5.2 Core Workflows and Decision Points

Who Owns What on the Project Board

The Project Board has three roles, each representing a distinct interest and carrying a distinct accountability.

The Executive is appointed first, by corporate/programme management or the customer, and is ultimately accountable for the project. The Executive develops and maintains the Business Case throughout the life of the project and has the final say on Board decisions — effectively a veto. There can be only one Executive. The Senior User and Senior Supplier roles may each be filled by several people if the project spans several user or supplier communities, but PRINCE2 advises against combining the Senior User and Senior Supplier on the same person, because their interests naturally conflict.

The Support and Oversight Roles

Beyond the three Board roles, Organizing defines three further roles that support direction and management.

Project Assurance

Project Assurance gives the Board an independent check that the project is being run properly. It mirrors the three Board interests:

• Business assurance — the Executive's perspective: does the project still deliver value for money and stay aligned to the Business Case?
• User assurance — the Senior User's perspective: will the products meet user needs and deliver the benefits?
• Supplier assurance — the Senior Supplier's perspective: are the products being built to the right standards and is delivery on track?

Assurance is the Board's responsibility, but the Board may delegate the work to assurance staff. The critical rule: Project Assurance can never be given to the Project Manager, Team Manager or Project Support, because that would destroy its independence.

Change Authority

A Change Authority is a person or group to whom the Board delegates decisions on requests for change and off-specifications, up to a defined cost and severity limit. This lets routine changes be decided quickly instead of escalating every minor change to the Board. If no separate Change Authority is appointed, the Board itself acts as the change authority.

Project Support

Project Support is administrative help for the Project Manager — maintaining registers and logs, configuration/asset management, planning and tracking tools. It is optional; if not appointed, the Project Manager performs it. If used, it must be kept separate from Project Assurance.

Reporting Flows and Decision Points

The levels are joined by specific management products. Knowing which report flows in which direction is a frequent Foundation test point.

The key decision points belong to the Board: authorise initiation, authorise the project (approve the Project Initiation Documentation), authorise each subsequent stage or exception plan, and authorise closure. The Project Manager never authorises the next stage; the Project Manager requests authorisation and the Board grants it. When a stage is forecast to breach tolerance, the Project Manager raises an exception report, and the Board decides whether to request an exception plan, change tolerances, or escalate to corporate.

How the Board Stays Light: Management by Exception

A common worry is that three busy senior people cannot meet constantly to run a project. PRINCE2 solves this with management by exception. The Board sets tolerances — permitted deviation in time, cost, scope, quality, risk and benefits — and then steps back. As long as the Project Manager stays within those tolerances, no Board decision is needed and the Project Manager simply keeps the Board informed through regular highlight reports. The Board only re-engages at defined decision points (authorising each stage) or when an exception is forecast.

This keeps senior involvement high in authority but low in day-to-day effort, which is exactly why busy executives can sit on a Project Board.

The same pattern repeats one level down. The Project Manager sets Work Package tolerances for the Team Manager, who delivers within them and reports via checkpoint reports, escalating to the Project Manager only when a Work Package tolerance is threatened. Each of the four levels therefore has a clear answer to three questions: what can I decide myself, what must I escalate, and to whom do I report?

Assurance and Support Are Optional Structures, Not Optional Functions

A subtle point the exam likes: the functions of assurance and support always exist, but the separate roles are optional. If no one is appointed to Project Assurance, the Board members perform it themselves. If no Project Support role is appointed, the Project Manager does that administrative work. What is not optional is the independence rule — even when assurance is done by the Board, it must remain independent of the Project Manager's delivery activity. So 'we have no assurance team' is acceptable; 'the Project Manager assures their own work' is never acceptable.

Treat any answer that lets the Project Manager perform their own assurance, or that makes Project Support mandatory, as a distractor.