PRINCE2 says that a project should have:

• An organised and controlled start, ie organise and plan things properly before leaping in.
• An organised and controlled middle, ie when the project has started, make sure it continues to be organised and controlled.
• An organised and controlled end, ie when you’ve got what you want and the project has finished, tidy up the loose ends.

In order to describe what a project should do when, PRINCE2 has a series of processes which cover all the activities needed on a project from starting up to closing down.

Organising and controlling a project means that we need to have someone responsible for doing the organising and controlling – this person is called the Project Manager. The Project Manager will select people to do the work on the project and will be responsible for making sure the work is done properly and on-time. The Project Manager draws up the Project Plans that describe what the project team will actually be doing and when they expect to finish.

PRINCE2 is a method for managing projects. It helps you work out who should be involved and what they will be responsible for. It gives you a set of processes to work through and explains what information you should be gathering along the way.

PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) is a process-based approach for project management providing an easily tailored and scaleable method for the management of all types of projects. The method is the de-facto standard for project management in the UK and is practiced worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.prince2.org.uk.

The winners of the award for 10 best-designed intranets for 2008 are:

• Bank of America, US
• Bankinter S.A., Spain
• Barnes & Noble, US
• British Airways, UK
• Campbell Soup Company, US
• Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation, US
• IKEA North America Service, LLC, US
• Ministry of Transport, New Zealand
• New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Australia
• SAP AG, Germany

There is more information on Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox for January 2008 and the 362-page Intranet Design Annual with 212 screenshots of the 10 winners for 2008 is available for download USD$198.

Certainly worth a read if you are involved in a large portal project.