Best PRINCE2 Books for 2023 (Including PRINCE2 Agile Books)

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ByElizabeth Harrin Books, Methods and frameworks

The PRINCE2® certification exam is tricky to pass because of the style of objective testing and the number of questions you have to answer.

But PRINCE2® itself is not a difficult method to learn – and the official manual is actually pretty easy to follow and understand. The latest 2023 edition is even easier, and I feel like I can say that with some confidence as I was one of the reviewers for the text.

When I did my Foundation and Practitioner exams, I only used the two official PRINCE2® handbooks:

➡ Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2®

and the partner book:

➡ Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2®.

To be honest, I didn’t think about buying any other books at the time, as those were enough alongside the course material from my training provider.

As an aside, the PRINCE2® training provider I recommend for is MPlaza. Their materials are great.

However, there were a wide range of books available to help you understand the core practices (these used to be called themes), principles and processes of PRINCE2®. At the time of writing (September 2023), there really aren’t that many guidebooks to PRINCE2 7th edition as it is so new.

This shouldn’t be a problem for you as the manual is all that you need to pass the exam. It is readable, if a little dull, but it will give you everything you need to be exam-ready. I would supplement it with a PRINCE2 exam simulator to test your skills at test taking, but the knowledge is all in the book.

If you are studying for your exam and wondering what to read to supplement your learning, here are my recommendations.

1. Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2®

I think you should read the original guidance. It’s written in a very accessible way. If your training provider does not provide it, it is worth investing in. Not least because Practitioner is an open book exam and you can tab and annotate your manual to help you in the test.

Make sure you get the 2023 (latest) version, known as PRINCE2 7.

It is expensive – see if you can put it on your business expenses but is the best PRINCE2® book and you can pass the exam with just this one.

Buy Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2® on Amazon

2. Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2®

Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2® is not an essential read for the exam, but it is super useful and provides a lot of background information about project context that is helpful.

This book is the partner book to Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2® (as the name suggests). It’s aimed at senior managers and senior project leaders. It covers the kinds of things that you need to know as a project sponsor working in a PRINCE2® environment.

The book approaches the project world from the perspective of someone in a leadership role, so it’s not directly relevant to project managers doing the day-to-day work. However, being able to see what the project process looks like on the exec side is very helpful and gives you a rounded view.

That background info is useful for improving your practice and filling in some of the gaps in how the whole thing is supposed to work.

If your manager is happy to fund this one, get it!

Note that this book is based on PRINCE2 2017 (6th edition) and we’re waiting for an updated version for PRINCE2 7.

Buy Directing Successful Projects on Amazon

3. PRINCE2 Agile®

Are you taking the Agile version of PRINCE2®? This is the book for you. It’s the official AXELOS handbook.

The book covers agile basics, PRINCE2® basics and has a useful section on what to fix and what to flex.

The second part of the book is the guidance, tailoring and techniques that are core for the exam. It looks at how to apply the principles, themes and processes in an agile way and explains how to manage product delivery.

Part 3 looks at areas of particular focus for PRINCE2 Agile® like the Agilometer and how to manage communications, releases and contracts. There are plenty of diagrams and I found it OK to read, not too dry.

Keith Richards is one of the authors and that gives me immense confidence in the quality and applicability of the text. I’m sure the other authors are great too, but I don’t think I know any of them! I hadn’t realized that Keith was behind this book.

Buy PRINCE2 Agile® on Amazon

4. PRINCE2 Agile®: An Implementation Pocket Guide

There are hardly any PRINCE2 Agile® exam prep guides around.

This book by Jamie Lynn Cooke is available as an Audible ebook and on Kindle as well as in paperback format. However, it is not an exam prep book for the agile test. Instead, it is a guide to implementing PRINCE2 Agile® in your own environment.

It covers the important things to know for agile success, how to switch from ‘ordinary’ PRINCE2® to the agile version, merging all the methods together and other topics that allow you to get agile going in your organization.

It’s something to read before you take a training course, to give you a bit of background on the terminology and context, especially if you already sat the ‘vanilla’ Practitioner exam and are now adding agile to your toolkit.

Buy PRINCE2 Agile®: An Implementation Pocket Guide on Amazon

How to choose PRINCE2® books

The most important consideration, whatever PRINCE2® book (or books) you end up buying, is to make sure they are aligned to the latest version of the manual. There are still old versions of several books floating around out there, so double check that you aren’t getting the 2017 or 2009 version by mistake.

Next, think about what other materials you are going to get as part of your training course. If you are self-studying, it’s more important to have the right reading material. However, too many books to read just gives you more to do, and I think that time is probably better spent doing practice exam questions.

Good luck with your test!

If you are looking for some other suggestions for project management books to read, you can check these out:

Elizabeth Harrin wearing a pink scarf

Project manager, author, mentor

Elizabeth Harrin is a Fellow of the Association for Project Management in the UK. She holds degrees from the University of York and Roehampton University, and several project management certifications including APM PMQ. She first took her PRINCE2 Practitioner exam in 2004 and has worked extensively in project delivery for over 20 years.
Elizabeth is also the founder of the Project Management Rebels community, a mentoring group for professionals. She's written several books for project managers including Managing Multiple Projects.