The Project Lifecycle

Quick reference

• 00:04 Hi, this is Ray Sheen, I'd like to talk to you now about the project life cycle.
• 00:09 Life cycles will help us to understand the overall project timing and
• 00:13 what is happening within the project.
• 00:18 The Project Management Body Of Knowledge the PMBOK Guide,
• 00:21 defines project life cycle as the series of phases the project passes through,
• 00:25 from start until its completion.
• 00:27 The name and number of phases will vary based upon the project type and
• 00:30 the methodology being used.
• 00:32 I've seen as few as three and as many ten phases,
• 00:35 in a project management methodology.
• 00:37 Phases are typically sequential, although sometimes they can be run in parallel.
• 00:41 The phases are usually focused on the completion of a particular set of
• 00:45 deliverables, although sometimes they are tied to calendar or funding events.
• 00:50 Let's look at the continuum of project management methodologies,
• 00:53 these will impact the life cycle of the project.
• 00:56 Notice on the left side we have predictive, and the right side is agile.
• 01:01 Predictive has been the traditional project management approach for
• 01:04 literally hundreds of years.
• 01:05 Agile has come on the scene in the last 15 years.
• 01:08 And as the continuum was created we have found bodies of knowledge springing up
• 01:12 around both Agile and those approaches in the middle of the continuum known as
• 01:16 Iterative and incremental.
• 01:18 The key is that everything except the predictive is an adaptive style.
• 01:22 So the project plan and approach will likely change as the project unfolds.
• 01:27 We see that in the first element in predictive,
• 01:30 requirements are set up front before you even start the project.
• 01:33 While the other end,
• 01:35 in agile, requirements are discovered as you go along.
• 01:38 And in the middle you normally plan to do a requirement change at major milestones.
• 01:43 In predictive, we use detailed plans and
• 01:45 then follow the plan to deliver a single release of the project results.
• 01:50 While with Agile, we're doing frequent deliveries of a subset of deliverables and
• 01:54 then based upon customer feedback decide what to work on next.
• 01:58 In the middle, we plan a phased roll out of deliverables.
• 02:01 When it comes to change, predictive projects constrain it as much as possible,
• 02:06 change is bad.
• 02:07 Agile projects expect and embrace change.
• 02:10 In fact, they incorporate change in real time in the project.
• 02:14 The approaches in the middle use planned milestones where changes will be included
• 02:18 into the project.
• 02:19 Predictive projects involve stakeholders at specific milestones for review.
• 02:24 Agile projects are interactive with key stakeholders on a continuous basis.
• 02:28 And those in the middle do preset milestones just normally,
• 02:32 many more milestones than with predictive.
• 02:34 Finally, predictive controls risk in cost through detail upfront planning and
• 02:39 analysis.
• 02:39 Agile addresses risks and costs on a real time basis and
• 02:42 pivots whenever is appropriate as new requirements are emerging.
• 02:46 In the middle, the iterative and incremental approaches rely on
• 02:51 progressive elaboration to uncover risks and help to control cost.
• 02:55 Notice that the project management processes apply across the continuum.
• 02:59 With this specific approaches used will likely be very different.
• 03:04 Another interesting element of the life cycle is what happens in terms or
• 03:08 risk and changes.
• 03:09 Typically, we think of risk as the things that could go wrong on a project where
• 03:13 the areas of high uncertainty.
• 03:15 At the beginning of the project, there are many things that are not known,
• 03:19 the risk is high.
• 03:20 As the project unfolds activities complete, decisions are made.
• 03:23 And the amount of uncertainty and
• 03:25 quantity of things that could still go wrong are reduced.
• 03:28 But even though the number of risk items are reduced,
• 03:31 the impact is often increased.
• 03:33 The cost of making a change goes up as the project unfolds.
• 03:37 We need to undo something and then redo it, and
• 03:40 the further we are in the project, the more we need to undo.
• 03:43 We need to pay for overtime or expedite fees to maintain the original schedule.
• 03:48 Or if we change the schedule at the last minute,
• 03:51 the impact to the business may be large as we delay the benefits by months.
• 03:55 This chart explains why a project manager often feels that
• 03:58 the project is on the edge.
• 03:59 At the beginning of the project, there are countless open questions,
• 04:03 none of which are insurmountable, but the quantity can overwhelm them.
• 04:07 By the end of the project there only a few open items.
• 04:10 But the resolutions of those items with the original scopes and
• 04:13 scheduled constraints of the project will costs a fortune.
• 04:16 Finally I'd like to look at the amount of interactions between the different project
• 04:20 management processes in each of the process groups over the life cycle of
• 04:24 the project.
• 04:25 These interactions are what the project manager is managing.
• 04:28 The 49 project management processes are organized in two ways,
• 04:32 by knowledge areas and by process groups.
• 04:35 We'll be looking at each of those processes in more detail in other lessons.
• 04:39 And then we have the life cycle, that is based upon the project type and
• 04:42 the project management methodology.
• 04:44 The processes are used by the project manager, project stakeholders, and
• 04:49 project team to manage the life cycle and achieve the objectives of the project.
• 04:54 Different processes will be important at different times but
• 04:57 typically all will be used at some point on a normal project.
• 05:01 As we look at the project life cycle, we've recognize that the role of project
• 05:06 management is important throughout the life cycle.
• 05:09 The focus of the project management activities changes, but
• 05:13 it's still a major effort to manage a project well from beginning to end.

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