Comparing PRINCE2 and Agile Methodologies in Project Management

This report provides a comparative analysis of PRINCE2 and Agile project management methodologies. It begins by examining the roles of key stakeholders within each methodology, including customers, end-users, and business groups, highlighting the differences in their responsibilities and interactions. The report then delves into the concept of project scope, detailing how it is defined and managed in both PRINCE2 and Agile, with specific examples such as the development of "GameForge" software. It explores the challenges of scope creeping and change management, contrasting the rigid change control processes of PRINCE2 with the flexible, iterative approach of Agile. The analysis includes a step-by-step comparison of how each methodology handles scope management, change requests, and the impact of changes on project timelines and budgets. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of selecting the appropriate methodology based on project requirements and the need for effective communication and control to ensure project success.

MANAGING PROJECTS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
QUESTION 1..................................................................................................................................1
QUESTION 2..................................................................................................................................5
QUESTION 3..................................................................................................................................7
QUESTION 4..................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

Table of Figures
Figure 1 Agile methodology framework......................................................................................................8

QUESTION 1
PRINCE 2 is the most extensively used methodology of project management which
project managers (PM) utilizes to effectively organize and put control over the project from
beginning to end. In the rapidly changing and dynamic environment, PRINCE 2 methodology is
structured or process based method that focuses on adapting change so as to effectively run the
project and manage it successfully (Fleming and Koppelman, 2016).
Roles of key stakeholders in PRINCE 2 methodology
Every project has number of stakeholders such as consumers, project managers and
others grouped into three groups that are customer, end-user and business group. PRINCE 2
methodologies identifies the roles of all the stakeholders in different groups and establish a
coordination to deliver project on time and within budgeted (Bingham and Gibson Jr, 2016). The
roles of various groups of stakeholders in PRINCE 2 methodology as a technique of project
management are presented here as under:
Customer group: Customers are the person who will be liable to pay for the completed
project (Rasnacis and Berzisa, 2017). For instance, in PRINCE 2 methodology, for a
construction project of a bridge in a residential area by the government, government will come
under the customer group. However, in a software development project, person or organization
for whom, software will be designed as per their need and expectations and in return, who will
be responsible to pay the cost comes under Customer group.
End-user group: This group consists of people who will either use the finished project
as a deliverable or influenced by the outcome of the project (Fleming and Koppelman, 2016).
Referring the bridge construction project, all the road users such as public will be the part of the
end-user group. However, the group of people who make use of designed software system comes
under End-User Group. It must be noted that sometimes, it might be possible that customer
group and end-user group members are same (Heagney, 2016).
Business group: In PRINCE 2 methodology, project manager is the key stakeholder falls
in such category. In context to the bridge construction project, company handling the
construction work will come under the business group. However, in software development
project, software development team manager will be the key stakeholder in Business Group
(Micic, 2017). The manager of such construction project is accountable to create plan, policies,
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allocate work among team members and monitor the execution of the tasks so as to ensure that
work is done perfectly with standard quality, on-time and within budgeted cost. He must look
towards the planning, organizing, administrating and controlling over the execution of project
plan (Aragonés, García and Montesinos, 2017). Moreover, he is also responsible to communicate
project status reports to the project board. Being a plan-based methodology, in Prince 2
methodology, project manager needs to make plan, allocation and distribution of tasks and its
monitoring. Project Manager makes it sure that actual activities and operations are carried in a
perfect manner and in line with the scheduled framework. However, in case of variances, he took
actions to mitigate the same, thus, in this regards, PRINCE 2 framework follows rigid
methodology and planned structure strictly at lack of flexibility (Krysiński and Miller, 2016).
Role of key stakeholders in agile methodology:
According to agile methodology, stakeholders are the ones who have any king of direct
and indirect interest in the project. The members or individuals who work for the organization
called internal stakeholders. However, external stakeholders consist of people who are outside
and external to the project plan.
Customers: Project aims at accomplishing the needs and expectations of the customer
who will pay for it. Alternatively, it can be said that every project is finished to satisfy the
consumer, also called product owner (Turner, 2016). In agile methodology of project
management, consumer is the person that commissions developed product & ultimately owns
responsibility for identified features that create value. Referring the same bridge construction
project, consumer sees the design trade-offs performed and make own decisions. They are asked
with the priority among time, scope & quality. The agile methodology is perfectly suitable for IT
driven projects wherein project team gives top priority to consumer requirement (Cusworth and
Franks, 2013). For instance, in software development project under agile manifesto, project
welcomes changing requirement and aims at delivering software with proper functioning.
Customer needs to inform the developer with their software need, aims and changing
requirement also so that, software can be designed as per specification.
End-users: The person who will make use of the project outcome for his or her benefit is
called end-users. They just need the product which perfectly meets and suits their expectations
and also considered as an active participants in planning and design stage (Gouri, 2015).
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Although software will be produced targeting the customer group, still, in future, other entities
can also use the same comes under end-user group.
Business Group: In agile methodology, manager perform various activities i.e. project
planning, work allocation, administrating, monitoring and controlling so as to ensure that
standard quality of work is performed to derive the targeted outcome (Drouin, Sankaran and
Muller, 2016). For instance, in a software development project, PM begins the project by putting
all the project requirements and expected costs together and appoints team. In scrum, project
manager’s primary concern is to create a temporary endeavour so as to develop a unique product
or service and focuses on scheduled driven activities. Unlike Prince 2, Scrum is based on
independence and self-organization of team members (Mauro and Messina, 2016). Thus, it
allows greater freedom to the team members to encourage them whereas Prince 2 is a highly
structured method and ensure that project targets are tackled in an organized manner. It is also
the responsibility of project manager to conduct meetings with the clients so as to address any
changing requirement called iterations/sprints. It aims at building the product exactly as per the
need and requirement of the consumer (Müller and Jugdev, 2012).
QUESTION 2
Project scope is an essential element and inevitable part of the project management which
involves determining the aims and objectives, activities, deliverables, functions, tasks, time and
costs and document in properly (Krysiński and Miller, 2016). In other words, scope can be
defined as a procedure of identifying the deliverables & required outcome and then making a
plan comprising necessary activities to achieve targeted goals. While making the project plan, it
is important for the planners to clearly set the scope as it has significant impact on the scheduled
activities or costs or both of these and affects the project progress. Scope enables team to
succeed the project in a contractual framework. It is the responsibility of the project manager to
make sure that work is executed in line with the scope. Project scope management comprises a
set of processes that helps to make sure that scope is defined appropriately and mapped
accurately. Scope management enables manager to align the activities with the overall objectives
and allow them to allocate the right time for completing the entire project (Steyn and et.al.,
2016). PMI (Project Management Institute) defined scope as a detailed set of project deliverables
and PMBOK defined it as the work that is expected to achieve to render the standard quality
product or service with specified functions.
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In today’s dynamic era, scope creeping is an interesting issue because with the change in
external market environment, scope needs to be change to in response leads to arise issue of
scope creeping. Ambiguity, transience, incomplete definition & un-collaborative scope are the
common problems associated with project management. For instance, a new software
development project aims at building creative and innovative software as per the consumer
specified requirements. This project is an IT driven project which changes with the technological
environmental changes in the business environment.
Step 1
The proposed project of software development named “GameForge” is a tool that will be
used in designing and creating video games.
Inputs required
 User-defined objects (creatures, static objects and others)
 Bitmaps
 Object attributes
 Movement Routines
 Collision Detection areas
 Input devise set up
 Graphical functionality
Expected output:
 User Created sprite objects
 Microsoft VC++
 Game Project files
 Text files
 Database files
Scope under PRINCE 2 methodology
Planned software development project of “GameForge”s scope covers all the activities to
design, build and create integrated software i.e. database platform, configuration, software
specification, IT infrastructure and others. Users with Visual C++ programming and Microsoft
Direct X will be able to design basic 2-arcade game (Müller and Jugdev, 2012). It will also helps
experienced programmers in basic game creation and allow them to concentrate more on detailed
design game issues and its implementation. It will covers number of graphical process
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functionalities i.e. defining, editing, object positioning, start, close, save files, exporting and
others.
Scope under Agile methodology
“GameForge” software development scope covers requirement analysis, specification,
software architecture, testing by the software engineer, documentation, training & support &
maintenance.
Step 2
PRINCE 2 methodology follows rigorous and rigid change management procedure to
implement changes. Scope management greatly depends upon the target goals and objectives of
the project. PRINCE 2 methodologies consider time, cost, scope, quality, risk and benefits as a
target parameters for project control at no tolerance. With regards to the new software
development, Project manager will have to present a Request for Change (RFC) Proposal for the
required amendments in “GameForge” software to the change implementation authority. PM
needs to well present the set of project deliverables, budget, schedule and expected time of
project completion. Any change in software development project scope will impact budget,
scheduled duration and project success, thus, clearly defined scope helps to identify that whether
a particular activity lies in the scope or not. The authority has power whether to approve or
disapprove the required amendments by verifying and analyzing its impact over the projected
time, budget, risks and quality factors. During the period of analyzing and examining the
feasibility and viability of proposed change like in system design, IT infrastructure,
configuration, testing and resource requirements in “GameForge”, project progress is slowed
and affects the completion duration (Martinelli and Milosevic, 2016). For instance, if an error is
detected by the software developer in the late testing phase will bring it necessity for the
developer to update the design and restart the phase again which may lead to overrun budget and
also exceed the target completion date (Loch, DeMeyer and Pich, 2011). For the same,
authorization is received from the respective authority to design new scope or incorporate
required changes into existing scope. It follows strict change management procedure to manage
& implement changes. In order to manage the risk of out-of-control scope, proper training,
supervision & disciplined & strict adherence with the designed change management process is
adopted (Micic, 2017). In order to eliminate scope creeping problem, PRINCE 2 methodology
focuses on consistent monitor and controlling of the scope. Besides this, it is also necessary for
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the software developer project manager to establish a systematic process for managing change
implementation requests as they needs to be approved by the authority before actual
implementation (Corvello, Javernick and Ratta, 2017). For every change incorporate, schedule &
budget also needs to be reviewed to reflect implemented changes. Closure monitoring &
controlling also ensure avoiding disgruntled consumers, overrunning cost and time-management.
Step 3
Unlike traditional techniques, Agile approach handles the issue of project scope creeping
of software development project differently. This method considers cost and time as a fixed
parameter whereas quality and scope are partially flexible and potential benefits and risk can be
either flexible or fixed. In this, PM creates scope at the beginning of the project and assesses and
evaluates the required changes throughout the project at each and every stage. Thus, it maintains
a break before starting each iterations so that forthcoming change requirements can be prioritized
to the technical staff & project sponsor of the software development (Mauro and Messina, 2016).
Team evaluates the required amendments in “GameForge” development process in detail and
judge their prospective impact on project execution. Besides this, continuous testing &
monitoring defects at every phase so as to track changes and rectified it immediately (Bingham
and Gibson, 2016). The methodology incorporates the changes in the project through
reprioritisation at every stage. It mitigates the risk of late-emerging defects and errors which
have a significant impact on schedule. After completion of every phase, scrum master arranges
meeting between consumer group and business group means project manager, called Iterative
process, in which, changing requirements of the clients are analyzed and accordingly changes are
implemented so as to develop “GameForge” according to the client’s requirement (Chen, 2011).
Thus, in this, changes can be implemented quickly comparatively to that of PRINCE 2
methodology.
QUESTION 3
Managing a rapidly changing technology project will not work in PRINCE 2
environments, however, looking to the current business environment, project demands shorter
time & high level of flexibility in the ever changing technological period. Companies require
toreact quickly to the emerging global environmental changes therefore, they use agile as a more
responsive, adaptive and flexible framework which maintains collaboration with the clients.
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In the field of project management like new software development, developers realized
that robust and rigid project framework like PRINCE 2 do not work perfectly. It is because,
Prince 2 method implement a rigid change development process in which change can be
implemented only after approval from the change control authority taking into consideration the
acceptance criteria (Loch, DeMeyer and Pich, 2011). For instance, in IT-driven projects, change
regarding items such as resources, configuration item (CI), network, hardware, system,
applications and others, change development process follows various steps such as change
recording, its impact on cost and budget, proposed benefit and risk associated with prospective
change and getting approval from the change control board (Mauro and Messina, 2016). Thus, it
need extensive documentation requirement before implementing any change and also takes
lengthy time (Green, 2016). The development of smaller scale sized project is different from the
management of large-scale project due to complexity of proposed applications. PRINCE 2
method is considered as cumbersome methods as it consumes a lot of time to amend necessary
documents for the change implementation and its management. It is because with any change,
required amendments needs to be made in scheduled plan, budget, time-period and others which
delay the project duration hence, it cannot be considered as an effective approach for the small
scale projects. Apart from this, complexity and rigid structure of the method is also a reason due
to which it is not considered suitable for the smaller projects or projects with limited budget
(Anantatmula and Thomas, 2010). More importantly, in the current period where technology
changes at faster pace, it is not founded superior method of project management.
Therefore, in the rapid introduced agile manifesto is currently used by many software
developers. It is one of the fast driven methods which is founded useful for the hi-tech industry.
According to Tomanek, Cermak and Smutny (2014), agile methods are founded perfect for large
software development and helps to maximize their success rate. It provides high level of
flexibility and considered as a great way to manage creative and innovative projects like software
development as it quickly incorporates unique innovations into existing framework without any
delay (Loch, DeMeyer and Pich, 2011).
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Figure 1 Agile methodology framework
[Source: Steyn and et.al., 2016]
Instead of extensive project planning and design, the framework allows incorporation of
changing requirements over time through cross-functional team covering software developers,
project planners, testers and others working on successive iterations. There are number of agile
framework developed such as Extreme Programming, (XP), Dynamic System Development
Method (DSDM), Scrum, Feature Driven Development (FDD), Adaptive Software Development
(ASD), Crystal methodologies, Lean Software Development and others (Mauro and Messina,
2016). XP’s life cycle follows five phases that are exploration, planning, Iteration to Release,
Productionizing, Maintenance and Death at the end. In this, productionizing is the phase where
project team perform various additional performances testing to make it sure that developed
software perfectly meets the requirement of the end-users and customers. Herein, required
changes may be introduced so as to develop really useful software taking into account the
technological changes (Drouin, Sankaran and Muller, 2016). Maintenance phase produces
required iterations in the software and implement required changes such as features and others
corrective, adaptive and perfective changes. Besides this, scrum is a framework that helps for
building incremental software development and iterative that focuses on the consumer
requirement and implements changes accordingly so as to ensure that product is developed
iteratively. Iterations are known as sprints and every sprint planning begins with consumer
reviews and their priority requirements (Chen, 2011). In this, product owner means the software
users will define priority requirements and record it in backlog whereas product software
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development team matches consumer requirement and incorporate any changes if required to
satisfy the final user.
QUESTION 4
Poor up-front project planning might be a reason for the poor execution. Therefore, first
of all, Company X must review and revise the existing plan, so that, it can determine required
changes that are necessary to implement to respond appropriately to the changing market
conditions and thereby smoothen the work flow. Moreover, comparing of the work executed
with the schedule needs to undertaken for examining the project and thereby take immediate
remedial measures to improve the project progress (Green, 2016). As analyzed earlier, that
PRINCE 2 methodology is a time consuming process because in order to implement any change
so as to bring project back on track, it will be required to present Request For Change Proposal
that needs to be approved by the change implementing authority.
Therefore, Company X can be recommended to use agile methodology as a flexible way
and also considered appropriate for the technological projects. Agile methodology is being
suggested here because it is a fast-driven method to implement required amendments quickly and
respond to the changing technological requirements (Loch, DeMeyer and Pich, 2011). In the
case, Company X is looking to build a new proprietary system due to failure or poor functioning
of the previous system, therefore, such method can be applied by the corporation. For instance,
Scrum is an agile framework wherein scrum master of company will work with the product users
and facilitates the entire team. In the product backlog, company will produce a list of product
features which are prioritized by the consumer and needs to be maintained by the product owner
(Micic, 2017). Sprint backlog is associated with the development and burndown chart represents
remaining work in a sprint. Through reviewing the burndown chart, Company X can determine
the work progress and make decisions to overcome delay issues. It is also founded perfect for the
smaller sized projects which can be easily combined with the other processes such as PRINCE 2
so as to improve project progress. Besides this, it identifies errors at early stages and
acknowledges changing requirement to manage the project actual progress as per the schedule
and mitigate delaying difficulties (Müller and Jugdev, 2012).
Besides this, ineffective communication may create hurdles in executing the planned
activities for the new proprietary system. Therefore, PM needs to establish a sound
communication plan and agile significantly contributes towards this so that everyone can be
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