locate projects with manipulated project names

We have some projects where we have modified subproject names (we add a prefix) and it would be nice if we could support it in the pride as well. Absolute paths are kind of ugly, but at least works precisely.

My questions:
 - do you know a better option? (I know we shouldn't mess with project names)
 - how can I make this change backward compatible? (I had issues using pride 0.9.+ with pride-plugin 0.6.+)
 - what kind of tests should I add/extend?
I think this would be better if you only passed around the pride's root directory, instead of the whole pride.