Deliverables
Items you are contracted to supply
Deliverables derive from the measurement of objectives.
Individuals will have personal objectives as will the project.
Milestones are natural breaks in the project where there is an opportunity to review the progress of the project.
The progress is assessed by the achievement (or not) of specific objectives.
The only way you will know if you have reached an objective is to define the criteria of success as measured by specific deliverables.
As with many objectives and their ‘deliverables’ they must be achievable.
Hence, only promise what you know you can deliver.
Best to list for every milestone
Deliverables can take on many forms, for example:
- Reports
- Data
- Model or prototype
- Other documentation
- Marketing video etc
We know that deliverables should be measurable in some form.
That is, you should know exactly what type of report is required and in what form.
In the case of reports, these should be governed by controlled formats, with version numbers, circulation lists and have their distribution controlled as well as other areas.
Remember, that the ‘deliverable’ satisfies the need to show that an objective has been completed successfully (or not).
Hence the quality and the amount of data should reflect this.
These areas should have been discussed and agreed with those who have an invested interested in the objective.
All agreed deliverables should be recorded.
Every deliverable should be listed for a given milestone and entered into the Project Notebook.
Under PRINCE2® 2009 [see ‘The Complete Project Management plus PRINCE2’] the control of these items is covered by the Change process and in particular the Configuration Management process.
The purpose of the Change theme is to identify, assess and control any potential and approved changes to the baseline.
[see Change - Purpose]
Configuration management is the technical and administrative activity concerned with the creation, maintenance and controlled change of configuration throughout the life of a product (or item).
[see Change - Change defined - Configuration management]
PRINCE2® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.