Key Concepts
3%of exam
Principles
8%of exam
People
14%of exam
People Element ConceptsPeople Management ProductsChange Management vs Change ControlLeadership vs Management
Practices
60%of exam
Processes
15%of exam
Quick Facts
- Exam
- PRINCE2 7 Foundation
- Body
- PeopleCert (AXELOS)
- Questions
- 60 multiple choice
- Time
- 60 minutes
- Pass
- 36/60 = 60%
- Marking
- 1 mark; no negatives
- Book
- Closed book
- Question styles
- Standard, missing word, list
- Bloom levels
- 1 and 2
- Extra time
- 75 min if non-native
- Prerequisite
- None
- Renewal
- 3 years; CPD or retake
- Version
- PRINCE2 7 (2023)
Performance Aspects
Benefits Cost Time Quality Scope Sustainability Risk
Sustainability is newVersion 6 had sixEach aspect carries toleranceTolerances enable exception management
Practice vs Process
Practice
- Ongoing throughout project
- Seven, renamed from themes
- Business case, risk, progress
Process
- Step-by-step activities
- Seven, in time order
- Starting up, initiating, closing
Continuous versus sequential
Exam Mechanics
- Standard question
- Four options, one correct
- Missing word
- Choose word completing sentence
- List question
- Pick two correct statements
- Negative question
- Used only exceptionally
- Bloom level 1
- Recall facts
- Bloom level 2
- Show understanding
- Marks needed
- 36 of 6060%
Five Integrated Elements
- Principles
- Seven guiding obligations
- People
- New fifth elementv7
- Practices
- Renamed from themesv7
- Processes
- Seven step-by-step stages
- Project context
- Where PRINCE2 is applied
- Version 6 count
- Four elements, no people
Seven Performance Aspects
- Benefits
- Measurable improvement from outcome
- Cost
- Permitted overspend or underspend
- Time
- Permitted early or late
- Quality
- Variation from acceptance criteria
- Scope
- Products in or out
- Sustainability
- Environmental, social, economic impactNEW
- Risk
- Threat and opportunity exposure
Delivery Approaches + Definitions
- Linear-sequential
- Plan fully, then build
- Iterative-incremental
- Repeated cycles add features
- Hybrid
- Mixes both approaches
- Project
- Temporary, creates business change
- Project management
- Plan, delegate, monitor, control
- Management product
- Used to run project
- Specialist product
- What the project delivers
Seven Principles
Business Lessons Roles Stages Exception Products Tailor
Business: continued justificationLessons: learn from experienceRoles: and relationshipsStages: manage by stagesException: tolerance breaches onlyProducts: focus on productsTailor: to the project
Seven Principles
- Ensure continued business justification
- Desirable, viable, achievable throughout
- Learn from experience
- Lessons sought, recorded, applied
- Define roles, responsibilities and relationships
- Relationships added in v7v7
- Manage by stages
- Authorize one stage ahead
- Manage by exception
- Escalate only tolerance breaches
- Focus on products
- Agree product descriptions first
- Tailor to suit the project
- Adapt to project context
Tailoring Rules
- Can tailor
- Processes, terminology, products, roles
- Cannot tailor
- The seven principles
- Recorded in
- PID tailoring section
- Recommends tailoring
- Project manager
- Approves tailoring
- Project board
- Drivers
- Size, complexity, importance, environment
Change Management vs Change Control
Change management
- People element
- Adoption of outputs
- Change management approach
Change control
- Issues practice
- Protects the baseline
- Issue management approach
People adopt versus baselines protected
People Element Concepts
- Organizational ecosystem
- Wider organization around project
- Project ecosystem
- People delivering the project
- Change management
- Moving people to target
- Stakeholder
- Affects or is affected
- Culture
- Shared values and behaviours
- Collaboration
- Working together toward objectives
- Co-creation
- Stakeholders build solution together
- Leadership
- Influence, motivate, set direction
- Management
- Plan, delegate, monitor, control
People Management Products
- Change management approach
- How adoption is achieved
- Communication management approach
- Means and frequency defined
- Both stored in
- The PID
- Effective team
- Capability, diversity, cultural intelligence
- Stakeholder engagement
- Planned two-way communication
Seven Practices
Big Old Projects Quickly Reveal Interesting Progress
B: business caseO: organizingP: plansQ: qualityR: riskI: issuesP: progress
Project Brief vs PID
Project brief
- Created in starting up
- Outline business case
- Not a baseline
PID
- Assembled in initiating
- Full business case
- Baseline for the project
Proposal versus baseline
Which Practice Applies?
- Is it still worthwhile→Business case(Desirable, viable, achievable)
- Who is accountable→Organizing(Roles and interests)
- What, when, how much→Plans(Product-based planning)
- Will product be acceptable→Quality(Acceptance criteria)
- Uncertain future event→Risk(Threat or opportunity)
- Something has already happened→Issues(Change control included)
- Are we on track→Progress(Tolerance and exception)
- People must adopt change→People element(Not a practice)
Seven Practices
- Business case
- Judge desirable, viable, achievable
- Organizing
- Accountability, roles, relationships
- Plans
- What, who, how, when
- Quality
- Meet the user requirements
- Risk
- Manage threats and opportunities
- Issues
- Assess issues, control changes
- Progress
- Monitor, forecast, control deviation
Project Log Records
Daily Lessons, Issue Risk Quality Product
Two logs: daily, lessonsFour registers: issue, riskPlus quality and productSix records in total
Issue vs Exception
Issue
- Something has happened
- Logged in issue register
- May need no change
Exception
- Tolerance forecast to breach
- Triggers exception report
- Escalated one level up
Event versus tolerance breach
Which Management Product?
- Pre-initiation summary→Project brief(Outline business case)
- Baseline after initiation→PID(Approved by board)
- Regular team update→Checkpoint report(Time-driven)
- Board progress update→Highlight report(Time-driven)
- Tolerance forecast breach→Exception report(Event-driven)
- Informal note→Daily log(Project manager)
- Formal change request→Issue register(Plus issue report)
- Quality event scheduled→Quality register(Inside project log)
PID Management Approaches
- Benefits management
- How benefits are measured
- Sustainability management
- How sustainability targets met
- Commercial management
- Supplier and contract handling
- Quality management
- Standards, tools, responsibilities
- Risk management
- How risk is handled
- Issue management
- How issues, changes handled
- Change management
- How people adopt outputs
- Communication management
- Means and frequency
- Digital and data management
- Data, tools, security rulesv7
Risk Technique
Identify Assess Plan Implement Communicate
Identify: threats, opportunitiesAssess: probability, impactPlan: response typesImplement: owners, actionsCommunicate: runs throughout
Risk Appetite vs Tolerance
Risk appetite
- Willingness to take risk
- Set by the business
- Qualitative attitude
Risk tolerance
- Measurable threshold
- Triggers escalation
- Set per performance aspect
Attitude versus measurable limit
Who Decides?
- Within work package tolerance→Team manager(No escalation)
- Within stage tolerance→Project manager(Corrective action)
- Stage tolerance forecast breached→Project board(Exception report)
- Project tolerance breached→Business layer(Beyond board authority)
- Request for change→Change authority(Board may delegate)
- Business case no longer viable→Project board(May close early)
Project Log Records
- Project log
- Single repository for recordsv7
- Daily log
- Informal notes and actions
- Lessons log
- Lessons captured and applied
- Issue register
- Formally managed issues
- Risk register
- Identified threats and opportunities
- Quality register
- Planned and actual quality
- Product register
- Product status and versionsv7
Issue Technique
Capture Assess Recommend Decide Implement
Capture: type and severityAssess: impact on objectivesRecommend: options and actionsDecide: authority approvesImplement: and update register
Work Package vs Stage Plan
Work package
- Agreed with team manager
- Covers specific products
- Carries its own tolerances
Stage plan
- Approved by project board
- Covers the whole stage
- Baseline for project manager
Delegated work versus stage baseline
Reports: Who Writes Them
- Checkpoint report
- Team manager to project manager
- Highlight report
- Project manager to board
- End stage report
- Project manager at boundary
- End project report
- Project manager at closure
- Exception report
- Project manager forecasts breach
- Lessons report
- Shares lessons with organization
- Issue report
- Describes a formal issue
Output vs Outcome vs Benefit
Output
- The deliverable itself
- Built by the project
- Handed over at closure
Outcome
- Result of using output
- Changed way of working
- Leads to a benefit
Benefit is measurable improvement
Roles + Three Interests
- Executive
- Business interest; owns business case
- Senior user
- User interest; owns benefits
- Senior supplier
- Supplier interest; provides resources
- Project board
- Executive, senior user, supplier
- Project manager
- Daily management; one person
- Team manager
- Delivers agreed work packages
- Project assurance
- Independent check for board
- Project support
- Administration, tools, records
- Change authority
- Decides requests for change
Quality Assurance vs Control
Quality assurance
- Independent of the project
- Checks the process
- Organizational responsibility
Quality control
- Inside the project
- Checks the products
- Tests, reviews, inspections
Process versus product
Four Organizational Levels
- Business layer
- Commissions project; sets tolerances
- Directing
- Project board authorizes stages
- Managing
- Project manager runs stage
- Delivering
- Team manager builds products
- Mandate comes from
- Business layer
- Appoints the executive
- Business layer
Project Assurance vs Support
Project assurance
- Independent of project manager
- Project board accountable
- Business, user, supplier views
Project support
- Serves the project manager
- Administration and tools
- Optional role
Independent check versus administration
Plans + Planning Technique
- Project plan
- Board baseline for project
- Stage plan
- Detailed plan per stage
- Team plan
- Optional, for work packages
- Exception plan
- Replaces plan after breach
- Planning horizon
- How far detail is realistic
- Project product description
- Defines what project delivers
- Product breakdown structure
- Hierarchy of required products
- Product flow diagram
- Sequence and dependencies
- Work package description
- Agreed work for team
- Minimum stages
- Initiation plus one delivery
Event-driven vs Time-driven
Event-driven
- Triggered by an occurrence
- Stage end or exception
- End stage report
Time-driven
- At set intervals
- Weekly or monthly
- Checkpoint and highlight reports
Trigger versus timetable
Quality Terms
- User quality expectations
- What the user expects
- Acceptance criteria
- Prioritized measurable acceptance list
- Quality specifications
- Measurable detail per product
- Quality planning
- Define criteria and methods
- Quality control
- Test, inspect, review products
- Quality assurance
- Independent of project team
- Quality register
- Diary of quality events
- Product description
- Purpose, composition, quality criteria
Risk Terms
- Risk
- Uncertain event affecting objectives
- Threat
- Risk with negative impact
- Opportunity
- Risk with positive impact
- Risk appetite
- Willingness to take risk
- Risk tolerance
- Measurable escalation threshold
- Risk budget
- Money for risk responses
- Risk exposure
- Combined effect of risks
- Risk owner
- Manages and monitors risk
- Risk action owner
- Carries out the response
- Cause, event, effect
- How risks are described
Risk Response Types
- Avoid
- Remove the threat entirely
- Exploit
- Make opportunity happen
- Reduce
- Lower probability or impact
- Enhance
- Raise probability or impact
- Transfer
- Move impact to another
- Share
- Split gain and pain
- Accept
- Take no action now
- Prepare contingent plans
- Act only if triggered
Issue Types + Change
- Request for change
- Proposal to alter baseline
- Off-specification
- Product misses quality specification
- Problem
- Immediate negative impact
- Concern
- Timing and impact unassessed
- Business opportunity
- Unexpected positive possibility
- Project baseline
- Approved versions under control
- Change budget
- Funds approved changes
- Change authority
- Board or delegated decider
Progress Controls
- Tolerance
- Permitted deviation before escalation
- Exception
- Forecast breach of tolerance
- Forecast
- Projected outcome versus plan
- Time-driven control
- Happens at set intervals
- Event-driven control
- Triggered by an event
- Tolerance areas
- The seven performance aspects
- Escalation route
- Up one management level
Process Order
SU DP IP CS MP SB CP
SU: starting upDP: directing (throughout)IP: initiatingCS: controlling a stageMP: managing product deliverySB: stage boundaryCP: closing a project
Which Process Applies?
- Mandate just received→Starting up a project(Pre-project)
- Board must authorize→Directing a project(Runs throughout)
- Baseline the project→Initiating a project(Produces the PID)
- Daily stage work→Controlling a stage(Project manager)
- Team is building products→Managing product delivery(Team manager)
- Stage nearly finished→Managing a stage boundary(Next stage plan)
- Tolerance forecast breached→Managing a stage boundary(Exception plan)
- Products accepted→Closing a project(End project report)
Seven Processes: Purpose
- Starting up a project
- Check project is worthwhile
- Directing a project
- Board decides and controls
- Initiating a project
- Build solid project foundations
- Controlling a stage
- Assign, monitor, correct work
- Managing product delivery
- Team builds agreed products
- Managing a stage boundary
- Plan next stage, report
- Closing a project
- Confirm acceptance, hand over
Process Triggers + Outputs
- Project mandate
- Triggers starting up
- Project brief
- Output of starting up
- Initiation stage plan
- Approved before initiating
- PID
- Output of initiating
- Work package
- Controlling stage to delivery
- Exception report
- Board may request replan
- End stage report
- Output of stage boundary
- End project report
- Output of closing
Common Traps
Practices, not themes
Version 7 says practices ≠ Version 6 said themes
Five elements, not four
Version 7 adds people ≠ Version 6 had four
Seven aspects, not six
Version 7 adds sustainability ≠ Version 6 had six
Brief is not PID
Brief precedes initiation ≠ PID baselines the project
Issue is not exception
Issue already happened ≠ Exception is forecast breach
Appetite is not tolerance
Appetite is willingness ≠ Tolerance is measurable limit
Assurance is not support
Assurance checks independently ≠ Support administers for manager
Registers sit in log
Version 7 uses project log ≠ Version 6 kept them separate
Pass mark is 60%
Version 7 needs 36 ≠ Version 6 needed 33
Adoption is not control
Change management moves people ≠ Change control protects baselines
Last Minute
- 1.60 questions; 60 minutes; 36 pass
- 2.Closed book; no negative marking
- 3.Practices = 60% of exam
- 4.People = 14%; processes = 15%
- 5.Practices not themes (version 7)
- 6.Elements = 5; aspects = 7
- 7.Sustainability = seventh performance aspect
- 8.Project log holds six records
- 9.Brief = pre-project; PID = baseline
- 10.Executive owns the business case
- 11.Senior user owns the benefits
- 12.Tolerance = limit; exception = breach
- 13.QA independent; QC tests products
- 14.Manage by stages: minimum two
- 15.Tailor everything except the principles
Buy on AmazonSame family resources
Explore More PRINCE2 Certifications
Continue into nearby exams from the same family. Each card keeps practice questions, study guides, flashcards, videos, and articles in one place.
More From This Family
Videos and articles for deeper review.
VideoPRINCE2 Practitioner Exam Guide 2026: FREE 7th Edition Study PlanThis examVideoPRINCE2 7 Foundation Hardest Topics and Exam Traps (2026)VideoPRINCE2 Foundation Exam Guide 2026: FREE 7th Edition PrepArticlePRINCE2 Practitioner Exam Guide 2026: FREE 7th Edition Study Plan30 min readArticlePRINCE2 7 Foundation Hardest Topics and Exam Traps (2026)11 min readArticlePRINCE2 Foundation Exam Guide 2026: FREE 7th Edition Prep24 min read