13.3 Tailoring the Processes
Key Takeaways
- PRINCE2 processes are tailored to the project's scale, complexity, risk, and organisation, but each process's control purpose must be retained.
- Tailoring is achieved by scaling the formality and depth of activities — combining or simplifying them — not by removing a process's reason to exist.
- The tailoring approach for the project is documented in the PID, so the board and team understand how the processes have been adapted.
- Even a small project must still authorise stages, control work delegated to the PM, and close in a controlled way; v7 dropped the idea of formal 'minimum requirements' in favour of activity-level tailoring.
Why Processes Are Tailored
PRINCE2's tailor to suit the project context principle applies just as much to processes as it does to practices and themes. A two-week internal project and a two-year commercial programme both use the same seven processes, but the depth and formality of each process's activities must fit the project's scale, complexity, risk, and organisation. Applying every activity at full ceremony to a small project would be wasteful; applying a lightweight version to a high-risk commercial project would be dangerous.
The crucial rule is that tailoring scales formality, it does not remove control purpose. Every project — however small — must still authorise its start, authorise each stage, control work delegated to the PM, manage stage boundaries, and close in a controlled way. What changes is how much ceremony surrounds each of those activities.
How v7 Handles Process Tailoring
A notable change in PRINCE2 7 is that the method dropped the formal "minimum requirements" that appeared in earlier versions. Instead of prescribing a fixed set of mandatory records, v7 expects each process to be tailored through its activities. The PM chooses which activities need to be performed with full formality and which can be simplified, combined, or made informal, while preserving the outcome each process is meant to achieve.
This shift means the exam is less likely to ask "what is the minimum PRINCE2 requires?" and more likely to ask whether a given tailoring choice is valid — that is, whether it still delivers the process's purpose.
Examples of Valid Process Tailoring
| Process | Full-form application | Tailored for a small/low-risk project |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Up a Project | Detailed Project Brief, formal mandate, appointed board | Brief Project Brief, mandate confirmed by email, board roles held by one senior person |
| Initiating a Project | Comprehensive PID with all approaches fully documented | Slim PID referencing corporate standards for quality and risk |
| Controlling a Stage | Formal Work Packages, structured Checkpoint Reports | Informal daily stand-ups, brief Work Package descriptions |
| Managing a Stage Boundary | Full End Stage Report, detailed next Stage Plan | Brief stage-end summary combined with the next stage's plan |
| Closing a Project | Full End Project Report, Benefits Management Approach, formal hand-over | Concise End Project Report, benefits reviewed in a short closure meeting |
Where the Tailoring Approach Is Recorded
The project's tailoring approach is documented in the PID. The PID's tailoring section explains:
- Which processes and practices have been simplified or combined.
- Which management products will be used and in what form (e.g., a single combined report instead of separate Highlight and Checkpoint Reports).
- Which corporate or programme management standards are being adopted unchanged.
- How roles have been combined (a common tailoring choice on small projects).
Recording this in the PID means the Project Board and team share the same understanding of how the method is being applied, and the board can challenge any tailoring that it considers too light for the risk profile.
Tailoring Choices That Are Never Valid
Some tailoring choices remove a process's control purpose and are therefore invalid, regardless of project size:
- Skipping stage authorisation. The board must still authorise each stage; the decision gate cannot be dropped.
- Removing the Business Case update at a stage boundary. The continued-business-justification principle demands it.
- Closing without acceptance. Even a small project must have its products accepted by the user before closure.
- No End Project Report at all. A concise one is still required; the project must be evaluated against its Business Case.
- No benefits review. The Benefits Management Approach may be slim, but the question of how benefits will be measured must be answered.
The exam often presents a tailoring scenario and asks whether it is acceptable. The test is always the same: does the tailoring still deliver the process's purpose? If yes, it is valid; if it removes a control, it is not.
Processes That May Be Combined on Small Projects
On small projects it is common to combine adjacent processes to reduce administrative overhead, provided the combined activity still produces the required outputs:
- Starting Up a Project and the early part of Initiating a Project may be merged into a single start-up workshop.
- Managing a Stage Boundary may be combined with the reporting activity within Controlling a Stage — a single stage-end report can serve both purposes.
- Directing a Project activities (authorising initiation, authorising the project, authorising a stage) may be performed in one senior meeting rather than separate decision points.
What may not be combined away is the decision itself — the board still has to make each authorisation decision, even if it makes several in the same meeting.
A small, low-risk internal project decides to skip the End Project Report entirely on the grounds that "the project is too small to bother." Is this valid tailoring under PRINCE2 7?
Where is the project's process-tailoring approach documented so that the Project Board and team share a common understanding of how PRINCE2 is being applied?