Once those plans are made, they\u2019re shared across the software. Teams can open the project view that best serves their purposes, whether that\u2019s the visual workflow of kanban boards or the powerful task lists that show priority or add attachments and comments to better collaborate. Even the project board can stay updated on progress by using the calendar view with its monthly summary. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.<\/p>\n The project board in PRINCE2 is composed of three key roles that ensure the project receives the necessary direction, support and governance. These roles provide strategic oversight, make high-level decisions and ensure the project remains aligned with business objectives and user needs. Each project board member is distinctly responsible for ensuring the project’s success.<\/p>\n The executive is the most senior person on the project board and has ultimate accountability for the project’s success. This role is responsible for ensuring that the project delivers value to the organization by meeting business objectives and justifying the investment in the project. They are responsible for the following.<\/p>\n The senior user represents the interests of the users who will benefit from the project\u2019s deliverables.<\/a> This role is crucial in ensuring that the project’s outputs meet user needs and are deliverable within the agreed timeframe, cost and quality. They help with the following.<\/p>\n The senior supplier represents the suppliers or providers of the resources, expertise and technical capability required to deliver the project. This role ensures the project is technically feasible and that the resources provided meet the required standards. They are responsible for the following.<\/p>\n Together, the executive, senior user and senior supplier form the core of the project board, providing essential governance, decision-making and direction to ensure the project\u2019s success. Each role has a critical function that ensures the project meets its objectives, stays within scope and delivers value to the organization and end-users.<\/p>\n Now that we know who makes up the project board and their individual roles and responsibilities, let\u2019s look at the project board in PRINCE2 as a whole. It holds key responsibilities for overseeing the project\u2019s direction, ensuring it remains aligned with business goals and making high-level decisions to guide the project to successful completion. They provide strategic leadership and governance<\/a> and ensure the project is appropriately resourced, managed and delivering value to the organization. Here are its core responsibilities.<\/p>\n The project board provides overarching governance, ensuring the project adheres to PRINCE2 principles while maintaining alignment with organizational goals. It holds accountability for the project’s success by setting clear objectives, monitoring risks and ensuring appropriate controls<\/a> are in place. The board enforces structured decision-making and maintains authority over project viability, scope and progress.<\/p>\n Governance also includes overseeing stakeholder engagement and ensuring their interests are considered throughout the project lifecycle. By maintaining visibility and enforcing accountability, the project board ensures the project remains justified and well-managed and can deliver expected outcomes within constraints<\/a> such as time, cost and quality.<\/p>\n It also holds final decision-making authority over the project. It is responsible for approving key milestones, such as project initiation, stage transitions and project closure.<\/a> When risks, issues, or changes exceed the project manager\u2019s tolerance levels, the board makes high-level decisions to keep the project on track.<\/p>\n The project board ensures alignment with strategic priorities and provides direction when conflicts arise. This authority also includes making go\/no-go decisions at critical points, determining resource allocation and approving major changes that impact scope, cost or timeline. By maintaining control, the board ensures the project remains viable and meets business expectations.<\/p>\n The project board is responsible for guaranteeing independent project assurance and verifying that processes, risks and controls are managed. While assurance roles may be delegated, the board ensures compliance with PRINCE2 principles, including business justification, learning from experience and defined roles and responsibilities.<\/p>\n Assurance covers progress tracking, risk management<\/a> and stakeholder engagement to prevent deviations from the plan. It also ensures that reports are accurate, that quality management processes are followed and that appropriate governance structures are in place. By maintaining oversight, the board safeguards the project\u2019s integrity and ensures it is managed effectively and efficiently.<\/p>\n Securing adequate resources is a core responsibility of the project board. It ensures that financial, human and technical resources are available to support project execution. This includes approving funding, assigning skilled personnel and ensuring suppliers or partners meet their obligations. The board evaluates resource constraints<\/a> and reallocates them when necessary to mitigate risks or address issues.<\/p>\n Effective resource management ensures that dependencies are met, schedules remain feasible and deliverables are achieved within scope. By maintaining control over resource allocation<\/a>, the board ensures the project remains viable, cost-effective and capable of delivering the intended benefits.<\/p>\n The project board ensures that the project remains aligned with the organization\u2019s strategic objectives. It continuously assesses whether the project\u2019s outcomes contribute to broader business goals and provide long-term value. If changes in corporate priorities arise, the board evaluates whether the project should continue, be adjusted or be closed.<\/p>\n This responsibility includes ensuring stakeholder expectations are managed and project outputs are relevant to business needs. By maintaining strategic alignment, the board helps prevent wasted investment in projects that no longer serve the organization and ensures that resources are directed toward initiatives that deliver maximum impact.<\/p>\n The project board ensures that the project delivers tangible benefits as outlined in the business case. It reviews benefit realization plans and ensures that expected outcomes are clearly defined, measurable and achievable. Throughout the project lifecycle, the board assesses whether projected benefits remain viable and takes corrective action if necessary.<\/p>\n After project completion, it oversees post-implementation reviews<\/a> to verify whether benefits have been realized and whether further action is needed. By maintaining accountability for benefits management, the board ensures the project contributes positively to the organization and justifies the investment in its execution.<\/p>\n The project board is responsible for reviewing and approving critical PRINCE2 management products, ensuring they are accurate, complete and aligned with project objectives. This includes approving the business case, which justifies the project\u2019s existence, as well as stage plans, which outline the approach for each phase.<\/p>\n The board also reviews exception reports when project performance deviates beyond tolerance levels and makes necessary adjustments. Other key products, such as the project initiation document (PID) and end project report, require board approval to confirm alignment with business needs. By overseeing these documents, the board maintains control and ensures project success.<\/p>\n Establishing a project board provides numerous benefits by ensuring effective governance, clear decision-making and strategic oversight throughout the project. With the right people in place, the project board helps align the project with organizational goals, manages risks and ensures that resources are effectively utilized, ultimately leading to successful project outcomes. Here are some key benefits of having a project board in place.<\/p>\n For those interested in more than understanding PRINCE2 but want to apply it as a project management methodology, below are some of the over 100 free project management templates<\/a> for Excel and Word available for download from our site. These three free templates can help when working in PRINCE2.<\/p>\n Use this free project initiation document template for Word to outline the project\u2019s objectives, scope, deliverables, role and overall plan in PRINCE2. It provides a clear, structured foundation for the project by consolidating essential information into one place, ensuring that all stakeholders have a shared understanding of the project\u2019s purpose and approach.<\/p>\n In PRINCE2, the business case is a crucial tool that helps justify a project’s viability by outlining its benefits, costs, risks and expected outcomes. Download this free business case template for Word to ensure that projects remain aligned with business objectives and continue to provide value throughout their lifecycle.<\/p>\n Download this free project brief template for Word. This is a key document in PRINCE2 that provides a high-level overview of the project before it is fully initiated. It ensures that all stakeholders have a shared understanding of the project’s purpose, scope and approach.<\/p>\n To better manage a PRINCE2 project or any project, templates are only so much help. They can help write a project initiation document, business case and project brief, but once a project has been approved it needs dynamic planning, management and tracking. Templates are static documents that aren\u2019t made for project management, project management software is. ProjectManager<\/a> is award-winning project and portfolio management software with multiple project views that allow everyone on the project team and project board to do their work with the right tools.<\/p>\n No matter how well-planned a project is, it\u2019s the resources that execute that plan. First, resources are scheduled to Gantt charts.<\/a> Our software allows project managers to set the team\u2019s availability to make it easier to assign the right person for the right job at the right time. To oversee resource allocation across all projects, visit the color-coded workload page. This shows who is overallocated or underutilized and allows project managers to balance their workload without leaving the chart. There\u2019s also a team page that shows daily and weekly summaries of team activity, which can be filtered by progress, priority and more.<\/p>\n Resources aren\u2019t the only things that have to be monitored and controlled. There are costs, time, tasks, etc. For a high-level overview of key project metrics, toggle to the real-time project or portfolio dashboards. There\u2019s no setup required. They automatically collect live data and display it on easy-to-read graphs and charts. For more detail, generate reports<\/a> with a keystroke. There are status and portfolio reports as well as reports on variance, timesheets, workload and more. All of them can be filtered to focus on key data points or a broader view of progress to share with the project board. Even our secure timesheets help track labor costs to keep the project on budget.<\/p>\n Of course, there\u2019s more to PRINCE2 than just understanding what a project board is. For those curious about the principles, aspects, roles and processes in this project management methodology, below are a handful of links to recent articles on the subject from our blog.<\/p>\n ProjectManager is online project and portfolio management software that connects teams whether they\u2019re in the office or out in the field. They can share files, comment at the task level and stay up to date with email and in-app notifications. Join teams at Avis, Nestle and Siemens who use our software to deliver successful projects. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"Gantt](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Gantt-CTA-2025.jpg\")
<\/a>Who Makes Up the Project Board?<\/h2>\n
Executive<\/h3>\n
\n
Senior User<\/h3>\n
\n
Senior Supplier<\/h3>\n
\n
Project Board Key Responsibilities<\/h2>\n
Project Governance<\/h3>\n
Decision-Making Authority<\/h3>\n
Project Assurance<\/h3>\n
Resource Management<\/h3>\n
Strategic Alignment<\/h3>\n
Benefits Management<\/h3>\n
Approving Key Management Products<\/h3>\n
Benefits of Establishing a Project Board<\/h2>\n
\n
Free Project Management Templates for PRINCE2<\/h2>\n
Project Initiation Document Template<\/a><\/h3>\n
Business Case Template<\/a><\/h3>\n
Project Brief Template<\/a><\/h3>\n
How ProjectManager Helps Manage PRINCE2 Projects<\/h2>\n
Stay Projective With Robust Resource Management<\/h3>\n
![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Team-Light-2554x1372-1.png\")
<\/a>
\nMonitor Progress and More With Real-Time Dashboards and Reports<\/h3>\n![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Dashboard-light-mode.jpg\")
<\/a>
\nRelated PRINCE2 Content<\/h2>\n\n