Essay Example on A project life cycle is important because it is the Strategic

The general project lifecycle structure helps make way for three other life cycles Predictive Iterative and Incremental and Adaptive which will not be included in this paper Predictive life cycles also known as fully plan driven are ones in which the project scope and the time and cost required to deliver that scope are determined as early in the project cycles as practically possible Project Management Institute Inc 2013 The phases can be overlapping or sequential The planning can be done for the entire project at a detailed level from the beginning of the project or one can do what is referred to as rolling wave Rowley 2103 Predictive life cycles are preferred when there is clear understanding of the project's deliverables With this is cycle detailed planning is done only for the work that is required at that time or the near future Once that work is completed further detail planning is made Predictive life cycles are typically used when extensive knowledge exists in how to build the product Building housing units is a project that can use this life cycle because if the housing using is built before using the same resources with the same budget the project then becomes predictive The upper management team and PM are already aware of what's needed to complete the project Iterative and Incremental life cycles are ones in which project phases intentionally repeat one or more project activities as the project team s understanding of the product increases 

Project Management Institute Inc 2013 The scope is not determined ahead of time at a detailed level but only for the first iteration or phase of the project Rowley 2103 There is a detailed scope in each phase of this life cycle During iteration a set of requirements will be completed and the project team will all have activities to perform The significance in this phase is the interchanging of deliverables Deliverables can be changed multiple times until the end standards for the phase is met Iterative and Incremental life cycles are preferred when there will be constant change and monitoring of the scope and objectives Project Management Institute Inc 2013 Large and intricate projects like building the Sydney Opera House in Australia is a prime example for this cycle because the scope changed with each new phase and new plans were made The opera house took over 10 years to complete because the structure of the building was unsure of and multiple test were ran to make sure the structure would not collapse There wasn't a clear understanding at first of this project just an initial idea but throughout time with more knowledge and feedback from different teams the project was completed Similarities between the Predictive and Iterative life cycles includes both are high level scope both require high level planning the phases in each cycle can be sequential or overlapping Difference includes predictive life cycles has a detailed scope at the beginning of the project where iterative only has a detailed scope for each phase The customer involvement with predictive is in the beginning when scope changes and when the project ends Customer involvement with iterative is periodic Predictive life cycle is used when the product is well understood versus when iterative is used when the project is large and complex Understanding the scale of the project will determine which project life cycle will be most practical