The Advantages of Product Based Planning

A key component of the function of the project manager is to plan the project, and each stage or phase of the project. Project managers are familiar with work-based planning - basing the plan on the effort that is expected to be consumed by tasks during the project life cycle. In this article we describe another way... Product Based Planning is a planning technique that focuses on outputs rather than effort.

What is the difference between focusing on products and on work? Well, basing any level of plan on the deliverables rather than the outputs brings several benefits.

The first benefit of basing a plan on the deliverables is that it ensures that the project management team is focused on outputs rather than on how busy the team is. We can be more certain that we are generating products that contribute to project success rather than creating products that keep everyone busy.

The second benefit is in communicating project objectives to all levels of management. A product based plan conveys information on deliverables expected to all who view it. Senior management may not be sufficiently technically skilled to interpret information regarding work to be done, especially in a technically complex environment, but they will certainly understand the objectives and progress information of a product based plan. Because the plan details the outputs they can easily gauge progress and risk or problem points are clearly identifiable.

The third benefit is ease of use. Project managers don't need to understand the effort that is required for each deliverable in order to begin the planning process. The process can begin with an easy product identification brainstorm with the teams or team managers. The activities required to produce these deliverables can then be added at a later time. The advantage of this technique is that nothing that does not contribute to the final product is listed in the draft plan, and the project manager has an increased level of confidence that the project sets out top deliver what is required of it.

There are many other real-world benefits of Product Based Planning and these will be covered in aPRINCE2 training courses.

Although Product Based Planning is not an software driven process, it is certain that your planning will become more efficient and that fewer products will be forgotten and fewer superfluous products will be planned for creation. Additionally, Product Based Planning will not replace work based planning - the project manager must of course plan for work to be done, but doesn't it seem logical to do this after the Product Based Planning bit?