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PROJECT LIFE CYCLE

PROJECT LIFE CYCLE

Projects also follow a progression of phases from beginning to end called the project life cycle. The project life cycle consists of four phases as shown in Figure.1

Figure.1
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Project Initiation

"The first phase of a project is the initiation phase.

During this phase , a business problem or opportunity is identified and a business case providing various solution options is defined. Next, a feasibility study is conducted to investigate whether each option addresses the business problem and a final recommended solution is then put forward. Once the recommended solution is approved, a project is initiated to deliver the approved solution. Terms of reference are completed outlining the objectives, scope and structure of the new project, and a project manager is appointed. The project manager begins recruiting a project team and establishes a project office environment. Approval is then sought to move into the detailed planning phase. 3

Project Initiation

"Within the initiation phase, the business problem or opportunity is identified, a solution is defined, a project is formed and a project team is appointed to build and deliver the solution to the customer.
Figure shows the activities undertaken during the initiation phase:

Develop a business case:

The trigger to initiating a project is identifying a business problem or opportunity to be addressed. A business case is created to define the problem or opportunity in detail and identify a preferred solution for implementation.

Develop a business case:

The business case includes: A detailed description of the problem or opportunity; A list of the alternative solutions available; An analysis of the business benefits, costs, risks and issues; A description of the preferred solution; A summarized plan for implementation.

Establish the terms of reference:

After the business case and feasibility study have been approved, a new project is formed. At this point, terms of reference are created. The terms of reference define the vision, objectives, scope and deliverables for the new project. They also describe the organization structure; and activities, resources and funding required to undertake the project. Any risks, issues, planning assumptions and constraints are also identified.

Appoint the project team:

The project team are now ready to be appointed. Although a project manager may be appointed at any stage during the life of the project, the manager will ideally be appointed prior to recruiting the project team. The project manager creates a detailed job description for each role in the project team, and recruits people into each role based on their relevant skills and experience

Set up a project office:

The project office is the physical environment within which the team is based. Although it is usual to have one central project office, it is possible to have a virtual project office with project team members located around the world.

Set up a project office:

A project office environment should include: Equipment, such as office furniture, computer equipment, stationery and materials; Communications infrastructure, such as telephones, computer network, e mail, Internet access, file storage, database storage and backup facilities; Documentation, such as a project methodology, standards, processes, forms and registers; Tools, such as accounting, project planning and risk modeling software.
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Perform a phase review:

At the end of the initiation phase, perform a phase review. This is basically a checkpoint to ensure that the project has achieved its objectives as planned.

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Project Planning
"Once the scope of the project has been defined in the terms of reference, the project enters the planning phase. This involves creating a: Project plan outlining the activities, tasks, dependencies and timeframes; Resource plan listing the labour, equipment and materials required; Financial plan identifying the labour, equipment and materials costs; Quality plan providing quality targets, assurance and control measures;

Risk plan highlighting potential risks and actions to be 12 taken to mitigate those risks;

Project Planning
Acceptance plan listing the criteria to be met to gain customer acceptance; Communications plan describing the information needed to inform stakeholders;

Procurement plan identifying products to be sourced from external suppliers.

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Create a project plan:

The first step in the project planning phase is to document the project plan. A 'work breakdown structure' (WBS) is identified which includes a hierarchical set of phases, activities and tasks to be undertaken to complete the project. After the WBS has been agreed, an assessment of the level of effort required to undertake each activity and task is made. The activities and tasks are then sequenced, resources are allocated and a detailed project schedule is formed. This project plan is the key tool used by the project manager to assess the progress of the project throughout the project life cycle.
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Create a resource plan:

Immediately after the project plan is formed, the level of resource required to undertake each of the activities and tasks listed within the project plan will need to be allocated. Although generic resource may have already been allocated in the project plan, a detailed resource plan is required to identify the: Type of resource required, such as labor, equipment and materials; Quantity of each type of resource required; Roles, responsibilities and skill sets of all human resource required; Specifications of all equipment resource required; Items and quantities of material resource required.
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Create a financial plan :

A financial plan is created to identify the total quantity of money required to undertake each phase in the project (in other words, the budget). The total cost of labour, equipment and materials is calculated and an expense schedule is defined which enables the project manager to measure the forecast spend versus the actual spend throughout the project. Detailed financial planning is an extremely important activity within the project, as the customer will expect the final solution to have been delivered within the allocated budget.
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Create a quality plan :

Meeting the quality expectations of the customer can be a challenging task. To ensure that the quality expectations are clearly defined and can reasonably be achieved, a quality plan is documented. The quality plan: Defines the term 'quality' for the project. Lists clear and unambiguous quality targets for each deliverable. Each quality target provides a set of criteria and standards to be achieved to meet the expectations of the customer. Provides a plan of activities to assure the customer that the quality targets will be met (in other words, a quality assurance plan). Identifies the techniques used to control the actual quality level of each deliverable as it is built (in other words, a 17 quality control plan).

Create a risk plan :

The next step is to document all foreseeable project risks within a risk plan.
This plan also identifies the actions required to prevent each risk from occurring, as well as reduce the impact of the risk should it eventuate. Developing a clear risk plan is an important activity within the planning phase, as it is necessary to mitigate all critical project risks prior to entering the execution phase of the project.

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Create an acceptance plan:

To deliver the project successfully, you will need to gain full acceptance from the customer that the deliverables produced by the project meet or exceed requirements. An acceptance plan is created to help achieve this, by clarifying the completion criteria for each deliverable and providing a schedule of acceptance reviews.

Create a communications plan:

Prior to the execution phase, it is also necessary to identify how each of the stakeholders will be kept informed of the progress of the project. The communications plan identifies the types of information to be distributed to stakeholders, the methods of distributing the information, the frequency of distribution, and responsibilities of each person in the project team for 19 distributing the information.

Create a procurement plan:

The last planning activity within the planning phase is to identify the elements of the project to be acquired from external suppliers. The procurement plan provides a detailed description of the products (that is, goods and services) to be acquired from suppliers, the justification for acquiring each product externally as opposed to from within the business, and the schedule for product delivery. It also describes the process for the selection of a preferred supplier (the tender process), and the ordering and delivery of the products (the procurement process).

Contract

Although external suppliers may be appointed at any stage of the project, it is usual to appoint suppliers after the project plans have been documented but prior to the execution phase of the project

the

suppliers:

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Project Execution
"This phase involves implementing the plans created during the project planning phase. While each plan is being executed, a series of management processes are undertaken to monitor and control the deliverables being output by the project.
This includes identifying change, risks and issues, reviewing deliverable quality and measuring each deliverable produced against the acceptance criteria. Once all of the deliverables have been produced and the customer has accepted the final solution, the project is ready for closure. The activities of this phase are shown in Figure

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Project Closure
"Project

closure involves releasing the final deliverables to the customer, handing over project documentation to the business, terminating supplier contracts, releasing project resources and communicating the closure of the project to all stakeholders.
The last remaining step is to undertake a post implementation review to quantify the level of project success and identify any lessons learnt for future projects

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Project Execution

Project management execution activities

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Perform project closure:

Project closure, or 'close out', essentially involves winding up the project. This includes: Determining whether all of the project completion criteria have been met; Identifying any outstanding project activities, risks or issues; Handing over all project deliverables and documentation to the customer; Cancelling supplier contracts and releasing project resources to the business; Communicating the closure of the project to all 24 stakeholders and interested parties.
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Review project completion:

The final activity within a project is the review of its success by an independent party. Success is determined by how well it performed against the defined objectives and conformed to the management processes outlined in the planning phase. To determine how well it performed, the following types of questions are answered: Did it result in the benefits defined in the business case? Did it achieve the objectives outlined in the terms of reference? Did it operate within the scope of the terms of reference? 0 Did the deliverables meet the criteria defined in the quality plan? Was it delivered within the schedule outlined in the project25
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Review project completion:

To

determine how well it performed, the following types of questions are answered: Did it result in the benefits defined in the business case? Did it achieve the objectives outlined in the terms of reference? Did it operate within the scope of the terms of reference? 0 Did the deliverables meet the criteria defined in the quality plan? Was it delivered within the schedule outlined in the project plan? Was it delivered within the budget outlined in the financial plan?
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