PRINCE2 Plans Theme
For the PRINCE2 exams you will need to know about the types of plan in the method, where they are produced in terms of the processes, and who produces them.
The second aspects which you need to understand is mostly for the PRINCE2 practitioner exam, and this is the practicalities of applying the product based planning approach including the ability to be able to produce the diagrams and forms involved.
Understanding PRINCE2 product diagrams
When looking at the product diagrams, you may wonder why they don’t normally show things like the project brief, the bids and the highlight reports. This is because it is normal to show only specialist products on the planning diagrams.
Workable limits to the number of products and a plan is 30 at project level and 30 for each stage level. In most projects you need all that space to show the specialist products. However, that does not mean that the management products are forgotten, they are simply not put on the diagrams.
In the case of progress reports which are accepts time intervals, you can’t put them on a sequence diagram anyway, because they come in lots of places.
Differences between the product breakdown structure and the product flow diagram
The two product diagrams used in PRINCE2 show the two views of structures and sequence so there are very different. Both diagrams are simple in concept. You cannot be lost or drawn the diagrams in the exams, because both papers use of multiple choice question format.
However, in the foundation exam you can be asked general questions about them, and in the practitioner exam you may be given diagrams and have to answer questions which reflect the project scenario, including finding any errors in the diagrams given and perhaps identifying the correct snippet of diagram to replace the wrong part.
You may have a diagram was just numbers in the boxes and have to show which products go in which place.
The product breakdown structure (PBS)
The product breakdown structure is simply a list. It is a list of the specialist products but grouped according to the categories and sub categories. The most powerful use of this diagram is when you are first identifying products.
You can just produce a random list of products as they come to mind, however to give some structured thinking it is best to go through the product categories one at a time. You may decide to use the type of products as a category of the products within the final end product.
The product flow diagram (PFD)
This is a sequence diagram and shows the order in which products will be created during the life of the project. It needs to be said that this is unlikely to be the same order as the categories that were created within the product breakdown structure.
Fitting the diagrams together
The lowest level of the product breakdown structure is the list of products, grouped by the high level boxes which are merely category labels. The product flow diagram shows those same the lowest level boxes, but put in project board or.
Then the final box on the product flow diagram is the same as the top box of the product breakdown structure and represents the whole project.
It is quite normal to find Product-Based planning a little bored and hard to follow at first as you will be traditionally used to diving straight to the activities within a pert or Gantt chart.
However, it is worth the extra effort to really get to grips with the PRINCE2 Product-Based planning approach – not just because you are needed to pass the exams, but because it will provide you with real value back in the workplace.
What is a product and what is an activity?
Consider the following list. Does each one describe the product or an activity? Has a clue, the wear of activities which merely describe the source of supply, or money, or staff.
Consider also that some products will be external products (that is, products which are either already exist, or whose creation are outside the scope of the plan), and also remember to differentiate between specialist products and management products.
That said, use the following test to make sure you know the differences by identifying only the products:
- Office floor plan
- Interview the stakeholders
- Tool hire shop
- Project budget
- Works department staff
- Trained user staff
- Had always completed
- Desks
- Risk management strategy
- Training plan
How did you do? The products are in questions one, six, eight, nine, and ten.
The PRINCE2 staged approach
PRINCE2, and any staged approach to planning projects is a realistic approach. You plan the whole project to set out how you’d expect it to run, but that plan is not detailed as it is a high-level view.
You then plan in more detail for each stage, the only as you approach that stage, that is at the end of the previous stage. You do not try to plan it all in detail upfront. This has the advantage of taking account of the very latest information.
The stage plan is detailed and in smaller projects especially, maybe enough in detail for team managers to use to organize their teams and build the products.
However, sometimes a work package is rather complex and the stage plan just is not provide enough detail for the team manager to exercise the required level of control. In that case, the team manager can develop a team plan based on the relevant part of the stage plan in order to cover the work of that particular work package.
A work package is an “instruction pack” from the project manager to a team manager to build a single product, or perhaps to all three products which it makes sense to build at the same time with the same team.
Different levels of management interest
The project board may have authorize the stage, the really are not interested in the fine detail of what team members will be doing. The project board is interested in the whole project and in what is happening in each stage, so will only see an authorized the first two levels of plan, that is the project and stage plans.
The project manager is responsible for the project and stage plan development.
Having developed a stage plan, that is, the one that the project manager will mostly use in controlling a particular stage. The project board too, will want a regular information on the stage plan to know for example, whether the stage is running on time and cost.
Often, managers on the project board like to keep track of the big picture on the project plan as well.
Although the team plan is in the domain of the team manager, both the team and project manager will want to be sure that it fits in with the stage plan. Consequently, once the team manager has created a team plan, they will need to check it out with the project manager.
Plan levels and exception plans
Be aware that an exception plan is not a planning level. The three levels are project plan, stage plan and team plan. Another way of thinking of an exception plan is as a recovery plan.
An exception plan is usually at stage plan level, but can also encompassed a project plan level and may affect some team plans.
If something goes significantly wrong during a stage, and to recover from the problem the rest of the stage must now be run differently, then clearly the existing stage plan will not be of much use.
So a stage boundary is forced (because it was not originally planned for) and the project manager will produce an exception plan. This covers the stage from the present time, the point of the problem, until the end of the stage.
It is effectively a replacement stage plan but is called an exception plan to make it clear that it is not the original one.
The work done up until now in the stage is not replanned, because that would be pointless. Instead, it is closed down and an end stage report is produced for it. The remaining work in the original stage, now covered by the exception plan, is treated as if it were a new stage.
This should make it clear to you that an exception plan is not a planning level but merely a replacement plan, normally at stage level, but also may take in the project and team levels. It covers any and all plans that are affected by the exception.
Occasionally, an exception plan may not result from a problem but from something good. An example here would be a good idea that would provide real benefit to the organization, and that idea needs to be embedded in the current plan – this too could trigger the use of an exception.
The product checklist
The product checklist is a very simple and extremely powerful progress control.
The product checklist is simply a list of products that will be produced within a stage. The list is drawn from the stage plan with the target delivery date being entered against each product and also the actual delivery date.
It is then possible to see at a glance whether the project is on schedule. This progress information or checked is based on fact that delivery to the required level of quality has occurred and is not just wishful thinking or future estimates.
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