PRINCE2 7 Foundation · Quick refresher
Start with what good looks like
Define the product before planning the work.
7 minute study lesson · Principles · Original learning material
What you will understand
- Explain a focus on products.
- Recognise useful measurable quality criteria.
- Distinguish product acceptance from an activity being completed.
The idea
“Build a dashboard” sounds clear until different people describe different dashboards. A product focus makes the result, its purpose and the evidence of acceptable quality explicit before the team plans how to create it.
A product can be tangible or intangible: a service, a piece of software, a report or a trained capability. The focus on products principle connects the required result with the work and quality controls needed to deliver it.
A product description helps establish what the product is for and the quality requirements it should meet. Good criteria let people make a reasoned judgement. “Looks professional” is less helpful than an agreed criterion that can be checked using a stated method.
Being busy is not the same as producing an acceptable result. Completing a coding task does not prove that the user’s required product is ready. Planning, quality checks and acceptance should refer to what was agreed, with changes handled through the project’s controls.
An original fictional example
The accessible booking form
A clinic needs an appointment form. The team agrees that a user can complete a booking with a keyboard, required fields show clear errors, and successful bookings appear in the scheduling system.
The decision
Use these agreed product characteristics to shape the work and define the evidence needed for acceptance.
Why it makes sense
The criteria describe an observable result. A statement that “development is finished” gives much less confidence about whether the form is usable.
A common confusion
The mistaken idea: A completed activity means its product is acceptable.
The distinction: An activity reports work done. Product acceptance depends on evidence against agreed requirements and criteria.
Define the result. Agree the evidence. Then plan the work.
Points to remember
- Product focus supports planning and quality together.
- Products include services and other intangible results.
- Do not substitute a list of activities for a definition of the required output.
Your takeaway
Shared product expectations reduce ambiguity. A useful plan shows how the required products will be delivered and checked.
This independently written explanation is supplementary study material. It is not official examination content. Read about our content and its limitations.