Four levels, and who controls what
PRINCE2 has four levels of management: corporate/programme/customer (outside the project), directing (the project board), managing (the project manager) and delivering (the team manager). Each level sets tolerances for the one below.
Why it is like this
Delegation needs a boundary at each hop. The levels are what make manage by exception implementable rather than aspirational.
Not to be confused with
An org chart. The top level sits outside the project and is not part of the project management team — it commissions the project and sets the project-level tolerances.
In practice
The board sets stage tolerances for the project manager; the project manager sets work package tolerances for the team manager. An exception travels up one level at a time.
Source: Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2, 7th edition (PeopleCert, 2023) — PRINCE2 7, §7 — levels of management. Read on .
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Odd one out Check yourself
Three of these are levels of the project management team. Which one is not?
Show the answer
Corporate, programme management or the customer
It is a level of management, but it sits outside the project — which is why it sets the project's tolerances rather than operating within them.