PROJECT AND LIFECYCLE

PGDPMP- Additional Material

Md. Rashed Mamun, PMP®

 PROJECT AND LIFECYCLE | Md. Rashed Mamun, PMP®

CONTENTS
1 Project Phases and Lifecycle .................................................................................................................................................................................. 2
1.1 What is the project life cycle? ........................................................................................................................................................................ 2
1.2 What is a phase? ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 2
1.3 Phase-to-Phase Relationships ........................................................................................................................................................................ 3
1.4 What is the life cycle approaches? ................................................................................................................................................................ 5
1.5 What is the generic life cycle? ....................................................................................................................................................................... 5
1.6 Why do I care about the different types of life cycle approaches? ............................................................................................................... 6
1.7 Life Cycles Explained ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 6
1.7.1 Predictive Life Cycle (Fully Plan-Driven aka Waterfall) .......................................................................................................................... 6
1.7.2 Iterative Life Cycle .................................................................................................................................................................................. 7
1.7.3 Incremental Life Cycle ............................................................................................................................................................................ 8
1.7.4 Adaptive Life Cycle (change-driven, aka Agile) .................................................................................................................................... 12
1.7.5 Hybrid Life Cycle................................................................................................................................................................................... 17
2 Summary .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 17

PROJECT AND LIFECYCLE | PGDPMP- Additional Material

 PROJECT AND LIFECYCLE | Md. Rashed Mamun, PMP®

1 PROJECT PHASES AND LIFECYCLE

With the wrong approach, you run the risk of cost overruns, long delivery delays, and potentially a failed project. Luckily, there are
several project life cycle approaches available to help you control and deliver your projects successfully.

1.1 WHAT IS THE PROJECT LIFE CYCLE?

The project life cycle contains every phase that your project goes through from beginning to end (cradle to grave). Some projects may
have only one phase, others may have many. The PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition defines the project life cycle as “the series of phases
that a project passes through from its initiation to its closure” (page 19). That seems simple enough.

1.2 WHAT IS A PHASE?

Per the definition, every project is made up of one or more phases, which are “a collection of logically related project activities that
culminate in the completion of one or more deliverables” (page 20).

Phases can be –

1. sequential (back-to-back),
2. iterative (cyclic) or
3. overlap (simultaneous at points).

The more phases and the more overlap, the greater the risk to the constraints of time, scope, and cost.

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1.3 PHASE-TO-PHASE RELATIONSHIPS

In cases where projects have two or more phases, the phases are
considered part of a sequential process. However, in some
situations, the project might benefit from overlapping or
concurrent phases.

The phase-to-phase relationships can be of two types:

 Sequential relationship: In a sequential relationship, a

new phase starts only when the preceding phase is
complete. In the figure given below, you can see an
example of a project with three entirely sequential
phases. The step by- step nature of this approach
decreases uncertainty, but may also remove options for
reducing the overall schedule.

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 Overlapping relationship: In an
overlapping relationship, as the
name suggests, next phase starts
before the completion of the
previous one. Overlapping phases
sometimes need additional
resources because work has to be
done in parallel. It may increase
risk or could lead to rework if a
succeeding phase progresses before
correct information is gathered
from the previous phase.

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1.4 WHAT IS THE LIFE CYCLE APPROACHES?

The PMBOK® Guide directly calls out two life cycle approaches: predictive and adaptive. Then it subdivides the adaptive life cycle
approach into multiple phases that they call development life cycles:

 Predictive (you have clarity about the problem, problem area is well-known)
 Iterative
 Incremental
 Adaptive
 Hybrid

To help us decide what approach to use for a particular project, we need to focus on how the life cycle approach handles the project
requirements, constraints, stakeholder feedback, and resources.

1.5 WHAT IS THE GENERIC LIFE CYCLE?

Rarely is anything generic, but the PMBOK® Guide defines four generic phases in a lifecycle as

1. Starting the project

2. Organizing and preparing
3. Carrying out the work
4. Ending the project

(Figure 1-5 from page 18). The important things to know about this generic life cycle are:

 Cost and staffing levels will continue to increase until they peak while carrying out the work
 Risk and uncertainty will decrease over time
 Cost of changes significantly increases over time

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1.6 WHY DO I CARE ABOUT THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF LIFE CYCLE APPROACHES?

When there was only one approach, Waterfall, we needed to develop workarounds and try to contain and control everything within that
fixed model (what a challenge). Today, with multiple approaches available, you can find the most flexible, cost-effective, time-sensitive
way to deliver (what a relief). Below I detail the approaches mentioned in the PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition, but there are dozens
more you can investigate and choose from, each having their own benefits and drawbacks.

1.7 LIFE CYCLES EXPLAINED

1.7.1 Predictive Life Cycle (Fully Plan-Driven aka Waterfall)

During the previous 30 years of the last millennium (the ’70s, ‘80s, ‘90s), the Waterfall approach was the gold standard for all projects.
It is a fully plan-driven approach where the 3 main project constraints (time, scope, cost) are all determined at a detailed level at the start
of the project. You need to know your requirements going in, and the scope is fixed at the onset. Each phase is then laid out sequentially
and managed carefully.

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Over time, to allow for more precise planning, the approach has allowed for “progressive elaboration” or “rolling wave planning” (page
185). Remember that scope and planning are two different things. Progressive elaboration doesn’t change the scope. It allows you to
roll out the schedule into shorter passes. I measure all other approaches against the benefits and failings of this traditional approach
(maybe because it is the first one I learned). Waterfall was great when I managed the very controlled and predictive development of a
new hard drive at IBM. The project spanned years and didn’t require much stakeholder involvement (mostly at beginning and end or
when we had scope changes that needed approval). The downside is that Waterfall is pretty inflexible when it comes to changes late in
the project, and therefore leads to significant cost increases when rework is needed. This is why I believe people started coming up with
more adaptive approaches. But Waterfall is still a good lifecycle approach if you have the development time and you know what you
want to deliver. Don’t disregard its benefits.

1.7.2 Iterative Life Cycle

As timeframes for delivery got shorter, and requirements got less clear, we needed additional lifecycle approaches that could handle the
changes faster and less expensively. We found that when you broke large and complex projects down into smaller phases (aka cycles),
it gave us more control (decreased risk and cost of rework). As the name implies, you execute the project in small iterations, giving you
the ability to better define requirements at the start of each cycle. The PMBOK® Guide (page 19) recommends that you still define
scope early in the project, but that you modify time and costs after each iteration since you will understand them better.

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The iterative approach is like a bunch of small waterfall cycles with the customer verifying the work at the exit of each cycle. This gives
you more flexibility and a better opportunity to address changes and reduce risk. You detail the scope for the next phase when you are
done with the previous.

1.7.3 Incremental Life Cycle

Many times you will see the incremental approach grouped with the iterative. They are similar but also different. The incremental
lifecycle approach develops a product through the implementation of incremental steps which have predetermined timeframes. Each
increment delivers additional functionality for the product and is repeated until the final deliverable is produced. Like with the iterative
approach, customers sign off at each exit point. This approach is great when you want to do prototyping and reduce change risk along
the way.

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The main difference between them is that an iterative process makes progress through continuous refinement while an incremental process makes
progress through small increments.

So if I am a PM for a software project,

an iterative approach would be to initially build the overall product and then refine the weak areas,

VS

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while an incremental approach would be to build each individual area one at a time.

Generally, an iterative product will get to market before an incremental product, but the incremental product will be more complete when initially
released.

If I have to write an essay-

If you wrote it under the Itserative Model, you'd bang out a quick rough draft and work to improve it through a set of revision phases.

VS

If you were writing an essay under the Incremental Model, you'd attempt to write it perfectly from start to finish one sentence at time.

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PROJECT AND LIFECYCLE | Md. Rashed Mamun, PMP®

PROJECT AND LIFECYCLE | PGDPMP- Additional Material

 PROJECT AND LIFECYCLE | Md. Rashed Mamun, PMP®

1.7.4 Adaptive Life Cycle (change-driven, aka Agile)

Everyone wants rapid development these days, so when you need to execute a project fast, Agile is the way to go. This approach was
built to handle changes and reduce inherent risk. highly recommend you read this Annex to better understand the concepts. Teams
deliver software updates in weeks instead of months.

Adaptive projects are quick and time bound with two critical success factors:

1. The customer must be intimately involved in the process

2. You must be able to define incremental requirements at the start of each iteration

If requirements are not well known, like when you are developing a first of its kind application, the adaptive approach works nicely.

One of the biggest advantages to the Adaptive Life Cycle is-

1. that it allows more change every 2-4 weeks without increasing costs. You determine the change during the planning stage for
the following iteration.
2. As an added bonus, while making changes in each iteration, risk naturally decreases
3. After completing each iteration, customers provide feedback. This gets customers more involved and engaged with the
process.
4. Also, the feedback allows changes to improve the product and increase customer satisfaction.

Adaptive Life Cycle requires-

1. greater communication and collaboration.

2. Since the process needs to be completed within a very rapid period of time, it’s important to get everyone involved and focused
on meeting the goals and increasing customer satisfaction.

PROJECT AND LIFECYCLE | PGDPMP- Additional Material

PROJECT AND LIFECYCLE | Md. Rashed Mamun, PMP®

PROJECT AND LIFECYCLE | PGDPMP- Additional Material

PROJECT AND LIFECYCLE | Md. Rashed Mamun, PMP®

PROJECT AND LIFECYCLE | PGDPMP- Additional Material

 PROJECT AND LIFECYCLE | Md. Rashed Mamun, PMP®

In addition to iterations being sequential, interactive, or overlapping, they could also run in parallel. But don’t forget, especially when
you are going at the speed of light, that each iteration should still be a complete cycle of Plan, Develop, Evaluate, and Learn. (Good
project management process is all the more critical when you are going fast.) Iterations usually last 2 to 4 weeks at maximum.

1.7.4.1 Agile Manifesto

To get a deeper understanding of all the concepts involved in Agile delivery, read the Agile Manifesto.

https://agilemanifesto.org/

We are uncovering better ways of developing

software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

1.Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

2.Working software over comprehensive documentation
3.Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
4.Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more .

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1.7.5 Hybrid Life Cycle

As it implies, the Hybrid takes the best of all approaches. You can use a predictive approach for the elements of the project that are
known and an adaptive approach for the elements that will become apparent over time. “Hybrid methodologies accept the fluidity of
projects and allow for a more nimble and nuanced approach to work,” says Jason Westland.

Hybrid approaches are not new to project management, but they are definitely gaining acceptance as a way to solve life cycle problems
in the 21st century. There is software coming on the market that allows you to blend approaches so you can manage different life cycle
approaches all in one application. How neat is that?

2 SUMMARY
Agile breaks down the entire project into smaller pieces for development, where each piece developed is functional by itself.

Incremental is that part of the process where you know the exact solution to your problem. And you develop parts of the solution in
phases.

Iterative is that part of the process where you do not know the exact solution to your problem (and may not know the exact problem
too in some cases!).

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 PROJECT AND LIFECYCLE | Md. Rashed Mamun, PMP®

Agile = iterative + incremental development process

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