Project Phases

Quick reference

• 00:04 Hello, I'm Ray Sheen.
• 00:05 Now I'd like to talk to you about another aspect of project planning and
• 00:10 that's the use of phases in your project plan.
• 00:13 The Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBOK Guide,
• 00:16 defines a project phase as a collection of logically related project activities that
• 00:21 culminate in the completion of one or more deliverables.
• 00:24 A few principles about using phases includes that the life-cycle of
• 00:28 the project is the combination of all of the phases together.
• 00:31 If it's not in a phase, it's not in the project.
• 00:34 This is particularly true for iterative and incremental life cycles.
• 00:38 Phases provide structure to the project to help the project team and
• 00:41 stakeholders to know what should be done and when to do it.
• 00:44 Also, phases are focused on deliverables.
• 00:47 Each phase has a set of deliverables that are typically related in reducing a major
• 00:52 element of risk on the project.
• 00:54 When the deliverables are finished, that phase is done.
• 00:58 Phases are not just an increment of time on the calendar,
• 01:02 we don't declare that a phase must last two months instead a phase focuses
• 01:07 on achieving progress by completing a set of deliverables.
• 01:11 Now on the one caveat of that is that in Agile Scrum project,
• 01:15 we will set a defined time limit for each sprint which is like a phase.
• 01:19 But in the Agile Scrum approach,
• 01:22 deliverables within the sprint are variable.
• 01:25 Also, phases are not just the work of one department,
• 01:28 such as a marketing phase or an engineering phase.
• 01:32 A phase may be predominantly within one function, but
• 01:35 there are virtually always some cross-functional deliverables that
• 01:39 are required to support a key decision point at the end of the phase.
• 01:43 Let's discuss some common characteristics of a phase.
• 01:46 One is that a phase is focused on some goal or
• 01:49 decision point that the deliverables of the phase supports.
• 01:52 Completion of the phase allows the project to retire that risk or make that decision.
• 01:58 The deliverables and activities of a phase are often cross-functional.
• 02:02 In most projects today, there will be several functions working on
• 02:06 activities at the same time, a concurrent methodology.
• 02:10 You can consider each phase to be a little project that needs to be managed, each
• 02:14 phase has a goal that is supported by a plan consisting of a set of activities or
• 02:19 tasks to be completed according to a schedule and using assigned resources.
• 02:24 That just there describes a project.
• 02:26 Incremental and iterative projects are managed in this way.
• 02:30 The phases of a project are often conducted sequentially, but
• 02:35 they can overlap.
• 02:36 Even when they're overlapping on schedule, they often are managed as separate phases.
• 02:42 Finally, closure of a phase typically means that the deliverables of that phase
• 02:46 are now complete.
• 02:47 These deliverables are put into the project archives or files and
• 02:51 transferred to the next phase.
• 02:53 The work on this completed phase is over.
• 02:56 That brings us up to the phase decision points.
• 03:00 Phases are usually closed with a phase gate.
• 03:03 The Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBOK Guide,
• 03:07 describes the phase gate as a review at the end of the phase in which the decision
• 03:11 is made to continue to the next phase to continue with modifications or
• 03:16 to end a project or program.
• 03:18 These decisions are made by senior management or
• 03:21 the stakeholders who approved the project and are now paying for it.
• 03:25 The decisions are based upon business conditions, project risk, and
• 03:29 the work from the completed phase.
• 03:31 Clarifying the decision for each phase gate should be done at the time of project
• 03:36 origination so that the team knows what is expected to deliver within each phase.
• 03:42 One type of decision is go, that means the previous phase is complete,
• 03:46 the project team can start the next phase.
• 03:48 Another decision is a conditional go.
• 03:51 This allows the team to start the next phase even though there are a few cleanup
• 03:56 items from the previous phase that must still be completed before that one can be
• 04:00 closed out.
• 04:01 The next decision is resubmit.
• 04:04 The work of the previous phase is not yet done, one or
• 04:07 more of the deliverables is unacceptable.
• 04:09 The team has to go back and do some more work, then they can come back for
• 04:14 this phase gate again.
• 04:15 The next decision is to put the project on hold.
• 04:18 The phase is complete, but the business is not going to proceed with the project
• 04:23 right now because of other higher priority projects or other initiatives.
• 04:27 The project is put on hold with the likelihood that it will be restarted again
• 04:31 at some time in the future.
• 04:32 The final decision category is cancel, whether the project has
• 04:36 completed its phase or not, doesn't matter, the project is cancelled.
• 04:41 This could be based upon the results of the phase deliverables or
• 04:44 a change in business priorities.
• 04:46 It's perfectly acceptable to stop a project, the business should not waste
• 04:51 any more effort on a project that cannot achieve the goals or if the reason for
• 04:56 the project no longer exists.
• 04:58 There are a number of project methodologies that are based upon a phased
• 05:01 approach.
• 05:02 You may be very familiar with these.
• 05:04 By defining the phases and the methodology, the team and
• 05:07 stakeholders know what to do and what to expect.
• 05:10 Some examples of these include the Six Sigma methodology
• 05:13 with the five phases of define, measure, analyze, improve, and control.
• 05:18 There are several development methodologies with phases including
• 05:22 the software development lifecycle NPI and NPD.
• 05:25 There's even a standard phased approach that's used
• 05:28 on large government construction projects.
• 05:30 Phases are a great benefit for the project team and stakeholders,
• 05:33 they provide a common understanding of what should be done.
• 05:36 They clarify the required deliverables that should be expected in each phase.
• 05:41 This helps the communication and
• 05:43 it helps a project team create a viable project plan.
• 05:47 In fact, an organization can take the best practices and
• 05:50 lessons learned from previous projects and build them into templates,
• 05:55 checklists, and decision criteria that are used in each phase of the project.
• 05:59 Phases assist stakeholders and project teams in both planning and
• 06:03 controlling their projects.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.