PRINCE2 7 Product-based Planning Technique
Focus on products is a principle of PRINCE2. This means that planning in PRINCE2 focuses on identifying the required products first and then determining the most effective way to deliver them.
Users tend to care most about the outputs they expect from a project, so a focus on products helps the project management team avoid activities that do not contribute in a substantive way to the required outputs.
The focus on products also helps the project manager know where to start when developing plans.
Outputs are the specialist products that will be used to enable change, and provide the capabilities required to deliver an outcome, normally affecting real-world behaviour and circumstances
When the products required from the project are understood, it becomes easier to determine the project approach, the necessary people and resources, realistic timelines, and the likely risks and issues.
By clearly and consistently identifying and documenting the products to be produced by the plan and the interdependencies between them, product-based planning reduces the risk of scope being neglected or overlooked.
It also helps establish agreement on one aspect crucial to ensuring project success: a clear definition of what is and is not within the project’s scope.
Product-based planning simplifies the identification and sequencing of work packages. This advantage continues into subordinate plans, such as stage and team plans.
Finally, if the project encounters exceptions, product-based planning helps exception plans focus on resolving the exception with minimal impact on cost and schedule.
PRINCE2 technique for planning
PRINCE2 includes a planning technique based on product-based planning, as shown below:
An alternative planning procedure can be used in its place if desired, for example, if the business has already developed a procedure specific to its organization.
The use of an alternative procedure should be documented as part of the tailoring decisions in the project initiation documentation.
Product-based planning takes the definition and analysis of the required products as the starting point for planning and deriving any supporting elements of the plan from these product descriptions, such as the work breakdown structure, estimates, and project schedule.
The planning technique is not strictly sequential. For example, scheduling and estimating are often interdependent and performed collaboratively.
On the other hand, preparing the budget is usually more efficient when the product descriptions, work package descriptions, and schedule are relatively mature.
The technique for preparing a plan covers all types of plans: the project plan, stage plans, team plans, and exception plans.
The project management team or team manager should focus on the products associated with each plan and determine the necessary activities and resources, prepare a realistic schedule, and analyse the associated risks.
Stage and team plans are more limited in scope than the project plan but may be more detailed.
For example, the schedule in a project plan may represent the project’s timeline at the month or week level. Yet, a stage plan may detail the work to be performed at the level of days.
Similarly, a project plan may identify required people by skill set, yet a team manager may identify these people by name in a team plan.
In preparing subordinate plans, the project management team or team manager must refrain from introducing requirements or activities that cannot be traced back to the approved project plan.
This is because it is a common means by which uncontrolled changes in scope, known as scope creep, are introduced.
Writing the project product description
The project requirements are defined and analysed in two progressive levels of detail.
In the process of starting up a project, the major products, or outcomes, along with crucial quality requirements, are documented in the project product description.
This step confirms that all the significant products needed to achieve the user’s expected outcomes are identified.
It is essential to assess and verify that no necessary products have been missed and no unnecessary products have been included.
Using the PRINCE2 project product description
A description of the project’s significant products or outcomes, including the user’s quality expectations and the acceptance criteria and methods for the project.
It is recommended that high-level acceptance criteria be stated in objectively measurable terms. However, this may only sometimes be feasible.
Therefore, a set of descriptive statements may be used if the project brief indicates that these statements will be translated into more precise criteria as part of developing the product descriptions.
This is important for reaching a common understanding between the project manager and project board and enabling the establishment of an effective set of quality tolerances.
Alternative solutions and project approaches may be considered to ensure that the approach and products most likely to satisfy the business case are included in the project scope. They are likely to be described in high-level detail only.
A function of a product breakdown structure is to allow requirements specific to one product or component to be grouped together in a logical manner. For instance, in the example of a house, the requirements for the plumbing are closely interrelated, whereas the requirements for wall finishings are largely independent of those for the plumbing.
Another function of a product breakdown structure is to group requirements related to the same procurement or delivery method. In the house example, the land is likely purchased in a different way and from a different source than the construction of the house.
PRINCE2 product states
It may be worth considering whether to include different states of a particular product. For example, the mall may start as a design from an architect, then become a construction effort by a construction team, and then a decorator for the interior finishing.
Although the owner’s goal is to obtain a building with units which can be let to tenants, there may be quality specifications for each state.
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