What is product based planning technique?

Answer 1

In the traditional approach to planning described in many textbooks, the main focus is given to the activities necessary for completion of a project, and a schedule is treated as a plan showing who and when should carry out these activities. In the Product-Based Planning Technique, a plan should first define a final result (a final product of the plan), to be delivered by the plan's execution, and: · what, i.e. partial products · in what a sequence · by what activities · using what resources · when should be created or delivered, to get the final result. The technique is based upon an observation that the same product may be obtained as a result of different activities. For example, if skilled operators will be necessary to operate new equipment, it is possible to train people already employed or to get respectively skilled people from outside. In the first case, an activity to be carried out would be training, and in the second - recruitment. Similar, some products may be done inside an organization, outsourced from other company, or just bought ready. All these activities differ in duration, costs, resources required, but they should give the same product. A process leading to the final result and a sequence of creating partial products and respective activities often result from an assumed approach and technology, however they should fulfill imposed constraints. So planning should start with a precise definition of the final result - what we will call the plan's final product. Examples of a final product: Information system operational, Factory ready to operate, Completed marketing campaign, Renovated building, Upgraded system etc. The best project management software implementing product based planning technique is P2ware Planner.