Prince2 Documentation Map

PRINCE2 Documentation Map

For detailed management product definitions, read ../../references/prince2-management-products.md when the user needs a complete PRINCE2 document set or asks what each artifact is for.

Use this workflow when the user asks what PRINCE2 documentation needs to exist, what to create in each phase, or how to tailor the document set.

PRINCE2 calls these management products, not just documents. They can be documents, logs, registers, decks, spreadsheets, or records inside delivery tools. Tailor the set to the project size, risk, and governance need.

Inputs To Ask For

• PRINCE2 version or local method variant if known
• Project size, risk, complexity, and governance expectations
• Required approval gates
• Existing templates or portfolio standards
• Whether the user wants a full set or a lightweight tailored set

Output Structure

1. Documentation Strategy

• Full, standard, or lightweight set
• Tailoring rationale
• Required approval points
• Where each artifact should live
• Who owns each artifact

2. Process-To-Documentation Map

For each PRINCE2 process, list:

• Purpose of the process
• Management products created
• Management products updated
• Approval or review needed
• Minimum viable version for a small project

Cover:

• Starting Up a Project
• Directing a Project
• Initiating a Project
• Controlling a Stage
• Managing Product Delivery
• Managing a Stage Boundary
• Closing a Project

3. Core Management Products

Include the relevant documents and records from this set, tailored to the project:

• Project mandate
• Project brief
• Business case
• Project initiation documentation
• Project product description
• Product descriptions
• Project plan
• Stage plan
• Work package
• Benefits management approach or benefits review plan
• Communication management approach
• Quality management approach
• Risk management approach
• Issue and change management approach
• Commercial management approach if suppliers are involved
• Data or information management approach if data governance matters
• Sustainability management approach if sustainability is a performance target
• Project log, including relevant risk, issue, quality, product, daily, and lessons records
• Highlight report
• Checkpoint report
• Exception report
• End stage report
• End project report
• Lessons report
• Product status account if useful

4. Artifact Template Index

For each artifact:

• Purpose
• Owner
• Created in
• Updated in
• Approved by
• Minimum sections
• Link or storage location

5. Tailoring Recommendation

• Artifacts to keep separate
• Artifacts to combine
• Artifacts that can live in a tool instead of a document
• Artifacts that are not needed for this project
• Risks introduced by reducing documentation

Quality Bar

• Do not produce documentation for its own sake.
• Preserve governance evidence where a decision, tolerance, acceptance, or exception must be auditable.
• Spell out which documents are mandatory by local governance versus recommended by method tailoring.
• If the user says "phases," translate that into the relevant PRINCE2 process or stage.