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Project Management

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Business Project Management

MODULE 26340

Module Leader: Dr Ashish Dwivedi

Submission date: Monday 02.02.09

Describe the main phases of the project lifecycle. Critically discuss where in this lifecycle failures may occur and explain how effective project management might reduce their likelihood.

1.0 Introduction

Projects are being born all around us and can be found in every facet of life – they can range from say the relatively simple task of organising and executing a dinner party to mega projects such as the construction of the Channel Tunnel. This paper aims to investigate some fundamental questions relating to the make –up of the project lifecycle, failures that can occur within it and the effect that good project management
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Monitoring and controlling are carried out in conjunction with execution. Thus, by combining the implied time scales with the process groups it is possible to prepare a PMBOK influenced model of the generic stages within in the typical five phase project lifecycle (figure 3).

Figure 3: Classic five stage project life cycle model showing approximate proportions associated with each stage (adapted from Cleland 1999 & Egan, 2006).

Baker (1998), Knutson (2001), Thornsett (2002) and Egan (2006) appear to agree with the PMBOK (2004) on the importance of the relationship between each phase of the project lifecycle. Both PMBOK (2004) and Egan 2006, depict each phase as being an independent project which, may or may not go through all the lifecycle phases, but invariably will produce deliverables (inputs / outputs). Deliverables defined by the PMBOK as “any unique and verifiable product, result or capability to perform a service that must be produced to complete a process, phase or project” (2004, 358), are a necessary ingredient required by the follow on phase of all project lifecycles (figure 4).

Figure 4: Depicting the importance of deliverables in a software project lifecycle follow on phases and the notion that each
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