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Card 15 of 15 Roles, and what the 7th edition added ●●● Sharp edge

Project assurance is not project support

Project assurance is the board's independent check that the project is being conducted properly — it belongs to the board and may be delegated, but never to the project manager. Project support is administrative help, and may be delegated to the project manager.

Why it is like this

Assurance exists because the board is accountable but not present. Letting the project manager assure their own project would remove the only independent view.

Not to be confused with

A quality team and an admin team. Assurance mirrors the three interests — business, user and supplier assurance — and each board member is responsible for their own.

In practice

A PMO often provides both, which is fine, as long as the assurance line reports to the board and the support line to the project manager.

Source: Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2, 7th edition (PeopleCert, 2023) — PRINCE2 7, §7 — project assurance and project support. Read on .

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Predict Check yourself

A board asks the project manager to also carry out project assurance, to save time. What does PRINCE2 say?

  1. Not permitted — assurance must stay independent of the project manager; it can be delegated elsewhere, but not to them.
  2. Permitted on small projects as a tailoring decision.
  3. Permitted if the project manager reports assurance findings directly to the board.
  4. Permitted, since project assurance and project support are both delegable.
Show the answer

Not permitted — assurance must stay independent of the project manager; it can be delegated elsewhere, but not to them.

Independence from the project manager is the defining property of assurance. This is the one role combination the method rules out alongside sharing the executive.