Cinergi Systems

The fundamental objective of any project is to produce a well-defined set of deliverables/outcomes, which need to be unambiguously defined in order that:

• Their validity and value can be assessed (through a planning review process) before time and effort are expended for their production/delivery
• Completion of a deliverable/outcome is able to be clearly identified in order that no more time and effort needs to be expended (so resources can move on to finalising other deliverables)

PRINCE2 has a very sound approach to deliverables-oriented project scheduling (a terminology originating in PMBOK and the related PMI Practice Standards).

The terminology used in PRINCE2 for a deliverable/outcome is Product. A Product may be input to or output from a project. A Product may be decomposed into other Products that may be represented in what is termed a Product Breakdown Structure.

PRINCE2 utilises a Product Description, which is a device for unambiguously describing the key attributes of a Product:

Attribute	Guidance
Product Identifier	The Product Identifier should be unique and meaningful
Purpose	The purpose of the Product should clearly indicate the value to be derived from delivery of this Product
Composition	The composition should define the scope of the Product in terms of form, structure and content
Derivation	This describes the process and methods for delivering the Product – this may include references to other documentation, which effectively become part of the Product Description
Resource Strategy	The resource strategy describes the type of resources required and how they will be utilised to deliver the Product
Quality Criteria	The quality criteria should provide input to a quality assurance process, in order to ensure that the Product delivered satisfies the requirements of the Product Description
Quality Method(s)	The quality method(s) are those used to determine if the quality criteria have been satisfied. There should be references to standards/guidelines documents where the method(s) are described. The standards/guidelines documents effectively become part of the Product Description.

Deliverables-oriented Project Schedules incorporate the Products that are input to and output from a project. The resources and timeframes to deliver each Product are defined, together with any dependency relationships with other Products. Key milestones are the start and finish dates for Product delivery.

Once the Products have been defined, the set of detailed tasks required to deliver a Product are often incorporated as a lower level of detail (underneath Products) within Project Schedules. However this is not always advisable, particularly where there are existing procedures/guidelines and/or Work Instructions for the production of the type of Product concerned (which are referenced from the ‘Derivation’ section of the Product Description).