What’s all this about themes?

A few of our returning PRINCE2 students have been asking why the new PRINCE2 best practice guidance has introduced the concept of “PRINCE2 themes”. I thought I would spend a few paragraphs this week thinking about this topic.

According to Wiktionary, a theme is “a subject of a talk or an artistic piece … a recurring idea; a motif … the main melody … especially one that is the source of variations … (the) topic, what is being talked about.”

Theme is an old word. Its root can be traced back to a hypothetical Indo-European parent language, where it meant something like “do”. Appropriate, for a description of the core active elements of the PRINCE2 project management methodology.

The PRINCE2 themes have replaced the old PRINCE2 components. The table below provides a brief summary of the differences between the two:

Essentially, the “Controls” component has been renamed “Progress”, while “Configuration management” and “Change control” have been combined in the new theme “Change”.

What, it may justifiably be asked, is the point of this?

Aside from alterations within the content of each component/theme, the terminological changes are important in their own right. One of the major criticisms levelled against the older version of the PRINCE2 guidance (PRINCE2 2005) was the confusing, ambiguous and tautological language that characterised the 2005 edition of the PRINCE2 official manual.

So, while “themes” (as Wiktionary tells us) is very much an action word, denoting an underlying motif, a continuous environment, a melody that is repeated in many variations, a “component” can be described as a “smaller, self-contained part of a larger entity”.

Now somebody tell me, please: what used would – say – “quality” be, if it was only considered a smaller part of the overall project? If the project manager could allocate a specific hour or context for thinking about quality, and forget about it for the rest of the project? The purpose of the quality theme is, according to the new PRINCE2 guidance:

“to define and implement the means by which the project will create and verify products that are fit for purpose”

The word “implement” indicates that quality is ongoing, iterative and intrinsic to the internal structure of a PRINCE2 project – just like a theme in a musical composition or a book.

In some respects, changing the PRINCE2 terminology was a risky move. PRINCE2 practitioners comfortable with the way things used to be may become frustrated with the need to learn new labels for things they already know. However, something as apparently insignificant as updating the terminology to reflect more precisely a current usage can make the difference for a student new to the PRINCE2 project management methodology.