In my last two posts, I’ve described how the project board directs a project, delegating many day-to-day responsibilities to the project manager, who in turn is responsible for controlling project stages. As we step down the processes of a PRINCE2 project, we now come to the process of managing product delivery. This describes the responsibilities of the team manager, and the tasks that they must do to deliver the planned products of a work package.
What are a team manager’s responsibilities when managing product delivery?
The team manager is responsible for ensuring that all planned products are produced and delivered. They must ensure that:
- Work is allocated effectively to the team and its members
- Work packages are authorised, accepted, and checked
- Products conform to the standards set by the project
- Approval is obtained for the completed products
- Work progress is assessed regularly and reported to the project manager
The team manager’s activities when managing product delivery
The team manager is required to undertake three specific activities to manage product delivery effectively:
1. Accepting a work package
The project manager and team manager must agree the work package before it is handed to the team manager. Specifically, the team manager will need to know what the team is expected to deliver, the constraints they will be working under, the expectations for the product of the work package (and work package tolerances), and the resources that will be available.
With the work package agreed, the team manager will create a team plan. This will detail what needs to be done by the team to deliver the product, including the activities needed to ensure the product is delivered to the required quality standard.
2. Executing a work package
It is the team manager’s responsibility to ensure that the team complete the work assigned, and it is the team manager who assumes responsibility for that work. They will need to assign and monitor tasks, updating the team plan and producing modified forecasts of completion.
It is imperative that the project manager is kept informed of progress throughout a work package and project stage. If the information about progress gathered by the team manager threatens product delivery, the team manager must raise it as a project issue with the project manager.
In addition, the team manager should submit regular checkpoint reports at agreed intervals to the project manager, irrespective of whether progress threatens product delivery.
3. Delivering a work package
When the products of a work package have been created, it is the team manager’s task to ensure that each product is approved by the appropriate individual. This includes that all quality activities have been conducted and completed. To do this, both the Configuration Item Records and Quality Register will need to be checked.
When the product is approved, it can be handed over. The team plan is then updated to include the completion of the work package, and the project manager notified.
In my next blog post, I’ll examine the process of managing stage boundaries in a PRINCE2 project. In the meantime, feel free to contact us with any questions or queries you may have:
