Key Concept: Products

The end of every PRINCE2® projects is achieved by completing some specialist product set that satisfies the (A.1) Acceptance Criteria[1] and enables achievement of the benefits described in the (A.2) Business Case. The business case’s identification marked the start of, reason for and justification of the project. Products (or ‘results’ or ‘impacts’) are the only reason to undertake any project and are only appropriate when they match the business case's justification of the project.

PRINCE2® is very focussed on products and planning for their creation via the Product Based Planning Technique.

PRINCE2® uses specialist product to mean any change in the state of the world as a result of the project. A new brand image, a new candy bar, or off-shore call centre or a reorganised corporate structure are all valid PRINCE2® specialist products. Products give rise to tangible & hopefully measurable benefits. ‘Product’ also refers to artefacts created during the project that are not final deliverables to the end users but are necessary steps along the way such as specifications & progress reports. A product in PRINCE2® terms is anything the project must create, amend or acquire.

Products occur in a number of sub-categories.

One classification of products is simple products versus intermediate products. Simple products are those that are at the bottom of the decomposition - they are not or cannot be broken into sub-components. Intermediate products are those that can be further sub-divided. The intermediate products may either be collections that do not in any manner integrate, or they may be made of simple products that do integrate in some manner. A further classification of products is between those upon which the project is dependant but for which the (B.5) Project Manager[2] is not accountable versus those for which the project is accountable.

Figure 3: Project Manager & (optionally) Project Support

Within the concept of Product Based Planning[3] the products outside the (B.5) Project Manager’s accountability are called external products (and will be modelled in ellipses when drawing (A.20) Product Breakdown Structures and (A.23) Product Flow Diagrams - for simplicity externals are not illustrated here but see the Product Base Planning topic for an exhaustive explanation). Products for which the project team is responsibilities (IE products created, modified or acquired under the (B.5) Project Manager’s management), are called internal products.

Another classification (already mentioned) is specialist’s products versus management products. Specialist products are the Call Centre or Brand Image examples above (which the project manager is NOT expected to be literate in the creation of: project managers know how to run projects, not lay bricks, write legislation or design warships - if you know SCRUM: same principle), The (B.5) Project Manager is expected to have extensive knowledge of and ability to use the management products correctly. Management products are those required to baseline and control a project's expected and actual performance - such as the (A.2) Business Case.

PRINCE2® defines most but not all required management products in the official RedBook's 36 Appendix A entries. Some suggested criteria for judging the completeness and appropriateness of management products is provided by p2 in a number of places, as is a technique for their review (Quality Review Technique), the forums for their review (mostly within the (DP) Directing A Project sub-processes) and the participants at the review.

For specialist products PRINCE2® does not mandate the tests required to verify and validate products or otherwise get in the way of the specialists. PRINCE2® does mandate that every product must have well defined (A.1) Acceptance Criteria matched to appropriate means to confirm the (A.1) Acceptance Criteria are present.

It is up to the project's team members to know how to produce their products. PRINCE2® doesn’t even require the specialists to be using PRINCE2® to manage their work as long as the interface is appropriate (see xr-CS & MP). By ensuring good specification of products [via (A.22) Product Descriptions and tasks via (A.36) Work Packages] the PRINCE2® project is able to plan, prior to work starting, the right resource needs and to verify during creation that products are of appropriate quality. When all the products are finished i.e. of good quality, the project manager request that the project be closed.

Next set of concepts are Clear S&E ACs and CQEs

[1] A.1 is a reference to Appendix A of the official manual Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2® where PRINCE2® provides Document Templates. Appendix A contains 36 entries from (A.1) Acceptance Criteria to (A.36) Work Package

[2] B.5 is a reference to Appendix B of the manual. In Appendix B PRINCE2® provides details of the duties of each of the 10 roles identified as necessary for running a project.

[3] PRINCE2® is made up of a number of elements described in the PRINCE2® manual. The elements are: Processes (Ch3-11), Components (Ch12-20), Techniques (Ch21-24), Roles (Apdx. B), Risk Categories (Apdx C) and Management Product Templates (Apdx A). Techniques say “how” to perform some part of the project planning or execution.