PRINCE2 Re-Registration: Keeping Your Practitioner Status

For those who’ve passed the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam, there are a number of benefits to maintaining your Registered Practitioner status. It shows you’re on top of the latest best practice developments. Remember that PRINCE2 goes through revisions. The resources you used to pass the Practitioner exam may not be up-to-date.

Being a Registered PRINCE2 Practitioner will also help in the job market. People you’re competing with may have a Practitioner certification. However, if their Registered Practitioner status has slipped, then you can show that your best practice knowledge is more current. It also indicates a desire for continual improvement. These are some of the common questions from PRINCE2 delegates who want to stay on top of their game.

When does my PRINCE2 qualification expire?

PRINCE2 certifications themselves never expire. This is true for both Foundation and Practitioner. Only the status as a Registered Practitioner has an expiration date.

When does my Registered Practitioner status expire?

The status as a Registered Practitioner expires 5 calendar years after certification. You can take the re-registration exam 3 years after passing the Practitioner exam.

How do I check the expiration date?

The expiration date is on the Practitioner certificate. Because AXELOS owns PRINCE2, candidates also appear on their successful candidates register. If you haven’t opted out of appearing on the register, you (and potential employers) can confirm your registered status and expiration date.

What happens after the expiration date?

If you wait longer than 5 years and your status lapses, you can still take the re-registration exam and regain the status. In the interim, you’re not allowed to advertise yourself as a Registered Practitioner. Taking the re-registration exam before it expires will save you having to rewrite your CV and reprint business cards.

Do I have to re-take the Practitioner exam?

You never have to retake the Practitioner exam after passing it. The re-registration has a different format. The two formats are displayed for comparison below. The key takeaway is that the re-registration exam is less intensive than Practitioner’s.

Practitioner Exam	Re-Registration Exam
Objective testing	Objective testing
8 questions – 10 question items per question, each worth one mark	3 questions – 10 question items per question, each worth one mark
44 out of 80 marks to pass – 55%	17 out of 30 marks to pass – 55%
2.5 hours (150 minutes) duration	1 hour (60 minute) duration
Open book (official PRINCE2 manual only)	Open book (official PRINCE2 manual only)

How can I be sure I’ll pass the re-registration exam 5 years after the Practitioner one?

You’re not expected to remember all the course material after 5 years. That’s why we’re accredited to provide re-registration courses. Our online re-registration course gives you the exam plus full access to all the Foundation and Practitioner resources. The blended learning course goes further with a classroom revision workshop. If you have any more questions or queries, feel free to visit our contact page.

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How to Start a Successful Project

Create the Business Case

Before starting a project, you must make sure there is a valid case for your project. Ask yourself, how will your project achieve company goals? Is your project about reducing costs, or enhancing service for your customers? If you cannot identify the intended result before the beginning, you are potentially wasting your company’s resources.

Create the Statement of Work

Once you have identified a business case for your project, you can then detail how your project intends to fulfil it, in the form of a Statement of Work. This should detail the scope of your project, success factors, and any associated risk. Having something for your team to refer to throughout the project will ensure transparency and cohesion.

Your Statement of Work can be a PowerPoint presentation, a Google Sheet or a Word document. Whatever form it may take, it should be created in collaboration with your team; inviting your team’s contribution will ensure their active engagement throughout your project. Once your team are fully informed about every aspect of your project, you can begin to assign specific roles and responsibilities.

Get to Know Your Team

Understanding your team’s skills and expertise is fundamental to effective management. Ask individual team members about their past performances. Frame your new project as an opportunity to get things right where they previously went wrong, and to build on past accomplishments.

Ask your team members what they want to achieve, making sure they know that this project is a chance for them to develop their potential. Show you care about their individual progression, and they will be invested in the project’s success. Allow each individual to get comfortable in their respective role, and they should be able to tell you what they need to get the job done.

Get the Right Tools

A 2015 survey stated that 38% of project failures can be attributed to inaccuracy regarding project requirements. Clearly defining project goals, roles and responsibilities will help you understand what tools are necessary.

Start by identifying what tools are required throughout your team. These include scheduling, planning and reporting tools, as well as budget tracking tools. You can then cater to the individual requirements of each team member. This needs to be accomplished as soon as possible. If your team does not have the right tools or software, any work they do could be a waste of time and resources.

Create a Project Initiation Document

All the steps you’ve taken to make a case for your project and co-ordinate your team culminate in a project initiation document. You may have realised certain goals in your statement of work aren’t feasible, given your project assets and scope. A project initiation document details what has changed and what has remained constant upon creating your statement of work.

Your project initiation document works as a baseline for your project. Referring to the project initiation document should help you understand the potential impact of any unforeseen circumstances, enabling you to redirect your project accordingly. You can find a sample project initiation document here, courtesy of the PRINCE2 Online Downloads centre.

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7 Ways Most Firms Go Wrong on E-Learning Projects

Gradually, more and more businesses are finding e-learning solutions to be a successful and cost-effective way of solving their training needs. That being said, a large number of them are running into problems when it comes to developing and implementing their e-learning projects. Issues can arise in an e-learning project for a number of different reasons, but there does seem to be some consistency regarding the mistakes that are being made.

Unrealistic Goals

The creation of unrealistic goals usually stems from poor communication between project development teams, project management teams and the stakeholders. Expectations for e-learning projects can often become unrealistic or distorted due to over ambitious planning on a low budget with tight deadlines. Stakeholders will always have a different perception of how an e-learning project should look and work in comparison to project developers. However, clear and precise communication can usually resolve this issue. It is the role of project managers to emphasise what the realistic goals for an e-learning project are and how the end product will run.

Lack of Marketing

The e-learning projects that have been successfully integrated into businesses have developed from in-depth market research. Firms need to know who will be using their e-learning course and why. Whether firms are using their course for new recruit training or refresher training, developers need to be aware who the product is being marketed for. Without doing the appropriate market research from the outset of the project, the end product can end up off-topic and impractical.

Too Much Content

When it comes to e-learning, there is an incredibly fine line between including important information and trying to fit in too much content. Learners can only assimilate so much information at one time. Trying to expand the depth and breadth of an e-learning solution can make it too dense, thus rendering it inaccessible to the user. The focus of content for e-learning projects should always be streamlining the most important information and finding ways of conveying it clearly.

Poor Design and Content

These issues often crop up early in project development due to a lack of oversight. Poor content accompanied with bad design usually slips into the programme’s software due to a lack of oversight from project managers. Content drafts are sometimes poorly written and researched, whereas design flaws usually include too many graphics, ugly colour combinations and bad content organisation. For an effective e-learning course, content needs to be researched in depth and design needs to be edited and varied. This should all occur under the watchful eyes of project managers, to ensure a smoother development process.

Lack of Interactivity

The lack of interactivity in e-learning projects is one of the biggest issues that firms encounter. For quick and easy development, it is often simpler to use basic text or video in order translate a message. Learners who have to passively watch or click through a programme will undoubtedly absorb less information. Effective e-learning programmes need to incorporate features such as games, quizzes, scenarios and videos in order to provide a beneficial learning experience.

Project Fails to Meet User Needs

Most firms will not realise they have gone wrong until after their e-learning projects have been implemented. The needs of their learners are often not researched at the outset of the project. Depending on the industry, e-learning may not be the most efficient way of training and developing members of staff. Without efficient research from the beginning, e-learning projects can sometimes become an unnecessary expense and a wasted resource.

Poor Project Management

A good project manager, with plenty of training and experience in e-learning development experience, should be able to anticipate problems and guide the team away from them. An unqualified and inexperienced project manager will constantly be playing catch-up and find they are trying to organise problems that have already spiralled out of control.

Leading providers of PRINCE2® project management training, ILX, know how to educate project managers in order to enhance their talent and skill. With a qualified project manager at the helm, e-learning projects should effortlessly run their course and result in a fantastic end product. With PRINCE2 training as part of their tuition, project managers are sure to find success in all of their future e-learning projects.

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Top Ten Lean Six Sigma Deployment Errors

Here is our list of the top ten tips to avoid Lean Six Sigma deployment problems:

1. Leadership cannot be delegated.

Successful and durable process improvement efforts depend on senior leadership engagement. Leaders should be active teachers. "Engaged" means process improvement activities are on their calendar and on their "to do" lists - not an initiative that is assigned to others.

2. This is not an "organic" exercise at the beginning. 

A certain amount of fascism is required to get things started. Most important projects will cross functional boundaries, so leadership will need to enforce value stream thinking that puts customers ahead of departmental priorities.

3. The "M" in DMAIC does not stand for Months.

Don't let people get hung up on playing with tools at the expense of getting things done.

4. Don't take on projects that have massive scope.

It is better to execute a series of smaller, tightly-focused projects that get done.

5. Remember the "3APs":

Go to the Actual Place (Gemba) where the work is done, observe the Actual Process as it is performed, and talk to the Actual People who perform the process. Beware of Gembaphobia (the fear of going to where the work is actually performed) - tough problems can't be solved from a conference room.

6. Don't pick the most available people to become project leaders (Black Belts and Green Belts).

There's a reason why those people are available, and it's not because they get things done. Make the functional leaders cough up their best people. Those people will get more done with the right attitude and good people skills than with a mastery of advanced technical methods.

7. Avoid establishing a "Caste System" or "Expert Culture" where only experts can solve problems.

Everyone can use these tools and this thinking in their daily work. Waiting for an "expert" can become a convenient excuse.

8. Don't operate in secret. 

Over-communicate to offset the natural fear of change and suspicion.

9. Don't forget middle management.

The layer of clay requires extra attention to penetrate. Middle managers must get on board for the approach to have legs. If leaders lead, middle managers will follow.

10. Don't train without projects!

It's a total waste of time and money. Don't over-train, in advance, in batches. Try to pull as needed. Most improvement is accomplished with the most simple tools. The discipline to recognize problems from a customer perspective and address them head-on is more important than technical skills.

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5 Benefits of PRINCE2

PRINCE2 has often been called the de facto project management methodology. It was born from PRINCE, a UK government standard only meant for information systems. However, over the last few decades, it’s been reinvented and continually upgraded. This is why the current form of PRINCE2 is so ubiquitous and useful to you.

1. Widely Recognised

Although PRINCE began as a standard for IT project management, PRINCE2 was developed to be more universally useful. According to the AXELOS 2016 PRINCE2 report, PRINCE2’s level of adoption in IT has been overtaken by four other industries.


PRINCE2 examinations are available in 19 languages. So, it’s not just that qualifications are recognised across many industries; PRINCE2 is also globally established. The AXELOS report also claims most survey respondents with PRINCE2 qualifications are from outside the UK. Having a globally recognised qualification expands your network and the demand for your services.

2. Common Vocabulary

It’s not just the qualification that’s recognised across industries and countries. Over 150 public and private sector organisations make up a virtual committee that consults on PRINCE2. What PRINCE2 defines as ‘best practice’ is therefore agreed on. In other words, the language of PRINCE2 is the language of project management.

3. Flexible

Because PRINCE2 is about generic best practices, it’s non-proprietary. You don’t need any software to run PRINCE2 projects, apart from what your company prefers to use. Being generic also has the benefit of making PRINCE2 projects flexible. They don’t demand a company size or dictate how projects are delivered. For example, PRINCE2 Agile allows practitioners to combine the PRINCE2 framework with agile delivery.

4. Built for Uncertainty

Employers seem to love PRINCE2. Part of the reason is that candidates are well equipped for tough times. That applies to recessions as well as problems within organisations. Employers see PRINCE2 candidates as trouble-shooters. If a project is in crisis, PRINCE2’s focus on lessons learned, planning and tolerances can help steady the ship.

PRINCE2 also emphasises continued business justification and risk management. Employers find this useful during economic downturns, when sponsors are less willing and able to start new, ambitious projects. Because PRINCE2 is a qualification backed by the UK government and honed over two decades, it’s seen as a safe option.

5. Perfect Starter Qualification

For all of the reasons stated above, PRINCE2 is the ideal way into project management. It teaches fundamentally sound principles and can teach you how to speak the project management language. Despite that, PRINCE2 is not rigid and is adaptable in a number of ways. It can be used for any project type at any scale. It will even integrate neatly into other methodologies, like agile.

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5 PRINCE2 Myths Busted

PRINCE2, despite – or maybe due to – its popularity, is subject to a lot of misconceptions. Here are 5 of the most common myths about PRINCE2 out there.

1. “PRINCE2 is all about documents and bureaucracy”

While some project managers are stuck in that pattern, PRINCE2 isn’t. The key to a successful PRINCE2 project is not about blindly completing every template document. It’s about discussing and collaborating. Many project managers spend too much time making overly detailed documents and not enough time with the team leader, addressing issues.

2. “PRINCE2 is inflexible”

Actually, one of PRINCE2’s 7 themes is change. Projects are expected to face obstacles and every industry, organisation and project is different. PRINCE2 equips you for change during a project and allows you to customise projects ahead of time.

PRINCE2 can even work with different project management methods. We offer a PRINCE2 Agile course, so you can use the framework of PRINCE2 with the flexibility of agile.

3. “PRINCE2 is for big companies”

PRINCE2 is appropriate to big companies, but it’s not exclusive to big companies. In fact, every PRINCE2 method has a note on scalability. That’s because not every aspect of PRINCE2 applies to every project.

For some companies and projects, it’s better to run a scaled back version of PRINCE2. Our expert PRINCE2 trainer Andy West talked about ‘PRINCE2 Lite’ in a September 2016 webinar. Many organisations want to break projects into stages, manage budgets or maintain quality control. Not all of them can afford to do PRINCE2 by the book. The good news is that, over the years PRINCE2 has been updated to make it more scalable, as well as flexible.

4. “PRINCE2 is only for the IT industry”

While PRINCE2 originated from PROMPT II, a government standard for IT systems, PRINCE2 was made with a broader scope. It’s been updated many times to become the de facto standard for project management. According to the AXELOS 2016 PRINCE2 report, PRINCE2’s level of adoption in IT has been overtaken by four other industries (pg. 29). Any industry that works with projects can make use of PRINCE2.

5. “You have to re-sit the training course after 5 years”

If you’ve passed the Practitioner exam, you don’t have to sit the training course or exam again. We have a dedicated course for Practitioners wanting to retain their registered status. This course can be taken 3 years after passing your Practitioner or last re-registration exam. If a re-registration exam is not taken after 5 years, the registered Practitioner status is withdrawn.

The re-registration course is less intensive than the Practitioner version. Instead, it’s more of a revision session. The re-registration exam is also 60 minutes compared to 150 for the Practitioner exam.

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Planning to Become a Project Manager?

Few people dream of becoming a project manager, but if you are someone who wants to start, or move into, a sometimes frustrating but always challenging career, then read on…

1. Role: The project manager manager’s job can be summarised simply. It is a series of tasks within a narrow scope that culminates in an output, such as a product. The project manager overseas planning, resource requirements, reports and so forth so that the product is produced on time and on budget to a specific and defined plan. For anyone wanting to embark on this career, the complicated part comes in knowing if you have what it takes.

2. Multi-talented: A little soul searching might help: ask yourself if you have, or have the ability to develop, the raft of knowledge, skills and attributes needed to deliver a successful project. Can you plan, organise, communicate, motivate, multi-task, organise, manage your time – and a whole lot of other things under pressure?

3. Qualifications: When you know you have the right stuff, the next step is to get the qualifications. Training could include project management methodology and knowledge, it could include soft skills such as presentation and communication and it could include new kids on the project management block, such as agile. The links section at the bottom may help you hunt down the right course and right route for you.

4. Experience: Once you have the qualifications, how do you encourage employers to let you cut your project management teeth in a recession? Try your education and experience capital. Some people start off in their area of expertise, say finance or engineering, before persuading their company that the next obvious and logical progression is into project management in that sector; companies consider it worthwhile investing in someone with experience in their chosen project management field.

Some managers volunteer to help when a project manager is away and in proving their skills become first in line when new openings arise. Some even build on experiences gained as volunteer project managers for charities. Raleigh, for example, uses volunteers to lead expeditions or support projects from field bases; if you plan to follow this route though, be aware that charities only want committed individuals.

There are of course some who are lucky enough to work in a project support role within a team and gradually match increasing responsibility with the qualifications that will allow them to move on. The Programme and Project Support Office Specialist Interest Group has useful information for those who are interested in, or are in this position.

5. Sell yourself: Gather evidence for your CV that shows how your qualities, abilities and experience fit the profile of the role. For example, even if you were not overall project manager on a project, you could point to any tasks you were given and which you delivered to specification, you could highlight any collaboration you had with clients or you could draw attention to any reports you wrote.

Finally, match the evidence of your achievements to elements within project management methodologies, knowledge and approaches, and you will prove you are fit for the job.

Your best project management qualification route:

◉ Start building your project management skills with the APM Introductory Certificate in Project Management
◉ Then gain the internationally recognised PRINCE2 Foundation & Practitioner qualifications
◉ Develop your all-round project management technical, organisational and people management skills with the APMP Qualification for PRINCE2 Practitioners
◉ Learn how to Manage Successful Programmes with the MSP Foundation & Practitioner course

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Choosing between Six Sigma and ISO 9000

Interested in a quality control process for your business organization?  There are many to choose from, and two of the most popular are outlined in this article.  It is not so much which one is chosen, but rather that the best one is chosen and taken seriously.

Six Sigma is a business management tool that seeks to improve output (service or product) through a data approach system laying emphasis on proven statistical data rather than guesswork and opinion.  Six Sigma focuses on resolving probable defects and working toward an improved quality output. This process is implemented and monitored from within a business organization.

ISO 9000 is a set of standards similar to the B.S (British standards) for quality management and certification. This has more relevance in the construction and manufacturing sector. The ISO 9000 is certified by an external body which follows laid down standards and guides in auditing.

Six Sigma

To achieve improvement in quality output, the Six Sigma tools analyze existing processes and identify changes that can be made towards improving efficiency and quality. Most projects that utilize the Six Sigma process are huge and characterized by multiple goals and objectives.

For the Six Sigma methodology to be successfully implemented, it is necessary that the huge projects be split into smaller units, which can then be broken up into parts internally. This gives room for a greater understanding of intricate details of each process involved in the project.  This process is very much deeply rooted in teamwork, where in theory, everyone works together well within their own roles and responsibilities for the common good of the project at hand.  Breaking up a project into smaller units, allows for an improvement in quality, but to maintain these standard it is necessary that control systems be put in place to measure quality regularly and report deviation as it occurs.

The ISO 9000

ISO 9000 centers on standardized activities relating to production or output. Unlike the Six Sigma process, it does not lay emphasis on a continuous improvement of quality standards. The business processes of any ISO 9000 company are regulated by the eight principles of the process along with twenty four requirements. It controls different aspects of a business process by documentation and reports.

Within the ISO 9000 approach to quality management, every process is treated independently, regardless of the end goal. Quality managers are able to determine if a certain process followed the standards or not using forecasted quality standards.  The basic process includes following a set of documented standards. It is thus rigid and does not leave room for more improvement.

The ISO 9000 process focuses on tasking to a given standard rather than locating flaws and improvement windows as the Six Sigma tool does.  As mentioned previously, it does not so much matter which process is chosen for your company, rather that the best fit is chosen and that it is followed through to the end.

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3 Simple Innovations That Have Revolutionised Customer Service Practices

In order to stay ahead in customer service, innovation and adaptability must be at the forefront of any coherent business plan. The companies with the most successful, effective customer service teams are those that are constantly seeking perfection through new technologies, consumer behaviour and the practices of their competitors.

The relationship between a company and the consumer can be the easiest thing to get right, but it can also be the hardest – knowing what steps to take in order to achieve and maintain the highest of standards can be a testing process and one that is crucial to get right from an organisation of any size. Innovation in customer service is a different process to simply chasing the latest trends, however, and it is important to analyse each route carefully to see what will be best for the way your company operates.

Below, we look at a few of the innovations that have changed the landscape of customer service in recent years.

Live Chat

The ability to provide direct, relevant responses to customer service disputes in real time is what sets many companies apart from their competitors in the modern era. A new technique, accelerated due to the development of super-fast internet connections, live chat facilities are now an integral feature of company customer service policy for the biggest multinationals right through to the smallest end of the SME spectrum.

Light technological support, online sales assistance, difficulties with logistics – these are all areas that can be tackled swiftly and successfully with a live chat feature, and as a result it has helped many companies streamline their services. It removes the chance of customers being bounced from department to department in the hope of finding a member of a customer service team that specialises in a certain area, providing a succinct and liberating form of dispute resolution in the process.

Once dismissed as an impractical, impersonal way of communicating with customers, Live Chat features are now part and parcel of the customer service landscape and have helped change consumer relations for the better.

Voice Recording and E-Learning Courses

We have written many blogs on the challenges and benefits of e-learning here at ILX, but through utilising the successful use of e-learning programmes to refresh staff on developments within your company’s customer service policy you are ensuring that your service does not get the opportunity to stagnate.

The ease through which phone calls can be stored, recorded and accessed has also revolutionised the way staff can be trained – examples of habits they may have picked up unknowingly are able to be aired and altered accordingly. Good and bad examples of your employees’ pros and cons can also be factored into e-learning programmes to consolidate your approach.

Follow-Up Surveys

While customer satisfaction surveys are hardly a new development, the way they can now be distributed and completed has evolved considerably in recent years. Staff can now follow up every single order or dispute in order to constantly analyse and refine their processes, and giving customers a greater sense of care and consideration at the same time.

Through what is essentially an extremely simply gesture, satisfaction surveys are known to inspire brand loyalty as well as collecting invaluable data for your company. The constantly changing nature of consumer habits and buying trends may be difficult to ascertain, but through careful reading of results these can be harnessed successfully and the results used to your advantage.

At ILX, our team are always looking for perfect solutions when it comes to the management of customer service systems, working out what elements suit what sort of company best in order to ensure our own services are running at their optimum level.

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