Prince2

[Flaevius]

Having recently taken up a new role, next month my employer is funding Prince2 certification. In for a penny, in for a pound, I decided to take on the Practitioner course rather than Foundation. I don't really need Practitioner, but as it's free there seemed no reason to turn down the opportunity. 5-days, classroom-based course.

So: how did you Prince2'ers find the Practitioner route? Easy, reasonable, difficult? I've attempted some of the free online short-form mock exams and returned solid results without having yet had the opportunity to look at any material. It seems like common-sense wins the day and getting your head around the terminology and chains of command.

I couldn't locate any dedicated threads on this, so do you have any tips or tricks to process the material? Or even just thoughts on the qualification, whether you enjoyed it etc? It really does look as dry as a nun's chuff!

 

[malachi]

I haven't done Prince2 myself but from my experience of doing ITIL, both part of the AXELOS group. The exams are common-sense but its the way they ask the questions which catches you out. And yes, it is dry as a nun's chuff!

Will find some extra help in these forums https://community.infosecinstitute.com/categories/project-management-certifications

 

[Shawreyboy]

I haven't done Prince2 myself but from my experience of doing ITIL, both part of the AXELOS group. The exams are common-sense but its the way they ask the questions which catches you out. And yes, it is dry as a nun's chuff!

Will find some extra help in these forums https://community.infosecinstitute.com/categories/project-management-certifications

ITIL Foundation was a PITA - sat it in January last year and passed (thankfully). The questions really do not make sense and the 3 days of hard class based tuition where often the conversation went totally off topic did make some of the lifecycle difficult to follow especially when I get so easily bored if I'm not physically doing something.

Some guys there were just there for a 'tick in the box' being their respective companies Top Level Solutions Architects/CAB approval person etc. and some of the detail they were going into was very much ITIL Practitioner/Master level.

A few guys here have PRINCE2 and said a similar thing that it is a protracted course requiring a lot of will power for the 5days.

Shawrey

 

[HangTime]

It's been a while since I did PRINCE2 training (my certification expired a few years ago) but don't think it was too bad. There's a lot of multiple choice questions which is naturally easier than free-format, at least with my learning style.
Definitely made the right choice to go Practitioner, iirc it was at least 3 days for the foundation and you might as well go all in given you are learning most of the practitioner already.

 

[Flaevius]

Thanks for the input guys - and @malachi for the link.

 

[sideways14a]

I have itil foundation and prince 2 practitioner - although i will be out of cert soon on P2.

Prince 2 is dry, very. Its boring, its long, its complected and its about as much fun as having your testicles removed by chopsticks.
The book(s) i used which is the official one has loads of sections you will need to sticky and read through and more importantly learn, then there is the process chart which you would do well to draw out on the back pages of the official book which you will take into the exam with you and will help massively.

I passed it first time cos like i am a legend however quite a few i did it with in my organisation did not and they actually had project management as a bigger part of there job.
In fact thats the key, if you do project management, even in a small way you will understand much of the processes if not the actual terminology. Once you tie up the text they assign to the rolls and responsibilities you have come across in your experience will you start to relax and be happier with it.

If you have no project management experience, dont do it as a job or even partake in projects then er... its not going to be pleasant .

 

[Django x2]

I'm going to trigger some people with this, but prince is old and pretty much useless. No one cares about it, even fewer use it or rely on it. Focus on something better and more widely used like agile/scrum.

 

[malachi]

I'm going to trigger some people with this, but prince is old and pretty much useless. No one cares about it, even fewer use it or rely on it. Focus on something better and more widely used like agile/scrum.

I was told this by a few PM's.

Going down the IT route, definitely do Agile.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

I wouldn't say it was hard, but you do have to read the material and revise for the exams. I've know experienced (and good) project managers fail the exams because they thought "well, it's just common sense, isn't it?".

Pay attention, put the required hours in and you'll do fine.

I'm going to trigger some people with this, but prince is old and pretty much useless. No one cares about it, even fewer use it or rely on it. Focus on something better and more widely used like agile/scrum.

Consider me triggered! If you get any where near a public sector body, they pretty much require it (which is expected as that's where Prince2 originated). When I contracted last summer for BPDTS, they wouldn't even speak to me until I produced my Prince2 quals.

 

[Django x2]

I wouldn't say it was hard, but you do have to read the material and revise for the exams. I've know experienced (and good) project managers fail the exams because they thought "well, it's just common sense, isn't it?".

Pay attention, put the required hours in and you'll do fine.



Consider me triggered! If you get any where near a public sector body, they pretty much require it (which is expected as that's where Prince2 originated). When I contracted last summer for BPDTS, they wouldn't even speak to me until I produced my Prince2 quals.

Strange. I've worked for 3 major public sector clients and they couldn't give a toss. Depends who is on the civil service side though, because they like to feel a sense of power.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

Strange. I've worked for 3 major public sector clients and they couldn't give a toss. Depends who is on the civil service side though, because they like to feel a sense of power.

Aint that the truth!

 

[goldy6660]

All jobs nowadays are going agile, I would just get it and be open minded. It's another thing to add to the CV if nothing else

 

[Flaevius]

Update in light of ^ post:

Finished the course a couple of weeks ago, Foundation and Practitioner passed. Turned out to be a 4-day course, with the 5th day a home 'sample exam' day. Actually didn't mind the delivery of the content and found parts of it, dare I say it, interesting in it's own way. Although the terminology used in Prince2 really could be simplified and made more relevant to the average Practitioner. Trying to fit in the extra self-study around 12 hour days (inc/commute) and the needs of a two-year old was a balancing act worthy of a circus performer!!

Practitioner exam: not a fan of the format here. I am used to online exams - develop them as part of my own job - but I found the paper-based mocks easier to manage. Physically being able to highlight scenario info made it easier to assimilate than repeatedly navigating back and forth in the online browser. And taking the exam from home with an online proctor wasn't for me, couldn't get in 'exam mode' at all from the comfort of my own living room.

Anyone taking, or thinking of taking, Prince2 via short-course: general recommendation would be to double-check whether your exam is included in your course and also to consider requesting a paper exam taken at a centre. The process was more convoluted than it needed to be, albeit that may have been the lack of organisation of the provider I was booked with. Oh, and grab the Henny Portman Prince2 manual tabs available free online.

 

[popeye123]

I haven't done Prince2 myself but from my experience of doing ITIL, both part of the AXELOS group. The exams are common-sense but its the way they ask the questions which catches you out. And yes, it is dry as a nun's chuff!

Will find some extra help in these forums https://www.sureskills.com/Courses/Vendors/PRINCE2-Northern-Ireland

Its like a lot of these courses, and can be really a box ticking exercise, testing if you can read

 

[HEADRAT]

Practitioner is not a "box ticking exercise" IHMO, OK I did it a few years ago now but it certainly wasn't "easy". I agree some courses are rock up/take simple multiple choice exam but if you do that with Prince2 Practitioner you will get bitten.

OK yes it's open book but if you need to look up the answer in the book you're already too far behind even if you "tabbed/annotate" your book.

 

[Conanius]

Practitioner is not a "box ticking exercise" IHMO, OK I did it a few years ago now but it certainly wasn't "easy". I agree some courses are rock up/take simple multiple choice exam but if you do that with Prince2 Practitioner you will get bitten.

OK yes it's open book but if you need to look up the answer in the book you're already too far behind even if you "tabbed/annotate" your book.

Absolutely this. Prince2 Practitioner can not be passed with a pitch up and tick boxes. As you say it is a pointless "open book" exam. The book when I did it back in 2009 was hundreds of pages.

Much like ITIL can't. Maybe at foundation level you could pass the exam with no prep if you've worked in an ITSM role for a year or so, but definitely not at the higher levels.

 

[Conanius]

I'm going to trigger some people with this, but prince is old and pretty much useless. No one cares about it, even fewer use it or rely on it. Focus on something better and more widely used like agile/scrum.

I think that is quite a naïve approach. Plenty of organisations use it. It isn't 'cool and hip' because the cool kids who build £multi million companies from webapps don't use it... No surprise, Agile approaches are far better for iterative development situations like software dev.

Waterfall/Prince2 type methodologies have a place, as do Agile methodologies like Scrum. Delivery methods should be chosen based on the situation.