ITIL PRINCE 2, which stands for Projects in Controlled Environments, is a project management methodology covering the organisation, management and control of projects.

ITIL PRINCE 2 – developed together by CCTA

PRINCE was first developed by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) now part of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) in 1989 as a UK Government standard for IT project management.

ITIL PRINCE 2 – widely used

Since its introduction, PRINCE has become widely used in both the public and private sectors and is now the UK's de facto standard for project management. Although PRINCE was originally developed for the needs of IT projects, the method has also been used on many non-IT projects.

The latest version of the method, PRINCE2, is designed to incorporate the requirements of existing users and to enhance the method towards a generic, best practice approach for the management of all types of projects.

ITIL PRINCE 2 – who was involved?

The design and development work was undertaken by a consortium of project management specialists, under contract to OGC, and over 150 public and private sector organisations were involved in a Review Panel which provided valuable input and feedback to the consortium.

ITIL Prince2 - alignment

PRINCE2 is a process-based approach for project management providing an easily tailored and scaleable method for the management of all types of projects. Each process is defined with its key inputs and outputs together with the specific objectives to be achieved and activities to be carried out.

ITIL Prince2 – manageable chunks

The method describes how a project is divided into manageable stages enabling efficient control of resources and regular progress monitoring throughout the project. The various roles and responsibilities for managing a project are fully described and are adaptable to suit the size and complexity of the project, and the skills of the organisation.

ITIL Prince2 – product based

Project planning using PRINCE2 is product-based which means the project plans are focused on delivering results and are not simply about planning when the various activities on the project will be done.

ITIL Prince2 – driven by the business case

A PRINCE2 project is driven by the project's business case which describes the organization’s justification, commitment and rationale for the deliverables or outcome. The business case is regularly reviewed during the project to ensure the business objectives, which often change during the lifecycle of the project, are still being met.