PRINCE2 vs Scrum: Which Approach Should You Use?

August 25, 2026

Project manager presenting a project plan to a business team

PRINCE2 and Scrum solve different project delivery problems. PRINCE2 is a structured project management method focused on governance, business justification, roles, controls and managing a project through defined stages. Scrum is a lightweight agile framework designed to help teams create value through short Sprints, frequent inspection and continuous adaptation.

For governance-heavy projects, PRINCE2 can provide the stronger overall management structure. For iterative product development, particularly where requirements are expected to evolve, Scrum can provide an effective way for a team to organise and deliver the work. In many organisations, the most practical answer is not PRINCE2 or Scrum: PRINCE2 can govern the project while Scrum is used by one or more delivery teams.

PRINCE2 vs Scrum at a glance

PRINCE2: a complete project management method with principles, practices, processes, defined responsibilities and governance controls.
Scrum: a lightweight framework for tackling complex work through iterative and incremental delivery.
PRINCE2 focuses on: why the project should continue, who is accountable, how it is governed, how risks and issues are controlled, and how progress is managed.
Scrum focuses on: how a small, self-managing team can deliver valuable product increments frequently and adapt using feedback.
Best PRINCE2 fit: projects needing formal governance, clear accountability, business-case control, stage boundaries and management reporting.
Best Scrum fit: product and solution development where learning, feedback and changing requirements are central.
Can they work together? Yes. Scrum can operate as a delivery approach within a wider PRINCE2-governed project.

What is PRINCE2?

PRINCE2 is a structured project management method designed to be tailored to different projects, sectors, organisations and delivery environments.

PRINCE2 7 is built around seven principles, seven practices and seven processes, with people integrated throughout the method. It gives organisations a framework for answering important management questions such as:

Is there still a valid business reason for the project?
Who is accountable for the project and its major decisions?
What products and outcomes are expected?
How will risk, quality, issues and progress be managed?
What authority can be delegated to the project manager and delivery teams?
When should senior decision-makers intervene?
How should the project be divided into manageable stages?

A key point is that modern PRINCE2 should not automatically be equated with waterfall delivery. PRINCE2 7 explicitly supports incremental, iterative, agile and hybrid delivery approaches and is intended to be tailored to the environment.

If you are new to the method, ExperTrain's PRINCE2 Project Management Foundation course introduces the principles, practices, processes, people considerations and tailoring of PRINCE2 7.

What is Scrum?

Scrum is defined in the official Scrum Guide as a lightweight framework that helps people, teams and organisations generate value through adaptive solutions for complex problems.

The framework is intentionally less prescriptive than a full project management method. Its fundamental unit is the Scrum Team, consisting of:

Product Owner: accountable for maximising the value of the product and effective Product Backlog management.
Scrum Master: accountable for establishing Scrum and helping the Scrum Team improve its effectiveness.
Developers: the people committed to creating a usable Increment during each Sprint.

Work is organised around a Product Backlog and delivered through fixed-length Sprints. The team and stakeholders regularly inspect results, learn from feedback and adapt what happens next.

What is the biggest difference between PRINCE2 and Scrum?

The biggest difference is their scope.

PRINCE2 addresses the overall management and governance of a project. It covers business justification, organisation, planning, risk, quality, issues, progress, stage control and decision-making from project start to closure.

Scrum concentrates primarily on how a team creates and improves a product in a complex environment. It provides accountabilities, events, artefacts and commitments that support frequent delivery and learning, but it does not attempt to define a complete organisational project-governance structure.

This difference explains why comparing the two as direct alternatives can be misleading.

Is Scrum a project management method?

Scrum is commonly discussed alongside project management methods, but the official Scrum Guide calls it a framework, not a complete project management methodology.

Scrum deliberately leaves many organisational questions outside its scope. For example, it does not prescribe a project board, a formal business case, management stages, project assurance arrangements or a complete approach to organisational governance.

That is not a weakness. Scrum is designed to remain lightweight so teams can apply it to complex work without unnecessary prescription. It does, however, mean that an organisation may need additional governance around Scrum teams when work forms part of a larger project or programme.

Is PRINCE2 a waterfall method?

No. PRINCE2 is often associated with traditional sequential projects, but PRINCE2 7 is explicitly designed to support multiple delivery approaches.

PeopleCert's guidance states that agile, waterfall and hybrid approaches can all be used within PRINCE2 governance. The delivery approach should be selected and tailored according to the needs of the particular project rather than treated as fixed by the method.

This distinction matters. A project might use PRINCE2 for its governance and management while a software team works in two-week Scrum Sprints.

Governance: PRINCE2 vs Scrum

PRINCE2 governance

Governance is one of PRINCE2's strongest areas. The method establishes defined levels of authority and accountability and helps separate directing, managing and delivering the project.

PRINCE2 also uses concepts such as management by exception. Senior management can define tolerances for areas such as time, cost, scope, quality, risk and benefits, allowing the project manager to work within agreed limits without escalating every decision.

Scrum governance

Scrum provides clear accountability within the Scrum Team, but it does not try to define the wider corporate governance of a project.

The Product Owner has significant responsibility for value and backlog ordering, while the Scrum Master helps establish effective Scrum practice and Developers manage the work required to produce an Increment. Wider investment decisions, programme governance or corporate reporting may sit outside Scrum itself.

Roles: PRINCE2 vs Scrum

The role structures reflect the different purposes of the approaches.

Typical PRINCE2 responsibilities

PRINCE2 defines responsibilities across project direction, project management and delivery. This helps clarify who represents business, user and supplier interests and who has authority to make major decisions.

Scrum accountabilities

Scrum has three accountabilities: Product Owner, Scrum Master and Developers. The Scrum Team is cross-functional and self-managing, with no internal sub-teams or hierarchies prescribed by Scrum.

There is no requirement for a PRINCE2 Project Manager role to disappear simply because a delivery team uses Scrum. In a combined environment, the project manager can continue to manage the wider project while respecting the Scrum Team's responsibilities for its own work.

Planning: PRINCE2 vs Scrum

Planning in PRINCE2

PRINCE2 plans at different levels and manages the project through stages. Planning supports control, decision-making and an understanding of what products need to be created.

The amount of detail should be tailored. A PRINCE2 plan does not need to attempt to predict every activity months in advance when that would be unrealistic.

Planning in Scrum

Scrum uses adaptive planning. The Product Backlog evolves as more is learned, while each Sprint has a Sprint Goal and Sprint Backlog. Sprint Planning determines why the Sprint is valuable, what can be done and how the chosen work will be completed.

This enables teams to plan in greater detail for the near term while retaining flexibility over future work.

How does Scrum handle change?

Scrum assumes that learning and change are normal in complex environments. Rather than trying to freeze all requirements at the beginning, teams repeatedly inspect the product and adapt future work.

The Product Backlog can evolve as the organisation learns more about users, technology, risks and opportunities.

That makes Scrum particularly useful where it would be unrealistic to specify the entire solution accurately at the outset.

How does PRINCE2 handle change?

PRINCE2 also recognises that projects change. It provides structured approaches to issues, risk, tolerances, decision-making and the continued validity of the business case.

The key distinction is that PRINCE2 considers change from the perspective of overall project governance, whereas Scrum's empirical approach enables rapid adaptation within product delivery.

Used together, these perspectives can complement one another.

Sprints and delivery cadence

Scrum is built around Sprints, which are fixed-length events of one month or less. During a Sprint, the team works towards a Sprint Goal and creates a valuable, usable Increment.

Within each Sprint are several important events:

Sprint Planning
Daily Scrum
Sprint Review
Sprint Retrospective

This creates a regular rhythm for delivery, feedback, inspection and improvement.

PRINCE2 does not require Sprints. It manages the project at a higher level through processes and management stages. If Scrum is chosen as the delivery approach, multiple Sprints may occur within a PRINCE2 management stage.

Documentation: is PRINCE2 more bureaucratic than Scrum?

PRINCE2 can become bureaucratic if it is applied mechanically, but that is contrary to the principle of tailoring.

The documentation and controls should be proportionate to the project. A small internal project should not automatically carry the same management overhead as a major regulated transformation programme.

Scrum generally prescribes less project documentation because its focus is different. Its formal artefacts are the Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog and Increment, each with an associated commitment.

However, Scrum does not prohibit documentation. A Scrum team can create whatever documentation is necessary for the product, regulation, support, security or organisation.

Which is better for software development?

Scrum has strong roots in software and product development and can be an excellent fit where:

requirements are expected to evolve
users can provide frequent feedback
the team can produce usable increments regularly
learning is more valuable than trying to predict everything in advance
a stable, cross-functional team can own delivery

PRINCE2 may still be useful around that software work when the overall initiative requires formal funding, procurement, governance, risk management, stakeholder reporting or coordination with other teams.

Which is better for public-sector or regulated projects?

PRINCE2 is often particularly attractive in environments where decision-making, assurance, accountability and business justification need to be explicit.

For example, a public-sector digital transformation might need:

formal approval and funding decisions
a continuing business case
clear senior accountability
supplier management
risk and assurance controls
auditability
regular management reporting

None of that prevents the delivery team using Scrum. In fact, combining structured project governance with iterative delivery can be a strong fit for this type of work.

Which is better for small projects?

Either can be useful, but proportionality matters.

A small product team developing a new internal application may gain more immediate value from Scrum than from introducing a large project-governance structure.

On the other hand, a relatively small project with significant financial, regulatory or client risk might still benefit from PRINCE2 controls.

PRINCE2's tailoring principle is important here: the method should be adapted rather than applied at maximum formality to every project.

Can PRINCE2 and Scrum work together?

Yes. This is one of the most useful conclusions from the comparison.

A combined model might work like this:

Senior decision-makers use PRINCE2 governance to approve, direct and review the project.
The Project Manager manages the overall plan, business case, dependencies, risk, issues and reporting.
A Product Owner manages product value and the Product Backlog.
A Scrum Team delivers increments through a series of Sprints.
Sprint Reviews provide frequent evidence of progress and feedback.
PRINCE2 stage boundaries provide higher-level decision points about whether the project should continue and how the next stage should be managed.

This gives the organisation governance without forcing the delivery team into a rigid sequential lifecycle.

Where does PRINCE2 Agile fit?

PRINCE2 Agile is specifically designed for professionals who want to combine PRINCE2 project governance with agile ways of working.

The current PRINCE2 Agile guidance includes agile mindset, Scrum, Kanban, tailoring, agile leadership, risk, change, progress and value-driven delivery.

For people who need to work across both worlds, ExperTrain offers:

PRINCE2 or Scrum for project managers?

For someone whose career centres on formal project management, PRINCE2 provides broader knowledge of project governance and management responsibilities.

Understanding Scrum is nevertheless increasingly valuable because project managers often work with agile product and software teams.

A project manager does not necessarily need to become the Scrum Master. The more important objective is to understand Scrum well enough to avoid undermining its accountabilities and ways of working while still providing appropriate project governance.

PRINCE2 or Scrum for product managers and Product Owners?

Scrum is likely to be more directly relevant to Product Owners and many product professionals because of its emphasis on product value, the Product Backlog and iterative delivery.

PRINCE2 knowledge becomes useful when product work sits within a funded project, transformation programme or governance environment where wider organisational decisions need to be managed.

Which is easier to learn?

Scrum has fewer defined elements and the Scrum Guide is intentionally concise, so its basic framework can be understood relatively quickly. Applying Scrum well is more difficult than simply learning the terminology because effective Scrum depends heavily on behaviours, collaboration, empiricism and organisational support.

PRINCE2 contains more management concepts and has a broader scope, so there is more to learn. Foundation-level training is designed to build a structured understanding before practitioners progress to applying and tailoring the method in realistic situations.

Which qualification should you take?

The right route depends on the work you want to do.

Choose PRINCE2 training if:

you want to become or develop as a project manager
your employer uses PRINCE2
you work with formal project governance
you need to understand business cases, roles, controls and stage management
the qualification appears frequently in roles you are targeting

The usual starting point is PRINCE2 Project Management Foundation. Those who need to apply and tailor the method can progress to PRINCE2 Project Management Practitioner. ExperTrain also offers the combined PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner programme.

Choose Scrum learning if:

you work in an agile product or software environment
your role involves product ownership or Scrum facilitation
you are joining a Scrum Team
you need to understand Sprints, backlogs, Scrum events and team accountabilities

Choose PRINCE2 Agile if:

you need project governance and agile delivery together
you manage projects containing Scrum or Kanban teams
you need to tailor PRINCE2 to an agile environment
you regularly work between senior governance and agile delivery teams

Practical example: launching a new customer portal

Imagine an organisation is replacing its customer portal.

The initiative has a significant budget, an external technology supplier, regulatory requirements, integration dependencies and a senior steering group. At the same time, users need to test features regularly because the organisation cannot specify the ideal portal perfectly at the outset.

Using only a rigid sequential plan could delay valuable feedback. Using Scrum alone might leave wider governance questions to be solved separately.

A combined approach could use PRINCE2 to manage:

business justification
investment decisions
project roles
supplier relationships
major risks and dependencies
stage-level reporting and approval

Meanwhile, a Scrum Team could manage:

Product Backlog priorities
Sprint Goals
iterative design and development
frequent demonstrations
user feedback
continuous improvement

The two approaches are solving different parts of the same delivery challenge.

A simple decision framework

Ask the following questions before choosing an approach:

Do we need formal project governance? If yes, PRINCE2 may provide useful structure.
Is the solution complex and likely to evolve? If yes, Scrum may support iterative learning.
Can we create usable increments frequently? If yes, Scrum becomes more attractive.
Do we need a continuing business case and stage-level decisions? PRINCE2 is designed for this.
Does the organisation already use one approach? Existing governance, skills and terminology matter.
Could both be used? For many larger digital projects, this is the most productive question.

Frequently asked questions

Is PRINCE2 better than Scrum?

Not universally. PRINCE2 is broader project management and governance guidance, while Scrum is a lightweight framework for adaptive product delivery. The better fit depends on the problem being solved.

Can Scrum replace PRINCE2?

Scrum can replace some delivery practices, but it does not attempt to cover all the governance and project-management responsibilities addressed by PRINCE2. An organisation may still require those controls around Scrum teams.

Can PRINCE2 replace Scrum?

PRINCE2 can govern a project without Scrum, but it does not prescribe the same Sprint-based product-development framework. Where iterative delivery is valuable, Scrum or another agile approach can be used within PRINCE2.

Does PRINCE2 7 support agile?

Yes. PRINCE2 7 explicitly incorporates agile, incremental and iterative delivery and can also support waterfall and hybrid approaches.

Does Scrum have a Project Manager?

Scrum itself defines Product Owner, Scrum Master and Developers, not a Project Manager accountability. An organisation can still have a project manager outside the Scrum Team when wider project responsibilities require one.

Is a Scrum Master the same as a PRINCE2 Project Manager?

No. A Scrum Master helps establish Scrum and supports the effectiveness of the Scrum Team. A PRINCE2 Project Manager manages the project within the authority delegated by project direction. Their responsibilities are different.

Can a PRINCE2 project use Sprints?

Yes. A delivery team can use Scrum Sprints within a PRINCE2-managed project. Several Sprints may take place inside one PRINCE2 management stage.

Should I learn PRINCE2 or Scrum first?

If your target role is project management, PRINCE2 may be the more natural first step. If you are joining an agile product team, Scrum may be more immediately relevant. Professionals who bridge governance and agile delivery can benefit from understanding both.

Develop your project management skills with ExperTrain

ExperTrain offers instructor-led PRINCE2 and PRINCE2 Agile training for people who want to develop structured project management skills, agile project capability or a combination of both.

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