569-The Project Life Cycle

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The Project Life Cycle refers to a logical sequence of activities to accomplish theprojects goals or objectives . Regardless of scope or complexity, any project goes through a

series of stages during its life. There is first an Initiation or Birth phase, in which the outputs andcritical success factors are defined, followed by a Planning phase, characterized by breaking down

the project into smaller parts/tasks, an Execution phase, in which the project plan is executed, andlastly a Closure or Exit phase, that marks the completion of the project. Project activities must begrouped into phases because by doing so, the project manager and the core team can efficientlyplan and organize resources for each activity, and also objectively measure achievement of goals

and justify their decisions to move ahead, correct, or terminate. It is of great importance toorganize project phases into industry-specific project cycles. Why? Not only because each industry

sector involves specific requirements, tasks, and procedures when it comes to projects, but alsobecause different industry sectors have different needs for life cycle management methodology.

And paying close attention to such details is the difference between doing things well and excellingas project managers.

Diverse project management tools and methodologies prevail in the different project cycle phases.Lets take a closer look at whats important in each one of these stages:

1) InitiationIn this first stage, the scope of the project is defined along with the approach to be taken to

deliver the desired outputs. The project manager is appointed and in turn, he selects the teammembers based on their skills and experience. The most common tools or methodologies used in

the initiation stage are Project Charter, Business Plan, Project Framework (or Overview), BusinessCase Justification, and Milestones Reviews.

2) PlanningThe second phase should include a detailed identification and assignment of each task until the

end of the project. It should also include a risk analysis and a definition of a criteria for thesuccessful completion of each deliverable. The governance process is defined, stake holders

identified and reporting frequency and channels agreed. The most common tools or methodologiesused in the planning stage are Business Plan and Milestones Reviews.

3) Execution and controllingThe most important issue in this phase is to ensure project activities are properly executed and

controlled. During the execution phase, the planned solution is implemented to solve the problemspecified in the project's requirements. In product and system development, a design resulting in

a specific set of product requirements is created. This convergence is measured by prototypes,testing, and reviews. As the execution phase progresses, groups across the organization become

more deeply involved in planning for the final testing, production, and support. The most commontools or methodologies used in the execution phase are an update of Risk Analysis and Score

Cards, in addition to Business Plan and Milestones Reviews.

4) ClosureIn this last stage, the project manager must ensure that the project is brought to its proper

completion. The closure phase is characterized by a written formal project review report containingthe following components: a formal acceptance of the final product by the client, Weighted Critical
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Measurements (matching the initial requirements specified by the client with the final deliveredproduct), rewarding the team, a list of lessons learned, releasing project resources, and a formal

project closure notification to higher management. No special tool or methodology is neededduring the closure phase.

Other resources Project templates and Project forms to help you successfully deliver your projects

Method123 provides a suite of powerful and affordable Project Management Templates focusedon making your project more productive and profitable as well as achieve Project Management

Objectives.Read more: Method123 templates

PDCA cycle (Deming wheel) The PDCA Cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act), commonly known as the Demming wheel, is a well

known model for CPI, or continual process improvement.

Project Management Life CycleThe Project Management Life Cycle has four phases: Initiation , Planning , Execution andClosure . Each project life cycle phase is described below, along with the tasks needed to completeit. You can click the links provided, to view more detailed information on the project managementlife cycle.

Develop a Business Case Undertake a Feasibility Study

Establish the Project Charter Appoint the Project Team Set up the Project Office

Perform Phase Review

Create a Project Plan

Create a Resource Plan Create a Financial Plan

Create a Quality Plan Create a Risk Plan Create an Acceptance Plan

Create a Communications Plan Create a Procurement Plan Contract the Suppliers Define the Tender Process Issue a Statement of Work Issue a Request for Information Issue a Request for Proposal
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Create Supplier Contract Perform Phase Review

Build Deliverables Monitor and Control Perform Time Management Perform Cost Management Perform Quality Management Perform Change Management Perform Risk Management Perform Issue Management Perform Procurement Management Perform Acceptance Management Perform Communications Management

Perform Project Closure

Review Project Completion

The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) , or Software Development Life Cycle insystems engineering , information systems and software engineering , is the process of creating

or altering systems, and the models and methodologies that people use to develop thesesystems. The concept generally refers to computer or information systems .

In software engineering the SDLC concept underpins many kinds of software developmentmethodologies . These methodologies form the framework for planning and controlling thecreation of an information system [1]: the software development process .
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Contents[hide ]

1 Overview 2 History 3 Systems development phases

o 3.1 System analysiso 3.2 Designo 3.3 Testingo 3.4 Operations and maintenance

4 Systems Analysis and Design 5 Systems development life cycle topics

o 5.1 Management and controlo 5.2 Work breakdown structured organizationo 5.3 Baselines in the SDLCo 5.4 Complementary to SDLC

6 Strengths and weaknesses 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading

10 External links

[ edit ] Overview

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a process used by a systems analyst to developan information system , including requirements , validation , training , and user (stakeholder)ownership. Any SDLC should result in a high quality system that meets or exceeds customer expectations, reaches completion within time and cost estimates, works effectively andefficiently in the current and planned Information Technology infrastructure , and isinexpensive to maintain and cost-effective to enhance. [2]

Computer systems are complex and often (especially with the recent rise of Service-OrientedArchitecture ) link multiple traditional systems potentially supplied by different softwarevendors. To manage this level of complexity, a number of SDLC models have been created:"waterfall "; "fountain"; " spiral "; "build and fix"; " rapid prototyping "; " incremental "; and

"synchronize and stabilize".[3]

SDLC models can be described along a spectrum of agile to iterative to sequential. Agilemethodologies , such as XP and Scrum , focus on light-weight processes which allow for rapidchanges along the development cycle. Iterative methodologies, such as Rational UnifiedProcess and Dynamic Systems Development Method , focus on limited project scopes andexpanding or improving products by multiple iterations. Sequential or big-design-up-front(BDUF) models, such as Waterfall , focus on complete and correct planning to guide largeprojects and risks to successful and predictable results [citation needed ]. Other models, such asAnamorphic Development , tend to focus on a form of development that is guided by projectscope and adaptive iterations of feature development.
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In project management a project can be defined both with a project life cycle (PLC) and anSDLC, during which slightly different activities occur. According to Taylor (2004) "theproject life cycle encompasses all the activities of the project , while the systems developmentlife cycle focuses on realizing the product requirements ".[4]

[ edit ] History

The Systems Life Cycle (SLC) is a type of methodology used to describe the process for building information systems , intended to develop information systems in a very deliberate,structured and methodical way, reiterating each stage of the life cycle . The systemsdevelopment life cycle, according to Elliott & Strachan & Radford (2004), "originated in the1960s,to develop large scale functional business systems in an age of large scale businessconglomerates . Information systems activities revolved around heavy data processing andnumber crunching routines". [5]

Several systems development frameworks have been partly based on SDLC, such as theStructured Systems Analysis and Design Method (SSADM) produced for the UK government Office of Government Commerce in the 1980s. Ever since, according to Elliott (2004), "thetraditional life cycle approaches to systems development have been increasingly replacedwith alternative approaches and frameworks, which attempted to overcome some of theinherent deficiencies of the traditional SDLC". [5]

[ edit ] Systems development phasesThis section needs additional citations for verification .Please help improve this article by adding reliable references . Unsourcedmaterial may be challenged and removed . (September 2010)

The System Development Life Cycle framework provides a sequence of activities for systemdesigners and developers to follow. It consists of a set of steps or phases in which each phaseof the SDLC uses the results of the previous one.

A Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) adheres to important phases that are essentialfor developers, such as planning , analysis , design , and implementation , and are explained inthe section below. A number of system development life cycle (SDLC) models have beencreated: waterfall, fountain, spiral, build and fix, rapid prototyping, incremental, and

synchronize and stabilize. The oldest of these, and the best known, is the waterfall model : asequence of stages in which the output of each stage becomes the input for the next. Thesestages can be characterized and divided up in different ways, including the following [6]:

Project planning, feasibility study : Establishes a high-level view of theintended project and determines its goals.

Systems analysis, requirements definition : Defines project goals intodefined functions and operation of the intended application. Analyzes end-user information needs.

Systems design : Describes desired features and operations in detail,including screen layouts, business rules, process diagrams, pseudocodeand other documentation.
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Implementation : The real code is written here.

Integration and testing : Brings all the pieces together into a specialtesting environment, then checks for errors, bugs and interoperability.

Acceptance, installation, deployment : The final stage of initialdevelopment, where the software is put into production and runs actualbusiness.

Maintenance : What happens during the rest of the software's life:changes, correction, additions, moves to a different computing platformand more. This, the least glamorous and perhaps most important step of all, goes on seemingly forever.

In the following example (see picture) these stage of the Systems Development Life Cycleare divided in ten steps from definition to creation and modification of IT work products:

The tenth phase occurs when the system is disposed of and the task performedis either eliminated or transferred to other systems. The tasks and work productsfor each phase are described in subsequent chapters. [7]

Not every project will require that the phases be sequentially executed. However, the phasesare interdependent. Depending upon the size and complexity of the project, phases may becombined or may overlap. [7]
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[ edit ] System analysis

The goal of system analysis is to determine where the problem is in an attempt to fix thesystem. This step involves breaking down the system in different pieces to analyze thesituation, analyzing project goals, breaking down what needs to be created and attempting toengage users so that definite requirements can be defined.

Requirements analysis sometimes requires individuals/teams from client as well as serviceprovider sides to get detailed and accurate requirements; often there has to be a lot of communication to and from to understand these requirements. Requirement gathering is themost crucial aspect as many times communication gaps arise in this phase and this leads tovalidation errors and bugs in the software program.

[ edit ] Design

In systems design the design functions and operations are described in detail, includingscreen layouts, business rules, process diagrams and other documentation. The output of thisstage will describe the new system as a collection of modules or subsystems.

The design stage takes as its initial input the requirements identified in the approvedrequirements document. For each requirement, a set of one or more design elements will beproduced as a result of interviews, workshops, and/or prototype efforts.

Design elements describe the desired software features in detail, and generally includefunctional hierarchy diagrams, screen layout diagrams, tables of business rules, businessprocess diagrams, pseudocode, and a complete entity-relationship diagram with a full datadictionary. These design elements are intended to describe the software in sufficient detailthat skilled programmers may develop the software with minimal additional input design.

[ edit ] Testing

The code is tested at various levels in software testing . Unit, system and user acceptancetestings are often performed. This is a grey area as many different opinions exist as to whatthe stages of testing are and how much if any iteration occurs. Iteration is not generally partof the waterfall model, but usually some occur at this stage. In the testing phase, the wholesystem is tested one by one

Following are the types of testing:

Defect testing Path testing Data set testing Unit testing System testing Integration testing Black box testing White box testing Regression testing Automation testing User acceptance testing
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Performance testing

[ edit ] Operations and maintenance

The deployment of the system includes changes and enhancements before thedecommissioning or sunset of the system. Maintaining the system is an important aspect of SDLC. As key personnel change positions in the organization, new changes will beimplemented, which will require system updates.

[ edit ] Systems Analysis and Design

The Systems Analysis and Design (SAD) is the process of developing Information Systems(IS) that effectively use of hardware, software, data, process, and people to support thecompanys business objectives.

[ edit ] Systems development life cycle topics

[ edit ] Management and control

SDLC Phases Related to Management Controls.[8]

The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) phases serve as a programmatic guide toproject activity and provide a flexible but consistent way to conduct projects to a depthmatching the scope of the project. Each of the SDLC phase objectives are described in thissection with key deliverables, a description of recommended tasks, and a summary of relatedcontrol objectives for effective management. It is critical for the project manager to establishand monitor control objectives during each SDLC phase while executing projects. Controlobjectives help to provide a clear statement of the desired result or purpose and should beused throughout the entire SDLC process. Control objectives can be grouped into major categories (Domains), and relate to the SDLC phases as shown in the figure .[8]
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To manage and control any SDLC initiative, each project will be required to establish somedegree of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to capture and schedule the work necessary tocomplete the project. The WBS and all programmatic material should be kept in the ProjectDescription section of the project notebook. The WBS format is mostly left to the projectmanager to establish in a way that best describes the project work. There are some key areas

that must be defined in the WBS as part of the SDLC policy. The following diagramdescribes three key areas that will be addressed in the WBS in a manner established by theproject manager. [8]

[ edit ] Work breakdown structured organization

Work Breakdown Structure. [8]

The upper section of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) should identify the major phasesand milestones of the project in a summary fashion. In addition, the upper section shouldprovide an overview of the full scope and timeline of the project and will be part of the initialproject description effort leading to project approval. The middle section of the WBS is basedon the seven Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) phases as a guide for WBS task development. The WBS elements should consist of milestones and tasks as opposed toactivities and have a definitive period (usually two weeks or more). Each task must have ameasurable output (e.x. document, decision, or analysis). A WBS task may rely on one or more activities (e.g. software engineering , systems engineering ) and may require closecoordination with other tasks, either internal or external to the project. Any part of the projectneeding support from contractors should have a Statement of work (SOW) written to includethe appropriate tasks from the SDLC phases. The development of a SOW does not occur during a specific phase of SDLC but is developed to include the work from the SDLC processthat may be conducted by external resources such as contractors and struct .[8]

[ edit ] Baselines in the SDLC

Baselines are an important part of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Thesebaselines are established after four of the five phases of the SDLC and are critical to theiterative nature of the model . [9] Each baseline is considered as a milestone in the SDLC.

Functional Baseline: established after the conceptual design phase. Allocated Baseline: established after the preliminary design phase.

Product Baseline: established after the detail design and developmentphase.
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this thinking. Some will argue that the SDLC no longer applies to models like Agilecomputing, but it is still a term widely in use in Technology circles. The SDLC practice hasadvantages in traditional models of software development, that lends itself more to astructured environment. The disadvantages to using the SDLC methodology is when there isneed for iterative development or (i.e. web development or e-commerce) where stakeholders

need to review on a regular basis the software being designed. Instead of viewing SDLC froma strength or weakness perspective, it is far more important to take the best practices from theSDLC model and apply it to whatever may be most appropriate for the software beingdesigned.

A comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of SDLC:

Strength and Weaknesses of SDLC [10]

Strengths Weaknesses

Control. Increased development time.Monitor Large projects. Increased development cost.

Detailed steps.Systems must be defined upfront.

Evaluate costs and completiontargets.

Rigidity.

Documentation.Hard to estimate costs, projectoverruns.

Well defined user input. User input is sometimes limited.

Ease of maintenance.

Development and designstandards.

Tolerates changes in MISstaffing.

An alternative to the SDLC is Rapid Application Development , which combines prototyping,Joint Application Development and implementation of CASE tools. The advantages of RADare speed, reduced development cost, and active user involvement in the developmentprocess.

[ edit ] See also

Application Lifecycle Management
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[ edit ] References

1. ^ SELECTING A DEVELOPMENT APPROACH . Retrieved 27 October2008.2. ^ "Systems Development Life Cycle" . In: Foldoc (2000-12-24)3. ^ Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) , Power Point, - Poweredby Google Docs4. ^ James Taylor (2004). Managing Information Technology Projects .p.39..5. ^ a b Geoffrey Elliott & Josh Strachan (2004) Global BusinessInformation Technology . p.87.6. ^ QuickStudy: System Development Life Cycle , By Russell Kay, May14, 20027. ^ a b US Department of Justice (2003). INFORMATION RESOURCESMANAGEMENT Chapter 1. Introduction.8. ^ a b c d e U.S. House of Representatives (1999). SystemsDevelopment Life-Cycle Policy . p.13.9. ^ Blanchard, B. S., & Fabrycky, W. J.(2006) Systems engineeringand analysis (4th ed.) New Jersey: Prentice Hall. p.3110. ^ a b Post, G., & Anderson, D., (2006). Management informationsystems: Solving business problems with information technology . (4thed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

[ edit ] Further reading

Blanchard, B. S., & Fabrycky, W. J.(2006) Systems engineering and analysis (4th ed.) New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Cummings, Haag (2006). Management Information Systems for theInformation Age . Toronto, McGraw-Hill Ryerson

Beynon-Davies P. (2009). Business Information Systems . Palgrave,Basingstoke. ISBN 978-0-230-20368-6

Computer World, 2002 , Retrieved on June 22, 2006 from the World WideWeb:

Management Information Systems, 2005 , Retrieved on June 22, 2006 fromthe World Wide Web:

This article was originally based on material from the Free On-lineDictionary of Computing , which is licensed under the GFDL .

The Project Life Cycle

Module by: Merrie Barron , Andrew R. Barron . E-mail the authors

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The project manager and project team have one shared goal: to carry out the work of theproject for the purpose of meeting the projects objectives. Every project has beginnings, amiddle period during which activities move the project toward completion, and an ending(either successful or unsuccessful). A standard project typically has the following four major phases (each with its own agenda of tasks and issues): initiation , planning , execution , andclosure . Taken together, these phases represent the path a project takes from the beginning toits end and are generally referred to as the project life cycle (Figure 1 ).

Figure 1: The four phase of the project lifecycle. Adapted from J. Westland, The Project Management Lifecycle , Kogan Page Limited

(2006).
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Initiation phase

During the first of these phases, the initiation phase , the project objective or need isidentified; this can be a business problem or opportunity. An appropriate response to the needis documented in a business case with recommended solution options. A feasibility study isconducted to investigate whether each option addresses the project objective and a finalrecommended solution is determined. Issues of feasibility (can we do the project?) andjustification (should we do the project?) are addressed.

Once the recommended solution is approved, a project is initiated to deliver the approvedsolution and a project manager is appointed. The major deliverables and the participatingwork groups are identified and the project team begins to take shape. Approval is then soughtby the project manager to move on the detailed planning phase.

Planning phase

The next phase, the planning phase , is where the project solution is further developed in asmuch detail as possible and you plan the steps necessary to meet the projects objective. Inthis step, the team identifies all of the work to be done. The projects tasks and resourcerequirements are identified, along with the strategy for producing them. This is also referredto as scope management. A project plan is created outlining the activities, tasks, dependenciesand timeframes. The project manager coordinates the preparation of a project budget; byproviding cost estimates for the labor, equipment and materials costs. The budget is used tomonitor and control cost expenditures during project execution.

Once the project team has identified the work, prepared the schedule and estimated the costs,the three fundamental components of the planning process are complete. This is an excellenttime to identify and try to deal with anything that might pose a threat to the successfulcompletion of the project. This is called risk management . In risk management, high-threatpotential problems are identified along with the action that is to be taken on each high threatpotential problem, either to reduce the probability that the problem will occur or to reduce theimpact on the project if it does occur. This is also a good time to identify all projectstakeholders, and to establish a communication plan describing the information needed andthe delivery method to be used to keep the stakeholders informed.

Finally, you will want to document a quality plan; providing quality targets, assurance, andcontrol measures along with an acceptance plan; listing the criteria to be met to gain customer acceptance. At this point, the project would have been planned in detail and is ready to beexecuted.

Execution phase

During the third phase, the execution phase , the project plan is put into motion and performsthe work of the project. It is important to maintain control and communicate as needed duringexecution. Progress is continuously monitored and appropriate adjustments are made andrecorded as variances from the original plan. In any project a project manager will spendmost of their time in this step. During project execution, people are carrying out the tasks andprogress information is being reported through regular team meetings. The project manager uses this information to maintain control over the direction of the project by measuring the


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performance of the project activities comparing the results with the project plan and takescorrective action as needed. The first course of action should always be to bring the projectback on course, i.e., to return it to the original plan. If that cannot happen, the team shouldrecord variations from the original plan and record and publish modifications to the plan.Throughout this step, project sponsors and other key stakeholders should be kept informed of

project status according to the agreed upon frequency and format. The plan should be updatedand published on a regular basis ( Figure 2 ).

Figure 2: One year in a project Day 19.

Status reports should always emphasize the anticipated end point in terms of cost, scheduleand quality of deliverables. Each project deliverable produced should be reviewed for quality

and measured against the acceptance criteria. Once all of the deliverables have been producedand the customer has accepted the final solution, the project is ready for closure.

Closure phase

During the final closure, or closeout phase , the emphasis is on releasing the final deliverablesto the customer, handing over project documentation to the business, terminating supplier contracts, releasing project resources and communicating the closure of the project to allstakeholders. The last remaining step is to conduct lessons learned studies; to examine whatwent well and what didnt. Through this type of analysis the wisdom of experience is

transferred back to the project organization, which will help future project teams.

Bibliography

J. Westland, The Project Management Lifecycle , Kogan Page Limited(2006).
http://cnx.org/content/m31913/latest/#id554545http://cnx.org/content/m31913/latest/#id554545

Documents

569-The Project Life Cycle