Mainly drawing from PRINCE2

1. Dr Ian Cammack
i.j.Cammack@soton.ac.uk
MANG6310: Product Based
Planning
MSc Project Management

2. Structure of session
• What is a Product
• Key Elements of Product Based Planning
– Product Descriptions
– Product Breakdown Structure
– Product Flowchart

3. Beginning with the end in mind
• A Product is an output from a process.
• It may also be called a Deliverable.
• A Product may be a tangible one such as a machine, a document or a piece of software
• A Product may be intangible, such as cultural change or a different organisational structure
• PRINCE2 also defines two categories of product
– Specialist product whose development is part of the plan
– Management product required as part of managing the project
Source: OGC (2005) p. 293 & p. 297

4. Elements of Product-Based Planning
• Product description of a final product
– Clarity of requirement & baseline for establishing if required
quality has been built
• Product breakdown structure
– Identify products created or obtained by the planned work
– Identify additional products needed to support final products
• Product descriptions for each product
• Product flow diagram
– What comes next?
Source: OGC (2005) pp. 293-5

5. Product Description: Composition
• Identifier: Unique number / key
• Title: Name by which the product is known
• Purpose: What purpose will it fulfil?
• Composition: List of parts of the product e.g. if project is a book it may be list
of chapters
• Source(s): What are the source products from which this product is derived?
• Presentation: Standard appearance to which the product must conform
• Allocated to: Person, group or skill type needed
• Quality Criteria: What quality specifications must the product be produced to
and are there any tolerance levels?
• Quality Check: How will quality be checked (test, inspection, review), who will
do check and who will approve the results?
Source: Based on OGC (2005) p. 368

6. Product Descriptions: Key Criteria
• Does one exist for EACH product?
• Are the products clearly defined?
• Have all types of quality checks for the products been specified?
• Are there known / defined quality criteria & have they been applied?
• Has a sensible compromise been reached between customer & supplier
standards?
• Have the right people been involved in writing each Product description?
Source: based on OGC (2005) p. 301

7. Product Descriptions: Hints
• Quality criteria need careful thought; involve specialists if necessary
• Involve the customer / user in writing Product Descriptions
• “How will I know when work on this product is finished as opposed to
stopped?”
• Product Description is NOT a requirements specification
Source: OGC (2005) pp. 301 - 302

8. Product Breakdown Structure: Composition
• Simple Products: Lowest level of any branch
• Intermediate Products: Product that is broken into further products
– Integration
– Collective
• Specialist Products:
• Management Products:
• External Products:

9. Intermediate Products: Integration
– Integration Products where one or more activities such as assembly or
testing will need to be applied after the sub products have been
produced.
– Sensible to include the word ‘assembled’, ‘tested’, ‘integrated’ etc. in
these integrative intermediate products
– Integration Products are represented as a rectangle

10. Assembled
Strategy
Report
Executive
Summary
Introduction Chapter 2 Chapter 4 Appendices
Contents
Page
Chapter 1 Chapter 3 Conclusion
Integration: Example

11. Intermediate Products: Collective
– Collective grouping is a convenient way of grouping a number of products.
– Sensible to call these collective intermediate products ‘…. Group’
– Integration Products are represented as a rhomboid
– Do you need a defined sub-product that is an Integrated Product?
– Integration Products are NOT carried forward to the Product Flow Diagram

12. Collective: Example
Executive
Summary
Introduction Chapter 2 Chapter 4 Appendices
Contents
Page
Chapter 1 Chapter 3 Conclusion
Assembled
Group
Report
Strategy
Report
Grouping

13. External Products
• Include products delivered by the project BUT also any products that already exist
or are supplied from external sources
• External Product: one that PM is not accountable for their creation but needs
them to achieve the projects objectives.
• Examples: Operating system source code, data projector, train timetable
• External Products are represented as an oval

14. Conference
Assembled
Delegate
Handout Pack
Venue
Grouping
Delegates
Grouping
Publicity
Grouping
Required
Date
etc
List of Venue
Rqmts
Venue
Enquiries
List of
Possible Venues
Selected &
Booked Venue
Booking
Arrangements
Final
Attendance List
Mailing
List
Responses
Mail Shots
Press Release
etc
Source: OGC (2005) p. 304

15. Example Product Description:
• Identifier: CP02/01
• Title: List of venue requirements
• Purpose: To identify all the requirements that must be met by suitable venues for the
conference
• Composition: Date on which availability is rqd, Start & end times, Expected No. of
attendees, Accommodation rqmts, Facilities rqd, Refreshments rqd, Parking rqd
• Source(s): Mailing list, Rqd date, Previous conference numbers, Previous list of rqmts
• Presentation: Typed list with sub-headings as per Composition
• Allocated to: Conference Organiser
• Quality Criteria: 1) List must hold everything that will be required of a site to hold the
conference, 2) List should separate mandatory from desirable features, 3) List must cover
items defined under Composition, 4) Each item must be defined in a way that is
measurable
• Quality Checks: 1) Check against headings in Composition, 2) Proof reading by
independent reviewer, 3) Comparison against previous conferences, 4) Check against any
offered checklist from conference sites

16. Example Product Flow Diagram
Required
Date
List of Venue
Rqmts
List of
Possible Venues
Venue
Enquiries
Selected &
Booked Venue
Mail Shots
Press Release
Booking
Arrangements
Mailing
List
Final
Attendance List
Responses
Source: OGC (2005) p. 306
Note Well:
Absence of
Note Well:
External