Manual 1

Project Life Cycle and

Organization

Book 1 of 3
Introduction of Project Life Cycle
 Manual 1 Project Life Cycle and Organization

Contents
Topic 1: Project Life Cycle 3

Section A: General Introduction 3

Project Phases and Life Cycle 3
Generic Project Life Cycle 3
Project versus Product Life Cycles 4
Identify Project Life Cycles 4

Section B: Introducing Project Life Cycle. 5

Project Life Cycle and Organization 5
The Project Life Cycle 5
Characteristics of the Project Life Cycle 5
Characteristics of Project Phases 7
Project Life Cycle and Product Life Cycle Relationships 7

Section C: Project Life Cycle in Depth 9

Project Phases and Life Cycle 9
Types of Life Cycles 9
Generic Project Life Cycle 10
Sample Generic Life Cycle 10
Generic IT Project Life Cycle 10
Waterfall Life Cycle 11
Waterfall Life Cycle 11
Incremental Life Cycle 11
Evolutionary Life Cycle 12
Spiral Life Cycle 13
Determine a Life Cycle that Meets the Project’s Requirements 14
Life Cycle Matrix 15
Project Life Cycle versus Product Life Cycle 15

Section D: Project Life Cycle Summing up 16

Project vs. Product Life Cycles 16
Generic Project Life Cycle 16
Representative Project Life Cycles 17
Quality Planning in a Project Life Cycle 17

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 Manual 1 Project Life Cycle and Organization

Topic 1: Project Life Cycle

Section A: General Introduction
Project Phases and Life Cycle
Projects are divided into several project phases to provide better management control and appropriate
links to ongoing operation of the performing organization. Collectively, these phases are known as a
Project Life Cycle. Each phase of the project life cycle is marked by the completion of one or more
deliverables.

The conclusion of a project phase in the life cycle is marked by a review of both key deliverables and
project performance reviews. These are often called “phase exits”, “stage gates”, “Q-gates”, or “kill
points”. These reviews are conducted in order to determine if the project should continue, and also to
detect and correct errors cost effectively.

Definition: Project Life Cycle

A collection of generally sequential project phases whose name and number are determined by
the control needs of the organization or organizations involved in the project.

Phases define what should be done in the project and who should be involved in the project.

Generic Project Life Cycle

The generic project life cycle demonstrates that a project has some form of initial phase, one or more
intermediate phases, and a final phase to bring the project to conclusion. The numbers and names of
phases are not standard across industries.

Intermediate Phases
(One or more)

Cost and
Staffing Initial
Phase Final
Level
Phase

Start Time Finish

Sample Generic Life Cycle

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 Manual 1 Project Life Cycle and Organization

Project versus Product Life Cycles

An area of possible confusion is the difference between a project’s life cycle and product’s life cycle. Many
projects may support a product during the product’s life cycle. As a way of illustrating their meanings,
here is an example.

The product is a gas-powered electric plant. The initial project is to build the plant. After this first project
has been completed, the plant is turned over to the operators, who now use the plant to produce
electricity over the plant’s lifetime. At the end of the economical life of the plant, another project may be
started - the shutdown and disposal of the plant itself.

The manual refers to the project life cycle, although in reality, most projects are planned with total life
cycle cost in mind. If a little extra time can be spent designing a more reliable or higher quality product,
the added cost of doing so will be offset by the savings over the year of operation.

Identify Project Life Cycles

Think about the types of project life cycles that exist at your organization. The list of life cycles presented
is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all life cycles, and new models are constantly been evolved.

Terminology in corporate settings may change; one company may call a phase planning and another
company may call it design.

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 Manual 1: Project Life Cycle and Organization

Section B: Introducing Project Life Cycle.

Project Life Cycle and Organization
Projects and project management are carried out in an environment broader than that of the project itself.
The project management team must understand this broader context so it can select the life cycle phases,
processes, and tools and techniques that appropriately fit the project. This chapter describes some key
aspects of the project management context. The topics included here are:

The Project Life Cycle

Project managers or the organization can divide projects into phases to provide better management
control with appropriate links to the ongoing operations of the performing organization. Collectively, these
phases are known as the project life cycle. Many organizations identify a specific set of life cycles for use
on all of their projects.

Characteristics of the Project Life Cycle

The project life cycle defines the phases that connect the beginning of a project to its end. For example,
when an organization identifies an opportunity to which it would like to respond, it will often authorize a
feasibility study to decide whether it should undertake the project. The project life cycle definition can help
the project manager clarify whether to treat the feasibility study as the first project phase or as a
separate, stand-alone project. Where the outcome of such a preliminary effort is not clearly identifiable, it
is best to treat such efforts as a separate project.

The transition from one phase to another within a project’s life cycle generally involves, and is usually
defined by, some form of technical transfer or handoff. Deliverables from one phase are usually reviewed
for completeness and accuracy and approved before work starts on the next phase. However, it is not
uncommon for a phase to begin prior to the approval of the previous phase’s deliverables, when the risks
involved are deemed acceptable. This practice of overlapping phases, normally done in sequence, is an
example of the application of the schedule compression technique called fast tracking.

There is no single best way to define an ideal project life cycle. Some organizations have established
policies that standardize all projects with a single life cycle, while others allow the project management
team to choose the most appropriate life cycle for the team’s project. Further, industry common practices
will often lead to the use of a preferred life cycle within that industry.

Project life cycles generally define:

• What technical work to do in each phase (for example, in which phase should the architect’s work be
performed?)
• When the deliverables are to be generated in each phase and how each deliverable is reviewed,
verified, and validated
• Who is involved in each phase (for example, concurrent engineering requires that the implementers
be involved with requirements and design)
• How to control and approve each phase

Project life cycle descriptions can be very general or very detailed. Highly detailed descriptions of life
cycles can include forms, charts, and checklists to provide structure and control.

Most project life cycles share a number of common characteristics:

• Phases are generally sequential and are usually defined by some form of technical information
transfer or technical component handoff.
• Cost and staffing levels are low at the start, peak during the intermediate phases, and drop rapidly as
the project draws to a conclusion. Figure 1 illustrates this pattern.

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 Manual 1: Project Life Cycle and Organization

Intermediate Phase(s)

Final Phase
Initial Phase

Time

Figure 1 – Typical Project Cost and Staffing Level Across the Project Life Cycle

• The level of uncertainty is highest and, hence, risk of failing to achieve the objectives is greatest at the
start of the project. The certainty of completion generally gets progressively better as the project
continues.
• The ability of the stakeholders to influence the final characteristics of the project’s product and the
final cost of the project is highest at the start, and gets progressively lower as the project continues.
Figure 2 illustrates this. A major contributor to this phenomenon is that the cost of changes and
correcting errors generally increases as the project continues.

High
Influence of Stakeholders

Cost of changes

Low

Project Time
Figure 2: Stakeholders’ Influence Over Time

Although many project life cycles have similar phase names with similar deliverables, few life cycles are
identical. Some can have four or five phases, but others may have nine or more. Single application areas
are known to have significant variations. One organization’s software development life cycle can have a
single design phase, while another can have separate phases for architectural and detailed design.
Subprojects can also have distinct project life cycles. For example, an architectural firm hired to design a
new office building is first involved in the owner’s definition phase while doing the design, and in the
owner’s implementation phase while supporting the construction effort. The architect’s design project,
however, will have its own series of phases from conceptual development, through definition and
implementation, to closure. The architect can even treat designing the facility and supporting the
construction as separate projects, each with its own set of phases.

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 Manual 1: Project Life Cycle and Organization

Characteristics of Project Phases

The completion and approval of one or more deliverables characterizes a project phase. A deliverable is a
measurable, verifiable work product such as a specification, feasibility study report, detailed design
document, or working prototype. Some deliverables can correspond to the project management process,
whereas others are the end products or components of the end products for which the project was
conceived. The deliverables, and hence the phases, are part of a generally sequential process designed to
ensure proper control of the project and to attain the desired product or service, which is the objective of
the project.

In any specific project, for reasons of size, complexity, level of risk, and cash flow constraints, phases can
be further subdivided into sub-phases. Each sub-phase is aligned with one or more specific deliverables
for monitoring and control. The majority of these sub-phase deliverables are related to the primary phase
deliverable, and the phases typically take their names from these phase deliverables: requirements,
design, build, test, startup, turnover, and others, as appropriate.

A project phase is generally concluded with a review of the work accomplished and the deliverables to
determine acceptance, whether extra work is still required, or whether the phase should be considered
closed. A management review is often held to reach a decision to start the activities of the next phase
without closing the current phase, for example, when the project manager chooses fast tracking as the
course of action. Another example is when an information technology company chooses an iterative life
cycle where more than one phase of the project might progress simultaneously. Requirements for a
module can be gathered and analyzed before the module is designed and constructed. While analysis of a
module is being done, the requirements gathering for another module could also start in parallel.

Similarly, a phase can be closed without the decision to initiate any other phases. For example, the project
is completed or the risk is deemed too great for the project to be allowed to continue.
2
Formal phase completion does not include authorizing the subsequent phase. For effective control, each
phase is formally initiated to produce a phase-dependent output of the Initiating Process Group, specifying
what is allowed and expected for that phase, as shown in Figure 3. A phase-end review can be held with
the explicit goals of obtaining authorization to close the current phase and to initiate the subsequent one.
Sometimes both authorizations can be gained at one review. Phase-end reviews are also called phase
exits, phase gates, or kill points.

Inputs

FINAL
Phases INITIAL I NTE R M E D I A T E

Charter Plan
Project
Management Baseline Acceptance Approval
outputs Scope
Statement Handover
Progress

Project Product
Deliverable

Figure 3: Typical Sequence of Phases in a Project Life Cycle

Project Life Cycle and Product Life Cycle Relationships

Many projects are linked to the ongoing work of the performing organization. Some organizations formally
approve projects only after completion of a feasibility study, a preliminary plan, or some other equivalent
form of analysis; in these cases, the preliminary planning or analysis takes the form of a separate project.
For example, additional phases could come from developing and testing a prototype prior to initiating the
project for the development of the final product. Some types of projects, especially internal service or new
product development projects, can be initiated informally for a limited amount of time to secure formal
approval for additional phases or activities.

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 Manual 1: Project Life Cycle and Organization

The driving forces that create the stimuli for a project are typically referred to as problems, opportunities,
or business requirements. The effect of these pressures is that management generally must prioritize this
request with respect to the needs and resource demands of other potential projects.

The project life cycle definition will also identify which transitional actions at the end of the project are
included or not included, in order to link the project to the ongoing operations of the performing
organization. Examples would be when a new product is released to manufacturing, or a new software
program is turned over to marketing. Care should be taken to distinguish the project life cycle from the
product life cycle. For example, a project undertaken to bring a new desktop computer to market is only
one aspect of the product life cycle. The product life cycle might start with the business plan, through idea,
to product, ongoing operations and product divestment. The project life cycle goes through a series of
phases to create the product.

Additional projects can include a performance upgrade to the product. In some application areas, such as
new product development or software development, organizations consider the project life cycle as part of
the product life cycle.

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 Manual 1: Project Life Cycle and Organization

Section C: Project Life Cycle in Depth

Every program, project, or product has certain phases of development. The concept of a project life cycle
provides a useful framework for looking at project dynamics over time. It is used to conceptualize work
stages and the budgetary and organizational resource requirements of each stage. A clear understanding
of these phases permits managers and executives to better control total corporate resources to achieve
desired goals. Currently, there is no agreement among industries, or even companies within the same
industry, about the life-cycle phases of a project. This is understandable because of the complex nature
and diversity of projects.

Definition: Project Life Cycle

A collection of generally sequential project phases whose name and number are determined by
the control needs of the organization or organizations involved in the project.

Projects are divided into several project phases to provide better management control and appropriate
links to ongoing operations of the performing organization. Collectively, these phases are known as the
project life cycle. Each phase of the project life cycle is marked by the completion of one or more
deliverables. The conclusion of a project phase in the life cycle is marked by a review of key deliverables.
Project performance reviews are often called phase exits, stage gates, Q-gates, or kill points. These
reviews are conducted in order to determine if the project should continue, and to detect and correct
errors cost-effectively.

Project Phases and Life Cycle

Project phases define work to be done and who should be involved in the work. Additionally, project
phases allow for Go/No-Go decisions. Dividing projects into phases allows for better planning and
management control of each completed phase. Go/No-Go decisions can be made to ensure that the
organization does not become committed to a project that it cannot complete within a beneficial cost or
schedule.

Most projects have a number of common cost-related characteristics:

• Cost and staffing levels are low at the start, higher in the middle during project execution, and drop
rapidly at the conclusion of the project.
• Uncertainty and risk to project success is highest at the beginning, and decreases over time; often the
project manager must develop cost estimates when uncertainty is the greatest.
• Costs of errors and changes are greatest toward the end of the project life cycle.

Project managers must consider costs over the full life cycle of the project. Costs can change over the life
of a project, as more project information becomes available. Often, project managers perform Life Cycle
Cost (LCC) estimates to forecast the total cost of a project over its life cycle. The challenges of performing
life cycle cost estimates are explored in greater detail later in this course.

Types of Life Cycles

Listed below are types of life cycles:

• Generic project life cycle

• Generic IT project life cycle
• Waterfall life cycle
• Incremental life cycle
• Evolutionary life cycle
• Spiral life cycle

Each of the life cycles will be explained in the following pages.

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 Manual 1: Project Life Cycle and Organization

Generic Project Life Cycle

The generic project life cycle demonstrates that a project has some form of initial phase, one or more
intermediate phases, and a final phase to bring the project to a conclusion. The amount of phases used
and their names are not standard across industries. Different types of cost estimating and control
techniques are applied based on the information available at a particular phase in a life cycle.

Intermediate Phases
(One or more)

Cost and Staffing Initial

Level Phase Final
Phase

Start Time Finish

Sample Generic Life Cycle

Although this image is of a generic project life cycle, it does an excellent job of visually depicting the level
of effort through a project, as well as an indication of where money is spent and where risk is usually
greatest in terms of money and resources.

Generic IT Project Life Cycle

Define Gather Requirements Design Build/Test Install Operate

This sample above of a generic IT project life cycle depicts more detail regarding the lifecycle as it
relates to approach as well as costing.

Unique deliverables are developed for each phase of the life cycle.

A further breakdown of some cost elements of an IT project are listed below:

• Feasibility Study • Prepared Facility

• Requirements • Infrastructure
• Proposed Solutions • Installed Solution
• Initial Project Plan • Accepted Solution
• Functional Specs • Support Services
• Design Specs. • Trained Users
• Acceptance Test Specs • Post-project Review
• Support Specs. • Report
• Project Plan • Archived Materials
• Solution components
• Hardware
• Infrastructure
• Software
• Training
• Documents
• Support

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 Manual 1: Project Life Cycle and Organization

Waterfall Life Cycle

The waterfall life cycle is the oldest and best known of all of the life cycles. The waterfall life cycle is a
sequence of stages in which the output of each stage becomes the input for the next. It shows a sequence
of “What...How” steps that form the specifications of a system.

Definition

Analysis

Design

Implementation

Installation

Operation
Waterfall Life Cycle

The waterfall model is well understood, but it’s not as useful as it once was. It doesn’t work nearly as well,
if at all, when building systems for knowledge workers -- people at help desks, experts trying to solve
problems, or executives trying to lead their company into the Fortune 100.

Another problem is that the waterfall model assumes that the only role for users is in specifying
requirements, and that all requirements can be specified in advance. Unfortunately, requirements grow
and change throughout the process and beyond, calling for considerable feedback and iterative
consultation. Thus many other life cycle models have been developed.

Incremental Life Cycle

The incremental model divides the product into builds, where sections of the project are created and
tested separately. This approach will likely find errors in user requirements quickly, since user feedback
is solicited for each stage, and because code is tested sooner after it’s written.

Design

Concept Implement

Architecture
Design Design

Install, Operate,
Implement and Maintain
Requirements

Design

Implement

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 Manual 1: Project Life Cycle and Organization

Evolutionary Life Cycle

The evolutionary life cycle method is a strategy for products where future requirement refinements are
anticipated to evolve, such as software product development. It is also for projects where there is a
technical risk that discourages the full and immediate implementation of the needed capability. This
strategy develops in a series of builds. It differs from the incremental approach by acknowledging that
user needs are not filly understood and that not all requirements can be fully defined up front.

Requirements are only defined to the extent that they are known. As additional user needs become known
through feedback from previous builds, the specific requirements for each succeeding build are defined.
Product capabilities are increased with the delivery of each incremental release until the product is
complete. Users have early access to product releases (such as beta software products) and are
encouraged to provide performance feedback, which is used to shape the product as it evolves into its final
form.

Concept Continued…
Explo. Reqs
System
Alloc Design Implement
STRATEGY

Concept
Explo. Reqs
Reqs.
System Design Implement Install Maint.
STRATEGY
Alloc
Concept System
Explo. Alloc
STRATEGY Design Implement Install Maint.

Time

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 Manual 1: Project Life Cycle and Organization

Spiral Life Cycle

The next generation of life cycle methodologies emphasized Rapid Prototyping and customer feedback.
Barry Boehm developed the “Spiral Model” in the mid 80s. Another Rapid Prototype methodology today is
called “RUP”, the Rational Unified Process. When all the series are complete, the Prototype code should
be thrown away. The entire system should be redesigned, and rewritten from the ground up now that the
requirements are well understood.

Operations and Production

Support

Evaluate
Unit
Test Requirements
Sub-System Identity
Evaluation
Requirement
System
Evaluation Requirements
Risk Business
Analysis Requirement
1. Proof
of Conceptual
Concept Design
2. First Logical
Build Design
Physical
3. Second Design
Build

4. Final Design
Construct Build

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 Manual 1: Project Life Cycle and Organization

Determine a Life Cycle that Meets the Project’s Requirements

Project Cost Management Overview 2-11

Waterfall life Cycle
Advantages Disadvantages
• Simple milestones • Not useful until finished
• Clear review points • Takes a long time
• Easily understood • Escalating costs
• Known and trusted • High number of errors
• Decisions documented • Frequent changes that impact the contract

Incremental Life Cycle

Advantages Disadvantages
• Mini Projects • More complex
• Allocation of resources • Increased risk of miscommunication
• Partitions risk • Modular architecture
• Faster delivery • Increased time testing and integrating

Spiral life Cycle

Advantages Disadvantages
• Risk reduced • Complexity
• Critical success factors • Delivery expectations
• Detailed user requirements • Heavy user investment
• Encourages reuse • Few practioners
• Validates assumptions and feasibility • Risk assessment expertise required

Evolutionary Life Cycle

Advantages Disadvantages
• Satisfying • Open architecture
• Fast delivery • Heavy user involvement
• Cash flow advantage • Experienced team & management
• Expects change • Risk assessment expertise required
• Room to abandon

Advantages and Disadvantages of Life Cycles

The project manager can use a matrix to compare the different types of life cycles that may be considered
for a specific type of project being managed. The matrix shown below was developed specifically for
managing information technology projects, and evaluating whether the system requirements and
architecture are known or unknown and if the system components are divisible or not (determining if work
can be divided for the project team).

Req = Requirements
Arch = Architecture
Sys = System

Depending on the specific nature of the project being managed, these columns may be adapted to more
accurately reflect project parameters. However, the Risk, Size, and Team columns are common to all
projects.

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 Manual 1: Project Life Cycle and Organization

Life Cycle Matrix

Life Cycle Model Req Arch Sys Risk Size Team

Waterfall K K I L S to M New
Incremental K K D M M to L New
Spiral U U D/I H M to L Exp.
Evolutionary K U D H M to L Exp.

D = Divisible K = Known I = Indivisible U = Unknown

Project Life Cycle Activity

Project Life Cycle versus Product Life Cycle

An area of possible confusion is the difference between a project’s life cycle and the product’s life cycle.
Many projects may support a product during the product’s life cycle.

As a way of illustrating their meanings, here is an example. The product is a gas- powered electric plant.
The initial project is to build the plant. After this first project has been completed, the plant is turned over
to the operators, who now use the plant to produce electricity over the plant’s lifetime. At the end of the
economical life of the plant, another project may be started the shutdown and disposal of the plant itself.

This manual refers to the project life cycle, although in reality, most projects are planned with the total life
cycle costs in mind. If a little extra time can be spent designing a more reliable or higher quality product,
the added costs of doing so will be offset by the savings over the years of operation.

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 Manual 1: Project Life Cycle and Organization

Section D: Project Life Cycle Summing up

Projects are divided into several project phases to provide better management control and appropriate
links to ongoing operations of the performing organization. Collectively, these phases are known as a
project life cycle. Phases define the work to be done and who should be involved. Each phase is marked
by the completion of one or more deliverable. Phases and life cycles allow for Go/No Go decision.

The conclusion of a project phase in the life cycle is marked by a review of key deliverables. Project
performance reviews are often called phase exits, stage gates, Q-gates, or kill points. These reviews are
conducted in order to:

• Determine if the project should continue.

• Detect and correct errors in a cost-effective manner.
• Identify key triggers for quality.

Project vs. Product Life Cycles

An area of possible confusion is the difference between a project’s life cycle (processes) and the product’s
life cycle (processes). Many projects may support a product during the product’s life cycle.

The following example illustrates the difference. The product is a gas-powered electric plant. The initial
project is to build the plant. After this first project has been completed, the plant is turned over to the
operators, who now use the plant to produce electricity over the plant’s lifetime. At the end of the
economical life of the plant, another project may be started - the shutdown and disposal of the plant itself.

This manual only refers to the project life cycle, although in reality most projects are planned with the
total product life cycle costs in mind. If a little extra time is spent designing a more reliable or higher
quality product, the savings over the years of the product’s operation will offset the added project costs.

Generic Project Life Cycle

The generic project life cycle demonstrates that a project has some form of initial phase, one or more
intermediate phases, and a final phase to bring the project to a conclusion. A sample generic life cycle is
illustrated below.

Intermediate Phases
(One or more)
Cost & Staffing Level

Final
Initial Phase
Phase

Start Finish

In all project life cycles:

• Cost and staffing levels are low at the start, higher towards the end, and then drop rapidly at finish.
• The probability of successfully completing the project is lowest at the start.
• Risk and uncertainty are the highest at the start.

The ability for stakeholders to influence the final product and cost of the project are highest at the start
and get progressively lower as the project continues.

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 Manual 1: Project Life Cycle and Organization

Representative Project Life Cycles

There are many project life cycle models that a project manager can use to manage a project. The project
manager is responsible for selecting the life cycle that best supports the type of project being managed.
Project life cycles models differ significantly because of the type of project or industry. Consider the vast
differences in the defense acquisition, construction, and software engineering industries. No single
approach is right or wrong - the model is simply based on how the organization does business.

Quality Planning in a Project Life Cycle

Quality planning is an iterative process; therefore the evaluation of quality assurance and quality control is
also iterative.

Throughout the manual, how quality is planned into a project life cycle is explored. This philosophy is one
of the critical factors for the successful implementation of project quality management. If quality is not
planned into the project life cycle, then quality issues will only be addressed when they are realized as a
problem.

Planning quality into a project life cycle is a proactive approach to keep quality metrics within tolerance
levels, preventing quality issues from being realized as problems.

• Quality planning
• Quality assurance Iterative
• Quality control

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