A PRINCE2 7th Edition Guide to Project Success
What Is Product-Based Planning?
Product-based planning, a cornerstone PRINCE2 technique, crafts plans centered on creating and delivering essential project products. Unlike traditional approaches, this method prioritizes outputs (products) from the start.
By focusing on what the project must produce, teams ensure every activity aligns with user expectations, boosting efficiency and clarity, while reducing scope creep.
A product could be a product or a service. These would typically be described as a noun or outcome (fence post foundation). Whereas a task/activity typically described as a noun/verb (dig hole)
Why does this matter?
Users care most about tangible results. Consequently, product-based planning keeps the project management team laser-focused on delivering value, eliminating unnecessary tasks. This principle, deeply embedded in PRINCE2, sets the stage for streamlined project scope management and successful outcomes.
Why Focus on Products?
Emphasizing products transforms how teams approach planning. First, identifying required products clarifies the project’s scope. Next, teams determine the best delivery methods, pinpoint necessary resources, and establish realistic timelines. This approach also highlights potential risks early, enabling proactive solutions.
Moreover, clear product definitions reduce scope creep. By documenting products and their interdependencies, teams avoid overlooking critical elements. This fosters agreement on what’s in—and out—of the project, ensuring everyone aligns on goals. As a result, product-based planning lays a rock-solid foundation for project success.
Simplifying Work Packages and Sequencing
Product-based planning excels at breaking down complex projects. Specifically, it simplifies identifying work packages—discrete sets of tasks—and sequencing them effectively. This clarity extends to subordinate plans, like stage and team plans, ensuring consistency across all levels.
For example, when exceptions arise, product-based planning keeps exception plans focused. Teams resolve issues with minimal disruption to cost and schedule, maintaining project momentum. Thus, this technique proves invaluable for navigating challenges while staying on track.
The PRINCE2 Product-based Planning Technique
PRINCE2’s product-based planning technique, illustrated below, offers a structured yet flexible approach.
Alternatively, organizations can use tailored procedures, documented in the project initiation documentation, to suit their needs. Regardless, the process starts with defining and analyzing products, then derives supporting elements like work breakdown structures and schedules.
Notably, planning isn’t strictly linear.
For instance, scheduling and estimating often occur collaboratively, reflecting their interdependence. Meanwhile, budgeting becomes more accurate once product descriptions and schedules mature. This adaptability ensures robust plans for project, stage, team, and exception plans, enhancing overall project scope management.
Crafting Stage and Team Plans
Stage and team plans, while narrower in scope than project plans, dive deeper into details. For example, a project plan might outline timelines by weeks, but a stage plan drills down to days. Similarly, project plans identify skillsets, whereas team plans name specific individuals.
Importantly, subordinate plans must align with the approved project plan. Deviations risk introducing scope creep, undermining project control. By focusing on products at each level, teams ensure traceability, keeping deliverables tightly linked to objectives. This disciplined approach drives precision and accountability.
Defining and Analyzing Products
Defining and analyzing products involves four key steps, as depicted above, each critical to effective planning.
Step 1: Writing the Project Product Description
Kick off by drafting the project description during project startup. This document captures major products, quality requirements, acceptance criteria, and methods. Critically, it confirms no essential products are missing or superfluous, aligning with user expectations.
High-level acceptance criteria should ideally be measurable. However, descriptive statements suffice if later refined into precise criteria. This clarity fosters stakeholder consensus and establishes quality tolerances, paving the way for informed decision-making. Ultimately, a well-crafted project product description anchors the planning process.
Step 2: Creating a Product Breakdown Structure
Next, develop a product breakdown structure—a hierarchy of all products to be delivered. This tool organizes products and their components, capturing requirements logically. For instance, in the Louistown City Council project, the shopping mall breaks into enabling works, tenancy agreements, the mall itself, and operational readiness.
Additionally, the structure highlights external products, like public transport links or park-and-ride schemes. By grouping related requirements—e.g., plumbing versus wall finishes—it clarifies dependencies and procurement needs. This granular view, as shown in Figure 5, enhances project planning precision.
Step 3: Writing Product Descriptions
During project initiation, flesh out detailed product descriptions. Engage stakeholders to capture user needs and consult experts on procurement, testing, and support requirements. These descriptions ensure products are defined enough for accurate scheduling and estimation.
In iterative projects, detailed requirements may emerge alongside development. Conversely, linear projects demand upfront specificity for cost certainty. Prioritizing quality specifications balances user desires with constraints, ensuring critical needs are met. This iterative refinement keeps planning agile and grounded.
Step 4: Creating a Product Flow Diagram
Finally, craft a product flow diagram to map product sequences and interdependencies. This visual, as illustrated in Figure 7.6, shows the order of product creation, including intermediate products like prototypes. For example, in Louistown, securing tenants runs parallel to mall construction, but utilities must precede both.
The diagram also flags external dependencies, like transport schemes, and ensures all products are accounted for. By consulting experts, teams create realistic schedules and identify when benefits begin. This comprehensive view transitions smoothly into activity planning, bridging products to deliverables.
Organizing Work Packages
The product flow diagram guides delivery method decisions—linear or iterative. From there, teams identify tasks for each product and delivering them into work packages. Each package bundles related resources and activities, producing a final or intermediate product.
Dependencies—internal (within the project) or external (outside scope)—are meticulously documented. For instance, internal dependencies link project products; external ones tie to supplier deliveries. Clear work package descriptions, acting as contracts between project and team managers, prevent scope overlap or gaps, optimizing efficiency.
Leveraging the Work Breakdown Structure
The work breakdown structure, a versatile PRINCE2 tool, maps work packages to teams or suppliers, which is ideal for mixed delivery models. It also tracks labor costs by skill, effort, and duration, enhancing budget control. For team plans, it details tasks and assignments, boosting accountability.
For simple projects, the work breakdown structure is optional. However, for complex initiatives, it’s indispensable for organizing work packages and ensuring alignment. By tying every task to a deliverable, it reinforces product-focused planning, driving project success.
In conclusion, product-based planning revolutionizes project management by prioritizing deliverables, clarifying scope, and streamlining workflows. By mastering this PRINCE2 technique, teams navigate complexity with confidence, delivering results that delight users and achieve objectives efficiently.
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