Patterns in the first PRINCE2 processes
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Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
--Albert Einstein
Back in 1995, as the first PRINCE2 process design was drafted, we noticed some interesting patterns emerging. Initially the authors had designed separate processes for exception planning and routine end of stage management, both for the Project Manager. It was only when we began to review these two 
that we realised that there was so much in common between the 'routine' end of stage preparations and handling an Exception Plan. Four of the five sub-processes in each were the same. So we merged the two processes into one.
The result was the single, but dual-purpose process called Managing Stage Boundaries (SB). To mirror this we had to make the Project Board sub-process that interfaced with SB similarly dual-purpose. This became DP3 - Authorising a Stage or Exception Plan. 
So the Project Board would enact this decision-making sub-process either at a planned decision milestone (the end of the Stage) or at an extraordinary, unplanned point to decide on the Project Manager's proposal (Exception Plan) to recover the project from some serious certain deviation.
Further, we noticed another pattern. Very similar planning activities popping up in several places in the overall draft model. Again we saw an opportunity to bring these all together into one common, reusable Planning (PL) process. This process had to be based on generic principles of planning, but could now be invoked at several points in the project life cycle and at several levels of planning - project, stage and work package. The principles were the same, so why shouldn't the process design mirror this?
There is power in simplicity, when it comes to process design, and I believe the way PRINCE2 has stood the test since its launch in 1996 proves this.
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