You got mail… and it’s PRINCE2 again

Well, that’s how some describe the experience of a PRINCE2 daily email course.

It started almost two years ago when Management Plaza started sending one, short email to subscribers every weekday containing a free PRINCE2 Awareness Course lesson. Taking usually about two minutes to read each email – ideal for reading on a mobile phone on the way to work – you can finish the course in six weeks. It needs neither a lot of time nor mind processing energy and by the end of the course people can explain to someone else how a PRINCE2 project works.

Why did we do this? We felt it would play very well to the way people learn and their use of mobile technology today.

Where many e-learning courses are extremely boring – not treating people as human beings or reflecting their learning styles – we felt that something bite-sized, dynamic, easy to relate to and available when the learner wanted it would be a great introduction to PRINCE2. And PRINCE2 itself works well in this format: there’s a story and continuity behind it which makes it easier to understand with each successive piece of information.

But – you might well ask – how can we do justice to this comprehensive project management method in a series of two-minute emails?

It’s been said that if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. And the thing missing in many courses is giving the learner a true understanding of the philosophy behind the subject matter; that’s the crucial element in bringing them closer to understanding how to apply it in practice.

So, our main goal with the email course is to give people a way of seeing project management through the lens of PRINCE2. It’s about focusing on the problem, i.e. the project, and where the PRINCE2 approach can be adopted. One email course user commented: “We aim to simplify projects... to deliver better products and this is exactly what is described in PRINCE2... the core important ideas and principles need to be crafted in our minds.”

Although the email course was originally designed for people who know nothing about PRINCE2 or project management, it seems to have attracted an unexpected following:

Twenty per cent of participants are PRINCE2 Foundation-certified while five per cent are PRINCE2 Practitioner-certified. We assume they are refreshing their knowledge, going back to basics and re-imagining the big picture of what project management and PRINCE2 is about.

And along with them, 24% of email course participants are PMP*-certified. We believe they are interested in combining their PMBOK knowledge with understanding of a project management method. We’ve always recommended that people learn both PRINCE2 and the PMBOK*. Learning PRINCE2 provides you with a method along with the ability to understand the PMBOK guide better than before.

Undertaking the PRINCE2 email course reduces the risk – essentially the time commitment – of signing up to a full course while giving people the chance to “try before you buy”. As one subscriber said: “It allowed me to understand the essentials and motivated me to keep on studying it until I got certified in PRINCE2 Practitioner.”

Training organizations need to be creative in the way they deliver training to people: find better ways to deliver it and respect the fact people don’t have unlimited mental energy!

The free PRINCE2 Awareness course is available at mplaza.pm/p2.

Read Nader K Rad's previous AXELOS Blog Post, 5 new realities about agile for PPM professionals.

*PMP and PMBOK are registered trade marks of Project Management Institute, Inc. PMI is not affiliated with AXELOS. PMI does not endorse any AXELOS Qualifications.