Stages are partitions of the project with management decision points. A stage is a collection of activities and products within the project that is managed as a unit, usually with a combined or related objective. The use of stages for dividing the overall delivery of the project is a mandatory aspect of PRINCE2.

Each stage will usually have the same set of documentation associated with it and as such it is described in various places here as the 'repeated' part of the process.  Since version 2.0 of PROJECT in a box the Method Template includes the title to be used for stage and which can be replaced (aliased) in its locations in forms and the file tree.

The default in most Method Templates is 'Stage' but in some such as the MSP template this will be replaced with 'Project' which is the 'repeated' element in a Programme.

In previous versions only one stage type could exist in a method template. From v2.7 it is possible to add multiple stage types. (Method manager also now supports multiple stage types).