Project Deliverables Guide for Beginners

The term "deliverables" might be a familiar term, irrespective of the company you go through. You might have also used this term casually every day. However, in project management, "project deliverables" means something specifically different.

This guide will help you understand project deliverables in detail.

What are Deliverables in Project Management?

A specific result of a project, produced during the execution of the project tasks, is called the project deliverable. A deliverable is a product or the result of the project that is produced by performing the project tasks. The deliverables of a project can be marketing strategies, updates on the project, documentation, or the final product. Any output of a project can be a project deliverable.

In project management, the deliverables can be the major objective. Every project schedule must be organized in accordance with the plan and timeline of the project. Project deliverables lie within the timeline of project management. Project deliverables can be considered as multiple key components that come together to complete the project.

Anything in a project can be a deliverable, but not every output result can be a project deliverable. A specific criterion must be followed. Depending on such criteria, a resultant product of a project can be derived as a Project Deliverable.

In project management, anything can be a deliverable. A Project Deliverable can behave as a prototype to process another Deliverable and can also be processed as a deliverable. For example, a puzzle cube can be processed as a deliverable for a project and can also behave as a blueprint to produce another cube.

Optimizing Deliverable Process

1) List all possible outcomes of Deliverables.

Keep an updated list of all the deliverables for your project. This will give you a clear overview of how much work would be required for the project. In accordance with the list of project deliverables, you can plan a systematic and organized plan to perform or execute the project tasks.

2) Clearly optimize the Deliverables.

Make sure that the deliverables are rectified. This would help the staff clearly understand the aim of the project. Every team member can meet up with the project’s matrices for a successful project result. Depending on the team's capacity, the project deliverables must be optimized.

3) Focus on the Targeted Deliverable.

While working on the project plan, make sure you have a focused plan and work on your project focusing on the project’s aim. With a clear project aim, you can prioritize project deliverables. When managing the project, make sure that the targeted project deliverables are assigned to a certain team to get a targeted result.

4) Utilizing Project Management Tools.

Project Management Software (PMS) is one of the most beneficial things that Project Management Professionals (PMPs) are equipped with. Project management software has multiple tools that help PMPs have accessibility to various project tasks. It allows them to filter and track particular progress, organize deliverables, track project progress in real-time, and many other possibilities.

5) Create milestones.

Design a clear outline of due dates for each project deliverable. This will help you keep the project on track and highlight fields that can be changed if a deliverable is running behind schedule.

Importance of defining Deliverables Clearly

It is best to have a clear overview of the project and its deliverables. A project might not meet Clint’s and stakeholders' requirements if it is not planned properly. The project manager takes full responsibility for documenting the prioritized project’s deliverables within the scope of the project. It is critical to understand how many resources each deliverable will require to complete successfully. The following criterion can be followed to define a deliverable.

As the deliverables are defined, organize the resources as per the requirements of each project deliverable. The stakeholders of the project or the clients are the ones that give you the requirements. This will help you predict if any of the listed project deliverables should be ignored or if they can be accepted.

Tips to Manage Project Deliverables

- First, it is very important to consider whether the project deliverable that you have been working on is internal or external.

- Project objectives must be clearer and derived, but stakeholders must first approve them before starting to work and before delivering.

- After gathering all the required information from clients or stakeholders, you must be very clear because it aids you with all the details about the listed deliverables.

Anything in a project can be a deliverable, but not every output result can be a project deliverable. A specific criterion can be followed, such as

- Make use of the online tools and the project management software available to track and manage your listed project deliverables. This will assist you with the availability of more optimization tools.

Types of deliverables in project management

To simplify and categorize deliverables, we can divide them into internal and external deliverables. And they can be defined as,

1) Internal deliverable is termed for the work done with no involvement of clients or customers in the business.

2) External Deliverables are termed for the results of work done to fulfill the client’s and customer’s needs in the business.

Under these, we can further divide them based on the process of the project and the product obtained from the project.

- Internal process deliverable provides internal processing to perform project tasks.

- Internal product deliverable processes the project tasks internally to satisfy the project requirements for the product.

- External process deliverable provides external processing to perform project tasks.

- External product deliverable processes the project tasks externally to satisfy the project requirements for the product.

Differences between Project Deliverables types

Internal VS External Deliverables

A very convenient method to categorize project deliverables is to divide them into internal and external deliverables.

Any result of work from the current running business that is not involved with clients of the project can be labeled as internal deliverables. Maintaining account documentation, staff accounts, and other such tasks are internal deliverables. These tasks aid in running the business without involving clients in the process.

Work from current running businesses that circle outside the organization due to the involvement of clients in the project is labeled as external deliverables.

Depending on who the project deliverable is addressed to, you can identify if the deliverable is internal or external.

Product VS Process Deliverables

Product deliverables are the results of big, client-focused tasks within a project.

Process deliverables are results that guide the path of a project for accomplishing tasks.

Consider that all the documents you create are for managing a project. You start by deciding on a project aim, designing a project plan, and improvising a work structure. These documents are created for internal stakeholders and the project team. You can now execute all project tasks even without these documents, but you’ll likely have a very hard time performing these tasks. But designing these documents does make the project tasks completed faster.

Product deliverables examples:

- A work structure for the project for the team.

- Weekly analysis report of staff.

- Product presentation designed for clients to help them understand the project aim.

­- A website wireframe for the development team.

Process Deliverables examples:

- The project aim statement.

- Work process of the project.

- List of project deliverables.

- Works statement for the project team.

Project Deliverables Examples

As you might have understood by now, a deliverable can be of any format – internal process, external process, product, document. The following examples can help you understand more clearly the project deliverables.

- A design presentation that helps the stakeholders understand the project aim and the product procedure.

- A documentation done by the marketing team to help promote the product.

- A Gantt chart is made at the initial stage of the project to help the staff have a clear idea about the timeline and milestones.

- An analysis report, to help the stakeholders track the project status.

- A keyword research report by the marketing team.

- A researched article for the blog post by the content team.

- A weekly work status report to help the managers track the staff’s weekly work progress.

- A Mockup is a product created to demonstrate the characteristics of the final product.

Conclusion

Project deliverables are key components of a project.

The major objective of a deliverable is to provide an organized schedule in project management.

Every project manager must have the skills to access and format project deliverables.

A structural schedule can be designed by making use of project management software.

This article helps you understand and learn the process of defining any project deliverables as per the stakeholder’s requirements.

If you want to learn about concepts like project deliverables in detail, enroll in the PMP certification program and get certified by PMI.