Changes in the 6th edition of PRINCE2

A lot has happened since 2009, we have had a number of updates to the PMBOK plus another in the pipeline and we have heard a lot about Agile and Scrum. Due to the PRINCE2 manual and the current training material used by many training companies, PRINCE2 is seen as a more waterfall approach and not suited to the more flexible creative projects where requirements can appear like magic during the project.

Also, the majority of people who have a PRINCE2 certification never use it as they don’t know how. The training courses are too focused on passing the exams and not on using PRINCE2, which of course defeats the whole purpose. People don’t know how to apply PRINCE2 to their projects as they need both an excellent PRINCE2 and project management knowledge to be able to do this. This is also known as tailoring PRINCE2 to suit your project.

So AXELOS wants to make sure that people can start using PRINCE2 on their projects and have therefore done the following:

• Added a lot more information about tailoring to the PRINCE2 Guidance (PRINCE2 manual)
• Updated the syllabus to include tailoring and agile
• Updated the exams to include more questions related to tailoring

What are the main changes in the 6th edition of PRINCE2?

• Tailoring PRINCE2 to the needs of organizations and project environments;
• More emphases on the principles that underpin PRINCE2
• Provide more information on the link between the themes and principles;
• Added a lot more tailoring information on each Theme
• More information about using PRINCE2 in the real world with hints and tips.

What are main changes to the PRINCE2 Foundation Exam?

• Elements of the exam that are not part of PRINCE2 have been removed: e.g. Configuration management
• Questions on tailoring for each theme
• Other changes to be compatible with the updated syllabus which now equally covers all the seven themes.
• Reduce the number of question from 75 to 60
• Removed negative questions: e.g. What is NOT a benefit of PRINCE2?
• Reduce the number of list questions

What are the main changes to the PRINCE2 Practitioner Exam?

There is much more focus to help ensure that candidates are equipped with the practical skills to use PRINCE2 after the exam, which is a big change as most people with a PRINCE2 Practitioner Certification did not have a clue where to begin. The existing PRINCE2 Practitioner courses were more exam preparation courses than anything to do with practicing and using PRINCE2.

The main changes to the PRINCE2 Practitioner Exam include:

• The Practitioner exam will now test candidates on all parts of the PRINCE2 method (Principles, Themes and Processes)
• More questions on principles and less on PRINCE2 products
• More questions on the general application of PRINCE2 and each theme and process
  • This is in line with Bloom’s level 3 & 4 - Bloom Taxonmy
  • Level 2: Solve problems in new situations by applying acquired knowledge, facts, techniques
  • Level 3: Examine and break information into parts by identifying motives or causes.
• Reducing the amount of additional information needed to answer the question
• Removing assertion reason and multiple response questions (this is a good idea)

Reminder: Blooms Taxonomy (Learning Levels) Bloom’s Taxonomy provides a framework for educators. It provides a hierarchy of levels to assist educators in designing tasks, crafting questions and for providing feedback on student work.

• Blooms Level I Knowledge
• Blooms Level II Comprehension
• Blooms Level III Application
• Blooms Level IV Analysis
• Blooms Level V Synthesis
• Blooms Level VI Evaluation