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The project life cycle provides a general overview of the phases that a project goes through. The lifecycle for a traditional project is quite different than that for an Adaptive project.

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Quick reference

Project Life Cycle

Projects are temporary endeavors, therefore they have a lifecycle. 

When to use

The project life cycle provides a general overview of the phases that a project goes through.  An understanding of the project life cycle aids in planning the timing and resources required to complete the project.  In addition to planning, the project life cycle can assist a project leader at major milestones of a project to ensure that appropriate progress has been made on the project.

Instructions

Project Life Cycle: “The project life cycle is the series of phases that a project passes through from its start to its completion.” PMBOK® Guide

Most organizations have a project management methodology which will define the phases of a project life cycle.  Obviously, if your organization has one, follow it.  Lifecycles often vary based upon the level of certainty inherent in the requirements and definition of the final product, service or result. This spectrum goes from predictive projects where everything is clearly specified at the time of initiation and the full project plan can be established to Agile which uses a series of rapid iterations to discover and develop the result of the project.

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017, Figure X3-1, Page 666.

Project Life Cycle and Risk

As a project progresses from start to finish, the quantity of risks will reduce.  When tasks finish and decisions are made, the risks associated with that task or decision are retired.  However, as a project nears the end of its lifecycle, the time and resources available to resolve remaining risks is normally limited so that the impact of any new risk is magnified.  The cost of changing the project to accommodate the new risk normally involves considerable rework and delays. 

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017, Part 2, Figure 1-3, Page 549

Project Management Process Group Interactions

The activities and processes of project management interact with each other throughout the project life cycle.  The interactions of the project management process groups, Initiating, Planning, Executing, Closing, and Monitoring and Controlling varies over the life of the project.  The unique project lifecyle will determine the level of project management process activity required at each phase of the project.

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2013, Figure 1-5, Page 18. PMBOK is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc. 

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  • 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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