The seven principles: an overview

The principles are the foundation of PRINCE2. They are guiding obligations and good practices that determine whether a project is genuinely being managed using PRINCE2. The manual is clear that all seven must be applied: you can tailor almost everything else in the method, from the number of stages to the format of reports, but a project that ignores a principle is not a PRINCE2 project. This lesson gives an overview of each principle, why it matters and how it shows up in practice. PRIN-110 studies them in depth.

Why principles come first

Principles are universal, self-validating and empowering. They are universal because they apply to every project, whatever its size, sector or delivery approach. They are self-validating because they have been proven in practice over many years. They are empowering because they give the people involved confidence and the ability to shape how the project is managed. Because principles are about what must be true rather than exactly how to do it, they are what make tailoring safe. When you shorten a report, combine roles or drop a management product on a small project, you check that the principles are still being honored.

1. Ensure continued business justification

A PRINCE2 project must have a justifiable reason to start, and that justification must remain valid throughout its life. The justification is documented in a business case and checked at key points, especially at the end of each stage. If circumstances change so that the expected benefits no longer outweigh the costs and risks, the project should be changed or stopped. Even compulsory projects, such as those needed to comply with a new regulation, need a business case, because there are usually several ways to comply and the business case helps choose the best one.

This principle is what allows a project board to stop a failing project with a clear conscience. Stopping early is not a failure of PRINCE2; it is the method working as intended.

2. Learn from experience

PRINCE2 project teams seek, record and act on lessons throughout the project. At the start, they look for lessons from previous projects and from outside the organization. During the project, they record lessons as they arise. At the end, they pass lessons on so that future projects benefit. Projects are unique and temporary, so without a deliberate effort lessons are lost when the team disbands. The responsibility for seeking lessons belongs to everyone involved, not only the project manager.

3. Define roles, responsibilities and relationships

A PRINCE2 project has a defined and agreed organizational structure that engages the right people. Every project needs three primary stakeholder interests represented: the business, which needs the project to be worthwhile; users, who will use the products and benefit from them; and suppliers, who provide the skills and resources to create the products. The project board reflects these interests through the executive, senior user and senior supplier. PRINCE2 7 phrases this principle to include relationships, recognizing that roles on paper mean little without working relationships between the people who fill them.

4. Manage by stages

A PRINCE2 project is planned, monitored and controlled stage by stage. Management stages are partitions of the project with decision points at the end of each, where the project board reviews progress, checks the business case and decides whether to authorize the next stage. Planning in stages accepts that it is hard to plan accurately far into the future: the project plan stays high level, while each stage plan is detailed enough for day-to-day control. Every PRINCE2 project has at least two management stages: an initiation stage and one or more delivery stages.

5. Manage by exception

A PRINCE2 project has defined tolerances for each project objective, establishing limits of delegated authority. Each level of management manages the level below and is only involved when a tolerance is forecast to be exceeded. This lets senior people spend their time on direction rather than detail, and lets people closer to the work act without constant permission. The levels are typically the business or program management above the project, the project board, the project manager and team managers.

6. Focus on products

A PRINCE2 project focuses on the definition and delivery of products, in particular their quality requirements. Before work starts, products are described so that everyone agrees what will be delivered and how its quality will be judged. Product descriptions guide planning, set expectations, guide quality checking and reduce the risk of scope creep and disputes about whether something is finished. This product focus is one of the distinctive features of PRINCE2, and it underpins product-based planning, which later courses cover.

7. Tailor to suit the project

PRINCE2 is tailored to suit the project's environment, size, complexity, importance, team capability and risk. Tailoring means adapting processes, practices, roles, management products and terminology so that the level of control is appropriate. A two-month internal project and a five-year infrastructure program both use PRINCE2, but very differently. Tailoring is not a way of avoiding the method: the principles must still be applied, and tailoring decisions should be documented, usually in the project initiation documentation, so that everyone knows how the method is being used.

How the principles connect

The principles reinforce one another. Manage by stages provides the decision points where the business case is checked, supporting continued business justification. Manage by exception relies on clearly defined roles to know who sets and holds tolerances. Focus on products gives the clear targets that make planning and tolerances meaningful. Learn from experience improves every one of them over time, and tailoring makes the whole system proportionate. Exam questions, particularly at Practitioner, often test these connections by asking which principle a situation illustrates or whether a tailoring choice undermines one.

Public-sector projects in the United States often have their own governance requirements, such as agency capital planning and investment control processes or state stage-gate reviews, and these can map neatly onto PRINCE2 principles: gates align with stage boundaries and investment reviews with business justification. Tailoring then means aligning PRINCE2's products and decisions with those required gates rather than running two parallel systems.

Principles in exam questions

Foundation questions on the principles usually ask you to identify a principle from a description, recognize its purpose or spot a statement that is not a principle. Common distractors include phrases that sound like principles but are not, such as "manage by milestones", "focus on activities" or "ensure stakeholder satisfaction". Practitioner questions go further: they describe what happened on the scenario project and ask which principle is being applied, or which is being neglected. For example, a project manager who starts work before product descriptions exist is neglecting focus on products, and a board that wants weekly detailed task reports instead of highlight reports and exceptions is undermining manage by exception.

A useful habit is to explain each principle in one sentence and give one example of it being applied and one of it being ignored. If you can do that for all seven from memory, you are well prepared for principle questions at both levels.

Remember too that principles describe obligations for everyone involved, not just the project manager. Board members apply continued business justification when they decide at stage boundaries; team managers apply focus on products when they check work against product descriptions; and every member of the team applies learn from experience by raising lessons when they notice them. A project in which only the project manager thinks about the principles is unlikely to apply them well, which is why many organizations brief their project boards on PRINCE2 as well as training their project managers.

In short, the principles are the test of whether a project is genuinely PRINCE2: check each one at initiation, at every stage boundary and whenever you are tempted to tailor something away.