Project Life Cycle and Product Life Cycle: In this module, you will learn to Define Project life cycle and Product life cycle, Distinguish among predictive, iterative, incremental, adaptive and Hybrid life cycle, Characteristics of Project Life Cycle, Project Phase and Phase gate.
Project Life Cycle and Product Life Cycle
A project life cycle
is the series of phases that a project passes through from its beginning to its
completion. It gives us the basic framework for managing the project for its
successful completion. The phases may be sequential,
iterative, or overlapping.
A product life cycle
is the series of phases that represent the evolution of a product, from concept
through delivery, growth, maturity, and to retirement. Both Project life cycles
and product life cycles may be produced by a project and are independent with
each other.
Fig- Generic Life Cycle for all the Projects
Project life cycles can be predictive or adaptive. There are commonly
at least one phases that are related with the development of the product,
service, or result within a project life cycle. These are known as development
life cycle.
Development life cycles can be predictive, iterative,
incremental, adaptive, or a hybrid model.
Predictive Life Cycle (or Water-Fall Life Cycle)
In a sequential process which is one of the traditional
approach bulk of planning occurring upfront, then execution take place in a
single pass.
In a predictive life cycle, the project scope, time, and cost
are determined in the early phases of the life cycle and any changes to the
scope are carefully managed.
Phase defined may have sequential or overlapping relations or mix
of both. Work performed in each phase should be different from predecessor or
the successor phase. High certainty around firm requirements, a stable team and
low risk. Subsequently, project activities often execute in a serial manner.
Iterative life cycle
A methodology that permits feedback for incomplete work to
improve and change that work.
In an iterative life cycle, the project scope is commonly
decided early in the project life cycle, but as the understanding of project
team about the product increases, time and cost estimates are routinely
modified.
Iterations develop the product through a series of repeated
cycles, while increments successively add to the functionality of the product.
Projects benefit from iterative life cycles when complexity is high, when the
project incurs frequent changes or when the scope is subject to differing
stakeholders’ view of the desired final product.
Incremental Life Cycle
Incremental life cycle is the kind of approach which gives
completed deliverable that the customer has the option to utilize right away.
In an incremental life cycle, the deliverable is produced
through a series of iterations that successively add
functionality within a predetermined time frame.
The
deliverable contains the necessary and enough capability to be considered
complete only after the final iteration. An
example of the incremental approach is providing
a customer, a single feature or a finished piece of work.
Adaptive Life Cycles (Change Driven or Agile Method)
This is the kind
of approach which is both iterative and incremental to refine work items and
deliver frequently. Adaptive life cycles are agile, iterative, or incremental. In
this approach, the detailed scope is defined and approved before the start of
an iteration and the iterations are very rapid and time bound.
Customer and
sponsor form a part of the Delivery team. Here, requires high level of customer
involvement because Customer involvement is the key to successful projects. This
approach is more suitable for complex types of projects where the requirements
are unclear, but it is possible to define incremental requirements.
Hybrid Life Cycle
A hybrid
life cycle is a combination of both predictive and adaptive life cycle. Those
elements of the project that are well known or have fixed requirements follow a
predictive development life cycle, and those elements that are still evolving
follow an adaptive development life cycle.
It is up to
the team of project management to decide the best life cycle for each project
in an organization.
Characteristics of Project Life Cycle
- Cost and staffing levels are low at start, increases as the work is carried out, and drop rapidly as the project draws to close.
- Risk is greatest at the start of the project and decreases over the life cycle of the project as decisions are reached and as deliverable are accepted.
- Stakeholder influence is highest at the start of the project and decreases as the project progresses toward completion.
Project Phase
Collection
of logically related project activities that culminates in the completion of
one or more deliverable is called project
Phase. The phases in a life cycle can be depicted by a variety of
attributes. These attributes might be measurable and unique to a specific
phase.
The project
phases might be built up dependent on various factors:
- Management needs
- Nature of the project
- Unique characteristics of the organization, industry, or technology
- Project components including technology, engineering, business, process, or legal and decision points.
Phase Gate
A phase gate
is held at the end of a phase. The performance and progress of project are
compared to project and business documents including:
- Project business case
- Project charter
- Project management plan and
- Benefits management plan
A decision
(e.g., go/no-go decision) is made as a result of this comparison to:
- Continue to the next phase
- Continue to the next phase with modification
- End the project
- Remain in the phase, or
- Repeat the phase or elements of it.
Phase gates can also be named as, phase review,
stage gate, kill point, and phase entrance or phase exit.
Conclusion
Most hopefully, you would like this information, and this is
more useful for you if you are working as a project management team or
preparing for PMP examination.
The information provided above about Project life cycle and Product life
cycle are very much important to keep in mind for every project team members in
an organization.
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