Product-based planning

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Product-based planning is a fundamental part of the PRINCE2 approach to project management, and is a method of identifying all of the products (project deliverables) that make up or contribute to delivering the objectives of the project, and the associated work required to deliver them. The documents which define the Project itself are also considered Products.

PRINCE2 project management method

PRINCE2 is a structured project management method and practitioner certification programme. PRINCE2 emphasises dividing projects into manageable and controllable stages.

Project management is the practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria at the specified time.

Contents

Overview

Product breakdown structure
Product-based planning is intended to ensure that all of the necessary products are identified and captured, and begins by identifying a product breakdown structure which is then repeatedly refined until all of the requisite products are identified. The PBS is thus a hierarchical family tree of all the products and sub-products that comprise the final end-product.
It is important to understand that in this context the term 'product' includes intermediate documentary products that are essential to the work of delivering the project. In this sense the product breakdown structure is a great deal more than simply an exploded view of the final end-product. Products included might also be products required to manage the project such as paper-based products and quality products such as approvals or quality checks on earlier made products. Examples include such things as requirement specifications, design approvals, test documentation, safety certifications, and so on.
Product flow diagram
Once a product breakdown structure has been created, work can then begin on creating a product flow diagram (PFD) (or product flowchart) which identifies the order of precedence of products and will typically include multiple and complex parallel paths. For practical purposes this flowchart is essentially the same as the PERT chart used for critical path scheduling and leads naturally to the development of a project schedule.
Work breakdown structure
With an understanding of the deliverables required, and the sequence in which they should be produced, work can then begin on defining the tasks required to produce them.

A significant advantage of product-based planning is the ability to surface critical assumptions and constraints. For example, if your project is to build another floor on top of a house a required product will be the floor underneath on which to build the one you are commissioned to deliver. As a product you hope that it is there and will be fit for purpose but as you are not commissioned to deliver it, it falls outside your scope - and into your assumptions. In this way, by defining the whole product set necessary for the project, and not just those that are in your scope, you can surface and document the critical assumptions. Another advantage compared to activity-based planning has to do with reporting. Products are either finished or not, activities can be 90% finished for a long time even though work is taking place. One tends to forget things that have to be done to complete a project. This method captures them all, reducing the chance that any will be overlooked.

This method is used in PRINCE2, the UK's government mandated method for the management of major projects

Example

A refrigerator is a final product with sub-products being door, shelves, heat exchange unit, fans, ice cube dispensers, lights, etc.

Refrigerator household appliance for preserving food at a low temperature

A refrigerator consists of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump that transfers heat from the inside of the fridge to its external environment so that the inside of the fridge is cooled to a temperature below the ambient temperature of the room. Refrigeration is an essential food storage technique in developed countries. The lower temperature lowers the reproduction rate of bacteria, so the refrigerator reduces the rate of spoilage. A refrigerator maintains a temperature a few degrees above the freezing point of water. Optimum temperature range for perishable food storage is 3 to 5 °C. A similar device that maintains a temperature below the freezing point of water is called a freezer. The refrigerator replaced the icebox, which had been a common household appliance for almost a century and a half.

Each of the sub-products are made up of smaller products such as door handle, insulation, magnetic closure strip and internal covering.

See also

Managing Stage Boundaries is one of seven processes that make up PRINCE2, a systematic approach to project management developed by the UK's Office of Government Commerce and used widely in UK government and industry. The fundamental principle of Managing Stage Boundaries (SB) is to ensure that, at the end of each stage, the project stays focused on delivering business benefit.

Related Research Articles

Work breakdown structure deliverable oriented decomposition of a project into smaller components (in project management and systems engineering)

A work-breakdown structure (WBS) in project management and systems engineering, is a deliverable-oriented breakdown of a project into smaller components. A work breakdown structure is a key project deliverable that organizes the team's work into manageable sections. The Project Management Body of Knowledge defines the work-breakdown structure "A hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables."

Project planning is part of project management, which relates to the use of schedules such as Gantt charts to plan and subsequently report progress within the project environment.

Project Management Body of Knowledge book

The Project Management Body of Knowledge is a set of standard terminology and guidelines for project management. The body of knowledge evolves over time and is presented in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, a book whose sixth edition was released in 2017. The Guide is a document resulting from work overseen by the Project Management Institute (PMI), which offers the CAPM and PMP certifications.

Critical path method

The critical path method (CPM), or critical path analysis (CPA), is an algorithm for scheduling a set of project activities. It is commonly used in conjunction with the program evaluation and review technique (PERT). A critical path is determined by identifying the longest stretch of dependent activities and measuring the time required to complete them from start to finish.

Project management software has the capacity to help plan, organize, and manage resource tools and develop resource estimates. Depending on the sophistication of the software, it can manage estimation and planning, scheduling, cost control and budget management, resource allocation, collaboration software, communication, decision-making, quality management and documentation or administration systems. Today, numerous PC and browser-based project management software and contract management software solutions exist, and are finding applications in almost every type of business.

Product breakdown structure

In project management under the PRINCE2 methodology, a product breakdown structure (PBS) is a tool for analysing, documenting and communicating the outcomes of a project, and forms part of the product based planning technique.

Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components. Software development is a process of writing and maintaining the source code, but in a broader sense, it includes all that is involved between the conception of the desired software through to the final manifestation of the software, sometimes in a planned and structured process. Therefore, software development may include research, new development, prototyping, modification, reuse, re-engineering, maintenance, or any other activities that result in software products.

Flowchart diagram representing the flow of logic, algorithms, or data through the use of boxes, lines, and arrows

A flowchart is a type of diagram that represents an algorithm, workflow or process. Flowchart can also be defined as a diagramatic representation of an algorithm.


A business analyst (BA) is someone who analyzes an organization or business domain and documents its business or processes or systems, assessing the business model or its integration with technology.

Technology roadmap plan that matches short-term and long-term goals with specific technology solutions to help meet those goals

A technology roadmap is a flexible planning technique to support strategic and long-range planning, by matching short-term and long-term goals with specific technology solutions. It is a plan that applies to a new product or process and may include using technology forecasting/technology scouting to identify suitable emerging technologies. It is a known technique to help manage the fuzzy front-end of innovation. It is also expected that roadmapping techniques may help companies to survive in turbulent environments and help them to plan in a more holistic way to include non-financial goals and drive towards a more sustainable development. Here roadmaps can be combined with other corporate foresight methods to facilitate systemic change.

Project Initiation Documentation

The Project Initiation Documentation (PID) - one of the most significant artifacts in project management, which provides the foundation for the business project.

Scrum is an agile framework for managing knowledge work, with an emphasis on software development, although it has wide application in other fields and is slowly starting to be explored by traditional project teams more generally. It is designed for teams of three to nine members, who break their work into actions that can be completed within timeboxed iterations, called sprints, no longer than one month and most commonly two weeks, then track progress and re-plan in 15-minute time-boxed stand-up meetings, called daily scrums.

Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS) - A hierarchically organised depiction of the identified project risks arranged by category.

A glossary of terms relating to project management and consulting.

Project management triangle

The Project Management Triangle is a model of the constraints of project management. While its origins are unclear, it has been used since at least the 1950s. It contends that:

  1. The quality of work is constrained by the project's budget, deadlines and scope (features).
  2. The project manager can trade between constraints.
  3. Changes in one constraint necessitate changes in others to compensate or quality will suffer.

The Product flow diagram (PFD) representation of the order by which a sequence of products is created according to Product based planning principles. It is related to the Product breakdown structure (PBS).

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to project management:

The Goals breakdown structure (GBS) is a hierarchical structure linking high-level objectives or goals to more detailed goals. The GBS was originally developed for project management, but applies to product development and the organization as a whole. The concept is based on the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) popular in the project management discipline. Like the WBS, project goals exhibit a hierarchical structure. The highest-level defines the overall goal or mission for the project. The next level down sets the goals the organization intends to achieve from the project. These might include such items as profit, market share, etc. The next layer down defines the features the products must exhibit to achieve the organization's goals. The next layer down defines the specifications each product or component of the product must have to meet the products features.

References

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