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Blog posted by: Ian Clarkson – Practice Director, PPM, QA, 07 November 2023.

Looking at projects through the lens of change, one thing is clear: it’s omnipresent and there will be a lot more of it to come.

This means people and organizations need to know better how to deliver change via projects, which is why companies are increasingly asking us to help build the proper skills and capabilities.

On that topic, the official launch of PRINCE2 7 in London which we attended marks a significant step in the evolution of the method but also in what it offers to business professionals needing modern project management skills and knowledge.

And QA’s involvement as reviewers of the guidance helps continue a core PeopleCert approach that the best practices should be “by the community, for the community”. We train thousands of people across different roles, sectors and experience and want to ensure each update to PRINCE2 will resonate with the companies we work with and meet their needs.

Addressing the business challenges of today

The world in recent years has changed beyond recognition: with Covid, big data, AI and the “project economy”, where projects are now the new “business as usual”.

As projects are a team effort, we see many more people needing project management skills beyond those with ‘project manager’ in the title.

It’s therefore welcome that the updates in PRINCE2 7 bring the method to a wider group of people. As PeopleCert’s CEO, Byron Nicolaides, told the launch event in London, project management skills are for everyone while new topics such as sustainability, the people factor and working with digital and data bring the best practice up to date.

This is vital when bringing PRINCE2 to a new generation of professionals and show them that these competencies can lead to a career in project management.

Supporting the learner and exam taker

From a training perspective, the new PRINCE2 7 takes away the need to apologise for what isn’t covered in the method, because many key elements are now included. The material covered in this version is interesting, compelling and gives trainers like us the mandate to talk about modern project management techniques.

And while PRINCE2 has always advocated tailoring – in other words, how to make the guidance work in your own organization or project – the latest inclusion of project scenarios gives learners a better idea about how to apply the principles, practices and processes in reality.

This is a much more pragmatic approach and, when it comes to taking the exam, it’s about testing the learner’s knowledge and its application rather than power of recall.

Why do PRINCE2 7 knowledge and skills matter to organisations today?

In organizations today, as we’ve already established, more and more people need to deliver projects. And as we know from training so many people across multiple organizations, projects often don’t go well.

So, how are professionals going to achieve equally the consistency, uniformity and standardization needed for project success but also the tailoring of techniques appropriate to their individual project and enterprise? It’s difficult to run projects without some kind of step-by-step guide and approach to follow.

This requires something that isn’t an academic paper or theoretical treatise but a guide that comes from people who’ve done it before and can share relevant experience and expertise: “by the community, for the community”.

Therefore, the broader applicability within the new PRINCE2 7 is both powerful and vital with the increasing number of people involved in delivering projects.

And one important factor flows through the perennial challenge in projects: benefits realization. If organizations are not realizing project benefits, what’s the point?

Thankfully, PRINCE2 7 helps professionals address a project’s business case, its continued business justification, its value and ultimate benefits, rather than just helping to get stuff done. And maybe this is the ultimate power of PRINCE2 7.