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PRINCE2 vs PMBOK

Do you REALLY know the difference between PRINCE2 and PMBOK? How sure of you of that?

You can discover many papers on the internet that explain the differences between PRINCE2 & PMBOK, however these papers tend to focus on terminological/ ‘technical’ differences and hence do not help to understand the ‘core’ difference. One such paper can be found here. This paper is very technical in nature and some improvements were made to PRINCE2 since this paper was written (FYI, elements in the Summary section regarding the 'supplier' & PRINCE2 are out dated). We can sum up the ‘core’ difference from the following statements taken from this paper:

"We believe that the Guide [PMBOK] takes the best approach for purposes of teaching the subject content of each knowledge area, but is not so affective when it comes to providing guidance for running a particular project….”

“PRINCE2 provides a robust easy-to-follow methodology for running most projects…”

“In a life-cycle-based presentation like PRINCE2, it is difficult to do justice to each knowledge area."

The description below may help further explain the above quotes.
For example PMBOK discusses the importance of a Project Team whereas PRINCE2 provides a model for a Project Team, has standard role descriptions and provides detailed steps on how you put a team together. With PMBOK you need to create your own model and PMBOK is reliant on the diligence and competence of the Project Manager.

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One key criticism with PMBOK is it indirectly provides an image of the project manager as a ‘superman/superwoman’. This may be the case for construction projects (PMBOK’s origins is in the construction industry) but for business type projects such as projects with IT based solutions our experience is that the functional and/or financial authority to make key decisions is actually with senior management and not the project manager.

Project managers also need advice and guidance from senior management and it is them that are best placed to make the key decisions. In PRINCE2 the responsibility for the project is with senior management both customer and supplier. But this does not mean that Senior Management need to get involved in a project on a day to day basis, as PRINCE2 makes use of ‘management by exception’ tools.

One key criticism of PRINCE2 is that it misses the importance of the ‘soft skills’ needed by a project manager and is light in the knowledge areas such as scope management & contract management and others which PMBOK provides guidance on.

The recent spread of PRINCE2 across the world (and there are predictions PRINCE2 will easily surpass the number of PMBOK qualified people within the next few years), is because PRINCE2 provides a SINGLE STANDARD APPROACH for the management of a project, whereas PMBOK gives each project manager the freedom to decide on their approach. Many government and global organizations have preference for a single standard approach to be used for all their projects and are adopting PRINCE2 as a result. The other advantage is that people with limited experience can use PRINCE2 whereas PMBOK requires a level of experience to apply its knowledge areas appropriately.

In summary, in addition to other required competencies a ‘skilled’ project manager is one that has the ability to apply the guidance of PMBOK with the assistance of PRINCE2. A ‘highly skilled’ project manager also has the ‘know – how’ to apply PMBOK & PRINCE2 appropriate to the risk, complexity and nature of the project but can also adapt it for those fast moving projects. Development of this competency comes with experience.

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