We are often asked to recommend suitable software for organisations implementing PRINCE2 for their project management.

We have reviewed several products developed specifically for PRINCE2 and have been laregely disappointed because they are either bug-ridden and unsuitable to corporate deployment or are over-priced.

The situation may change. However, at the present time we would suggest adapting the use of existing tools to incorporate a PRINCE2 approach, such as Microsoft Project.. Instructions on how this might be achieved are available in a book by Paul Harris, PRINCE2 Planning and Control Using Microsoft Office Project 2007 which is also valid for earlier versions of Microsoft Project.

There is another product, not yet reviewed, to which we have no hesitation in providing a link since it has a fully functional community version available at no charge. This is Project in a Box which has 20,000 users. The community edition is designed to provide powerful PRINCE2™ support for the new Practitioner transitioning from training to real projects.

Products Reviewed
i-method from Interactive Methodologies Ltd
While reasonably priced, we found this to be unsophisticated in its design and very unstable. We lost information entered and it corrupted our SQL server installation.

p2msp fromStructured Project Management Solutions Ltd
This is an add-on for Microsoft Project which fails to live up to the promises of a $750 add-on for a single user license restricted to a single peice of hardware. Named user license packs start at over $4,000. Just not worth it. It makes the preparation of Product Breakdown Structures a little easier but when it comes to moving these to a Product Flow, you will wish you had used Visio or post-it notes.