Project Management Life Cycle Part 1 by Derek Kemp

The Project Management Life Cycle Part One Resource Report Written By Sailesh Varia

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Table of Contents 1.

Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Project Management Life Cycle Defined....................................................................................... 4 1.2 The Life Cycle Overview ................................................................................................................ 5

Project Initiation ............................................................................................................................. 7 2.1 Business Case ................................................................................................................................ 7 2.2 Project Scope Statement .............................................................................................................. 7 2.3 Project Team Appointment........................................................................................................... 8 2.4 Develop Start Up Checklist............................................................................................................ 8 2.5 Set Up Information Database........................................................................................................ 9

Project Planning .............................................................................................................................. 9 3.1 Work Breakdown Structure ........................................................................................................ 10 3.2 Create a Project Plan................................................................................................................... 10 3.3 Arrange Kick-Off Meeting ........................................................................................................... 12 3.4 Risk Assessment .......................................................................................................................... 12

Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 13

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1. Introduction Congratulations on securing your copy of this Project Management Life Cycle resource report. This report is designed to provide you with an overview of the main building blocks of applying project management principles in your business. Our aim is to give you a bird’s eye view of the type of information that is covered in much greater detail on our subscription based memberships.

1.1 Project Management Life Cycle Defined Project management involves going through a series of stages in what is called the “Project Management Life Cycle”. The project management life cycle is a standard logical process which covers a practical approach in managing a project. It has a clear start point, a transition phase where most of the project work is undertaken and a definite end point. When managing your project, it is very important that you work through all stages of the project management life cycle. Missing any of these stages or sub processes may cause your project to go off the rails and possibly go into jeopardy. Planning activities by stages facilitates a project manager to plan and organise activities with clarity and focus as each phase is dealt with in isolation. The other advantage is that it allows the success criteria to be measured against the initial objectives before moving onto the next stage. The following resource report outlines what is involved within each of the four stages and outlines an overall framework that can be applied in your own project management work.

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1.2 The Life Cycle Overview There are four main phases that explain how to start, plan, execute and close off a project to ensure it is successfully completed from end to end. The diagram below details the logical sequence of events and depicts the work flows between the four stages to accomplish the project goals and objectives.

Figure 1: The Life Cycle Process

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All the stages have their own set of sub processes and deliverables. The following is a brief overview description of each stage: 1) Project Initiation: Involves defining the project goal and creating the framework that will support the project and underpin all activities associated with next three stages of the life cycle.

2) Project Planning: Developing all the necessary detailed planning, securing resources and agreeing the timescales for project completion.

3) Project Execution: Key stage in which the actual project management work is undertaken with monitoring and control mechanisms in place, to deliver the final product or service.

4) Project Closure: An important stage that will ensure the project is closed off in a proper controlled manner and that no loose ends are left. Lessons are also learned from a post implementation review. Each of these will be expanded on in detail in the following sections of this resource report.

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2. Project Initiation The project initiation, or sometimes referred to as the start up stage, deals with the key start up activities required to ensure that the project concept is both viable and that the recommended solution has an underpinned business case. The key purpose of this initial stage is to make sure the project has a solid foundation for the rest of the stages in the life cycle. The project initiation phase usually begins after all the high level planning has been done. Some of the pre-requisites include having a signed off business case, resources available, a project brief and a clear statement of requirements (project scope). Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s take a look at some of these elements in more detail.

2.1 Business Case The business case contains details of the problem or opportunity the project is addressing and covers the justification of why the project is needed and offers a recommended solution. It is important to produce a feasibility report before spending any time and money on the project to make sure it is viable. The business case

2.2 Project Scope Statement The purpose of the project scope statement is to outline what, how and why the project will be done. It can be considered as a mission statement that defines the key purpose of the project goal and what the successful outcome should look like once successfully completed.

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The project scope statement should also outline the boundaries and relevant stakeholders involved in the project. This document is put together when the project manger meets with the customer, sponsors and stakeholders of the project. One the project statement is defined it should then be put forward for approval.

2.3 Project Team Appointment With the feasibility and project goal clearly defined in the business case, the next step in the project initiation phase is to secure the necessary resources i.e. the project team. The project team will consist of the project manager and key individual representing the various different areas of the project implementation.

2.4 Develop Start Up Checklist The best way to capture all start up tasks and ensure they are completed is to have a check list. Examples of some of the elements in your checklist will include:  Business case sign off  Project initiation document approved  Customer Statement of Requirements (SOR) signed  Target completion date set  Project resources secured and allocated  Risk and Issues log created

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2.5 Set Up Information Database A project database will also need to be set up to act as an information repository for all data relating to the project. This can be achieved using a shared project folder created on a network drive that all project team members have access to. This area can then be used to file and record all project documentation created throughout the project. This would include updated project plans, meeting notes, risk and issues register etc...

Following the above project start up procedure will ensure that you will get off to a solid start. By covering all of these stages you should have a solid plan that provides your team with direction and agreement towards a common purpose. Project initiation is a short, but important stage in the overall project life-cycle and is designed to finalise preparations for the actual project execution.

3. Project Planning Once the project initiation is fully complete the next part of the project management life cycle is the project planning stage. The project planning stage consists of working out all of the low level detail as much as possible to cover all steps leading to all objectives successfully being met. All project tasks and resources required to support the main project should be identified from beginning to end. On addition, this is the stage at which risks are identified and a stakeholder/governance /management reporting structure is also put in place.

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Spending time to properly plan your project will help greatly in keeping it on track and maximising your project being completed to quality, cost and schedule. It will also play an instrumental role on how smoothly the “project execution” phase of the life cycle will go.

3.1 Work Breakdown Structure The decomposition of the project in a hierarchical logical workflow is called the “Work Breakdown Structure”. Using the project scope statement, you should break down the project in all of its components parts.

Using the completed work breakdown structure, the next step is to create an “Organisational Breakdown Structure”. This will detail all of the roles and responsibilities of every individual involved in the project, providing clarity on how the resources are allocated.

Clear definition of the project steps, management structure and deliverables from the outset is important as it allows your project team to understand their accountability. With clear lines of demarcation it will be easy to measure against objectives and individual performances. Any conflicts that may occur during the project execution stage can be resolved quickly.

3.2 Create a Project Plan Using the output from the work breakdown structure, the next step is to create will a project plan outlining the tasks, dependencies, resources and

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timescales to achieve your end goal. This should be in the form of a gant chart that can be produced using a specialist software tool like Microsoft Project. The plan should detail all of the key stages and tasks necessary to successfully complete your project to an agreed deadline. Important milestones should be captured to define points that ensure the project is on track to complete on time. Once this plan is created and approved by your customer it needs to be baselined. Baselining is simply taking a snap shot of the original plan before any changes have to be made so that a before and after comparison can be made. In addition to your main project plan, you should also consider creating the following:  Resource plan – Defining the project resource, materials and systems required  Risk and Issues – Defining the potential risk and issues with mitigating actions.  Financial plan – Identify the cost of the project resources, materials and systems. The project manager coordinates the preparation of a project budget; by providing cost estimates for the labour, equipment and materials costs. The budget is used to monitor and control cost expenditures during project execution.  Quality Plan – Define your quality control procedures, targets and assurance. This will also include the customer acceptance criteria for the deliverable.

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 Communications plan – Define the information and frequency of project reporting to your key stakeholders, project sponsors and customers.

3.3 Arrange Kick-Off Meeting Once the project plan has been drafted, the next step in the project planning process is to arrange your first project meeting with your team. This is often referred to as the “kick-off” meeting where the project manager can brief the team on the work to be undertaken and communicate his views of the project. It is important to choose a day and time that suits the availability of all key participants that need to be present.

3.4 Risk Assessment With the detailed planning and project plan is in place, the next stage is to conduct a risk assessment. A “risk” can be thought of as any potential outcome that if occurred could lead to an undesired result that will impact on your project tasks. All project plans will carry inherent risks with some causing more impact than others. It is important to capture and identify as many of these as possible so you are fully prepared should something unexpected or bad happen. Some examples of common risks include: 

Potential change in project scope

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Movements to original timescales

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Assumptions made about the project dependencies

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

Availability of the resources against project tasks

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Financial constraint

Once you’ve identified all of your major risks and potential problems, you must detail a mitigation action against each risk. The action should be result in the either reducing the chances of the risk manifesting or reducing the impact on the project if it does turn into an issue.

4. Summary Application of the project management life cycle in your business will ensure that you adopt the right framework and apply the required sub processes in your project. Incorporating each of the four stages will provide you with a blueprint framework to support a successful end to end project delivery. The life cycle helps to keep everyone on your project team focused in discrete stages and ensures effective use of time and resources in your business. If you found this information helpful, then you should consider upgrading your membership. Becoming a paid member of ProjectManagementCoaching.com will allow you to gain access to much more of the step by step details of the sub processes contained in each of the project management stages. Our monthly coaching programme is designed to take you from project initiation all the way to project closure through various teaching aids such as work books and videos. Each month you will receive a module to learn from

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and apply the principles within your own particular business. Our training material contains a variety of templates and tools that you can use as effective aids taking you from start to finish throughout the project management life cycle. No matter what your level of project management experience, we cater for all skill levels. Within the first six months of coaching, you will have gained the very best knowledge and practical techniques that you can apply over and over again in any project you undertake. The skills you will have gained will be an education you can apply for life, in whatever venture you are involved in. We are committed to providing our students with the highest service as we want them to become highly effective in their business environments and share their success stories with us. We listen to feedback and act on this continuously to increase the value we provide.

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