The suitability of PRINCE2 for engineering infrastructure

Authors

  • Stephen Keith McGrath University of Southern Queensland Australia
  • Stephen Jonathan Whitty University of Southern Queensland Australia

Keywords:

project management methodology implementation, project governance, change management, PRINCE2

Abstract

The view that PRINCE2 was not suitable for application to infrastructure was identified in a study done for a separate purpose, namely to examine project governance and methodology, which is not reported in this paper. It was asserted by several participants in interviews conducted with a sample of experienced practitioners across a range of industries and disciplines. This paper follows up on those comments by conducting an examination of PRINCE2 from an engineering infrastructure perspective to investigate the validity of this assertion. It takes a deductive, definitional approach to determine if there are any features in it that would cause difficulty for engineering infrastructure use. 17 features were examined and 15 were found to have difficulty in application to the project management of engineering infrastructure. The remaining two found inconsistencies that were unlikely to cause too much difficulty. The features causing difficulty include non-generic terminology for the terms project, lifecycle and stage, using a product rather than a project based process, use of an iterative product delivery process unsuited to predictive projects, use of a delivery process for all project phases, assumption of a board governance model with inappropriate accountabilities, lack of clarity around use of the project plan, and absence of a lifecycle appropriate for engineering infrastructure, with PRINCE2 effectively self-declaring its need for a higher-level project lifecycle/ methodology from somewhere else. The paper concludes that PRINCE2 is quite poorly suited to managing engineering infrastructure projects and identifies that some of the reasons for this are likely to also cause difficulty for many ICT projects as well.

Author Biographies

  • Stephen Keith McGrath, University of Southern Queensland Australia

    Dr Stephen McGrath completed this research as part of his PhD at the University of Southern Queensland. His research interest was in the cross-discipline impacts of ‘generic’ project, program and portfolio management methodology and terminology, particularly between the civil infrastructure and ICT areas, with a focus on governance. He is a civil engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia and of the Australian Institute of Project Management. He has 40 years of experience in developing, planning and delivering civil infrastructure projects as well as strategy and business development projects in the roads, busways, rail, marine and aviation areas. He also led the team that developed the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads ‘OnQ’ project management system that has now been used in delivering more than $20B of civil infrastructure and business development and IT projects.

  • Stephen Jonathan Whitty, University of Southern Queensland Australia

    Dr Jon Whitty is an associate professor of project management at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. His role includes leading project management research and directing postgraduate project management teaching programs for which he has been recognized nationally for his contributions to developing postgraduate learning outcomes. His unique evolutionary approach to project management research considers all matters pertaining to projects and project management and examines them against the framework of evolution by natural, social, cultural, and memetic section. He also contributes to the literature on complexity and philosophy in project management.

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Published

2022-05-20

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 4 (2020): The Journal of Modern Project Management

Section

Articles-JMPM

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Copyright (c) 2022 Stephen Keith McGrath, Stephen Jonathan Whitty

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

The suitability of PRINCE2 for engineering infrastructure. (2022). The Journal of Modern Project Management, 7(4). https://journalmodernpm.com/manuscript/index.php/jmpm/article/view/JMPM02216

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