Product based planning in Prince2

In my article about the complete Prince2 health check I explained that the main features of PRINCE2 are:

• Business Case: Business justification of the project (which benefits contributes the project for the organization, how does the project contribute to the corporate goal).
• Product Based Planning: A planning based on the products that should delivered.
• Organisation: Defined organizational structure for the project (project manager, business executive, project board, etc.).
• Stages: controlable and checkable project stages.
• Management by Exception: The project board comes together only when strictly necessary.

In this article we’ll look a little bit further on the Product Based Planning aspects of a project. Not only because I have created two home made templates ( Product Breakdown Structure and Product Flow Diagram in Visio format) but also because I think that Product Based Planning helps you to keep your focus right while delivering the required results.

Surfing over the internet I found the following descriptions about Product Based Planning:

Product Based Planning is a key feature of Prince2, providing a focus on the products to be delivered and their quality. It forms an integral part of the Planning process and leads into the use of other generic planning techniques such as network planning and Gantt charts. Plans are produced in the planning process using this technique.

There are three elements to the Product Based Planning approach.

1. The first is the Product Breakdown Structure (PBS). This is a deliverable oriented, hierarchical structure (which is often termed a Work Breakdown Structure in non-Prince2 projects) which seeks to define the entire scope of the project as a set of products.
2. The second element is the Product Description, which specifies a product in the PBS. This Product Description describes not just the deliverable, but also the quality criteria and method by which it will be accepted. The Product Description is a key feature of the quality approach in a Prince2 project.
3. The third element, the Product Flow Diagram shows the sequence of development of the Products in the PBS, helping to ensure that all items are identified in the scope and assisting in the development of project, stage and activity plans. (For those not familiar with Prince2, it is an intermediate step between Work Breakdown Structure and Activity Networking in an overall planning process).

Source: http://www.projectperformance.co.uk/tour/prince2_component_13.php

The sentence I like most in this description of Projectperformance.co.uk is that Product Based Planning is integral part of the planning process and that it leads to the use of other generic planning techniques. This is so true but what I miss is that Product Based Planning really differs from activity based planning. Most of the project managers I meet know what they must DO to do their job. The biggest problem they have is clearly define what products they must DELIVER in order to meet the customers expectations. If you don’t understand the difference between the two sentences then your focus is on activity based planning…..

On crazycolour.com I found the following article:

Product Based Planning means thinking of what will be produced rather than how it will be produced. When creating a Product Breakdown Structure, for example, one would not include ‘writing a PID’ in the Product Breakdown Structure but rather ‘PID’ , neither would it be correct to say ‘getting approval of the PID’ but ‘approved PID’ is correct. The differences are slight but significant when doing a PRINCE2 exam!

• Also known as “Product Led Planning”
• Works closely with PL2 Defining and Analysing Products

The sequence is:

1. Creating a Product Breakdown Structure
2. Defining Product Description
3. Creating a Product Flow Diagram.

Source: http://www.crazycolour.com/prince2/?title=Product_Based_Planning

As you can imagine I think that this second article describes a little bit better the difference between the traditional way of planning and the Product Based way of Planning. Start getting used to Product Based Planning and you’ll notice that it will make your project life much more fun and better to manage. Also take a look at my Visio templates, they might help you.

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