7.4 Plans: Techniques, Tolerances & Tailoring

The Plans practice is not just about producing a single plan; it is about choosing the right techniques, setting the right tolerances, monitoring progress against the plan, and tailoring the whole approach to the project's scale. PRINCE2 v7 also adds explicit sustainability considerations to plans, recognising that projects must think about long-term environmental and social impact alongside time, cost, and quality.

Planning Techniques

Product-based planning is the core technique and was covered in the previous section. Around it, PRINCE2 uses several supporting techniques:

• Estimating approaches — top-down (analogous, parametric) and bottom-up estimates, chosen to match the level of detail and uncertainty at each plan level.
• Gantt charts — the most common way to visualise the schedule, showing activities, durations, and dependencies over time.
• Product checklist — a simple list of the products in a plan, used to track each product's development and approval status during the stage.
• Dependency analysis — drawing out the dependencies between products (from the Product Flow Diagram) and external dependencies (on other projects, suppliers, or corporate decisions) so the schedule reflects reality.

The exam usually tests these by presenting a scenario and asking which technique to apply — for example, a team that needs a lightweight way to track product status (the product checklist), or a plan that needs to show dependencies visually (the Product Flow Diagram, then a Gantt chart for the schedule).

Tolerances and Control

Tolerances are the mechanism that turns a plan into a control tool. Each performance target at each plan level has a tolerance — the permitted deviation before escalation is required. The six performance targets in PRINCE2 v7 are time, cost, quality, scope, benefits, and risk. If actual or forecast performance falls outside tolerance, the PM raises an Exception Report to the Project Board. If the board decides the stage can continue only with a revised plan, the PM produces an Exception Plan for board approval.

This layered model means the board sets project tolerances; the PM works within stage tolerances; Team Managers work within team tolerances. Delegation is safe because each layer has a defined ceiling, and escalation is automatic when that ceiling is breached.

Progress Monitoring

Progress is monitored against the plan through a set of reports, each pitched at a different audience:

Checkpoint Reports are the most frequent and granular: the Team Manager tells the PM what has been achieved against the Team Plan, what is forecast, and any issues. Highlight Reports are the PM's regular summary to the board — progress against the Stage Plan, anything needing board attention, and the outlook for the next period. End Stage Reports are produced at each stage boundary and summarise the completed stage, update the Project Plan and Business Case, and support the board's decision to authorise the next stage. End Project Reports are produced at closure and review the project's performance against the Project Plan and Business Case.

A common scenario asks which report to use for a given situation. A Team Manager reporting weekly progress to the PM uses a Checkpoint Report; the PM reporting stage progress to the board uses a Highlight Report; the PM summarising a completed stage for go/no-go uses an End Stage Report.

Tailoring the Plans Practice

PRINCE2 is explicit that the Plans practice must be tailored to the project. For a simple or small project:

• The Project Plan and Stage Plan may be combined into a single document, because the whole project may be delivered in one stage.
• Team Plans may be optional — if there are no Team Managers, the PM may manage the work directly against the Stage Plan.
• The Product Breakdown Structure may be simpler, with fewer levels of decomposition.
• Reports may be merged — for example, a single progress report combining elements of Checkpoint and Highlight Reports for a small team.

However, tailoring does not mean dropping the fundamentals. Every plan, however simple, must still show products (what will be delivered), dependencies (what depends on what), tolerances (the permitted deviation), and controls (how progress will be monitored). A plan that drops any of these is not a PRINCE2 plan, however small the project.

Sustainability Considerations in Plans (v7)

PRINCE2 v7 adds a sustainability dimension to planning, recognising that projects operate in an organisation with environmental and social responsibilities. The guidance groups sustainability into three areas:

• Product sustainability — designing the product so it is sustainable in use (energy efficiency, maintainability, end-of-life disposal).
• Delivery sustainability — choosing ways of working that reduce the project's own environmental and social footprint (remote working to cut travel, responsible sourcing of materials).
• Benefits sustainability — ensuring the benefits the project delivers are sustainable over time, not just one-off savings that evaporate.

The exam may present a scenario where a plan ignores sustainability and ask what is missing — the answer is that sustainability considerations should be reflected in the product's quality criteria, the delivery approach, and the benefits review plan.

Exam Scenario Patterns

Three patterns dominate this section. The first asks how to tailor plans for a small project — combine plan levels, make Team Plans optional, but keep products, dependencies, tolerances, and controls. The second asks what a Stage Plan must contain — products, activities, resources, dependencies, tolerances, and controls, at a level of detail that lets the PM manage the stage. The third asks which progress report to choose — use the report matched to the audience and the point in the lifecycle.