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460.0 Other Project Lifecycles
All projects have some type of project management process and some type of project lifecycle process. In many cases, the process is easily observable. In other cases, the processes are all informal and ad-hoc. Informal, ad-hoc processes are fine for small projects that you can manage in your head, but as projects become larger, they get harder and harder to execute and manage in your head. It then becomes more and more important to have a formal project lifecycle model that you can execute.
The basic content of the LifecycleStep process focuses on the traditional waterfall projects. Given the basic characteristics of waterfall, this model can probably be utilized on almost every project. Of course, it may not be the most efficient and effective.
Other methodologies may be better for projects with certain characteristics. Iterative and Agile projects for instance, may be better for certain types of online IT business application projects. However, you could not use the Iterative model for a project to implement a new marketing campaign.
This portion of LifecycleStep will highlight many of the common lifecycle models that can be used based on the characteristics of your project.
The remainder of the section describes many additional project lifecycle models. Many of these models also have sample schedules in the schedule library.
-
461.0 Waterfall
.
This is the default lifecycle for all projects, unless it is
determined that another of the specialty models is more appropriate.
This model includes upfront analysis, then the sequential design,
construct, test and implementation processes. -
462.0 Iterative Development
.
This is a specific model for custom software development. The
project must be somewhat complicated in that it will take multiple
cycles to completely develop the application. If the application seems
simple and the requirements seem relatively straightforward, the
Waterfall model may be better. -
463.0 Agile / "Light" Models
.
Agile development is not really a methodology as much as
it is a philosophy for managing and executing software development
projects. Agile is based on an Iterative approach, but it takes this
model to a number of extremes. -
464.0 Enhancements
.
This model is used when you are modifying an existing
solution. It assumes that many of the design decisions are already made
since the new work needs to integrate into a solution that already
exists. If the enhancement is very large, it is possible that the
iterative development model could be used. Otherwise, enhancements are
typically done with a Waterfall model. -
465.0 Package Selection and Implementation
.
This model is specifically
used if your project requires you to evaluate packages or vendors. There
are times when a package or vendor selection is a part of a larger
project. In that case the package / vendor selection activities would be
added to another schedule model. -
466.0 Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
.
This section describes the
approach to take when executing a customer relationship management
implementation project. -
467.0 Software Releases
.
This model is used when you are batching together
a number of changes into one release package. This is usually the case
when you have a number of enhancements. The Release model allows you to
select a specific set of enhancements to implement, work on all of them
at once, and then implement the entire set of enhancements all at once.
See
496.3 schedule Library for a Software Release schedule. -
468.0 Research and Development
.
This model is used when you are performing
research on some type of solution. The analysis consists of determining
your requirements and seeing how you can satisfy the requirements. The
project may end after the research is completed or else you can proceed
to a development phase. The development phase is used to create a
short-term solution that simply determines if the solution is viable.
The activities are streamlined since the solution will be thrown away
after the final proposal is made. See
496.3 schedule Library for a
Research and Development schedule.
Reuse, Reuse, Reuse
Reuse is important in all
organizations, especially in IT development. It is much better to find and
reuse a component that has already been developed, rather than have to build
the same component from scratch. However, significant reuse does not happen
by chance. It needs to be planned. See
480.0 Establishing a Reuse
Environment
for more information.
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Terminate the Project]
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Waterfall Lifecycle
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