and timescales. Where did you start from and how long did it take you guys to get to the "£500 per day pm role"

Cheers

FS BI developer for 7 yrs then started in public sector as permy PM, it was a good place to start, there was little to no pressure. Once I'd got my act together, got my certs and established being convincing to both Execs and Techs I moved to contracting. Didn't limit myself to working on the island and got broad industry experience across Europe over the next 12 years. Earning above £500pd is where book knowledge alone will not take you, and that separates the men from the boys.

[ProjectManager]

I very much like PRINCE 2, IMHO if you want to become a PM and hit the ground running P2 is all you need.

I have PMP, P2 Practitioner, APM, ITIL + more and of all these I treasure P2 the most.

Of course all the above are just frameworks and/or methodologies and I am yet to see an organization using any of those directly off the shelf, most if not all companies use(abuse) adapted and bespoke PM methodologies.

I personally started as IT Sys Admin, I was then UNIX and DB Techie and then moved into IT Service Management and then became IT PM.

Need to admit that I have had only 2 contracts as PM and 80% of my time is as a permie PM but still I have seen quite a lot and from what I have seen the most successful PMs and Pgr Mgrs do not care much about which methodology is used or "required" by the client, all it counts is on time delivery, again IMHO.

At the present moment I am investing heavily in soft skills such as stress management, emotional intelligence, negotiation, crisis management etc.

I truly believe that the exceptionally good PMs I have seen are all very good in all social aspects of this game, the processes and policies are easy, you can teach a monkey to run a meeting and work with MPPs, PIDs and Risk logs and RACI tables, only an exceptional PM would be able to face and tame a pissed off customer and work with a crippled team and deliver on any given "Death March Project", not many can cope with the stress and all the BS and still remain productive.