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128 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
What is The Project Life Cycle?
A collection of usually sequential, but sometimes overlapping, project phases as determined by the control needs of the organization, the nature of the project, and the application area involved.

NOT the same as the Project Management Process Groups!
How are projects usually divided?
Projects are usually divided into project phases to improve project governance. Collectively, the project phases are known as the project life cycle.
All projects can be mapped to the following life cycle structure:
- Starting the project
- Organizing and preparing
- Carrying out the project work
- Closing the project
How is the conclusion of each project phase usually handled?
The conclusion of each project phase is usually marked by a review of key deliverables and project progress to date to determine if the project should continue. Consideration is given to revise estimates, benefits expected, recent strategic priorities, etc.
What are phase-end reviews called?
Phase-end reviews are called phase exits, stage gates or kill points.

This is the highest level control on the project once it has begun.
What are the characteristics of project phases?
- The completion and approval of one or more deliverables characterizes a project phase. Some deliverables correspond to the project management process, where as others are the end products or components of the end product for which the project was conceived.
- Phaes can be divided into sub-phases if desired.
- Life-cycle defines technical work to be done in each phase
- Therefore, defines who works in each phase.
What is a Sequential Phase to Phase Relationship?
Sequential phases occur in sequence, beginning a new phase only upon completion of the prior phase.
What is a Overlapping Phase to Phase Relationship?
Overlapping phase starts prior to completion of the prior phase (fast tracking)
What is a Iterative Phase to Phase Relationship?
Iterative is one phase at a time is planned, with planning for the next carried out as the first is executed. Good for unknown or undefined situations like research, incremental delivery, refining scope as the project proceeds.
What is Fast Tracking?
Fast Tracking is compressing the project schedule by overlapping activities that would normally be done in sequence, such as design and construction.
- The practice of overlapping project phases is called "Fast Tracking"
- Doing activities in parallel that would normally be done in sequence.
- Often involves rework and usually increases risk.
How is the Next Phase initiated?
- Formal phase completion does not include authorizing the subsequent phase. Each phase is formally initiated to produce a phase-dependent output of the Initiating Process Group.
- A phase-end review meeting can be held with the explicit goals of obtaining both authorization to close the current phase and to initiate the subsequent one.
- Phase-end reviews are also called phase exits, phase gates or kill points.
How does Stakeholder Influence, Risk and Uncertainty change over the Life cycle of a project?
Stakeholder Influence, Risk, and Uncertainty starts High and decreases during the life of the project.
How does the Cost of Changes change over the Life Cycle of a project?
The Cost of Changes starts Low and increases during the life of the project.
What is Project Scope?
Project Scope is the WORK that must be done to deliver a product with the specified features and functions.
What is Product Scope?
Product Scope is the features and functions that characterize a product or service.
What are Project Stakeholders?
Project Stakeholders are individuals and organizations that are actively involved in the project, or wh ose interests may be affected as a result of project execution or project completion. the may also exert influence over the project's objectives and outcomes.

Anyone who affects or is affected by the project, either positively or negatively.
How are stakeholders handled?
- Identify the stakeholders, determine their requirements and expectiation, and, to the extent possibile, manage their influence in relation to the requirements to ensure a successful project.
- Identify stakeholders early and continuously
- failure to identify a key stakeholder can cause major problems for the project.
- Stakeholders may have a positive or negative influence on a project.
- Plan the order in which stakeholders will be satisfied.
What are types of stakeholders?
Key Stakeholders include:
- Project manager
- Customer/User
- Performing organization
- Project team members, Project Management Team
- Sponsor
- Influencers
- PMO
What are some typical stakeholder categories?
Stakeholder Categories: Suppliers, Customers, Employees, Creditors, Shareholders, Competitors, Government officials, Society at large.

All influencers are stakeholders!
Organization Influences
- Projects are typically part of an organization larger than the project.
- Projects are influenced by the organization(s) that initiated it.
- the maturity of the organization with respect to its project management system, culture, style, organizational structure and PMO can influence the project.
Organizational Cultures and Styles
Organizational cultures often have a direct influence on the project.
These cultures are reflect in numerous factors, including:
- shared values, norms, beliefs, and expectations
- policies and procedures
- view of authority relationships
- work ethic and work hours

Organizational culture is an Enterprise Environmental Factor.
What are the categories of Project-based (Projectized) Organizations?
- Organizations that derive their revenue from performing projects for others under contract
- Organizations that have adopted management by projects tend to have management systems in place to facilitate project management.
What are the categories of Non-Project-Based Organizations?
- Often lack management systems designed to support projects efficiently and effectively
- May have departments or subunits that operate as project-based with systems to support them.
What are the Structure Influences for Functional Organizations?
PM's Authority - Little or None
Resource Availability - Little or None
Budget Control - Functional Manager
PM's Role - Part-Time
PM Admin Staff - Part-Time
What are the Structure Influences for Weak Matrix Organizations?
PM's Authority - Limited
Resource Availability - Limited
Budget Control - Functional Manager
PM's Role - Part-time
PM Admin Staff - Part-time
What are the Structure Influences for Balanced Matrix Organizations?
PM's Authority - Low to moderate
Resource Availability - Low to moderate
Budget Control - Mixed
PM's Role - Full-time
PM Admin Staff - Part-time
What are the Structure Influences for Strong Matrix Organizations?
PM's Authority - Moderate to high
Resource Availability - Moderate to high
Budget Control - Project Manager
PM's Role - Full-time
PM Admin Staff - Full-time
What are the Structure Influences for Projectized Organizations?
PM's Authority - High to almost total
Resource Availability - High to almost total
Budget Control - Project Manager
PM's Role - Full-time
PM Admin Staff - Full-time
What is a Project Manager's authority level for each organizational structure?
Functional - None
Project Expeditor - Low
Project Coordinator - Low
Weak Matrix - Medium
Strong Matrix - Medium
Projectized - High
What are the characteristics of the Organizational Form - Project Expeditor?
- little formal authority
- staff assistant role
- makes few decisions on own
- responsibile for arrival of materials and completion of tasks
- workers remain in functional organization
- forwards decisions by superior to people on project
- can offer suggestions and recommendations
- needs special people skills and unique technical abilities
- must motivate workers with no real authority.
What are the characteristics of the Organizational Form - Project Coordinator?
- line-staff form of organization
- coordinator reports to a higher level manager
- has authority to assign work to individuals in functional organization
- shared authority
- worker must satisfy two bosses
- shortcomings: upper management nor ready to cope with problems of shared authority and/or reluctant to relinquish power and authority to project managers.
What are the characteristics of the Organizational Form - Matrix Organization?
- An organization with dual or multiple managerial accountability and responsibility.
- Usually two or three chains of command: Functional / Project, product, or client / Geographic location
- Varies from organization to organization
- Balance of power between functional and project managers
What are the disadvantages of a Matrix Organizational Structure?
- Project personnel have more than 1 boss
- Complex to monitor and control
- Problems with resource allocation and project priorities
- Functional managers may follow different priorities, possibly to project detriment
- More effort to establish policies and procedures.
- Duplication of effort
- Potential for conflict
What are the advantages of a Matrix Organizational Structure?
- Project objectives highly visible
- Improved PM control over resources vs. functional
- Rapid response to contigencies
- More support from functional organizations
- Efficient use of scare resources
- Improved coordination across functional lines
- Balance between time, cost performance
- Effective dissemination of information
- Project termination easier on project team
- Strong technical base easier to develop for all projects equally
- Project team members have a "home"
- Fewer morale problem
- Minimal conflicts, easier to resolve
- Excellent training for prospective PMs
Functional Organization Structure Key Factors
Uncertainty - Low
Technology - Standard
Complexity - Low
Duration - Short
Size - Small
Importance - Low
Customer - Diverse
Interdependency within - Low
Interdependency between - High
Time Criticality - Low
Resource Criticality - Depends
Differentiation - Low
Weak Matrix Organization Structure Key Factors
Uncertainty - Moderate
Technology - Standard
Complexity - Low
Duration - Medium
Size - Small
Importance - Moderate
Customer - Diverse
Interdependency within - Medium
Interdependency between - Moderate
Time Criticality - Moderate
Resource Criticality - Depends
Differentiation - Low
Strong Matrix Organization Structure Key Factors
Uncertainty - High
Technology - Complex
Complexity - Medium
Duration - Medium
Size - Medium
Importance - Moderate
Customer - 3 or 4
Interdependency within - Medium
Interdependency between - Medium
Time Criticality - Moderate
Resource Criticality - Depends
Differentiation - High
Projectized Organization Structure Key Factors
Uncertainty - High
Technology - New
Complexity - High
Duration - Long
Size - Large
Importance - High
Customer - One
Interdependency within - High
Interdependency between - Low
Time Criticality - High
Resource Criticality - Depends
Differentiation - Medium
How is a Bureaucracy Organizational Profile different from a Projectized one?
Organizational Structure - Standard policies, rigid organization relationships
Individual Response - Compliance to directives and policies
Individual Performance - Standard performance and monetary rewards
Personal Relationship - Formal, impersonal
How is a Projectized Organizational Profile different from a Bureaucracy one?
Organizational Structure - Flexibility, teamwork, change to meet current needs
Individual Response - Participation in developing action plans
Individual Performance - Psychological contracts, commitment, and "tailored" rewards
Personal Relationships - Systematic, visible, and candid
What are the characteristics of a Bureaucracy Organizational Profile?
- Duplication and concentration of power
- Vertical (hierarchical) structure with many levels of authority (management)
- Organization draw from military and church (division of power, specialization, visible chain of command, problems of efficiency and control can be dealt with decisively)
- Not suitable to substantial changes
How flexible can PMO implementation be?
- PMO can exist in any of the organizational structures
- Can range from an advisory influence to a formal grant of authority from executive management
- Flexibility of the PMO's centralized management can offer the PM greater opportunity for advancement.
What is a Project Management System?
A Project Management System is a set of tools, techniques, methodologies, resources, and procedures used to manage a project.
- Varies depending upon the application area, organizational influence, complexity of the project, and availability of existing systems.
- PMO manages the PMS to ensure consistency in application and continuity on the various projects being performed.
What Organization Process assets can be used to influence project success?
- Standards, policies, life cycles, procedures, methodologies
- Quality processes, policies, and procedures
- Templates, guidelines for tailoring standards processes
- Organizational communication requirements
- Financial control procedures
- Issue management procedures, escalation policies
- Change control procedures
- Risk management and control procedures and policies
- Prioritization procedures
What is Probability?
Probability, in mathematics, is assignment of a number as a measure of the "chance" that a given event will occur. There are certain important restrictions on such a probability measure. IN any experiment there are certain possible outcomes; the set o fall possible outcomes is call the sample space of the experiment. to each element of the sample space is assigned a probability measure between 0 and 1 inclusive. Furthermore, the sum of the probability measures in the sample space must be 1.
What is the Probability of Compound Events?
In addition to the probability of simple events, probabilities of compound events can be computed. If, for example, A and B represent two independent events, the probability that both A and B will occur is given by the product of their separate probabilities. The probability that EITHER of the two events A and B will occur is given by the sum of their separate probabilities minus the probability that they will both occur.

If the probability that a certain man will live to be 70 is 0.5, and the probability that his wife will live to be 70 is 0.6, the probability that they will BOTH live to be 70 is 0.5x0.6=0.3, and the probability that EITHER the man or his wife will reach 70 is 0.5+0.6-0.3=0.8.
What is statistics?
Statistics is the science of collecting and classifying a group of facts according to their relative number and determining certain values that represent characteristics of the group. The most familiar statistical measure is the arithmetic MEAN, which is the average value for a group of numerical observations. A second important statistic for statistical measure is the STANDARD DEVIATION, called sigma (σ), which is a measure of how much the individual observations are scatted about the mean.
What is mean?
Mean, in statistics, is a type of average. The arithmetic mean of a group of numbers is found by dividing their sum by the number of members in a group; e.g., the sum of the seven numbers 4, 5, 6, 9, 13, 14, 19 is 70, so their mean is 70 divided by 7, or 10.
What is Median?
Median is a group of values as many values of the group are larger than the median as are small than the median.
What is Mode?
Mode in a group of values the mode is the value occurring most frequently.
What is range?
Range is the difference between highest and lowest value.
What is deviation?
Deviation is the difference between a value and the mean.
What is variance?
Variance is the mean of the squared Deviations.
What is Standard Deviation (σ)?
Standard Deviation (σ) is the square root of the Variance.
What is Frequency?
Frequency is the number of values within an interval.
What is Distribution?
Distribution is the display of values and related frequencies.
What is Normal Distribution?
- Bell Shaped Curve, normal curve
- Symmetrical
- Extends to infinity in both directions
IMPORTANT! What percentage of values are within 1 Standard Deviation (σ) of the mean?
68.26% of values are within 1 Standard Deviation (σ) of the mean.
IMPORTANT! What percentage of values are within 2 Standard Deviation (σ) of the mean?
95.46% of values are within 2 Standard Deviation (σ) of the mean
IMPORTANT! What percentage of values are within 3 Standard Deviation (σ) of the mean?
99.73% of values are within 3 Standard Deviation (σ) of the mean.
What are the 5 types of Organizational Structures?
1. Functional
2. Weak Matrix
3. Balanced Matrix
4. Strong Matrix
5. Projectized
The _______________ organization is a hierarchy where each employee has one clear superior. Staff members are grouped by specialty, such as production, marketing, engineering, and accounting at the top level. Each department does its project work independently of other departments.
Functional
In a functional organization what is the PM level of authority and resource availability?
Little to None
In a functionial organization who manages the project budget?
The Functional Manager
In the functional organization what is the project managers and project administrative staff's role in regards to time commitment?
Part–time
_____________ organizations reflect a blend of functional and projectized characteristics?
Matrix
Matrix organizations can be classified as weak balanced, or strong depending on what?
The relative level of power and enfluence between functional and project managers.
____________________ Matrix organizations maintain many of the characteristics of a functional organization and the role of the PM is more of a coordinator or expediter.
Weak
What is a project expediter?
A project expediter works as a staff assistant and communications coordinator.
_______________ Matrix organizations have many of the characteristics of the projectized organization, and have full–time project managers with considerable authority and full–time project administrative staff.
Strong
________________ Matrix organizations recognize the need for a project manager, but it does not proivder the PM with the full authority over the project and funding.
Balanced
In a __________________ Organization, team members are often colocated (side by side), most of the organization's resources are involved in project work, and project managers have a great deal of independence and authority.
Projectized
An organization that combine components of the Functional, Matrix and Projectized organizations is call a __________________.
Composite Organization
_______________ are the plans, processes, policies, procedures, and knowledge bases specific to and used by the performing organization. They include any artifact, practice, or knowledge from any or all of the organizations involved in the project that can be used to perform or govern the project.
Organizational Process Assets
Organizational process assets may be grouped into what two catagories?
1. processes and procedures
2. corporate knowledge base
What are the organizational processes and procedures for conducting initiating and planning phase project work?
1. Guidelines and criteria for tailoring standards
2. Specific standards such as policies
3. Templates
What are the organizational processes and procedures for conducting executing, monitoring and controlling phase project work?
1. Change control procedures
2. Financial control procedures
3. Issue and defect management procedures
4. Organizational communication requirements
5. Procedures for prioritizing, approving, and issuing work authorizations
6. Risk control procedures
7. Standardized guidelines, work instuctions and performance measurement criteria
What are the organizational processes and procedures for conducting closing phase project work?
Project closure guidelines or requirements
What are the organizational knowledge bases for storing and retieving information?
1. Configuration management knowledge bases
2. Financial databases
3. Historical information and lessons learned knowledge bases
4. Issue and defect management databases
5. Process measurement databases
6. Project files prom previous projects
What are conditions that are not under the control of the project team, that infuence, constrain, or direct the project and may have positive or negative infuence on the outcome?
Enterprise Environmental factors
Name the 13 named Enterprise Environmental Factors:?
1. Organizational culture, structure and governance
2. Geographic distribution of facilities and resources
3. Government or industry standards
4. Infrastructure
5. Existing human resources
6. Personnel administration
7. Company work authorization systems
8. Marketplace conditions
9. Stakeholder risk tolerances
10. Political climate
11. Organization's established communications channels
12. Commericial databases
13. Poject management information system
A _______________ is an individual, group, or organization who may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project.
Stakeholder
Project Governance––the alignment of the roject with stakeolders' needs or gojectives––is critical to the successful management of stakeholder engagement and achievement of _________________.
organizational objectives
Project governance enables organizations to consistenly manage projects and maxmize the value of project outcomes and align the projects with what?
business strategy
The project governance approach should be described in the _____________.
Project Management Plan
The success of the project should be measured in terms of completing the project within the constraints of what? (6 items)
1. scope
2. time
3. cost
4. quality
5. resources
6. risk
The composition of project teams varies based on what factors?
culture, scope, and location
The relationship between the project manager and the team varies depending on what?
the authority of the project manager.
What is a dedicated team?
A team where all or a majority of the project team members are assigned to work full–time on the project.
Some projects are established as temporary additional work, with the project manager and team members working on the project while remaining in their existing organzations and continuing to carry out their normal functions. What type of team is this?
Part–time
What is the simplest team structure for a project?
A dedicated team, as the lines of authority are clear and team members can focus on the project's objectives.
In what type of organizations are Dedicated project teams often seen?
In projectized organizations, where most of the organization's resources are involved in project work and project managers have a great deal of independence and authority.
In what type of organizations are Part–time project teams common?
In functional organzations.
In what type of organizations us both Dedicated and Part–time used?
Matrix Organizations
A project may be established as what types of organizational (business) structures?
A project may be established as a partnership, joint venture, consortium, or alliance among several organizations through contracts or agreements.
Partnership–based projects can offer flexibility at lower cost. However, this advantage may be offset by?
The PMs lower degree of control over team members and need for strong mechanisms for communication and monitoring progress.
A PM who is leading a virtual team needs to accommodate differences in what 5 things?
culture, working hours, time zones, local conditions, and languages
What is the series of phases that a project passes through from its initiation to its closure?
A project life cycle
Proect life cycle phases can be broken down by what factors?
1. Functional or partial objectives
2. Intermediate results or deliverables
3. Specific milestones within the overall scope of work, or
4. Financial availability
The project life cycle provides the basic framework for what?
Managing the project.
Project life cycles can range along a continuum from ____________________ to ___________________ at the other end.
predictive or plan–driven approaches at one end to adaptive or change–driven approaches at the other.
What is predictive life cycle?
A life cycle where the product and deliverables are defined at the beginning of the project and any changes to scope are carefully managed.
What is an adaptive life cycle?
A life cycle where the product is developed over multiple iterations and detailed scope is defined for each interation only as the iteration begins.
All projects follow a generic life cycle structure. What are the 4 phases of the life cycle structure?
1. Starting the project
2. Organizing and preparing
3. carrying out the project work, and
4. closing the project
In the generic life cycle structure how do cost and staffing levels fluctuate?
Cost and staffing levels are low at the start, peak as the work is carried out, and drop rapidly as the project draws to a close.
In the generic life cycle structure, risk and uncertainty are greatest at what point in the project?
At the start of the project. These factors decrease over the life of the project as decisions are reached and as deliverables are accepted.
The ability to influence the final characteristics of the project's product, without significantly impacting cost is highest at what point in the project?
At the start of the prject and decreases as the project progresses towards completion. The cost of making changes and correcting errors typically increases substantially as the project approaches completion.
What type of life cycle was developed to with the intent of keeping stakeholder infuences higher and the costs of changes lower throughout the life cycle than in predictive life cycles.
Adaptive life cycles
What is a collection of logically related project activities that culminates in the completion of one or more deliverables.
Project phases
When are project phases used?
When the nature of the work to be performed is unique to a portion of the project, and are typically linked to the development of a specific major deliverable.
Can project phases overlap?
Yes. Project phases typically are completed sequentially, but can overlap in some project situations.
The closure of a phase ends with what?
Some form of transfer or hand–off of the work product produced as the phase deliverable.
what are the two types of phase–to–phase relationships?
Sequential and Overlapping
In a ____________________ relationship, a phase starts only when the previous phase is complete.
Sequential
The step–by–step nature of the sequential phase relationship reduces uncertainty, buy may eliminate options for reducing what?
the overall schedule
In an ___________________ , a phase starts prior to completion of the previous one.
Overlapping relationship. This can sometimes be applied as an example of the schedule compresion technique called fast tracking.
Why would the overlapping phases require additional resources?
To allow work to be done in parallel.
what are some negative aspects of overlapping phases?
Risks may be increased and rework may be necessary if a subsequent phase progresses before accurate information is available from the previous phase.
Describe the predictive life cycle.
The project scope, and the time and cost required to deliver that scope, are determined as early in the project life cycle as practically possible.
Can the predictive life cycle follow both the the sequential and overlapping phase relations?
Yes.
When is the predictive life cycle generally used?
When the product to be delivered is well understood, there is a substantial base of industry practice, or where a product is required to be delivered in full to have value to stakeholder groups.
Can projects with predictive life cycles use the concept of rolling wave planning?
Yes. where a more general high–level plan is available and more detailed planning is executed for appropriate time windows, as new work activities are approaching and resources are to be assigned.
What are life cycles called that project phases repeat one or more prject activities as the project team's understanding of the product increases.
Iterative and incremental life cycles
When are iterative and incremental life cycles preferred?
When an organization needs to manage changing objectives and scope, to reduce the complexity of a project, or when the partial delivery of a product is benficial and provides value for one or more stakeholder groups without impact to the final deliverable or set of deliverables.
Large and complex projects are frequently executed in an iterative fashion to reduce what?
Risk buy allowing the team to incorporate feedback and lessons learned between iterations.
What are Adaptive life cycles?
A life cycle that is intened to respond to high levels of change and ongoing stakeholder involvement. Also known as change–driven or agile methods.
In an adaptive life cycle, the overall scope of the project will be decomposed into a set of requirements and work to be performed, this is sometimes referred to a what?
product backlog
When is the adaptive method are generally perferred?
When dealing with a rapidly change environment, when requirements and scope are difficult to define in advance, and when it is possible to define small incremental improvements that will deliver value to stakeholders.