Pmbok Chapter 2 - Project Life Cycle And Organization

Front 1

What is The Project Life Cycle?

Back 1

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!

Front 2

How are projects usually divided?

Back 2

Projects are usually divided into project phases to improve project governance. Collectively, the project phases are known as the project life cycle.

Front 3

All projects can be mapped to the following life cycle structure:

Back 3

- Starting the project
- Organizing and preparing
- Carrying out the project work
- Closing the project

Front 4

How is the conclusion of each project phase usually handled?

Back 4

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.

Front 5

What are phase-end reviews called?

Back 5

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.

Front 6

What are the characteristics of project phases?

Back 6

- 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.

Front 7

What is a Sequential Phase to Phase Relationship?

Back 7

Sequential phases occur in sequence, beginning a new phase only upon completion of the prior phase.

Front 8

What is a Overlapping Phase to Phase Relationship?

Back 8

Overlapping phase starts prior to completion of the prior phase (fast tracking)

Front 9

What is a Iterative Phase to Phase Relationship?

Back 9

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.

Front 10

What is Fast Tracking?

Back 10

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.

Front 11

How is the Next Phase initiated?

Back 11

- 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.

Front 12

How does Stakeholder Influence, Risk and Uncertainty change over the Life cycle of a project?

Back 12

Stakeholder Influence, Risk, and Uncertainty starts High and decreases during the life of the project.

Front 13

How does the Cost of Changes change over the Life Cycle of a project?

Back 13

The Cost of Changes starts Low and increases during the life of the project.

Front 14

What is Project Scope?

Back 14

Project Scope is the WORK that must be done to deliver a product with the specified features and functions.

Front 15

What is Product Scope?

Back 15

Product Scope is the features and functions that characterize a product or service.

Front 16

What are Project Stakeholders?

Back 16

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.

Front 17

How are stakeholders handled?

Back 17

- 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.

Front 18

What are types of stakeholders?

Back 18

Key Stakeholders include:
- Project manager
- Customer/User
- Performing organization
- Project team members, Project Management Team
- Sponsor
- Influencers
- PMO

Front 19

What are some typical stakeholder categories?

Back 19

Stakeholder Categories: Suppliers, Customers, Employees, Creditors, Shareholders, Competitors, Government officials, Society at large.

All influencers are stakeholders!

Front 20

Organization Influences

Back 20

- 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.

Front 21

Organizational Cultures and Styles

Back 21

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.

Front 22

What are the categories of Project-based (Projectized) Organizations?

Back 22

- 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.

Front 23

What are the categories of Non-Project-Based Organizations?

Back 23

- 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.

Front 24

What are the Structure Influences for Functional Organizations?

Back 24

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

Front 25

What are the Structure Influences for Weak Matrix Organizations?

Back 25

PM's Authority - Limited
Resource Availability - Limited
Budget Control - Functional Manager
PM's Role - Part-time
PM Admin Staff - Part-time

Front 26

What are the Structure Influences for Balanced Matrix Organizations?

Back 26

PM's Authority - Low to moderate
Resource Availability - Low to moderate
Budget Control - Mixed
PM's Role - Full-time
PM Admin Staff - Part-time

Front 27

What are the Structure Influences for Strong Matrix Organizations?

Back 27

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

Front 28

What are the Structure Influences for Projectized Organizations?

Back 28

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

Front 29

What is a Project Manager's authority level for each organizational structure?

Back 29

Functional - None
Project Expeditor - Low
Project Coordinator - Low
Weak Matrix - Medium
Strong Matrix - Medium
Projectized - High

Front 30

What are the characteristics of the Organizational Form - Project Expeditor?

Back 30

- 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.

Front 31

What are the characteristics of the Organizational Form - Project Coordinator?

Back 31

- 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.

Front 32

What are the characteristics of the Organizational Form - Matrix Organization?

Back 32

- 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

Front 33

What are the disadvantages of a Matrix Organizational Structure?

Back 33

- 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

Front 34

What are the advantages of a Matrix Organizational Structure?

Back 34

- 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

Front 35

Functional Organization Structure Key Factors

Back 35

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

Front 36

Weak Matrix Organization Structure Key Factors

Back 36

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

Front 37

Strong Matrix Organization Structure Key Factors

Back 37

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

Front 38

Projectized Organization Structure Key Factors

Back 38

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

Front 39

How is a Bureaucracy Organizational Profile different from a Projectized one?

Back 39

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

Front 40

How is a Projectized Organizational Profile different from a Bureaucracy one?

Back 40

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

Front 41

What are the characteristics of a Bureaucracy Organizational Profile?

Back 41

- 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

Front 42

How flexible can PMO implementation be?

Back 42

- 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.

Front 43

What is a Project Management System?

Back 43

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.

Front 44

What Organization Process assets can be used to influence project success?

Back 44

- 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

Front 45

What is Probability?

Back 45

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.

Front 46

What is the Probability of Compound Events?

Back 46

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.

Front 47

What is statistics?

Back 47

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.

Front 48

What is mean?

Back 48

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.

Front 49

What is Median?

Back 49

Median is a group of values as many values of the group are larger than the median as are small than the median.

Front 50

What is Mode?

Back 50

Mode in a group of values the mode is the value occurring most frequently.

Front 51

What is range?

Back 51

Range is the difference between highest and lowest value.

Front 52

What is deviation?

Back 52

Deviation is the difference between a value and the mean.

Front 53

What is variance?

Back 53

Variance is the mean of the squared Deviations.

Front 54

What is Standard Deviation (σ)?

Back 54

Standard Deviation (σ) is the square root of the Variance.

Front 55

What is Frequency?

Back 55

Frequency is the number of values within an interval.

Front 56

What is Distribution?

Back 56

Distribution is the display of values and related frequencies.

Front 57

What is Normal Distribution?

Back 57

- Bell Shaped Curve, normal curve
- Symmetrical
- Extends to infinity in both directions

Front 58

IMPORTANT! What percentage of values are within 1 Standard Deviation (σ) of the mean?

Back 58

68.26% of values are within 1 Standard Deviation (σ) of the mean.

Front 59

IMPORTANT! What percentage of values are within 2 Standard Deviation (σ) of the mean?

Back 59

95.46% of values are within 2 Standard Deviation (σ) of the mean

Front 60

IMPORTANT! What percentage of values are within 3 Standard Deviation (σ) of the mean?

Back 60

99.73% of values are within 3 Standard Deviation (σ) of the mean.