Case Studies

One of the UK’s leading international premium spirits companies based in Scotland wanted to embed PRINCE2 into their organisation. With some of the values that had made the company so successful, in place since the 1850’s, they did not want to re-write the rule book, so a tailored version to fit in with the local culture was called for. Mary Andrew takes up the story.

While open, untailored training may be adequate for some organisations, research shows it is unlikely to be effective at embedding PRINCE2 in an organisation. A client in the production, distribution and marketing sectors recognised that they needed a more comprehensive approach and engaged AFA to embed PRINCE2 in their organisation.

We advised them to start with a short workshop with those involved in projects to review their current project management culture and create an action plan. The workshop included a number of briefing sessions where the AFA consultant shared Best Practice in embedding PRINCE2. These presentations built on the detailed research AFA conducted when authoring Tailoring PRINCE2 for the Cabinet Office.

Once management approval had been gained for the action plan AFA drafted a local handbook for the client. This handbook drew on AFA's previous experience in creating local handbooks. But the key to a handbook's acceptability is the degree to which it reflects the local culture.

The draft handbook was released to the client for final revision and approval before AFA designed a tailored training course for the client. The tailored training was based on AFA's standard PRINCE2 training material with the addition of handbook specifics. This material has been refined over the life of PRINCE2 to encompass the key messages that underpin the method.

AFA material is held in a unique flexible courseware management environment. This allowed us to rapidly produce a course that accurately reflected the contents of the client's handbook. While the course contained no extraneous material it was consistent with the Foundation and Practitioners material some employees would see when they went on to study PRINCE2 in greater depth on our open training courses.

AFA delivered a series of in-house courses that ensured that those involved in project management had a sound grasp of the ideas in the client's project management handbook.

To learn more about AFA PRINCE2 training, visit the PRINCE2 Training page.