Phases

Quick reference

• 00:04 Hello, I'm Ray Sheen.
• 00:06 I'd like to talk with you about another aspect of project planning,
• 00:11 and that's the use of phases in your project plan.
• 00:15 The project management body of knowledge, the PMBOK guide defines a project phase as
• 00:19 a collection of logically related project activities.
• 00:23 They culminate in the completion of one or more deliverables,
• 00:26 a few principles with respect to phases.
• 00:29 Is it the lifecycle of the project?
• 00:31 Is the combination of all the phases together?
• 00:34 If it's not interphase, it's not in the project.
• 00:37 This is particularly true for interlive or incremental lifecycles.
• 00:41 Phases provide structure to the project.
• 00:44 They help the project team and
• 00:45 stakeholders know what should be done and how.
• 00:48 Also, phases are focused on deliverables.
• 00:51 Each phase has a set of deliverables of typically
• 00:54 are related to reducing a major element of risks on the project.
• 00:58 When the deliverables are finished, the phase is done.
• 01:01 Phases are not some increment of time on the calendar.
• 01:04 We don't declare that each phase has to last one month or two months.
• 01:08 Instead a phase focuses on achieving progress by completing a set
• 01:13 of deliverables.
• 01:14 Now, the one caveat on that is that in agile scrum projects we will set a defined
• 01:19 time limit for each sprint.
• 01:20 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 such as marketing phase or
• 01:30 an engineering phase.
• 01:32 Phase effort may be predominantly within one function.
• 01:35 But they are virtually always some cross-functional deliverables that
• 01:38 support a key decision point at the end of the phase.
• 01:42 Let's discuss some common characteristics of phases.
• 01:46 One is at a phase is focused on some goal decision point, but
• 01:49 the deliverables of that phase supports.
• 01:52 Completing the phase allows the project to retire the risk of that decision point.
• 01:57 The deliverables and activities of the phase are often cross functional.
• 02:01 In most projects today here will be several functions working on activities
• 02:05 at the same time, a concur methodology.
• 02:08 You can consider each phase to be a little project that needs to be managed.
• 02:12 Each phase has a goal that is supported by a plan consisting of the set of activities
• 02:17 or tasks to be completed according to a schedule and using the assigned resources.
• 02:22 Incremental and iterative projects are managed this way.
• 02:26 The phases of a project are often conducted sequentially, but
• 02:29 they can overlap.
• 02:31 Even when they are overlapping on schedule,
• 02:33 they often are managed as separate phases.
• 02:36 Finally, closure of phases typically means that the deliverables of that phase
• 02:40 are now complete.
• 02:42 Those deliverables are put into the project files or
• 02:45 are transferred to the next phase.
• 02:47 The work of the completed phase is over.
• 02:50 This brings us to the phase decision points.
• 02:53 Phases are usually closed at phase gates.
• 02:56 The Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBOK guide, defines the phase gates
• 03:00 as a review at the end of a phase in which a decision is made to continue to the next
• 03:05 phase, to continue with modification, or to end a project or program.
• 03:10 These decisions are made by senior management or
• 03:13 the stake holders who approve the project and are paying for it.
• 03:17 The decisions are made upon business conditions, project risk and
• 03:21 the work from the completed phase.
• 03:22 One type of decision is the Go decision.
• 03:25 That means that the previous phase is complete,
• 03:27 the project team can start the next phase.
• 03:29 Another type of decision is a conditional Go.
• 03:33 This allows the team to start the next phase even though
• 03:36 there are a few clean up items from the previous phase that must be completed
• 03:39 before that one could be totally closed out.
• 03:43 The next decision is Resubmit.
• 03:45 The work in the previous phase is not yet done.
• 03:48 One or more the deliverables is unacceptable.
• 03:51 The team needs to go back and
• 03:53 do some more work before they can come back to the same stage gate again.
• 03:57 The next decision is to put the project on hold.
• 04:01 The phase is complete, but the business is not going to proceed with the project
• 04:05 right now because of other higher priority projects or other initiatives.
• 04:09 The final decision category is Cancel.
• 04:12 Whether the project has completed the phase or
• 04:14 not doesn't matter, the project is cancelled.
• 04:17 This can be based upon the results of the phase deliverables or
• 04:20 it could be a change in business priorities.
• 04:23 It's perfectly acceptable to stop a project.
• 04:26 The business should not waste any more efforts on a project that can not achieve
• 04:29 the goal or if the reason for the project no longer exists.
• 04:33 There are a number of project methodologies that are based upon a phased
• 04:37 approach.
• 04:38 You may be very familiar with these.
• 04:40 And by defining the phases in the methodology, the team and
• 04:43 stakeholders know what to do and what to expect.
• 04:47 Some examples of these include the six sigma methodology
• 04:50 with the five phases of define, measure, analyze, and prove, and control.
• 04:54 There's several development methodologies that are based on phases,
• 04:58 including the software development life cycle, MPI and MPV.
• 05:02 There's even a standard phased approach on large government construction projects.
• 05:07 Phases are a benefit to the project team and stakeholders.
• 05:11 They provide common understanding of what should be done.
• 05:14 What are the required deliverables that should be expected in each phase.
• 05:18 This helps communication and
• 05:19 it helps the project team to create a viable project plan.
• 05:23 In fact, an organization can take the best practices and
• 05:26 lessons learned from previous projects.
• 05:28 And build them into the template checklist and
• 05:31 decision criteria that are used in stage or decision point.
• 05:36 Phases assist stakeholders and project teams in both planning and
• 05:41 controlling their projects.

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