Bringing Model-based Systems Engineering Capabilities to Project Management: an Application to PRINCE2 Diana Coppola1, Andrea D’Ambrogio2, and Daniele Gianni1 1 Dept. of Applied Sciences and Technologies 2 Dept. of Enterprise Engineering Guglielmo Marconi University University of Rome Tor Vergata Rome, Italy Rome, Italy [email protected], [email protected] [email protected] Copyright © held by the author. Abstract—PRINCE2 is arguably one of the most adopted performance indicators and the maturity level of the process-based methods for project management. adopted project management methodology [2]. Currently, PRINCE2 is defined in a textual specification, PRINCE2 is arguably one of the most adopted which describes the principles, the themes, and the standard project management methodologies in various processes that project managers should apply in their systems engineering domains. PRINCE2 has been more management activities. Although the specification is well structured and mature, the specification does not provide and more adopted since 2009, for three reasons: a browsable digital representation that can be interactively used for learning and/or for the specification application 1. the overall trend of business to use a project- during project management activities. This paper aims to based approach to develop products or overcome these limitations with the application of a model- transformations within increasingly collaborative based systems engineering approach to represent the contexts with multiple partners; PRINCE2 specification in a model-based format. This can 2. the overall trend of capitalizing on knowledge of bring several benefits to the specification, including the best practices in project management; availability of a graphical, comprehensive and digitally 3. the inherent PRINCE2 characteristics, such as the browsable visualization of the PRINCE2 processes, their inputs/outputs, and the constituting tasks. The model- general approach (i.e. application/domain based format has been obtained by a top-down mapping of independent), the product-based planning or the the PRINCE2 specifications, beginning with the process product breakdown structuring. architecture in IDEF0 down to the individual tasks, roles, and tools in BPMN 2.0. Besides supporting PRINCE2 However, PRINCE2 is still relatively complex to learn understanding and application, the model-based format and to apply as the specification sequentially presents all can also serve as a baseline for further exploitations, such the PRINCE2 elements (particularly the processes), as consistency verification of the PRINCE2 specification which are highly interleaved during a PRINCE2 project and model-based process simulation for the governance of execution. As a consequence, the project manager is the PRINCE2 processes and of the project management activities. required to build a detailed mental map of the interconnections to directly access the relevant parts of Keywords—project management; business process; the specifications. Expert project managers, who have model-based; systems engineering. been using PRINCE2 for ten or more years, have likely mastered all these interconnections. However, younger and aspiring project managers may require more I. INTRODUCTION assistance and time to become fully familiar with these Project management methodologies have been interconnections. In the wider systems engineering increasingly adopted to structure, monitor, control, and community, model-based approaches have often been execute temporary and cross-functional organizational introduced to represent document-based specifications activities in order to support managers with the with the implicit objectives of providing an automated information, tools, and processes to increase processing, a direct (i.e. non linear access to the predictability in the delivery of the expected output. individual parts), and an integration with other These methodologies have also been shown to increase supporting tools for decision making [1]. the overall efficiency in terms of resource optimization, In this paper, we apply a model-based systems risk management, and cost management [1]. More engineering approach to the representation of PRINCE2 tangibly, in the last decades, several studies have in order to facilitate the communication, the provided evidence about the link between the enterprise understanding, and the application of the PRINCE2 method. Our model-based approach consists of: IDEF0 diagrams for the representation of the PRINCE2 process project documents, such as detailed business cases (from architecture; BPMN diagrams for the detailed the initial project brief) and guidelines to assess the description of the PRINCE2 processes; a set of achievement of the expected benefits. Differently, the supporting tables to further assist the project manager in process SB produces a detailed planning for the reading the model and in following the development of execution of the following stage. the project in PRINCE2. The paper is structured as follows. The background section provides the fundamental terminology used in PRINCE2 and in business process modeling. The related work section positions this paper’s contribution with respect to the state-of-art. The method section illustrates and motivates the model organization, from the architecture to the details of PRINCE2. Finally, the conclusion section provides closing remarks and directions for further developments. II. BACKGROUND This section briefly recalls the main concepts Fig. 1. The PRINCE2 processes—Starting Up a Project (SU), introduced by project management methodologies (i.e., Directing a Project (DP), Initiating a Project (IP), Managing a PRINCE2), modeling methodologies (i.e., IDEF0) and Stage Boundary (SB), Controlling a Stage (CS), Managing modeling languages (i.e., BPMN). Product Delivery (MP), Closing a Project (CP). A. PRINCE2 B. IDEF0 PRINCE2 has been introduced in 2006 by the UK’s IDEF refers to a family of modeling methodologies Department of Commerce, and is now developed by widely adopted in the field of systems and software AXELOS [6]. PRINCE2 is a best practice for the engineering [9]. Specifically, IDEF0 is a function organization, management, and control of projects of modeling methodology for describing manufacturing any size within any organizational context. Although functions. IDEF0 provides a functional modeling PRINCE2 is of general purpose application, it is based language consisting of three elements: on a structured method which guides the project 1. Diagrams, which represent the structure of the manager in the application of the best practices for the process architecture in terms of activities (boxes) project definition and execution. As further advantages, and their dependencies (arrows). PRINCE2 offers means to standardize the 2. Text, which are labels that can provide further communication among the actors, to focus on the information on the elements in a diagram (e.g. product to be delivered, and to ensure responsibilities name of the activity, etc.). assignment to the actors, and also to embed agile 3. Glossary, which define extensively all the labels, approaches within the PRINCE2 specification. names, and acronyms defined in the diagrams. PRINCE2 consists of the following elements: seven principles—which define the fundamental rules satisfied However, IDEF0 also allows the use of by the following elements; seven themes—which define supplementary material, also known as FEO (For the areas of concerns in a project; and seven inter-linked Exposition Only) pages, which can be used to processes—which define the activities to be performed represent flow diagrams or technical design using any during the project life-cycle, seven themes, and seven formalism. processes; nine roles (e.g. project manager, supplier, Graphically, a diagram consists of a frame, and one customer, executive, team, etc.)—which define the or more boxes and arrows. Asides from delimiting the responsibilities in the project; and 26 internal project area for the drawing of boxes and arrows, the frame products (business case, project plan, risk register, provides also a preassigned location for the diagram etc.)—which inherently define the dependencies among name. For the top-level (or context) diagram defining the processes. Fig. 1 shows the seven processes along the overall process, the name must be “A-0”. This the four stages of a PRINCE2 process and the three diagram “declares” the process and also indicates the levels of actions (directing, managing, executing). parameters related to the model purpose and scope, The Pre-project phase regards the preliminary which are needed to check the consistency and evaluation of the validity and the convenience of project. appropriateness of child diagrams. The first child In this phase, the process SU develops two key diagram must be named “A0” and defines the documents: Project Brief and Plan for the Beginning of composition of overall process. This diagram must the Project. These documents are taken as input by the contain between 3 and 6 activities, which boxes are to process DP, in which the project board assesses the plan be located on the upper-left/lower-right diagonal of the to decide whether or not to authorize the project. In the diagram’s frame, following a temporal order in the positive case, the project execution moves to the development of the activities. Further child diagrams Initiation stage phase, in which the processes IP and SB can be introduced by recursively