=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1728/paper1
|storemode=property
|title=Bringing Model-based Systems Engineering Capabilities to Project Management: an Application to PRINCE2
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1728/paper1.pdf
|volume=Vol-1728
|authors=Diana Coppola,Andrea D'Ambrogio,Daniele Gianni
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/ciise/CoppolaDG16
}}
==Bringing Model-based Systems Engineering Capabilities to Project Management: an Application to PRINCE2==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1728/paper1.pdf
Bringing Model-based Systems Engineering
Capabilities to Project Management:
an Application to PRINCE2
Diana Coppola1, Andrea D’Ambrogio2, and Daniele Gianni1
1 2
Dept. of Applied Sciences and Technologies Dept. of Enterprise Engineering
Guglielmo Marconi University University of Rome Tor Vergata
Rome, Italy Rome, Italy
dianacoppola@virgilio.it, d.gianni@unimarconi.it dambro@uniroma2.it
Copyright © held by the author.
Abstract—PRINCE2 is arguably one of the most adopted performance indicators and the maturity level of the
process-based methods for project management. adopted project management methodology [2].
Currently, PRINCE2 is defined in a textual specification, PRINCE2 is arguably one of the most adopted
which describes the principles, the themes, and the standard project management methodologies in various
processes that project managers should apply in their
systems engineering domains. PRINCE2 has been more
management activities. Although the specification is well
structured and mature, the specification does not provide and more adopted since 2009, for three reasons:
a browsable digital representation that can be interactively
used for learning and/or for the specification application 1. the overall trend of business to use a project-
during project management activities. This paper aims to based approach to develop products or
overcome these limitations with the application of a model- transformations within increasingly collaborative
based systems engineering approach to represent the contexts with multiple partners;
PRINCE2 specification in a model-based format. This can 2. the overall trend of capitalizing on knowledge of
bring several benefits to the specification, including the best practices in project management;
availability of a graphical, comprehensive and digitally
3. the inherent PRINCE2 characteristics, such as the
browsable visualization of the PRINCE2 processes, their
inputs/outputs, and the constituting tasks. The model- general approach (i.e. application/domain
based format has been obtained by a top-down mapping of independent), the product-based planning or the
the PRINCE2 specifications, beginning with the process product breakdown structuring.
architecture in IDEF0 down to the individual tasks, roles,
and tools in BPMN 2.0. Besides supporting PRINCE2 However, PRINCE2 is still relatively complex to learn
understanding and application, the model-based format and to apply as the specification sequentially presents all
can also serve as a baseline for further exploitations, such the PRINCE2 elements (particularly the processes),
as consistency verification of the PRINCE2 specification which are highly interleaved during a PRINCE2 project
and model-based process simulation for the governance of
execution. As a consequence, the project manager is
the PRINCE2 processes and of the project management
activities. required to build a detailed mental map of the
interconnections to directly access the relevant parts of
Keywords—project management; business process; the specifications. Expert project managers, who have
model-based; systems engineering. been using PRINCE2 for ten or more years, have likely
mastered all these interconnections. However, younger
and aspiring project managers may require more
I. INTRODUCTION assistance and time to become fully familiar with these
Project management methodologies have been interconnections. In the wider systems engineering
increasingly adopted to structure, monitor, control, and community, model-based approaches have often been
execute temporary and cross-functional organizational introduced to represent document-based specifications
activities in order to support managers with the with the implicit objectives of providing an automated
information, tools, and processes to increase processing, a direct (i.e. non linear access to the
predictability in the delivery of the expected output. individual parts), and an integration with other
These methodologies have also been shown to increase supporting tools for decision making [1].
the overall efficiency in terms of resource optimization, In this paper, we apply a model-based systems
risk management, and cost management [1]. More engineering approach to the representation of PRINCE2
tangibly, in the last decades, several studies have in order to facilitate the communication, the
provided evidence about the link between the enterprise understanding, and the application of the PRINCE2
method. Our model-based approach consists of: IDEF0
diagrams for the representation of the PRINCE2 process project documents, such as detailed business cases (from
architecture; BPMN diagrams for the detailed the initial project brief) and guidelines to assess the
description of the PRINCE2 processes; a set of achievement of the expected benefits. Differently, the
supporting tables to further assist the project manager in process SB produces a detailed planning for the
reading the model and in following the development of execution of the following stage.
the project in PRINCE2.
The paper is structured as follows. The background
section provides the fundamental terminology used in
PRINCE2 and in business process modeling. The related
work section positions this paper’s contribution with
respect to the state-of-art. The method section illustrates
and motivates the model organization, from the
architecture to the details of PRINCE2. Finally, the
conclusion section provides closing remarks and
directions for further developments.
II. BACKGROUND
This section briefly recalls the main concepts Fig. 1. The PRINCE2 processes—Starting Up a Project (SU),
introduced by project management methodologies (i.e., Directing a Project (DP), Initiating a Project (IP), Managing a
PRINCE2), modeling methodologies (i.e., IDEF0) and Stage Boundary (SB), Controlling a Stage (CS), Managing
modeling languages (i.e., BPMN). Product Delivery (MP), Closing a Project (CP).
A. PRINCE2 B. IDEF0
PRINCE2 has been introduced in 2006 by the UK’s IDEF refers to a family of modeling methodologies
Department of Commerce, and is now developed by widely adopted in the field of systems and software
AXELOS [6]. PRINCE2 is a best practice for the engineering [9]. Specifically, IDEF0 is a function
organization, management, and control of projects of modeling methodology for describing manufacturing
any size within any organizational context. Although functions. IDEF0 provides a functional modeling
PRINCE2 is of general purpose application, it is based language consisting of three elements:
on a structured method which guides the project
1. Diagrams, which represent the structure of the
manager in the application of the best practices for the
process architecture in terms of activities (boxes)
project definition and execution. As further advantages,
and their dependencies (arrows).
PRINCE2 offers means to standardize the
2. Text, which are labels that can provide further
communication among the actors, to focus on the
information on the elements in a diagram (e.g.
product to be delivered, and to ensure responsibilities
name of the activity, etc.).
assignment to the actors, and also to embed agile
3. Glossary, which define extensively all the labels,
approaches within the PRINCE2 specification.
names, and acronyms defined in the diagrams.
PRINCE2 consists of the following elements: seven
principles—which define the fundamental rules satisfied However, IDEF0 also allows the use of
by the following elements; seven themes—which define supplementary material, also known as FEO (For
the areas of concerns in a project; and seven inter-linked Exposition Only) pages, which can be used to
processes—which define the activities to be performed represent flow diagrams or technical design using any
during the project life-cycle, seven themes, and seven formalism.
processes; nine roles (e.g. project manager, supplier, Graphically, a diagram consists of a frame, and one
customer, executive, team, etc.)—which define the or more boxes and arrows. Asides from delimiting the
responsibilities in the project; and 26 internal project area for the drawing of boxes and arrows, the frame
products (business case, project plan, risk register, provides also a preassigned location for the diagram
etc.)—which inherently define the dependencies among name. For the top-level (or context) diagram defining
the processes. Fig. 1 shows the seven processes along the overall process, the name must be “A-0”. This
the four stages of a PRINCE2 process and the three diagram “declares” the process and also indicates the
levels of actions (directing, managing, executing). parameters related to the model purpose and scope,
The Pre-project phase regards the preliminary which are needed to check the consistency and
evaluation of the validity and the convenience of project. appropriateness of child diagrams. The first child
In this phase, the process SU develops two key diagram must be named “A0” and defines the
documents: Project Brief and Plan for the Beginning of composition of overall process. This diagram must
the Project. These documents are taken as input by the contain between 3 and 6 activities, which boxes are to
process DP, in which the project board assesses the plan be located on the upper-left/lower-right diagonal of the
to decide whether or not to authorize the project. In the diagram’s frame, following a temporal order in the
positive case, the project execution moves to the development of the activities. Further child diagrams
Initiation stage phase, in which the processes IP and SB can be introduced by recursively detailing an activity
are implemented. The former produces several internal already defined in one diagram. For each child
diagram, a DRE (Detail Reference Expression) is to be A BPD is a directed graph composed of flow objects
used as part of a diagram name to link the diagrams. and connecting objects. A flow object is the main
This expression corresponds to the unique and describing elements within BPMN, and can be an event
hierarchically-structured numeric identifier placed at (something that happens), an activity (process step) or a
the bottom-right corner of the box representing the gateway (the divergence and convergence of execution
activity. Concerning the arrows, these can be used to flows). A connecting object is a line that connects
represent dependencies of input/output, on external BPMN flow objects to specify the flow of activities in a
conditions, or on resources. Graphically, these process.
dependencies lead to the following type of arrows To organize activities in a process model, BPMN
(Fig.2): provides the swimlane primitive, which is used to
represent roles, responsibilities and/or organizational
• Input: incoming arrow into the left side of the box. structures by means of pools (organizations) and lanes
This arrow represents data or objects that are
(structures within an organization).
transformed by the activity;
• Output: outgoing arrow from the right side. This Finally, the BPMN notation also provides means to
arrow represents the output produced by the activity. represent information. Artifacts represent information
• Controls (or Constraints): incoming arrow from the relevant to the model but not to individual elements
top of the box. This arrow represents external within the process. Actually, they are used to augment
conditions (e.g. norms, procedures, regulations, etc.) and describe a BPMN process. There are three artifact
that are required for the activity to be successfully types: annotations (to represent additional flow parts of
developed. the model), groups (to organize tasks or processes), and
• Mechanisms (or Resources): incoming arrow from data objects (to specify input, output or stored data).
the bottom of the box. This arrow represents the Fig. 3 summarizes the main elements of a BPD
means or resources (machinery, information specified by use of BPMN.
systems, humar resources, etc.) needed to perform
the activity.
• Recall (o Call): outgoing arrow from the bottom of
the box. This arrow represents that the activity relies
on an activity already defined somewhere else in the
model or in another model.
In an IDEF0 model, each arrow should also be
associated to a label which indicates the nature of the
dependency. Moreover, arrow lines are enforced either
to maintain a straight horizontal line or to break into
horizontal segments that are connected by perpendicular
lines.
Fig. 3. BPMN base elements
III. RELATED WORK
Model-based systems engineering (MBSE)
approaches have been widely applied to various systems
engineering domains and activities as these approaches
have shown increasingly benefits with respect to the
conventional document-based approaches [1]. For
example:
Fig. 2. Roles and positions of the arrows
• Communication improvement through a visual,
C. BPMN shared, and unambiguous representation of the
The BPMN notation has been defined to introduce a final system for the entire engineering team;
modeling language that could be easily understood by • Risk reduction in the development process through
business users (e.g. managers, process owners, business the progressive and continuous validation of
analysts, etc.), as well as by technical users (e.g. IT requirements and of the verification of proposed
analysts, IT developers, etc.) [10]. The notation builds solution (for example via integrated simulation or
on concepts defined by popular modeling languages, formal verification)
such as UML, IDEF, and the classical workflow • Quality improvement through a rigorous and
language. BPMN provides three types of diagrams, computer-managed traceability of the specification
however only the Business Process Diagram (BPD) has integrity and consistency over the entire
been used in this work. development process
• Productivity improvement, through a prompt 1. Development of a process architecture in IDEF0,
availability of traceability and impact analysis to identify the high-level processes and their
scope, including also the increased reuse of interrelationships.
software and system components from the model 2. For each top-level process, one or more BPMN
specification level already, and the automatic diagrams were developed to show the activities,
generation of code for software systems. the internal documents produced, and the
communication and synchronization with other
Leveraging on the above benefits, model-based processes.
systems engineering approaches have been applied to 3. Development of tables and matrices for an
business processes engineering, which can be radical immediate indexing of all the diagrams, to further
(Business Process Reengineering, BPR) or incremental ease the use of the model-based specification of
(Business Process Improvement, BPI). Various works PRINCE2.
can be found in literature about case studies, industrial
applications, technologies, and methodologies related to A. Process Architecture in IDEF0
model-based approaches. More rarely, these approaches IDEF0 was selected for the representation of the
have been applied to support project management, process architecture as this language allows the organic
which has historically focused on the collection of and systematic representation of models with an
lessons learned and in the definition of tools for, e.g., increasingly level of details. Moreover, this language
planning, estimation and risk management. This paper inherently highlights the functional dependencies rather
bridges the areas of model-based systems engineering than the temporal dependencies, which can conversely
and project management with the application of a be better represented in BPMN. Within this work, the
model-based approach to the specification of a project objectives of the process architecture are to:
management method consisting of roles, principles,
project artefacts, and processes. Although the • provide the users with a synthetic and conformant
application of MBSE is not new to support project representation of PRINCE2
management (see, e.g., the model-based approach to • highlight the various high-level activities
support the integration of aircraft systems described in performed in a PRINCE2 project
[4]), to the best of our knowledge no contributions can • formalize the process interdependencies to provide
be found dealing with the application of MBSE to the an overarching framework that could provide a
formulation of project management methods, “starting point” for the detailed modeling and an
particularly related to PRINCE2. “end point” for overall consistency verification.
• define the responsibility areas uniquely
IV. MODEL-BASED REPRESENTATION OF PRINCE2
• understand how resources are used
The model-based representation has been developed • identify key controls
top-down in three steps:
Fig. 4. IDEF0 A-0 diagram of PRINCE2
For completeness, we first represented the PRINCE2 decomposition (i.e. each block groups the lower level
function as the IDEF0 A-0 diagram, which is shown in processes by a temporal proximity rather than a
Fig. 4. functional similarity).
Next, the process architecture has been developed in Although this approach is theoretically debatable, it
three steps and two levels of details (phases and offers the most intuitive representation for project
processes). The first step deals with the functional managers, who are primarily concerned with a
breakdown of all the PRINCE2 phases and processes temporally sequential access to the model.
(see Fig. 5), the second with the representation of phases The IDEF0 diagram also highlights the required
and the third step with the representation of processes. resources in each phase and the expected conditions
Fig. 5 illustrates the diagram representing the needed for their successful implementation.
following PRINCE2 project phases: Pre-project (A1), Consequently, with only one figure, the project manager
Initiation stage (A2), Subsequent delivery stage(s) (A3) can quickly acquire a more comprehensive view on the
e Final Delivery stage (A4). respective part of the PRINCE2 specification.
Fig.6 instead represents the four PRINCE2 phases and
their interrelations according to a temporal
Fig. 5. Functional breakdown of all the PRINCE2 phases and processes
Fig. 6. IDEF0 First Level – PRINCE2 Phases
Fig. 7. IDEF0 Second Level – Expansion of A2 Process (Initiation Stage)
Fig .8. IDEF0 Second Level – Expansion of A3 Process (Subsequent Delivery Stage(s))
Each A0 activity block is then detailed into a more to Run a Project”, which is triggered by the former
refined IDEF0 diagram. For the sake of conciseness, process and catched by the latter one. This key
only activity A2 (Fig.7) and A3 (Fig.8) are detailed in integration aspect can be immediately inferred in both
this paper. These diagrams represent the diagrams by noticing the respective relationships
interrelationships among the PRINCE2 processes between the process pools and the triggering/catching
activated in the initiation and subsequent delivery event symbols.
stages. As both stages involve the invocation of the
C. Supporting Tables and Matrices
process “Directing a Project”, the respective block
activity is included in both diagrams. Inherently, this The above IDEF0 and BPMN diagrams completely
double presence also explains the complexity in represent the whole PRINCE2 specification. As these
managing the lower level BPMN diagram: the same diagrams are in a machine readable format, they can be
PRINCE2 process is activated in various points by opened with the relevant modeling tools and be directly
different events. The supporting tables will ensure that navigated through the hyperlinks inherently associated
the project manager is provided with full guidance for to the model elements. Currently, most of the project
the identification of the lower level diagrams. With a management tools focus on the definition of project
basic understanding of the IDEF0 formalism, all the plans or on the KPI-based monitoring/tracking of project
above diagrams can be immediately read also by a performance. Differently, the project execution requires
novice IDEF0 user, and therefore their accurate a pervasive human intervention in the implementation of
narration is left to the interest reader. the tasks, and therefore it has received less attention for
automation opportunities. Consequently, when using the
B. Detailed Process Definition paper-based version of the model, a project manager can
The seven PRINCE2 processes are represented by a further benefit from indexing means to identify which
set of BPDs in BPMN. The BPD allows for a higher diagram(s) are to be retrieved. The indexing is
accuracy in the semantics of the activities to be particularly needed for two reasons. The first reason is
performed, as well as of the interdependencies. that the IDEF diagrams provide a functional breakdown
Moreover, BPMN also provides symbols to represents that is to be linked to the lower level time-oriented
events and data, both essential for the definition of BPMN diagrams. The second reason is that the BPMN
process interdependencies. BPD diagrams have been diagrams are numerous and are not accessed
specified according to the modeling guidelines sequentially. For example, the project manager may
introduced in [10], while aiming to maintain diagrams want to know which project actors are to be involved in
relatively simple and readable within an A4 page format. a process, or which processes should be started as a
The process mapping has progressed hierarchically consequence of an event occurring, or which process(es)
through the analysis of the PRINCE2 specification and produces or consumes an internal product of the project
by applying the mapping guidelines described in [11]. activity. In particular, the following types of tables and
BPMN intrinsically ensures the traceability by use of matrices are made available along with the PRINCE2’s
hyperlinks provided by modeling tools (ADONIS in this IDEF0 and BPMN diagrams:
paper case [12]). However, with regard to the IDEF0 • an Overview Table, which describes the key features
model, the traceability has been achieved by including of the process, including the purpose, the triggering
textual notes indicating the respective IDEF0 activity event, the involved actors, the list of the activities, the
block(s) and diagram into the top-level BPDs. triggered processes, and the produced/consumed
Concerning the model consistency, the internal internal project output. The project manager may refer
consistency is similarly ensured by the modeling tool to this table for consultation when preparing a process
using the model syntax validation rules. Differently, for execution.
the consistency between the BPMN diagrams and the • an Event Traceability Matrix, which identifies the
IDEF0 diagrams, it is manually ensured by using the processes that can trigger an event and the processes
following mapping [13]: that should be activated when that event. The project
manager can consult this matrix to identify which
Table. 1. Mapping between IDEF0 and BPMN. process should be executed when an event occurs.
IDEF0 BPMN • a Product-Process/Activity Traceability Matrix, which
Activity Process identifies the process(es) that creates, confirms,
Input/Output Internal Process Data updates, or reviews an internal project product. This
Object and inherent Flow matrix also provides references to the actors
Control (Condition) Event performing the activity, offering therefore a
Mechanism External Data Object or comprehensive view on all the actions performed on
BPMN Actor the internal products. For example, the business case
is created in the process “Starting a Project”, updated
Eventually, the whole BPMN model resulted into a in the processes “Begin the Project” and “Manage
hundred diagrams. Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 show the BPDs of Stage Boundary”, and finally it is confirmed in the
the processes “Initiating a Project” (A21) and “Directing process “Directing a Project”.
a Project” (A12, A22, A34, A44), respectively. These • an Activity Summary Table, which shows the list of
processes are synchronized through the event “Request input and output items for each activity.
Fig. 9. BPD of the process “Initiating a Project”
Fig. 10. BPD of the process “Directing a Project”
V. CONCLUSIONS AND FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS In line with the current capabilities of model-based
PRINCE2 is a widely used standard and structured systems and simulation engineering [5][14], we envision
project management methodology that can be applied to three further areas of future exploitation for our model:
various systems engineering application domains. • simulation of project management processes, for:
However, the PRINCE2 specifications can be complex 1. the analysis and design of innovative project
to learn and to apply as it defines a large number of management methodologies
interleaved processes and activities that must be 2. the optimization of organizational resources
orchestrated to implement the project execution. With 3. the post-mortem analysis on completed (or
the objective of easing the learning and the application cancelled) projects
of the PRINCE2 methodology, we have introduced a
• specification verification, to ensure the consistency
model-based specification for the PRINCE2
across all the processes and internal documents
specification. The specification consists in a process
• graphical customization of the PRINCE2
architecture, a set of detailed process diagrams, and a set
specification for specific projects and
of indexing tables to directly access the diagrams.
organizational contexts.
The process architecture has been represented with
IDEF0 as the architecture is inherently structured VI. REFERENCES
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