4. Project Management

Project Life Cycles
Man Hours
Conceptualization Planning Execution Termination
Fig: Project Life Cycle Stages

Project Life Cycles
• Conceptualization - the development of the initial
goal and technical specifications
• Planning – all detailed specifications, schedules,
schematics, and plans are developed
• Execution – the actual “work” of the project is
performed
• Termination – project is transferred to the
customer, resources reassigned, project is
closed out

Project Life Cycle
Fig: The project life cycle Fig: Time distribution of project
effort
Project life cycle provides the basic framework for managing
the projects, regardless of the specific work involved

Characteristics of Project Life Cycle
• Cost and staffing levels are low at the start, peak as
the work is carried out and drop rapidly as the
project approaches closure
• Stakeholders influences, risk and uncertainty are
greatest at the start of the project and decreases
gradually
• Ability to influence the final characteristics of the
project’s outcome, without significantly impacting
cost, is highest at the start of the project and
decreases as the project progresses towards
completion

Characteristics of Project Life Cycle
Stakeholder influence, risk, and uncertainty
Cost of changes
High
Low
Project time
Degree

Characteristics of Project Life Cycle

Product Vs Project Life Cycle
• Product life cycle consists of generally sequential,
non-overlapping product phases
• Project life cycles occur in one or more phases of a
product life cycle
• Where the objective is service or result, there may be
life cycle for service or result not product
• Development of a new product could be a project on
its own
• An existing product might benefit from a project to
add new functions or features, or a project might be
created to develop a new model

Product Vs Project Life Cycle
• Many features of the product life cycle lend themselves
to run as project, for example,
– Performing a feasibility study
– Conducting marketing research
– Running an advertising campaign
– Installing a product
– Conducting a product trial in a test market etc
Here, project life cycle would differ from the product life
cycle

Product Vs Project Life Cycle
One product may have many projects associated
with it
A number of separate projects may be related to
the development of new automobile. Each project
may be distinct but still contributes to the key
deliverable necessary to bring automobile to the
market

Project Phases
• Project phases are divisions within a project
where extra control is needed to effectively
manage the completion of major deliverables
• Project phases are used when the nature of
the work to be performed is unique to a portion
of the project, and are typically linked

Project Phases
• Project phases typically are completed
sequentially, but can overlap in some project
situations. Different phases typically have a
different duration or effort
• The phase structure allows the project to be
segmented into logical subsets for ease of
management, planning, and control
• The number of phases, the need for phases,
and the degree of control applied depend on the
size, complexity, and potential impact of the
project

Single Phased Project
• One organization may treat a feasibility study as routine pre-
project work, another may treat it as the first phase of a
project, and a third may treat as a separate project
• One project team may divide a project into two phases
whereas another project team may choose to manage all the
work as a single phase. Much depends on the nature of the
specific project and the style of the project team or
organization

Phase to Phase Relationship
• Sequential relationship: In a sequential relationship, a
phase starts only when the previous phase is complete
• Step by step nature of this approach reduces uncertainty

Phase to Phase Relationship
• Overlapping relationship: A phase starts prior to
completion of the previous one
• May require additional resources to allow work to be done in
parallel, may increase risk, and can result in rework if a
subsequent phase progresses before accurate information is
available from the previous phase

Project Life Cycles
• Predictive life cycle:
– Product and deliverables are defined at the beginning of the
project
– Changes to scope are carefully–and restrictively–managed
• Iterative and incremental life cycle:
– Project phases repeat one or more project activities, taking
advantage of increased understanding of the product
– Each phase (and each iteration within a phase) successively
adds to the functionality of the product
– Scope is usually well-defined early in the project life cycle, but
can be changed with relatively low overhead
• Adaptive life cycle [Agile]:
– Product is developed over multiple phases, each with several
iterations
– Detailed scope is defined for each phase only as the phase
begins

IT Project Life Cycles
• IT projects have two concurrent life cycles:
– Project life cycle (PLC) includes all activities of project,
including the System/Software Development Life Cycle
(SDLC)
– PLC is directed toward achieving project requirements
– SDLC is directed toward achieving product requirements
• Both life cycle models are needed to manage an IT project
– PLC alone will not adequately address system development
concerns
– SDLC alone will not adequately address business and
product integration concerns
– Effective integration of the two life cycle models is essential
to improving the likelihood of project success
• In effect, the PLC and the SDLC should be so closely
blended that they need not be distinguished from each other

Project & Product Life Cycles

The Systems Development Lifecycle
• The systems development life cycle (SDLC) is the process
of understanding how an information system (IS) can
support business needs by designing a system, building it,
and delivering it to users
• A methodology is a formalized approach to implementing
the SDLC
• What differentiates one methodology from another:
– The specific activities that must be performed
– When, how, and how often the activities are performed
– Who performs the activities
– The amount of emphasis placed on an activity at a
specific point in time

Waterfall SDLC
• Each phase is marked by completion of
Deliverables
• The primary software project phases:
– Requirements
– Analysis
– Design
– Construction
– Quality Assurance (or Testing)
– Operation ( Use)

Waterfall SDLC

Waterfall System Development Model
• The waterfall life cycle model has well-defined,
linear stages of systems analysis, design,
construction, testing, and support.
• This life cycle model assumes that requirements
will remain stable after they are defined.
• The waterfall life cycle model is used when risk
must be tightly controlled and when changes
must be restricted after the requirements are
defined.

Waterfall System Development Model
• A sequential SDLC is suitable for projects with:
– Clear, unmistakable, and stable user requirements
– Familiar, proven technology
– Low complexity
– Sufficient time
– Stable schedule
• A project meeting most of these criteria can use
conventional project management practices, such a
sincere planning and conventional risk assessment

Evolutionary Methodologies
• An evolutionary methodology follows an iterative and
incremental approach that allows the start of development
with incomplete, imperfect knowledge
• An iterative and incremental process offers these
advantages:
– Logical progress toward evolving a strong architecture
– Effective management of changing requirements
– Effective means to address changes in planning
– Ability to perform continuous integration
– Early understanding of the system
– Ongoing risk assessment
• Evolutionary methodologies are incremental at both the
macro (project- scale) and micro (working team) process
levels

Iterative System Development Model
• Non-linear approach to system development
• Incorporates top five principles of modern development
processes:
– Architecture first: Provides the central design element
– Iterative life-cycle process: Provides the essential risk
management element
– Component-based development: Provides the
technology element
– Change- management environment: Provides the
control element
– Round-trip engineering: Provides the automation
element

View of Iterative SDLC
• Iterative SD model defines four life-cycle phases:
– Inception
– Elaboration
– Construction
– Transition

Inception Phase
• Essential activities
– Formulate product scope. Capture requirements
and operational concept
– Perform feasibility analysis. Determine whether
the organization has the resources and technical
capabilities to meet customer’s needs
– Synthesize the system architecture. Evaluate
essential system design constraints and
compromise, as well as available solutions
– Plan and prepare business case. Address risk
management, staffing, iteration plans, cost, and
infrastructure

Elaboration Phase
• Most critical phase of the four
• Essential activities
– Elaborate the vision. Detail elements of the vision
that drive architectural or planning decisions
– Elaborate the process and infrastructure. The
construction process and environment are
established here
– Elaborate the architecture and select reusable
(internal) components. Baseline the architecture
as quickly as possible and demonstrate that the
architecture will support the vision at reasonable
cost in reasonable time

Construction Phase
• Essential activities
– Perform resource management, control, and
process optimization
– Complete component development and test
– Review product releases against acceptance
criteria

Transition Phase
• Essential activities
– Perform deployment ( use)-specific engineering
tasks. Commercial packaging and production,
sales kit development, field personnel training
– Assess deployment baselines against complete
vision and acceptance criteria. Examine and
compare what is being delivered to what was
predicted and described by acceptance criteria
– Plan for next iteration

Comparative Expenditure Profiles
Waterfall Iterative
Activity Cost Cost Activity
Management 5% 10% Management
Requirements 5% 10% Requirements
Design 10% 15% Design
Code & Unit Testing 30% 25% Implementation
Integration & Test 40% 25% Assessment
Deployment 5% 5% Deployment
Environment 5% 10% Environment
Total 100% 100% Total

Agile Project Management
–Is related to the rolling wave planning and
scheduling project methodology.
• Uses iterations (“time boxes”) to develop a workable
product that satisfies the customer and other key
stakeholders.
• Stakeholders and customers review progress and
re-evaluate priorities to ensure alignment with
customer needs and company goals.
• Adjustments are made and a different iterative cycle
begins that includes the work of the previous
iterations and adds new capabilities to the evolving
product.

Iterative, Incremental Product Development

Agile Project Management
• Advantages of Agile PM:
– Useful in developing critical breakthrough
technology or defining essential features
– Continuous integration, verification, and
validation of the evolving product.
– Frequent demonstration of progress to
increase the likelihood that the end product will
satisfy customer needs.
– Early detection of defects and problems.

Lean Project Management
• Lean is a management system that focuses
on improving the overall quality of how an
organization works. It takes into consideration
every process in the organization and helps
improve efficiency and effectiveness of each
employee and each process. It helps reduce
wastage of time and resources, while
improving the quality of the product or service
and giving better value for money to the end
customer.