Product based planning

Dr Ian Cammacki.j.Cammack@soton.ac.uk

MANG6310: Product Based Planning

MSc Project Management

Structure of session

• What is a Product

• Key Elements of Product Based Planning

– Product Descriptions

– Product Breakdown Structure

– Product Flowchart

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

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

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

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

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

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:

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

Assembled StrategyReport

ExecutiveSummary

Introduction Chapter 2 Chapter 4 Appendices

ContentsPage

Chapter 1 Chapter 3 Conclusion

Integration: Example

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

Collective: Example

ExecutiveSummary

Introduction Chapter 2 Chapter 4 Appendices

ContentsPage

Chapter 1 Chapter 3 Conclusion Assembled Group Report

Strategy Report

Grouping

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

Conference

Assembled Delegate

Handout Pack

VenueGrouping

DelegatesGrouping

PublicityGrouping

RequiredDate

etc

List of VenueRqmts

VenueEnquiries

List of Possible Venues

Selected &Booked Venue

BookingArrangements

FinalAttendance List

MailingList

Responses

Mail Shots Press Release

etc

Source: OGC (2005) p. 304

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

Example Product Flow DiagramRequired

Date

List of VenueRqmts

List of Possible Venues

VenueEnquiries

Selected &Booked Venue

Mail Shots Press Release

BookingArrangements

MailingList

FinalAttendance List

Responses

Source: OGC (2005) p. 306

Note Well:Absence of

Note Well:External