I first sat my PRINCE2 exams in 2004, when I was in a permanent job.  They wouldn’t fund it, and so I found myself with a book, a practice exam and dates to sit the two tests.  Fortunately, I’m not bad at exams, though the three hour, essay paper that was the Practitioner exam back then was quite a strain on the hand as well as the brain.  That registration lasted until 2009, so I was running a little late when I decided to reregister, and sat the reregistration exam in January.

Times have changed.  It’s no longer a free-form essay exam but instead, even at Practitioner level, its multichoice, and to reregister you sit a shorter version of the same exam others who are sitting for Practitioner will have, but only do 3 out of the 9 topic areas.  You don’t know which three, so there is just as much work, and less chance to carry a weak section if you don’t know them all, so reregistering is probably harder than the Practitioner exam.  I’ll not tempt fate by commenting on multichoice vs. essays until my results are in.

PRINCE2 has been heavily revised since 2004, with a new major version in 2009, and the book is now a slimmer volume.  Many of the changes recognise normal industry practice, particularly the need to tailor the method to suit the company and project being managed, to which an entire chapter is now devoted.  This is important, because there is a world of difference between small projects and large ones, between projects which are entirely in house and those with outsourced work packages, and the use of Agile methodologies has become much more prominent.  Ultimately, the principles are the same, but roles are split or combined, and documentation can be made simpler in some cases.

The Risk section has been rewritten, and now includes opportunities ie. postive risks which the project may encounter and which can be exploited.  The language is simpler – we no longer mitigate, insure or set up contingencies, but instead accept, reduce, have a fallback, transfer or share.  Opportunities may be shared, rejected, exploited or enhanced.  The introduction of a risk management strategy, developed in the initiation stage is a good addition, and recognises that, for practical purposes, a very large proportion of a project manager’s job is really risk management.

Progress – monitoring, reporting on it and controlling it, is also a huge part of the job, and so its good to see it in a single theme, with all the tolerance levels and different management levels clearly explained.

To some extent, the required paperwork has been reduced.  The idea that documentation produced during initiation might be combined into a single project intitiation document is something that is very practical and common, and means that it is less likely that particular areas will be neglected or lost.  It’s rare to do a full issue or risk report, and so recognising that a log, excuse me, register entry will be enough in most cases is also welcome.  Increasing the prominence of the daily log will work well, particularly for those of us working with agile methods, with daily standups, where a note of anything of interest can be quickly made by the PM/SCRUM master immediately after the standup.

When I decided to re-register, I saw it as a chore that had to be done, but I’m glad I did.  It’s useful to revisit the basic’s of one’s profession every now and again, and a bit of a relief to see that it wasn’t quite as daunting as I’d expected.  The nice folk at SPOCE were very helpful too, and I can certainly recommend their revision day and self-study materials.  They do excellent, free, half day seminars which are well worthwhile for an overview, and might let you have a discount too.