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PRINCE2 Success Secret – The Product Description 

 April 27, 2023

By  Dave Litten

Prince2 Product DescriptionPRINCE2 – Creating A Perfect Product Description.

Far too often, the creating of PRINCE2 Product Description is seen as the boring bit of Product-Based planning, and the perception is that you are just filling out details of yet another form.

You will be aware that for each product on the PRINCE2 Product Flow Diagram (remember that the Product Breakdown Structure may have extra ‘grouping’ products), there will be a referencing product description.

I strongly urge you to perform the exercise of Product-Based planning within a workshop environment with an independent facilitator.  For those of you familiar with the Agile Methodolgy – go HERE for more information, the use of the Atern Facilitated Workshops technique is perfect.

Many people believe that the PRINCE2 product description is just ‘a document to be filled out’, when in actual fact it is a valuable and powerful tool to help define the deliverables of a project.  Indeed, the very act of answering the questions posed in each section of the product description will help you better understand the product and its inherent quality criteria.

It may take several hours to ‘fill in the form’ of a particular product, but the valuable part is the detailed discussion that converges on a jointly agreed description.  Other product descriptions may only take a few minutes.

Such PRINCE2 Product Description workshops needs to be attended (even if part time), by appropriate representatives of the participating organisations.  Typical attendees should include:

  • Those with specialist knowledge of the product
  • Customers who will gain benefit from the product
  • Users who need to operate and maintain the product
  • Business representatives to represent aspects such as return on investment

The above stakeholders may also include third parties if appropriate.

Key sections of a PRINCE2 Product Description:

Identifier.

This is often alpha-numeric, and serves as an easy quick reference that can be included for the PRINCE2 product breakdown structure and product flow diagrams.

Title.

Some thought should be given to making the title clear and unambiguous.  This is particularly important where several variances of a particular product will need to be created.

Having be short and succinct title can also help when naming each product of the product breakdown structure and product flow diagrams.  Make sure that the terminology speaks in the common language of your organization.

Purpose.

This is simply the reason why you need to build this product in this project.  It may be when trying to fill in this section that a joint agreement is reached that the product is not needed after all!  Or it may be that there are different opinions of why the product is needed, in which case this is an ideal opportunity to discuss and agree on a joint purpose.

Composition.

They should simply describe what a product is composed of, and referral to the PRINCE2 product breakdown structure diagram may be helpful here.  Be careful not to confuse this section with the quality criteria heading which comes later.

If you have a specification as a separate document, then you may wish to reference that here and explain precisely the specification scope and how it will be presented.

Derivation.

Although you may not have created yet, the PRINCE2 product flow diagram will show the predecessor dependencies upon which this product relates.  For example, this product may be derived from a technical specification or prototype, in which case they would be the products from which this one is derived.

Thinking through a product’s dependencies may help reveal additional products that had not been previously identified.

Not all dependencies may be products however, some dependencies may be milestone decisions or control points within the project schedule (yet if course, to be created).

Format and presentation.

It may be that this section is not required, but many products, particularly documents or data, may need a standard formatting and presentation style (A4, Letter, software language, physical presentation – on a memory stick for example).

Development skills required.

Once it is clear what the product is, then this section can be filled in with the relevant skills needed to create the product.  Remember that you may wish to include a suitable individual as having the relevant knowledge, skills, and experience.

Quality criteria.

This is the criteria that the finished product must meet in order to be approved and used within the lives operational area.  The quality criteria may be seen as the acceptance criteria for this product.

Here, it is important that the relevant roles mentioned at the beginning of this article are involved in agreeing a complete set of quality criteria.  The danger is that it’s just a specialist individuals are used to define the quality criteria, then important business or operational metrics are missed out.

For example, what about maintainability?  Does the quality criteria include easy to replace parts of the product?

Quality tolerance.

This refers to each of the quality criteria mentioned above.  Tolerances usually have a plus and minus boundary, and the quality criteria must fall within such boundaries.  Some products may only have a plus boundary; for example a physical component may be smaller in size but must not exceed a maximum dimension.

Some quality criteria are absolute.  Meeting dates at specification is an example; the product either fails or passes.  Beware of stating a quality tolerance that is subjective as this may lead to poor quality or expensive rework.

Quality method.

This describes how you will carry out the quality criteria check to measure whether or not the products meet its criteria.  In the same way that there is an infinite variety of products, then so too, there are an infinite variety of quality checking methods.

PRINCE2 includes a technique called the formal quality review which is meeting-based.  Some products may simply be weighed or measured with a ruler, others may need to be sent to specialist test sites to carry out quality checking via calibrated equipment.

Quality skills required.

This section may include the knowledge, skills and experience required to carry out the quality checking.  You may need very specific qualified personnel here, but on the other hand, you may want to use a novice or a typical user (this is particularly important if the quality criteria states that the product must be understood and used by an unqualified individual).

Quality responsibilities.

There are three potential roles involved here; those who create or produce the product, those who carry out the quality checks, and those who will approve the product.

All three should be clearly described here.  However, it may be that those who carry out quality checks may be the same individual who approves the product.

Summary.

Well that’s just about wraps up how to correctly use the PRINCE2 product description document, and I’m sure that you will agree that from now on, it is not seen just as a simple form filling exercise, but rather a valuable and vital tool and technique to ensure that your projects will be successful.

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Dave Litten


Dave has spent 25 years as a senior project manager for USA multinationals and has deep experience in project management. He now develops a wide range of Project Management Masterclasses, under the Projex Academy brand name. In addition, David runs project management training seminars across the world, and is a prolific writer on the many topics of project management.

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