Project Management Life Cycle
Introduction
Project management refers to the application of ideas, knowledge, techniques and skills by various organizations towards the execution of a project development and implementation. According to Orozco (2003), an organization involved in project development and implementation must ensure that proper strategies are developed towards the project in order for accurate and timely project that reflect objectives of the organization to be developed. Some of the key factors that need to be considered include the purpose of the project, availability of an effective management team to develop and implement the project, funds for the development of the project and time allocation for the project among others. Additionally, an organization should also consider various project development life cycles. As found by Barron and Barron (2011), project development life cycle refers to the breakdown of the project by the project team into smaller parts that collectively defines the process of project development.
Project Development Life Cycle
Due to rapid technological advancement, various organizations are demanded to develop and implement different projects towards the objectives of the organization. In order for these projects to be developed and implemented accordingly, the projects need to be divided into phases. According to Orozco (2003), there are four main stages of project development life cycle. These include initial phase, planning phase, execution phase and closure phase. Therefore, during project development and implementation, all the above phases need to be considered and ensured that proper planning is put in place for effective project development to be realized. In the process of project development within an Information Technology organization, the above project development cycle need to be understood by the organization as provided below:
Initiation Phase
This is the first phase of project development as revealed by Carr (2009). At this stage, an organization involved in the project development needs to identify various objectives of the proposed project. It is important for the organization under project development to understand that the identified objectives of the projects should be based on the current problems that the project is expected to address. Therefore, an organization will be required to form a committee to that will be responsible for the conducting of the feasibility study that will determine if the proposed project will eventually solve various problems that are faced by the organization. The Higher Ed CIO (2012) also warned that the committee mandate to conduct the feasibility study need to ensure they conduct a comprehensive analysis before their approval because it is through the information derived by the feasibility team that would ensure an effective plan for the proposed project development. After ensuring that all the areas of concern are covered with all the problems and proposed solutions are put on records, the team should pass their findings and recommendations to the project management team for approval (University of Saskatchewan, 2010). Failure to provide adequate and accurate information by the feasibility team would lead to project development failure.
Planning Phase
Project planning stage is the second stage of project development life cycle after project initiation phase. It is within this stage of project development where projects solutions based on the challenges that the project needs to address is developed in details. At this stage of development, project management team responsible for the planning of the project is required to come up with various strategies that defines steps in which objectives of the project development would be achieved (Barron & Barron, 2011). Another important requirement of the project development team at this stage is the planning of the project development process. Based on the available information from the feasibility team, the project planning team is required to study the information in order to determine resources that are required by the project from its start to completion and the process of acquiring them. Therefore, the team will also look at the funds allocation for the resources.
Another planning required by the project team is the time allocation for the project to last. This is timeline of the project from its design to the operational stage. For instance, the team is required to allocate time to each development stage and ensures that all requirement and development of the project is done within the stipulated time. Provision of timeline is an important factor in project development because it helps project management team to countercheck the progress of the development (Carr, 2009). It is during this stage where project planning team is mandated to consider labor required towards the development of the project. These include number of managers, supervisors and workers needed for the project development based on the number of activities involves in the project development. In relation to labor are the equipment that are required towards the development of the proposed project. Consequently, project-planning team should also consider all the materials needed for the project to be completed.
Once the project planning team has identified and come up with proper planning and arrangement of entire project development requirement, Orozco (2003) revealed that respective project planning plan need to consider various challenges that may be faced during project development. The main of considering risks and challenges factors is for the project team to have better plans and strategies that would be used in the occurrence of the challenges. After the identification of the challenges and possible risks factors, project team would be required to allocate extra funds for the risks and challenges. Lastly, the project plan team is required to document their final findings and plan for the project development, a document which must be followed to the latter during project development (Barron & Barron, 2011).
Execution Phase
Execution stage is the third phase of project development that must be considered during project development. This is the stage where the project plan from the plan phase is put into execution as found by Carr (2009). During project execution, it is important for the project management team to ensure that proper and effective communication is achieved among the workers of the project. It is through effective communication and relations that will help project management team to create teamwork within the organization. Teamwork will help project management team to perform various activities of the project effective and ensure project development is completed within the time allocation. Thus, effective downward, upwards and horizontal communication must be enforced during project development process. Moreover, Barron and Barron (2011) found that it is important for the organization, through the project management team to ensure that they provide continuous communications to the organizational shareholders and other bodies of the organization on the process of the project development (Project Management Success Net., 2010).
Closure Phase
This is the last stage of project development before the project is put into its operation. This phase involves both the testing and implementation process of the project. Although it is mandated for the involvement of project users in project development process, University of Saskatchewan (2010) echoed that the closure stage is the best phase of project development where project users need to be involved through the entire process. Being part of the testing and implementation process, project users will be able to familiarize themselves with the project and its requirement in terms of its operation. It is also important for the implementation process to be a gradual process in order to give users the opportunity to have better understanding on the operation of the project. Additionally, gradual implementation process will ensure that the current operations and activities of the organization are not interfered with.
Recommendations and Conclusion
Although there may be different approaches of project development life cycle that different organizations may use during project development, the four stages discussed above are considered as the best approach. Therefore, an organization with a project that needs to be developed must ensure the above cycle is followed to the latter. Apart from having better plan for the project, some of the expected challenges and failure of the project should also be considered in order in order to come up with proper and better strategies that would help face the challenges at their occurrence (Carr, 2009). Moreover, in the process of implementing any project plan, organizations must ensure that the process of implementation is gradual in order to give project users the opportunity to learn the operations of the project. Additionally, in project development, organizations need to have skilled and experienced project management team for effective project development to be realized.
References:
Barron, M & Barron, A. (2011). The project life cycle agile development. The Project Management Hut. Retrieved from
http://www.pmhut.com/the-project-life-cycle-3.
Carr, J. (2009). The project life cycle. The Project Management Hut. Retrieved from
http://www.pmhut.com/the-project-life-cycle-2.
Higher ED CIO (2012, July 26). IT organization structure and operating models. Retrieved November 29, 2013, from
http://blog.thehigheredcio.com/2012/07/26/it-organization-structure/
Project Management Success Net.(2010). PMBOK explained session 2 project life cycle and organization. [Video presentation]. Retrieved
from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q31kS3YQbQ
University of Saskatchewan, (2010, August 23). Project management – project life cycle. Information Technology Services. Retrieved November 29, 2013, from
http://www.usask.ca/its/services/itproject_services/managing_projects/life_cycle.php
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