PRINCE2 Training Organization Logo PEOPLECERTPPRINCE2 is composed of 4 elements: principles, themes, processes and tailoring to suit the needs of the project. All of these elements are briefly described below.

The principles are universal and are the guiding obligations which underpin everything else in PRINCE2. The themes are aspects of project management which must be addressed throughout the whole duration of the project. The processes describe who does what and when. The last element – tailoring - is about ensuring that PRINCE2 is applied sensibly on projects of different type or scale.

The customer and supplier

PRINCE2 assumes that every project is commissioned (i.e. paid for) by the ‘customer’ organization, and the deliverables (called products in PRINCE2) are delivered by one or more ‘supplier’ organizations. Even though the supplier might actually be a business unit of the customer organization – for example the I.T. department – it still performs the supplier role of delivering products.

Benefits

At the end of the project, these products will be used by one or more areas of the customer’s business in their day to day operational activities – what we call ‘business as usual’. The expectation is that by using these products, the customer will benefit in some way.

For example, a project replacing the staff’s old PC’s with new ones would cost a considerable amount. If using the new PC’s makes the staff more efficient, thereby saving the customer money on salaries, then this is a benefit of the project.