The 7 PRINCE2® themes: Free ebook

This study guide describes the PRINCE2 themes. It’s the second in a series of three study guides designed to prepare you for attending a PRINCE2 Foundation course. The other two - the PRINCE2 Principles and the PRINCE2 Processes - are available to download as ebooks. They are all based upon the 2017 version of PRINCE2.Read on to learn all about the PRINCE2 themes and prepare yourself for the Foundation exam. 

What are PRINCE2 Themes?

PRINCE2 themes are areas of project management which must be addressed continuously throughout the project. PRINCE2 themes are based upon the principles and they are applied throughout the project when applying the processes.There are 7 PRINCE2 themes:

1. Business case
2. Organization
3. Quality
4. Plans
5. Risk
6. Change
7. Progress

1. Business case

The purpose of this theme is to put in place mechanisms which assists the senior decision makers to decide whether the project is (and remains) a worthwhile investment. It is the theme which primarily implements the ‘continued business justification’ principle. 

Customer-supplier environment

The customer, which invests in a project will have a business case, but so will the supplier. Each one is written to justify its own involvement in the project. (Note: PRINCE2 assumes a customer-supplier environment, whereby the customer specifies what products are required from the project, pays for it and expects to realize some benefits in return. The supplier (person, team or organization) will deliver those products to the level of quality specified by the customer – see the Organization theme below).

Executive

A business case is also a management product and is ‘owned’ by the executive. At all times therefore, the executive needs to ensure there is an acceptable business case, otherwise they should instruct the project manager to close the project. Not wasting any more time and money on a project is much better than continuing with a project which is not worthwhile.

Outline business case

The executive is responsible for providing the first (outline) version of the business case although this can also sometimes be given by corporate/programme management as part of the project brief. This version then gets updated with more detail in the initiation stage of the project.

Outputs, outcomes and benefits

Every project will deliver one or more ‘specialist’ products (known as outputs), which will then be used at the end of the project by people in the customer organization. By using them, this will change (positively) the way in which they do their everyday (business as usual) work. This change is known as an outcome. The measurable improvements which will then result to the customer organization are what are known as benefits.  

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