Question One: Discussion of the project life cycle

Any projects have to pass through the following 7 life cycles to be concluded consecutively: conceptualize, plan, organize, implement, control, integrate, deliver & close out, and finally, knowledge leverage. Conceptualize : This is the initial stage in the project. At this stage the project is sprouted as an organizational dream or vision which stems out of the demand of the business, social or environmental need of the organization in line with its stated business objective. The conceptualization takes place at Apex level of the organization ( Sponsor of the project) may or may not relay upon the feed backs from various stake holders. At this stage a business case analysis duly authorized by the top management is carried out to evaluate the following: The need and reason for which the project is undertaken The changes that the project is expected to accomplish The key project requirement that are required to achieve the project goal(s)Further to the business case analysis, feasibility study covering both financial and nonfinancial aspect of the project is done. Various evaluating tools available for this purpose is employed as per the scale of the project. A Project Charter comprising of the above aspects is delivered in to next stage in the life cycle.Planning. Planning is an art and science of converting a set of objectives to realization through a series of steps executed in an organized and predicted way so that there will be less requirement of changes in the scheme on a later day. Planning is a dynamic activity and it may change from time to time but planning is essential before the implementation or execution phase of the project starts.The ultimate aim of the plan is to avoid course and mid course changes as too many changes can lead to time and cost over runs and eventually affect the project success. Role of a Project Manager and his team is of paramount importance at this stage. A Project Management Plan is the outcome of this stage of project life cycle. The project management plan encompass the following aspects in details.1. Why of the project ( Mitigating a threat or utilizing an opportunity)1. What is the objective of the project1. Who will execute what1. When will various activities be executed1. Where will the project be set up. 1. How the project activities will be carried out 1. How much of various items will be executive.Plan and control are two significant stages in the project. The plan forms the basis for control of project activities. In essence, without plan there will not anything to control. Therefore, planning forms a major stepping stone towards project implementation and its success. Organize: This stage follows the planning stage. Organizing stage deals with laying foundation for implementation stage. In organization stage various statutory approvals, financial commitment from sponsor, concurrence from other stake holders of the projects etc are obtained. Responsibility matrix, in line with the work breakdown structure delivered from project management plan, is put in place. The implementation team and control teams are drawn and due responsibilities are assigned. Various vendors, suppliers and service providers are finalized. A start up check list is drawn. The readiness to commence the physical work is the outcome of the Organization stage. The organization stage marks firm financial and management commitment on the project and abandoning the project at this stage and beyond carries increased risk. Therefore a system of risk and risk management system is also put in place at this stage and beyond.Implement. Implementation stage is marked with increased physical activities and cash flow. The various elements of the projects are procured, constructed, installed and monitored. A project implementation team is put in place before the commencement of this phase. They derive inputs from planning and organizing stage to draw execution strategies.Issue management, team management and interface management play vital role in project implementation. The implementation team has to coordinate with planning and organizing team on one hand, Client and other stake holders on the other hand. As the expectation of the stake holders can vary, the implementation team has to play a balancing role while keeping the project charter in general and objective of the project particularly in focus. Abandoning of the project at this is highly risky. The changes in the scope at the advanced implementation stage become difficult, costly and risky. This calls for greater change control management and cost control management. Control. The control phase of the project spreads over the implementation, integration and delivery stages of the project. Controls are exercised in order to avoid deviations from the plan. It also ensures conformance of the project to the set goals. Various Control aspect and their brief function are listed 1. Budget control : Monitoring of project budget and controlling cost.1. Quality control : Compliance to standards are monitored1. Schedule Control: Monitoring of time duration of the project activities1. Change control: Evaluation and implementation of changes.1. Risk Control: Evaluation and mitigation of risksThe control process starts at post planning stages and span over the rest of project life cycles. It provides vital management information to the various stake holders to enable them to evaluate the project progress from their perspective. Control process calls for through understanding of project charter and project implementation plan with specific stress on the scope of the project. It is the control that steer the project into success with least deviation in time frame, budget and scope.Control phase also delivers valuable information for similar future projects.Integrate. Integration phase is where interfacing of different project elements takes place . Different activities, elements and interfaces are integrated, checked and tested in conformance with the stipulated scope objective.It involves assembling, articulating, consolidating and executing integration activities so that the project output is ready to be delivered.Since integration stage acts as a conformance conduit through which the finished product or service reaches the client or end user, it is essential that the stage is handled with high personnel and professional standards in order to avoid rejection of the product or service and thereby affecting the project goal and organizational objective. The product or service that does not conform to the standard shall be sent back to the implementation stage for re work or rectification.Deliver and Close out Stage. Once the output of the project is ready and has passed through the integration phase, it has to be handed over to the client for intended use. This involves provision of certificate of completion, installation/ implementation, training and conformance acceptance by client or end user etc. Once the delivery is successfully completed and the deliverable and handed over to the client and maintenance is taken over by services or operation department, the close out activities of the project began. The close out stage is related to following activities are of prime importance.1. PO Close out1. Legal Close out1. Project close outAll the vendor transactions have to concluded and closed. All agreements have to be taken to their legal conclusion and files have to be closed. The project team has to be disbanded after due performance evaluation for awards, recognition and future records. All the files, drawings, assets and accounts have to be deposited with the project sponsor or management authorized by its. A details project close out report is the outcome of the close out stage. It provides valuable inputs to the Knowledge leverage stage.Knowledge Leverage: Every project is unique and therefore brings out new revelations which can gainfully be used in similar projects. In view of the above, the lessons learned from a projects is systematically recorded and deposited with the organizations knowledge bank for future use, Such reports derived from project close out reports provides immense information and aid the management to decide upon further scaling up of the project and embarking on similar projects. The project conceptualization and evaluation becomes less risky when bench marked against already successfully completed projects. Thus knowledge leverage provides the management with a decision making indicator.