managing product delivery

Managing and Controlling a PRINCE2 Delivery Stage

Managing And Controlling A PRINCE2 Delivery Stage

Probably 90% of the project budget is spent within the Managing Product Delivery (MP) process, since this is where the specialist products are created.  The ‘execute a work package’ activity is where the specialist products are created and their quality checks carried out, followed by their approval by the appropriate authority or individual.

The team manager or the team themselves will produce regular Checkpoint Reports providing information on the status and future forecast of the creation of specialist products.  These are sent to the project manager, and may be in the form of a report or a meeting.  The project manager will use the activity of Review Work Package Status to determine the progress or otherwise of the creation and the approval of these specialist products.

Since the Stage Plan has been approved by the Project Board, then the project manager must look at progress within the stage itself. If the project manager determines that the stage is forecast to remain within tolerance bounds, then he or she may take some form of corrective action to minimize any such deviations within tolerance.  This may entail giving out new or modified Work Packages to the specialist team. 

In addition to this the project manager will need to review the stage status and use the activity of report highlights, which will generate a Highlight Report to be given to the project board so that they understand the current status and forecast future of progress within the stage.  The project manager will update the Stage Plan with actual progress, and modifying future actions to ensure that the stage plan is forecast to complete within tolerance.

As each Work Package is completed, then the team manager or the specialist team themselves needs to inform the project manager that the Work Package is indeed complete.  The project manager, as part of the activity review work package status will need to agree that all the products have been completed, met their quality criteria, and have been approved by the appropriate authority. 

This may trigger the authorization of a new/revised Work Package, or that the stage end is approaching, in which case the project manager would use the Managing a Stage Boundary (SB) process to prepare for an end stage assessment.

If at any time during the stage, either issues or risks should arise, then the project manager should use the activity of capture and examine issues and risks to carry out an impact analysis of these on both the stage and project.  The appropriate Issue or Risk Register should be updated with such information.

If the project manager determines that some corrective action can be taken via the issue of new or modified Work Packages to resolve the situation then such actions would need to be taken.  If after impact analysis and the review of this within the status of the stage or the project would show that forecast of tolerances would be exceeded, then the project manager must create an Exception Report and bring this to the attention of the project board. If a Work Package is forecast to exceed tolerance levels, the Team Manager would raise this as an issue to bring it to the attention of the project manager.

Using the activity escalate issues and risks, the project manager would bring this Exception Report to the attention of the project board.  Put simply this Exception Report should contain information on the reasons for this forecast of exceeding tolerances, the impact in terms of the appropriate tolerance, and a set of options, which if implemented would return the stage of project within tolerance bounds, and a recommendation of which option should be chosen, and why it is the best option.

This is sent to the project board who now need to make a decision on what to do next.  One option they have is to prematurely close the project, in which case the project manager would use the Closing a Project (CP) process to carry this out.  For the moment we shall assume that they prefer another option, either recommended by the project manager, or one which they have determined. This would trigger the project manager to use the Managing a Stage Boundary (SB) process.

The project board would request the preparation of an Exception Plan using the Managing a Stage Boundary process.

At this point it would be helpful to state that the Managing a Stage Boundary process has only TWO uses.

The first is to prepare for an end stage assessment (ESA) by creating the next Stage Plan.

The second is to prepare for an exception assessment (EXA). In the former the objective is to approve or otherwise, the next Stage Plan, and in the latter it is to approve or otherwise the Exception Plan.

Whichever of the above, this process would follow the following steps and activities:

1.   Create either a next Stage Plan or an Exception Plan

2.   Update the Project Plan to show actual progress and if necessary, a modified future forecast

3.   As part of updating the Project Plan and the next Stage Plan/Exception Plan, it may be necessary to update some aspects of the PID (possibly in terms of the strategies, the plan, and the controls, or the Business Case and related Benefits Review Plan.

4.   As a result of the above, new or modified Product Descriptions will need to be created, new or modified risks and issues entered on to the appropriate registers including any lessons that have been learned during the stage.

5.   The Benefits Review Plan needs to be updated to reflect any products that may have already being released into the operational (business as usual – BAU) areas.

6.   The project manager will produce an End Stage Report and if appropriate create a Lessons Report.

All of the above will be brought before the project board at either an end stage assessment or an exception assessment. 

The project board will need to make a decision to either approve the next Stage Plan, or approve the Exception Plan, or request more information, or to order a premature close of the project.

For each delivery stage these four processes will continue in the same manner as described above.  The Managing a Stage Boundary process will be used either to prepare a next Stage Plan or an Exception Plan and is brought before the project board using the Directing a Project process to either approve or otherwise the next Stage Plan or an Exception Plan.

Once this has been authorized, the project manager will give out the work contained within that Stage Plan and the specialist team will create the specialist products via each Work Package.  This is done via the execute a work package activity. When the last Work Package has been completed (each specialist product has been approved), then this will trigger the project manager to acknowledge that the project end is approaching, and will then trigger the Closing a Project process

Managing Product Delivery process

 

Managing Product Delivery.

 
PRINCE2 states that the project manager’s job is to manage the work not to do it.  In other words the creation of the specialist products are the responsibility of the specialist team.  The project manager uses the Controlling a Stage process, while the specialist team, and the team manager if appointed, use the Managing Product Delivery process.
 
Therefore the Managing Product Delivery process acts as the link between project manager and team managers where the emphasis is on accepting a Work Package, executing a Work Package and delivering a Work Package.  
 
Each Work Package must contain at least one Product Description, and the role of the team manager is to coordinate that area of work. Several Work Packages may be given out at any one time to different specialist teams, or they may be given out in series to one team. At a minimum, one Work Package may be given out in a particular management stage.
 
It would be chaotic to think that the team carry out any work that they think is necessary without the authority of the project manager.  Therefore work allocated to the specialist team can only start once it has been authorised and agreed between the project manager and the team managers.
 
The information contained within the Work Package clarifies exactly what is to be produced what is the expected work at that, costs and timescales.  This ensures that the planned products are delivered to expectations and within tolerance if this is applied.
 
It is also important that accurate progress information is given on an agreed regular basis to the project manager (this is done via the regular Checkpoint Reports), so that the project manager can assure themselves that work is proceeding to plan and that the products are being created to a satisfactory level of quality.
 
Managing Product Delivery will be triggered by the project manager authorising a Work Package and this must be accepted by the team manager or the team members themselves.  As part of accepting the Work Package, a Team Plan may be created, although if needed, this is often done in parallel with creation of the relevant Stage Plan.
 
The information within the work package will ensure that the products are developed in line with any specified development methods, and the product descriptions included will describe the quality methods and quality criteria that each product must meet.
 
For a product to be completed, there are three steps: first the product must be created to its draft status, then the quality check all quality review is carried out, and if successful the product then needs to be approved.  The quality check and the approval must be independent of those creating the product in the first place.
 
The formality of the work package may differ depending upon whether the specialist team are internal to the organisation or a third party organisation, in which case the work package may form part of the work statement contained within a contract.
 
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