You can find downloadable PRINCE2 project templates in Excel (.xls/.xlsm) and Microsoft Project (.mpp) formats across several specialized platforms. Because PRINCE2 is a highly structured methodology, standard templates usually map its specific processes (like Starting Up, Initiating, and Controlling a Stage) directly onto Gantt charts and tracking sheets.
PRINCE2 MS Excel .xls plan in a spreadsheet
PRINCE2 MS Project .mpp plan in a project file
The primary download options, ranging from premium practitioner bundles to free resource packages, are categorized below:
Comprehensive Premium Bundles (MPP & XLS)
If you require a fully integrated toolkit built specifically for the official PRINCE2 framework, individual project management practitioners offer comprehensive marketplace downloads:
Mark Whitfield PM Templates: Offers a dedicated seventh edition package including MW MS Project Plan Template PRINCE2 v0.2.mpp alongside its exact equivalent spreadsheet MW Excel PRINCE2 Project Plan Template v0.2.xlsm. You can download this Prince2 toolkit package plus others, on the Mark Whitfield Official Site or through the Mark Whitfield Etsy UK Shop.
Flevy Marketplace: Provides highly structured, professional enterprise files. You can purchase and download the PRINCE2 Templates + Microsoft Project MPP & MS Excel Document directly from their platform, which packs the MPP tracking timelines and XLSM / XLS sheets together.
PRINCE2 project templates, Excel (.xls/.xlsm) & MS Project (.mpp) formats
Microsoft Excel XLS PRINCE2 spreadsheet screenshots
Microsoft Excel XLS PRINCE Project Plan with Task Descriptions
Microsoft Excel XLS PRINCE Project Plan with Gantt View 1
Microsoft Excel XLS PRINCE Project Plan with Gantt View 2
Microsoft Excel XLS PRINCE Project Plan with Gantt View 3
Microsoft Excel XLS PRINCE Project Plan with Delivery Costings
Microsoft Excel XLS PRINCE Project Plan with Charts
Microsoft Excel XLS PRINCE Project Plan with PRINCE2 Stage Charts
Standard Artifacts Included in Download Packages
When downloading a comprehensive .zip toolkit, the package typically contains the core structural elements of the framework divided across your scheduling software:
MS Project (.mpp): A pre-constructed Prince2 waterfall delivery layout mapped with the 7 key PRINCE2 stages, built-in dependency workflows, milestone gates, and methodological prompts embedded in the task notes.
MS Excel (.xls/.xlsm): Mirrored project planning sheets (with costing) utilizing native formulas to auto-populate Gantt charts, alongside targeted operational spreadsheets like RAID logs (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies), RACI matrix charts, resource trackers, and project budget tools.
Legacy enterprise managers (often spanning IT Service Management, Network Node Management, and Event Correlation) defined enterprise IT in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. The following are major, pioneering platforms, their primary functions, and their eventual modern replacements:
Legacy IT Operations Management (ITOM)
HP OpenView: A flagship suite that included Network Node Manager (NNM) for topology mapping and Operations Manager (formerly OVO) for centralized event and alert monitoring across Unix, Windows, and mainframes. I overlooked the integration of the HP NonStop product Reflex 80:20 with HP OpenView.
Modern equivalent: Evolved into Micro Focus Operations Bridge, later absorbed by OpenText.
IBM Tivoli: A massive suite born from the acquisition of Candle and Tivoli Systems. The core components included Tivoli Enterprise Console (TEC) for event correlation and Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus for real-time network and service monitoring. I overlooked the integration of the HP NonStop product Reflex 80:20 with IBM Tivoli.
Modern equivalent: Evolved into IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps.
BMC Patrol: One of the premier tools for deep system, application, and database monitoring (often known for its KM – Knowledge Module – architecture).
Modern equivalent:BMC TrueSight Operations Management and BMC Helix.
CA Unicenter: A comprehensive, all-in-one mainframe and distributed systems management tool for job scheduling, asset management, and event monitoring.
Modern equivalent: Rebranded under Broadcom, largely integrated into their enterprise software division.
Sun Microsystems SunNet Manager / Solstice Enterprise Manager: Early pioneers in Unix-based network management and remote system administration.
Modern equivalent: Discontinued; mostly absorbed by Oracle Enterprise Manager.
Enterprise Event Correlation & Command Centers
Command/Post (Boole & Babbage): One of the earliest automated event correlation engines designed for mainframes, which later expanded into distributed environments. Acquired by BMC.
Micromuse Netcool: Famous for its ultra-fast, rules-based Omnibus, capable of ingesting vast amounts of SNMP traps and Syslog messages across telecommunications and large enterprise networks. Acquired by IBM.
Network and Performance Managers
HP OpenView Performance/SysView: Tools specifically built for historical performance charting, OS native monitoring, and deep metric extraction.
Novell NMS (NetWare Management System): The standard for managing legacy Novell NetWare servers and IPX/SPX network topologies.
Most of these tools were displaced by modern APM (Application Performance Monitoring) and AIOps (Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations) platforms that feature cloud-native architectures, distributed tracing, and out-of-the-box integrations. Common replacements include:
Datadog
Dynatrace
Splunk / Splunk IT Service Intelligence
LogicMonitor
ScienceLogic
HP OpenView Operations
HP OpenView Operations Enterprise Managerintegrationwith Reflex 80:20
First HP NonStop 2-way Smart Plug-In (SPI) for HP OVO
Requested to research and produce a design for integrating the ITL NSK based Reflex 80:20 product with the hp OpenView Operations (hp OVO) enterprise manager. This initially involved a trip to Lisbon to attend the hp OpenView Universe event that represents the technical showcase for this enterprise level product. I then put together a number of design documents and managed a development team tasked with engineering an hp OpenView Smart Plug-in (SPI) to interact with Reflex 80:20 on the hp NonStop platform. This hp SPI approach represents the latest technology for integrating third-party products and provides an unparalleled approach for enabling remote platform control and management under hp OVO.
Once the Reflex SPI development was complete, I overlooked acceptance testing at the hp labs at Fort Collins, Colorado and was instrumental in attaining HP certification for the Reflex 80:20 product. As part of the certification process, I produced a comprehensive Reflex SPI user guide along with supporting marketing literature. More information.
Insider Technologies Limited is a specialized UK-based software house and service provider that engineers high-availability monitoring, tracking, and cybersecurity solutions for business-critical, 24/7 mission-critical architectures. I worked at ITL in Salford Quays from 1995 through to 2013.
Attending an EBUG conference (European BASE24 User Group)
Foreground, attending a British Isles TANDEM User Group (BITUG)
Insider Technologies Limited (website author in 2009)
CompanyOverview
🏢 Corporate Identity & Status
Legal Name: Insider Technologies Limited
Founded:27 February 1989
Headquarters: Manchester, UK (Albert Street, Eccles)
Ownership: Operating as a private independent software company, recently integrated as part of PartnerOne.
Strategic Partnerships: Certified Microsoft Gold Partner for Application Development and long-standing Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) partner.
Insider Technologies Limited (ITL) in 2001, Salford Quays, Chandlers Point
🌐 Core Domain & Industries Served
The company delivers real-time, event-driven diagnostic, tracking, and compliance middleware solutions across three main highly-regulated global verticals:
Government & Defence: Secure enterprise military messaging tracking and digital evidence handling.
Telecommunications: Tracking data traffic and critical infrastructure middleware.
🛠️ Core Technology Stack & Competencies
Insider Technologies specializes in niche high-availability operating environments—specifically HPE NonStop (historically Tandem Computers and HP NonStop) running Guardian and Open System Services (OSS) environments—alongside enterprise Windows, Linux, and Unix systems. Their expertise spans database transaction management, BASE24 XPNET monitoring, IBM WebSphere MQ tracking, and low-level development (SQL, TAL, TACL, COBOL85, C++, Pathway).
Insider Technologies – Core products in 2003
In-Depth Product & Political-Technical Timeline
This timeline breaks down how Insider Technologies evolved its software suite. It demonstrates how their technical development directly responded to shifting geopolitical landscapes—ranging from late-Cold War military messaging security to post-9/11 financial regulations and modern European cloud autonomy initiatives.
🔹 The Foundation & Legacy Tandem Era (1989–1999)
Political Context: The final years of the Cold War and the 1990s globalization boom demanded high-security, fault-tolerant mainframes for NATO-aligned military communications and early global banking clearing networks.
Technical Context: Tandem Computers dominated the un-interruptible 24/7 market. Software was required to monitor these platforms without causing processing overhead.
1989
Company Incorporation: Insider Technologies is incorporated in the UK to engineer bespoke software for highly robust technical ecosystems.
1990–1995
Reflex (Core Release): Release of Reflex, a foundational service management and real-time transaction diagnostic tool built specifically for the Tandem Guardian operating system.
1996–1999
MultiBatch Software: Further Develop and Extend MultiBatch to orchestrate and safely automate complex batch processing on Tandem machines alongside the evolution into HP NonStop computing frameworks.
Y2K Compliance Focus: Technical adjustments were deployed across Reflex and MultiBatch to assure financial institutions that automated transaction logging would not fail during the millennium rollover.
🔸 The Multi-Platform & Financial Compliance Era (2000–2015)
Political Context: Following the September 11 attacks, global anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) frameworks heavily expanded. Financial regulators demanded exact, audible end-to-end payment tracking.
Technical Context: Enterprises began migrating away from single-architecture mainframes toward heterogeneous IT environments, requiring tools that could jump across Windows, Unix, and Linux simultaneously.
2002–2004
Sentra Development: Launch of Sentra, expanding the firm’s portfolio beyond HPE NonStop into cross-platform environment monitoring for Windows, Linux, and Unix systems.
Reflex 80:20 & Reflex ONE24: Advanced variations of the Reflex tracking system were built to cater to specialized real-time electronic payment flows like BASE24 with XPNET.
2005–2010
RTLX Reactor (page 12) and Middleware Monitoring: The release of RTLX Reactor provided message tracking capabilities tailored for IBM WebSphere MQ, allowing institutions to trace various payment and other data through complex middleware chains.
Corporate Structuring: The creation of Insider Technologies (Holdings) Limited reinforced corporate expansion as the company deepened its footprint in secure military messaging for government defense bodies.
🔹 The Cyber Autonomy & Sovereignty Era (2016–Present)
Political Context: Escalating nation-state cyber warfare, strict GDPR regulations, and the UK/EU push for technological sovereignty and domestic digital ecosystem resilience heightened the reliance on trusted, onshore technology suppliers.
Technical Context: High-threat environments demand zero-trust visualization, time-accurate logging across digital evidence files, and advanced protection against internal exfiltration vectors.
2019
30-Year Milestone & Modernization: The company celebrates its 30th year, accelerating development on modern mobile application extensions to permit real-time, remote secure alerts for operations teams.
2022–2025
PartnerOne Integration: Insider Technologies aligns its operations under the PartnerOne portfolio, preserving its UK identity while supercharging its enterprise-scale data infrastructure solutions.
Corporate Integration combines Insider’s expertise with PartnerOne’s portfolio to deliver advanced analytics and secure messaging systems to banking, defence, and telecommunications markets.
Defense and Public Safety Porting: Technical deployment of specialized capabilities covering digital evidence security, timekeeping tracking, and legacy virtualization modules aimed explicitly at helping the UK Government maintain its historical tech stacks safely.
RTLX Reactor (in 2012) for tracking BASE24-eps & BASE24 XPNET transactions
Insider Technologies Limited (ITL), Company Overview and Timeline by Year
The Insider RTLX product at ETI-NET is now called C-Deep for Transaction Monitoring;
Mark Whitfield is a Greater Manchester-based Senior IT Project and Engagement Manager.
With over 30 years in the IT and software development industry, he has continuously upskilled in project delivery, Agile methodologies, cloud platforms, and cyber security.
Phase 1: Foundational Education
1985 – 1988: Leigh College, UK
Focus: Computer Science and Biology (‘A’ Levels)
1988 – 1990: University of Greater Manchester (formerly Bolton Institute of Higher Education, BIHE)
Focus: Higher National Diploma (HND) in Computer Studies (Graduated with Distinction; First overall in the year)
Key Modules: System Analysis, Programming Methodology, Database Architecture, and Business Information Systems
Phase 2: Project Management & Professional Training
2000 – 2006: Industry Integration & Early Methodologies
Focus: Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Agile, Sales, and early project management
Courses/Certifications: Sales and Marketing (In-house Outsource, 2001), Web Services and SOA (Insider Technologies, 2005), PRINCE2 Foundation (2006), Designing Good Marketing Literature (SkillPath Seminars, 2006)
2009: Digital & Communications
Focus: Digital marketing and content
Courses: Writing for the Web, and Website Promotion and Visibility by Design (iTrain Education)
2011: Structured Frameworks
Focus: Formal project frameworks and delivery methodologies
Courses/Certifications: PRINCE2 Foundation & Practitioner (ILX Group), Agile Scrum (RADTAC)
2012: Operational Management
Focus: Service management best practices
Courses/Certifications: ITIL Foundation
Phase 3: Advanced Engagement & Enterprise Training
2017 – 2019: Capgemini Engagement & Compliance
Focus: High-level engagement management and corporate governance
Courses/Certifications: Advanced Engagement Management Certification (Level 2), Group Anti-Corruption, and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Training
2022: Cloud Modernization
Focus: Enterprise cloud computing fundamentals
Courses/Certifications: AZ-900 Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals
Mark Whitfield’s Project Management (PM) methodology relies on over 200 editable templates tailored for both Agile Scrum and Waterfall / PRINCE2 frameworks. Developed over 24 years of IT and digital delivery, the toolkit focuses on high-level reporting, rigorous risk control, and visual tracking to align teams with corporate governance.
An example of many Plan On a Page (POAP) templates
Templates by Category and Methodology
1. Detailed Planning & Scheduling
Methodology: Mapped to the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) for both sequential Waterfall phases and iterative Agile sprints.
Templates:
Microsoft Project (MPP): Fully loaded schedules detailing project inception, elaboration, construction, and transition.
Excel Detailed Plans: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) mapped to sequential and date-driven task management with built-in RAG (Red/Amber/Green) status indicators.
2. Visual Reporting & Execution (Plan on a Page)
Methodology: Focuses on structural, executive communication to prevent scope creep and keep stakeholders aligned.
Templates:
POaP (Plan on a Page): High-level visual summaries designed for client presentations and quick-glance milestone tracking in Excel and PowerPoint.
Burn-up / Burn-down Charts: Visual tracking metrics used in Agile Sprints to show progress towards delivery goals.
3. Risk & Governance Control
Methodology: Built on strict risk/action tracking and regular lessons learned to manage uncertainty throughout the project lifecycle.
Change Requests/Decisions Log: Supplementary tabs within the RAID register to strictly manage scope changes and project governance.
4. Financial Trackers
Methodology: Ensures project adherence to contracted margins, tracking both internal/external costs and resource efforts.
Templates:
Budget & Resource Trackers: Spreadsheets for forecasting versus actual expenses, variance calculations, expense reporting, and margin tracking with pivot-table readiness.
5. Team RACI & Status Reporting
Methodology: Clearly defines stakeholder roles and communication frequencies (weekly/monthly) to ensure continuous monitoring and control.
Templates:
RACI Matrix: A mapping tool defining who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed.
Weekly Status Reports: Word/Excel templates detailing internal and external project health, current milestones, and upcoming sprints.
A Business Requirements Document (BRD) details what a project must accomplish and why it matters to the organization, acting as a bridge between business stakeholders and technical execution teams.
Here is a summary of the core sections required to construct a comprehensive BRD:
1. Document Control
Version History: Tracks changes, authors, and dates to ensure everyone uses the current iteration.
Approvals: Formal sign-off section where stakeholders authorize moving the project forward.
2. Executive Summary
Project Overview: A brief one-page overview stating the essence and main purpose of the project.
Needs Statement: Outlines the core business challenges or opportunities the project solves.
3. Project Scope & Objectives
Project Objectives: High-level, measurable targets aligned with company goals, often using SMART criteria.
In-Scope: Clear boundaries stating exactly what deliverables or processes are included.
Out-of-Scope: Explicit list of features or tasks intentionally left out to prevent scope creep.
4. Stakeholder Analysis
Key Stakeholders: Identifies project sponsors, department heads, and end-users.
Roles & Responsibilities: Maps out who provides requirements, who reviews them, and who receives deliverables.
5. Process Specifications
Current State (AS-IS): Maps current operational workflows to illustrate existing bottlenecks.
Future State (TO-BE): Details the desired future process after implementing the solution.
6. Core Requirements
Business Requirements: The high-level operational goals and capabilities the system must offer.
Functional Requirements: Descriptions of specific system tasks or behaviours from a business user perspective.
Non-Functional Requirements: Standards for performance, system security, and scalability.
7. Financial & Strategic Analysis
Cost-Benefit Analysis: Compares estimated financial expenses against anticipated business gains.
Success Metrics: Defines Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and expected Return on Investment (ROI).
8. Project Dynamics & Risk Management
Assumptions: Unverified elements assumed to be true for the project to progress.
Constraints: Fixed limitations such as budget, time, technology, or legal compliance.
Risks & Mitigation: Potential threats to project delivery paired with backup action plans.
Dependencies: External factors or other projects that this initiative relies on to succeed.
9. Supporting Documentation
Acceptance Criteria: The standards and conditions required for stakeholders to accept the final delivery.
Glossary: Clear definitions of industry terms and acronyms used throughout the document.
To perform a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) in IT, you must systematically isolate the underlying technical or process failure that caused an incident, rather than just treating the visible symptoms.
Following a structured IT service management framework ensures you fix the issue permanently and prevent it from happening again.
To perform a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) in IT
1. Define the Incident and Its Impact
Clearly articulate what went wrong using specific, technical terms. Avoid vague descriptions.
Draft a precise problem statement: Specify the exact error message, system component, and affected user base.
Quantify the impact: Note the financial cost, operational downtime, or number of disrupted transactions.
Establish containment: Ensure short-term workarounds are active to protect users while you investigate.
2. Gather Evidence and Timeline
Collect empirical data from your IT environment to reconstruct the exact order of events.
Pull system logs: Review application logs, server telemetry, database queries, and network traffic captures.
Check the change management registry: Cross-reference the exact time of failure against recent code deployments, infrastructure modifications, or patch updates.
Map out the sequence: Build a chronological timeline from the last known stable state to the moment of failure.
3. Identify Potential Causal Factors
Brainstorm all possible technical and human vectors that could have triggered the event.
Brainstorm with a cross-functional team: Involve developers, system administrators, and network engineers to get different perspectives.
Categorize via Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagrams: Separate potential culprits into categories like Code, Hardware, Processes, People, and Third-Party Vendors.
Categorize via Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagrams
4. Isolate the Root Cause
Use deep analytical methods to narrow your broad list of potential causes down to the single source failure.
Apply the 5 Whys technique: Ask “Why?” repeatedly to drill past surface symptoms. For example:
Why did the application crash? The database ran out of memory.
Why did it run out of memory? A specific query caused a memory leak.
Why did the query leak memory? A recent code change did not close database connections.
Why were connections left open? The developer missed the disposal pattern in the new framework.
Why was it missed? There was no automated code linting or peer review rule for this framework (Root Cause).
Utilize Fault Tree Analysis (FTA): Use boolean logic to visually map how combinations of lower-level system faults lead to a high-level systemic failure.
5. Develop and Implement Preventive Solutions
Design a permanent fix targeting the root cause so the issue cannot happen again.
Deploy technical remediation: Patch code, reconfigure infrastructure, or scale resources.
Fix the process gap: Update documentation, add automated testing pipelines, or adjust alert thresholds.
Assign clear ownership: Appoint explicit owners and deadlines for each action item.
6. Document and Practice Blameless Reviews
Foster transparency to improve future infrastructure resilience.
Conduct a blameless post-mortem: Focus entirely on how the system allowed the failure to occur, not who made the mistake.
Publish an internal RCA report: Document the timeline, data points, root cause, and remediation steps in a searchable knowledge base.
For a visual breakdown of how to execute these problem-solving techniques in practice, watch this tutorial on conducting a root cause analysis:
