Part II
A Walk through the Project Life Cycle
In this part, I will explain the management framework for a single project, taking it from an idea, through the various life cycle stages, until benefits start being realized in your organization.
Principles
- Make sure that your projects are driven by benefits supporting your strategy.
- Manage your projects within a staged framework.
- Place high emphasis on the early stages.
- Treat gates as “entry” points to stages, not “exit” points.
- Address and revalidate the business aspects of the project throughout its life.
How to use Part II
Chapters 4 and 5 are for you to read and understand. They explain the fundamental aspects of a project framework or life cycle and the roles of those needed to make it work. The workouts are designed to help you place the project framework in the context of the type of projects undertaken in your organization.
Chapters 6 to 12 comprise a skeleton project management framework. In these chapters, I explain what happens during each stage of a project and who is accountable. You can use these directly or tailor them to meet the particular needs and language of your organization. Each chapter describes a set of “control documents” for that stage: the content is given on the book’s web site and in Appendix B. Each chapter concludes with a project workout to review any projects you currently have: choose the workout which matches most closely the life cycle stage of your project.
In the final chapters (13 and 14), I take this basic framework and show how you can apply the principles of the staged approach to match a wide range of different business situations.