PRINCE2 Principles · Topic 1 of 3
Business Justification, Learning and Roles Principles
Three PRINCE2 7 principles: ensure continued business justification, learn from experience, and define roles, responsibilities and relationships.
- 4 min
- All seven principles must be applied for a project to be a PRINCE2 project.
- Business justification must exist at the start and remain valid throughout.
- A project that is no longer justified should be changed or stopped.
What it is
The principles are the guiding obligations of PRINCE2. If any one of the seven is missing, the project is not being run as a PRINCE2 project, however many PRINCE2 documents it produces.
This page covers the first three: ensure continued business justification, learn from experience, and define roles, responsibilities and relationships. Together they answer why the project is worth doing, how it avoids repeating old mistakes, and who does what.
How it works
Ensure continued business justification
A PRINCE2 project must have a justifiable reason to start, and that justification must remain valid throughout the project. The justification is recorded and approved in the business case.
The word "continued" matters. The business case is checked at the start, at the end of each stage, and whenever an exception arises. If the project stops being desirable, viable and achievable, it should be changed or closed early, even if the products are on track.
| When | What happens to the justification |
|---|---|
| Starting up a project | An outline business case is produced in the project brief |
| Initiating a project | The detailed business case is completed in the PID |
| Each stage boundary | The business case is updated and the project board confirms it still holds |
| An exception | The impact on the business case is assessed before deciding what to do |
Even a compulsory project, such as one driven by new regulation, needs justification. The business case then compares the options for meeting the requirement rather than asking whether to meet it at all.
Learn from experience
Project teams seek, record and act on lessons throughout the project, not just at the end. Because every project is unique, the team can never assume it already knows everything it needs.
| When | Learning activity |
|---|---|
| At the start | Look for lessons from earlier projects and other organizations |
| As the project progresses | Record lessons as they are found and apply them to later work |
| At closure | Pass lessons on so future projects benefit |
Lessons are recorded in the lessons log within the project log and passed on in a lessons report. Everyone on the project is responsible for seeking lessons, not only the project manager.
Define roles, responsibilities and relationships
A project brings together people from different parts of an organization, and often from different organizations. It needs a defined and agreed structure of roles so that everyone knows what is expected of them and who makes which decisions.
PRINCE2 7 deliberately includes relationships in this principle. Roles and responsibilities on paper are not enough; the people involved must also build working relationships and engage the stakeholders who are affected.
A PRINCE2 project always has three primary interests represented in its structure:
| Interest | Who it represents |
|---|---|
| Business | Those who need the project to deliver value for money |
| User | Those who will use the products or be affected by them |
| Supplier | Those who provide the skills and resources to create the products |
These three interests are represented on the project board through the executive, senior user and senior supplier roles. The organizing practice puts this principle into action.
A worked example
A retailer starts a project to open a click-and-collect service. In starting up the project, the project manager reads the lessons report from a previous store project and finds that late IT involvement caused delays, so the IT supplier is brought in early.
The project board has an executive from the retail business, a senior user from store operations and a senior supplier from IT. At the end of stage two, rising costs mean the executive asks for the business case to be updated, and the board confirms the service is still worth the investment before authorising stage three.
How the exam asks about this
- "Which principle requires the business case to be reviewed at the end of each stage?" Ensure continued business justification.
- "Which principle is applied when lessons from a previous project are reviewed during starting up?" Learn from experience.
- "Which interests must be represented in a PRINCE2 project management team?" Business, user and supplier.
What to remember for the exam
- All seven principles must be applied for a project to be a PRINCE2 project.
- Business justification must exist at the start and remain valid throughout.
- A project that is no longer justified should be changed or stopped.
- Lessons are sought, recorded and acted on throughout, not just at closure.
- The three interests are business, user and supplier.
"Continued" is the key word. A business case approved once and never revisited does not satisfy ensure continued business justification.
Common mistakes
Thinking compulsory projects need no business case. They still need justification, usually by comparing the options for meeting the requirement.
Leaving lessons until the end. Learn from experience applies throughout the project, starting before it is even initiated.
Forgetting relationships. The principle covers roles, responsibilities and relationships, including engagement with people outside the project.
Check yourself
When is the business justification checked?
At the start, at each stage boundary and whenever an exception occurs, so that it remains valid throughout.
Who is responsible for seeking lessons?
Everyone involved in the project, not only the project manager.
Why does the roles principle include relationships?
Because a role structure only works when the people in it build effective working relationships and engage those affected.
Topic 1 of 3 in PRINCE2 Principles
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