Technology & Engineering

Project Life Cycle

The project life cycle refers to the stages a project goes through from initiation to completion. It typically includes phases such as initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and closure. Each phase has specific deliverables and objectives, and the project life cycle provides a structured approach to managing and delivering projects.

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7 Key excerpts on "Project Life Cycle"

  • Book cover image for: Information Technology Project Management
    Some organizations develop career paths for project managers; some require that all project managers have Project Management Professional (PMP ® ) certification and that all employees have some type of project management training. The implementation of such standards demonstrates an organization’s commitment to project management. PROJECT AND PRODUCT LIFE CYCLES Because projects operate as part of a system and involve uncertainty, it is good practice to divide projects into several phases. The same can be said for developing products. This section describes the various project and product life cycles. The Project Management and Information Technology Context 63 Project Life Cycle A Project Life Cycle is a collection of project phases. Projects pass through these phases from their start to their completion. The PMBOK ® Guide – Sixth Edition describes the generic life cycle to include the following four phases: 1. Starting the project 2. Organizing and preparing 3. Carrying out the work 4. Finishing the project These phases should not be confused with the project management process groups of initi- ating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing, as described in Chapter 3. In general, Project Life Cycles define what work will be performed in each phase, what deliverables will be produced and when, who is involved in each phase, and how manage- ment will control and approve work produced in each phase. A deliverable is a product or service, such as a technical report, a training session, a piece of hardware, or a segment of software code, produced or provided as part of a project. (See Chapter 5, Project Scope Management, for detailed information on deliverables.) In early phases of a Project Life Cycle, resource needs are usually lowest and the level of uncertainty is highest.
  • Book cover image for: Project Management for Engineering, Business and Technology
    • John M. Nicholas, Herman Steyn(Authors)
    • 2020(Publication Date)
    • Routledge
      (Publisher)
    II

    Systems development and Project Life Cycle

    3 Project Life Cycle and Project Conception 4 Project Definition and System Definition 5 Project Execution and Closeout
    Most systems move through a series of developmental stages. In human-made systems, the developmental stages follow an intentional, logical sequence of prescribed activities called the systems development cycle. Project management occurs within this cycle and is the function responsible for planning the work activities and organizing and guiding their execution. The three chapters in this section introduce the systems development cycle and describe its first three phases: conception, definition, and execution and closeout—the Project Life Cycle.
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    Chapter 3

    Project Life Cycle and project conception

    There is... a lime to be bom, and a lime to die; a time to plant, and a time to reap; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up.
    —Ecclesiastes 3:1
    One feature of the systems approach is the concept of “life cycle”—the basic pattern of change that occurs throughout the life of a system. Two ways the systems approach accounts for this are to (1) recognize the natural process that occurs in all dynamic systems—that of birth, growth, maturity, and death, and (2) incorporate that process into the planning and management of systems. The practice of project management does both.
    The process of developing, implementing, and operating any human-made system follows a logical sequence of phases called the systems development cycle. Projects also follow a sequence of phases from beginning to end called the Project Life Cycle. This chapter describes the system development and Project Life Cycles and the first phase of both, conception.

    3.1 Project Life Cycle

    Systems are dynamic—they change over time. Often, the change follows a distinct pattern that is repeated again and again. Mentioned in Chapter 2
  • Book cover image for: Information Technology Project Management
    eBook - PDF

    Information Technology Project Management

    Providing Measurable Organizational Value

    • Jack T. Marchewka(Author)
    • 2015(Publication Date)
    • Wiley
      (Publisher)
    ▪ Manage by Exception—Tolerances are defined and used to empower project stakeholders by allowing them to make decisions without having to ask for approval from the next higher level of authority. ▪ Accountability—PRINCE2 ® projects should have clear roles and responsibilities. Stakehold- ers need to know their role as well as everyone else’s. The Project Board includes executive sponsorship that defines the project’s objectives and ensures that the project remains viable. In addition, internal or external suppliers provide resources, skills, or the knowledge to deliver the project’s products, while users represent those stakeholders who will benefit from the delivery of the final product. 34 CHAPTER 2 / PROJECT METHODOLOGIES AND PROCESSES THE SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE (SDLC) Although projects follow a Project Life Cycle, the development of new products, services, or information systems follow a product life cycle. The most common product life cycle in IT is the Systems Devel- opment Life Cycle (SDLC), which represents the sequential phases or stages a product or information system follows throughout its useful life. The SDLC establishes a logical order, or sequence, in which the system development activities occur and indicates whether to proceed from one system development activity to the next (7). Although there are variations of the SDLC, the life cycle depicted in Figure 2.5 includes the generally accepted activities and phases associated with systems development. Keep in mind that these concepts are generally covered in great detail in system analysis and design books and courses. For some, this may be a quick review, while for others it will provide a general background for understanding how IT project management and information system development activities support one another. Planning, analysis, design, implementation, and maintenance and support are the five basic phases in the systems development life cycle.
  • Book cover image for: Product Design for the Environment
    eBook - PDF
    • Fabio Giudice, Guido La Rosa, Antonino Risitano(Authors)
    • 2006(Publication Date)
    • CRC Press
      (Publisher)
    3.1.1 Life Cycle Design The original concept of Life Cycle Design can be traced back to the same limited vision of the life cycle discussed in Section 2.2, which arose from a statement conditioned by the direct competencies and interests of one actor— the manufacturer. It was, therefore, initially understood as an approach that considered “from the early product concept, the complete projected life of the product, including the product/market research, design phases, manu-facturing process, qualification, reliability issues, and customer service/ maintainability/supportability issues” (Keys, 1990). The first attempts to outline a clear definition and methodological structure date back to the 1980s, when it was denoted by the expression “design for the life cycle” (Fabrycky, 1987), or “system life cycle engineering” (Keys, 1990). A more complete (and for the purposes of this book, more appropriate) orien-tation developed during the 1990s, interpreting the conceptual premises considered so far and incorporating their implications into product design. In particular, life cycle modeling took on a fundamental role. A model of the product’s life cycle is indispensable for evaluating the improvements obtained by choosing different materials, product configura-tions, and processes (Alting and Legarth, 1995). At the product design stage, modeling can be used in combination with design principles and construction guidelines to exert a direct influence on the efficiency of design solutions during their development, as well as providing an instrument to evaluate design choices (Zust and Caduff, 1997). Besides, the very concept of a product understood as integral with its life cycle and within the environmental, social, and technological context in which the cycle develops (i.e., the product–system discussed earlier) is no more than the theorization of a single system for the purposes of design (Keoleian and Menerey, 1993).
  • Book cover image for: Software Project Management
    eBook - PDF

    Software Project Management

    A Process-Driven Approach

    132 ◾ Software Project Management: A Process-Driven Approach All these areas discussed about software engineering have a very important role in software project management [1]. Without these inputs, it is difficult to manage modern large-scale software projects. In this book, we will be discussing software engineering management aspects in Part III and technical aspects in this part. The software engineering management topics include process improvements, development process selection, developing and implementing mature life cycles. The technical software engineering concerns different phases of development life cycles, work products developed in these phases, and activities carried out within different phases. In this part, we will concentrate on all these aspects related to technical software engineering (software development life cycle). Process improvements and process selection are discussed in Part III. 9.3 Software Life-Cycle Management Processes Most projects involve requirements, design, testing, and construction activities. Software develop-ment projects are no exception. Customer requirements are gathered and developed, and then an appropriate software design is made that fulfills the needs of these requirements by converting these requirements into a suitable software design. Software design is further converted into a software product through software construction activities. During the entire development life cycle, quality control and quality assurance activities are carried out to ensure that quality of the end products is within agreed upon norms. Let us discuss various software development life cycles in this section. 9.3.1 Software Life Cycle in Waterfall Model The waterfall model is still a widely used methodology for software development, though some other development models are also gaining wide acceptance. Some variations of the waterfall model include concurrent development, incremental development, and prototyping.
  • Book cover image for: Managing Construction Projects
    Part IV Riding the Project Life Cycle 180 Riding the Project Life Cycle 1 is the process by which the project mission is defined at greater and greater levels of detail through time, and different types of resources are mobilised as the level of detail becomes finer through a process of progressively structured sensemaking . The fruits of the intense intellectual effort early in the Project Life Cycle start to become physically manifest on site until at completion, all the information required for the project is embodied in the con-structed asset. This part will identify both the managerial approaches to manag-ing this information flow over the life cycle as a whole, and the large number of techniques that have been developed for managing different parts of the life cycle. What all these different techniques have in common is that they are all coping with the fundamental problems of reducing uncertainty in the project informa-tion flow, and they all consist of decision-making cycles as specified in the generic information loop shown in Fig. IV.1. Revise objectives Set objectives Measure performance Compare performance with objectives Decide on action Take corrective action Continue unchanged if performance meets objectives Fig. IV.1 The generic information loop. The information loop starts with the setting of the objectives; this may be at the level of the project mission as a whole, or the work for the following day as appropriate. Indeed, establishing the appropriate wavelength for the control loop is one of the principal project management tasks. The principle usually adopted here is the ‘rolling wave’, illustrated in Fig. IV.2. Longer term objectives are set in broad terms, while nearer term objectives are set more precisely. This is because more information is typically available for what is to be done next month than for what is to be done next year.
  • Book cover image for: PMP Project Management Professional Exam Study Guide
    • Kim Heldman(Author)
    • 2020(Publication Date)
    • Sybex
      (Publisher)
    For example, once the project is kicked off, requirements are defined in detail and approved before any work begins. In this approach, it is very difficult to change require- ments or incorporate new ideas as the project progresses. Sometimes months, if not years, Determining a Project Methodology or Approach 31 of planning go into getting every detail of the planning before actual work begins. The cus- tomer may not see any deliverables, functionality, or understand if business value is being created until the project is close to the end of its life cycle. If changes are made, you must revisit and modify project plans and formally accept the changes to the scope and subsequent project management plan. Schedules and budgets are defined early in the life cycle as well. Predictive life cycles are an excellent choice for pro- jects where the requirements are well understood, for low-risk projects, and for projects where the team is well established and stable. Waterfall projects are sometimes divided into phases. A project phase generally consists of segments of work that allow for easier management, planning, and control of the work and generally produce at least one deliverable by the end of the phase. The work and the deliverables produced during a phase are typically unique to that phase. The work of each phase is usually distinct and not repeated in other phases. Each phase has an emphasis on a different portion of the project activities, and different project management process groups are performed during each phase. You can use a phased approach with adaptive methodol- ogies, but they are more commonly used in a waterfall approach. Project phases are determined in any number of ways. The type of project itself and the industry you’re in may drive the phases of the project, as could decision points such as milestone completion or go/no-go decisions. The number of phases in the Project Life Cycle depends on the project complexity and the industry you’re in.
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