Alvin’s Cheatsheet – Project Life Cycles Demystified

Project Life Cycles Explained

Reference: Agile Practice Guide, Pg 17 - 32

Approach Alvin’s Explanation How is it Beneficial?

• Events occur in a linear sequence Less uncertainty because

• The final product is delivered to the customer ONCE requirements and other
at the VERY END of the project areas of the project are
• Requirements are highly known and NOT likely to very well defined and not
Predictive change; therefore, a LOW level of risk likely to change
• Requires detailed upfront planning in the beginning
and minimizing scope changes (and impact to
schedule & budget) through a formal Change
Control Process

• Goal: Learn what type of product to create to meet The team can obtain
customer’s needs quick feedback on the
• Continuously develop and improve the product work that’s already been
through successive prototypes, to make sure the completed, BEFORE
final product is correct finalizing it for the
Iterative • Activities are repeated until the correct product is customer’s use
created (based upon customer feedback in each
iteration) Most beneficial when
• Product is delivered to the customer ONCE at the there’s a HIGH level of
end of the life cycle complexity and a HIGH
amount of changes

• Goal: Speed is prioritized first, so that the customer The customer can
can use a finished working product as soon as immediately use the
possible finished deliverable after
• Goal is to deliver value to the customer fast (such as each timeboxed period.
through a single feature or a finished component)
Incremental Minimizes the need for
• The team delivers a working product frequently to
the customer in smaller timeboxed periods. rework and not satisfying
Therefore, value is given to the customers more the customer’s
frequently than as for projects following a predictive requirements
approach

• Requirements are expected to change and The product is iterated

continuously evolve continuously to create the
• Combines characteristics of the iterative & finished version, which
incremental approach means that a working
• The team ensures that customer value is being product can be released
delivered through frequently delivery of a working FASTER to the customer
Agile
product and obtaining immediate customer
feedback in shorter timeboxed increments The team obtains
• Type #1: Iteration-Based Agile feedback EARLIER,
o Timeboxes of equal duration (e.g. 2 weeks) instead of waiting until
are used to create working features of the the very end of the project
product. The team works on the next set of
features during the next iteration, and this Allows for quick changes
cycle repeats. to the plan, and delivering
o The team does NOT create the ENTIRE value more frequently to
product in each iteration… only the most the customer
important features valuable to the customer
• Type #2: Flow-Based Agile

Copyright © 2023 All rights reserved. | www.AlvinthePM.com | Page 1 of 2

CAPM®, PMP®, PMI®, & PMBOK® are registered trademarks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
 Alvin’s Cheatsheet – Project Life Cycles Demystified
Approach Alvin’s Explanation How is it Beneficial?

o Work items are pulled from a Backlog based

on capacity for beginning work (i.e. a WIP
Limit)
o Team tracks items in-progress, and limits
the total # of features being worked on

• Incorporates elements from BOTH Agile and Allows using principles

Predictive Approaches from both approaches to
• Type #1: 50/50 Predictive & Agile rapidly iterate (and/or
o One part of a project uses an Agile approach follow a linear sequence
(e.g. to develop a complex software), and of activities), obtain
the second half of a project uses a Predictive customer feedback, and
Approach (e.g. to deploy the software to deliver a product to the
customer sites) customer
• Type #2: Combination of Predictive & Agile
o Best practices from both approaches are
used to manage the project.
o Ex: Using short iterations and daily
standups (Agile practices) and using
Hybrid detailed upfront planning and status
reporting (Predictive practices)
• Type #3: 90% Agile with 10% Predictive
o Ex: A large majority of the project develops
the product using Agile practices, and a
small portion uses the Predictive approach
to deliver the product to the customer
• Type #4: 90% Predictive with 10% Agile
o A small portion of the project has a high
level of uncertainty & changes in
requirements, and this requires using an
Agile approach. The majority of the project,
however, is managed following the
Predictive approach.
o Ex: Use the Agile approach to incrementally
develop and iterate very minor complex
features of a product. Then, use the
Predictive approach to develop the other
features of the product because they’re
standard and NOT likely to change.

Copyright © 2023 All rights reserved. | www.AlvinthePM.com | Page 2 of 2

CAPM®, PMP®, PMI®, & PMBOK® are registered trademarks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.