5 PHASES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Traditionally, project management includes a number of elements: four to five process

groups, and a control system. Regardless of the methodology or terminology used, the same
basic project management processes will be used.

Major process groups generally include:

 Initiation
 Planning or development
 Production or execution
 Monitoring and controlling
 Closing

In project environments with a significant exploratory element (e.g., Research and

development), these stages may be supplemented with decision points (go/no go decisions) at
which the project's continuation is debated and decided. An example is the Stage-Gate model.

Initiation

The initiation processes determine the nature and scope of the project. If this stage is not
performed well, it is unlikely that the project will be successful in meeting the business’
needs. The key project controls needed here are an understanding of the business
environment and making sure that all necessary controls are incorporated into the project.
Any deficiencies should be reported and a recommendation should be made to fix them.

The initiation stage should include a plan that encompasses the following areas:

 Analyzing the business needs/requirements in measurable goals

 Reviewing of the current operations
 Financial analysis of the costs and benefits including a budget
 Stakeholder analysis, including users, and support personnel for the project
 Project charter including costs, tasks, deliverables, and schedule

Planning and design

After the initiation stage, the

project is planned to an
appropriate level of detail. The
main purpose is to plan time, cost
and resources adequately to
estimate the work needed and to
effectively manage risk during
project execution. As with the
Initiation process group, a failure to adequately plan greatly reduces the project's chances of
successfully accomplishing its goals.

Project planning generally consists of:

 determining how to plan (e.g. by level of detail or rolling wave);

 developing the scope statement;
 selecting the planning team;
 identifying deliverables and creating the work breakdown structure;
 identifying the activities needed to complete those deliverables and networking the
activities in their logical sequence;
 estimating the resource requirements for the activities;
 estimating time and cost for activities;
 developing the schedule;
 developing the budget;
 risk planning;
 Gaining formal approval to begin work.

Additional processes, such as planning for communications and for scope management,
identifying roles and responsibilities, determining what to purchase for the project and
holding a kick-off meeting are also generally advisable.

For new product development projects, conceptual design of the operation of the final

product may be performed concurrent with the project planning activities, and may help to
inform the planning team when identifying deliverables and planning activities.

Executing
Executing consists of the
processes used to complete the
work defined in the project
management plan to accomplish
the project's requirements.
Execution process involves
coordinating people and
resources, as well as integrating
and performing the activities of
the project in accordance with
the project management plan. The deliverables are produced as outputs from the processes
performed as defined in the project management plan.

Monitoring and controlling

Monitoring and controlling consists of those processes performed to observe project
execution so that potential problems can be identified in a timely manner and corrective
action can be taken, when necessary, to control the execution of the project. The key benefit
is that project performance is observed and measured regularly to identify variances from the
project management plan.
Monitoring and Controlling includes:

 Measuring the ongoing project activities ('where we are');

 Monitoring the project variables (cost, effort, scope, etc.) against the project
management plan and the project performance baseline (where we should be);
 Identify corrective actions to address issues and risks properly (How can we get on
track again);
 Influencing the factors that could circumvent integrated change control so only
approved changes are implemented

In multi-phase projects, the monitoring and control process also provides feedback between
project phases, in order to implement corrective or preventive actions to bring the project into
compliance with the project management plan.

Project Maintenance is an ongoing process, and it includes:

 Continuing support of end users

 Correction of errors
 Updates of the software over time

Monitoring and controlling cycle

In this stage, auditors should pay attention to

how effectively and quickly user problems are
resolved.
Over the course of any construction project, the work scope may change. Change is a normal
and expected part of the construction process. Changes can be the result of necessary design
modifications, differing site conditions, material availability, contractor-requested changes,
value engineering and impacts from third parties, to name a few. Beyond executing the
change in the field, the change normally needs to be documented to show what was actually
constructed. This is referred to as Change Management. Hence, the owner usually requires a
final record to show all changes or, more specifically, any change that modifies the tangible
portions of the finished work. The record is made on the contract documents – usually, but
not necessarily limited to, the design drawings. The end product of this effort is what the
industry terms as-built drawings, or more simply, “as built.” The requirement for providing
them is a norm in construction contracts.

When changes are introduced to the project, the viability of the project has to be re-assessed.
It is important not to lose sight of the initial goals and targets of the projects. When the
changes accumulate, the forecasted result may not justify the original proposed investment in
the project.

Closing

Closing includes the formal acceptance of the project and the ending thereof. Administrative
activities include the archiving of the files and documenting lessons learned.

This phase consists of:

 Project close: Finalize all activities across all of the process groups to formally close
the project or a project phase
 Contract closure: Complete and settle each contract (including the resolution of any
open items) and close each contract applicable to the project or project phase.

POLARIS SOFTWARE LAB LTD.

Name of Company- Polaris Software Lab Ltd.

Owner of Company- Arun Jain (CEO - Founder)

Establishment Year- 1993

Address- Unit 133, SDF V, SEEPZ, Andheri (E), Mumbai – 69.

Contact no.- + 91 022 3981 5000

Product/Services- Product – Intellect Banking Suite.

 Define the nature & scope of project

Every IT project is executed with a set of deliverables, and has an expected closure time.
Prior to this closure period, there are a predetermined set of tasks and activities to complete
the project successfully. These tasks constitute the scope of a project.

Project Phoenix – A Online Corporate Banking product having various Cash Management
capabilities (Payments, Trade Finance, Nettings etc..) used by Barclays corporate customers.

 What does your plan includes at Initiation stage?

Statement of Work - A statement of work is a formal document that captures and defines the
work activities, deliverables and timeline a vendor will execute against in performance of
specified work for a client. Detailed requirements and pricing are usually included in the
Statement of Work, along with standard regulatory and governance terms and conditions.

Areas that are typically addressed by a SOW are as follows:

Purpose- Why are we doing this project? This is the question that the purpose statement
attempts to answer.

Scope of Work- This describes roughly the work to be done in detail and specifies the
hardware and software involved and the exact nature of the work to be done.
Work- This describes where the work is to be performed. This also specifies the location of
hardware and software and where people will meet to perform the work.

Period of Performance- This specifies the allowable time for projects, such as start and
finish time, number of hours that can be billed per week or month, where work is to be
performed and anything else that relates to scheduling.

Deliverables Schedule- This part lists the specific deliverables, describing what is due and
when.

Applicable Standards- This describes any industry specific standards that need to be
adhered to in fulfilling the contract.

Acceptance Criteria- This specifies how the buyer or receiver of goods will determine if the
product or service is acceptable, what objective criteria will be used to state the work is
acceptable.

Special Requirements- This specifies any special hardware or software, specialized

workforce requirements, such as degrees or certifications for personnel, travel requirements,
and anything else not covered in the contract specifics.

Type of Contract/Payment Schedule- The project acceptance will depend on if the budget
available will be enough to cover the work required. Therefore payments breakdown whether
up front or phased will be negotiated very early at this stage.

Miscellaneous- There are many items that do not form part of the main negotiations but are
nonetheless very important to the project. They seem minor but being overlooked or forgotten
could pose problems for the project.

 What are the requirements at Initiation stage?

Business Requirements Document - A business requirements document (BRD) details the

business solution for a project including the documentation of customer needs and
expectations. The BRD is important because it is the foundation for all subsequent project
deliverables, describing what inputs and outputs are associated with each process function.
The BRD describes what the system would look like from a business perspective.

 Who are the support personnel for the project?

 Project Managers. Business Analyst’s (Senior/Junior).

Testers Production support team.

In an IT project, regardless of whether it is outsourced or built in-house, the project team

works with the client to gather the requirements. It involves meetings, interviews, and
questionnaires with the client about the current system and their future needs. In most
cases, clients are unable to specify exactly what they want in the beginning until they see
the product.

 What is project charter?

A project charter is a statement of the scope, objectives and participants in a project. It

provides a preliminary delineation of roles and responsibilities, outlines the project
objectives, identifies the main stakeholders, and defines the authority of the project manager.
It serves as a reference of authority for the future of the project.

Project charter of Polaris Software ltd.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

SCHEDULE:

Project to be completed by March 1

BUDGET:

To be determined

In other words it involves Project Plans (across SDLC). SDLC or the Software Development
Life Cycle refers to the steps involved in creating a software from scratch. SDLC is known
as the traditional way of executing and implementing a program.

 What activities are undertaken at Planning stage?

In the planning phase the team needs to thoroughly understand the business model of the
customer and their current IT state. They document the customer's inventorying application,
information, and technology resources, record their locations, and analyze and prioritize their
usefulness to business process. After considering many business and IT factors, the team
documents a plan, which identifies and prioritizes projects that will move the organization
closer to the desired architecture. The milestone for the planning phase is the Project Plan
Approved milestone, in which the customer approves of the plan of action and authorizes the
next step. At this stage various Releases are also planned.

 What does the Execution stage involves?

For various developers, execution could mean releasing the software for public beta-testing.
That means everyone can use this program but the service is not yet complete. This
implementation is used to give them a glimpse of something better. Below are some of the
activities that take place at this stage:

Functional requirements documents being released.

Development of the modules.

Testing of the modules.

 What all steps are included in Monitoring & Controlling stage?

The program, on its first run will not perfect or wouldn’t exactly work as planned. It has to go
through rigorous testing. In this stage, bugs are found and some irregularities in the software
are somehow fixed. If something goes wrong with the program, it could be fixed with a
simple change in codes but if the program is not working as planned, it will be returned to the
developers for another round of coding (coding is the “operations” of the software
development plan). Testing will make sure the customer gets what they want all the time.
Nothing is compromised during this stage. In simple words various check points before and
after releases are tested.

If any deviations from the standards; what do you do?

They escalate to concerned parties and track to closure and everything has to go back from
the planning stage.

 What activities are undertaken at Closing stage?

Closing refers to the final version of the software. Everything is already in place once
closing has been posted. It ensures Proper documentation is in place and Production
acceptance testing of the release is conducted.