PRINCE2 7 Writing a Project Product Description
The project product description is created within the starting up a project process and forms part of the initial scoping activity. It may need to be refined during the initiating a project process at the point when the project plan is created.
As you would expect, the project product description is subject to formal change control and should be checked that management stage boundaries when performing the managing a stage boundary process, to see if any changes are required.
The project product description is also used during the closing a project process as part of the verification that the project has delivered what was expected of it and that the acceptance criteria have been met.
In practice, the project product description is normally written by the project manager in consultation with the senior user and executive, even though the senior user is responsible for specifying the project product.
The project product description is included as a component of the project brief during the starting up a project process, and is used to help select the project approach defined within the project brief.
The project product description defines what the customer is expecting the project to deliver.
The project approach defines a solution or method to be used by the supplier to create the project product.
If the project’s scope includes any transition or business change in order to deliver the project outcomes, then these should also be defined as specialist products and explicitly covered within the plan.
The Project Product Description contents
The purpose of the project product description is to describe the project’s major products and
intended purpose, including the user’s quality expectations, the acceptance criteria, and acceptance
methods for the project.
It is created in the process of starting up a project and refined during the process of initiating a project.
High-level content
Purpose: a description of what the project products will fulfil and who will use them
Major products: a description of the major products to be delivered
Derived from: what the products are based on, such as existing products or a requirement for a
new capability
User’s quality expectations: description of the quality expected of the project products and the
standards and procedures that will need to be applied to achieve them
Acceptance criteria: a prioritized list of criteria that the project products must meet to be accepted
by the user
Acceptance methods and responsibilities: the means by which acceptance will be confirmed, and
the people responsible for the acceptance decisions will be determined
Project-level quality tolerances: any tolerances that apply to the acceptance criteria.
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