PRINCE2 Agile PRINCE2-Agile-Practitioner Question # 15 Topic 2 Discussion

Project scenario - Get fit with football!

(Note: The companies and people within the scenario are fictional)

Introduction

A Local Government Authority (LGA) has decided to organize a six-a-side football tournament. The tournament will contribute towards achieving the targets set by a national initiative to improve the fitness of children under the age of 16. As part of the LGA's policy of self-funding, this has to be achieved at zero cost to the LGA (and therefore the local tax payer). The cost of the event will be covered through fees paid by teams registered to take part in the tournament, sponsorship and monies raised during the day. Any surplus would be used for the maintenance of local sports centres.

Teams can register under one of several age groups for both boys and girls. In addition, family members are asked to attend to provide support.

This sports event is designed to be a family day out. The football tournament will have an event village including a kidz'-zone, catering, car parking, mobile changing rooms and toilets. The tournament will take place on the LGA-owned football pitches near the centre of the town, although space is somewhat limited.

Scope

The initial scope of the project includes:

a marketing campaign to promote the event;

a celebrity to open the event;

a website to provide information about the event and handle applications;

an event village to support the 'family day out';

the training of LGA staff as volunteers to run and support the event;

back-office processes to handle the applications;

fundraising to cover the cost of the event.

The project has been set up with four work streams to deliver this work:

1. Marketing

2. Website

3. Event Village

4. Staff Training

Project Background

The LGA have extensive experience in using PRINCE2 and will run the event as a single project. The project manager is fully conversant with PRINCE2 Agile. One office in the LGA building in the centre of town has been given to the project for the entire duration. The office is across the corridor from the Marketing Department and the project manager has already put a sign on the door that says 'Mission Control'.

Timeline

An initial timeline has been suggested and is shown in the following diagram. The timeline may evolve due to the agile ways of working. The timeline shows how work streams are broken down into work packages and/or timeboxes.

Marketing - Additional information

The marketing campaign has two key areas to promote:

1. The event itself including the football tournament, event village and fundraising activities.

2. The LGA's long term aim to improve the fitness of children under the age of 16.

The Marketing Team has received some initial Scrum training but is unsure how it can be applied to their marketing work.

The Marketing Team is keen that the project manager provides them with a clear brief for the campaign before they spend too much time on it.

They have experience of working with a variety of marketing channels, although they are not sure which channel(s) will work most effectively to promote this type of event, and in particular to promote the LGA's longer term health aims.

The Marketing Team is not clear on the priority to assign to the two aims for the event.

The Marketing Team will publish advertisements and/or promotional material every week, with more information in each issue to keep the message up to date.

Nine releases are scheduled at the end of each of the nine week-long timeboxes.

The nine timeboxes within the marketing work stream are scheduled to include:

advertisements:

a radio interview;

production of a hand-out/flyer;

banners and signs to put up around the town and at the event;

the provision of a website and social media content;

promotional posters to be displayed by local businesses.

Using the Project Scenario and Marketing Additional information, answer the following question:

The Marketing Team has created a plan of 9 timeboxes that always end on a Friday. The senior user has decided to visit the Marketing Team every Friday in order to attend their regular reviews.

Which reason BEST explains whether this is a suitable approach for the 'directing a project' process?