Planning Flashcards
Boo!
What are the four phases of the project lifecycle?
- Initiation
- Planning
- Execution
- Evaluation
What is the initiation phase?
The initiation phase considers whether the project is feasible by posing a series of questions.
What type of questions would you ask at the initiation phase?
- Who is the product for?
- What does the final product look like?
- What people and resources are required?
- What is the timescale for the project?
- What is the budget?
What are some examples of limitations in the initiation phase of a project?
- Timescale - a limited amount of time within which to complete the project for instance a set implementation date.
- Budget - Cost is always a consideration in undertaking a project, limitation is small budget.
- Software to be used - the client may request that the product runs on a particular kind of software this may not be the best solution but is what the client requires.
- Existing templates and style of documentation - every company has its own logos and style of documentation and it is quite likely that everything has to fit in with this style.
What is a feasibility report?
Every phase of the project development has inputs and outputs.
- The output from the initiation phase is the feasibility report.
- The feasibility report includes the success criteria for the project it will also consider the legislative (legal) implications of undertaking the project. such as the 2018 Data protection act, 1988 Patents act and 1974 Health and safety act at work.
- There will be phased review of the initiation phase which will determine whether or not the project can go ahead, in other words is the project feasible.
What are the main outputs of the planning phase?
- A detailed project plan which will show:
- The tasks to be undertaken
- The time allocated to each task
- How/if tasks are linked to one another
- Milestones - major points in the development project
- The endpoint - date of completion
- Resources required - human and software.
- Testing plans
- Designs:
- Data dictionaries
- ERD diagrams
- Visualisation diagrams of web pages
- Software interfaces
- Phase review - an end of phase assessment to determine the feasibility of the plan.
What is the execution phase?
- The phase where the deliverable is created.
- The plan is used to monitor progress
- The project is tested using the testing plans, created within the planning phase.
- The main output from this phase is the deliverable
- Another output is the phase review which determines whether the deliverable meets the success criteria.
What is the evaluation phase?
- The deliverable is released to the client
- User documentation also accompanies the deliverable including;
- User guides
- Installation guides
- Test results
- Security details
What does the evaluation phase review consider?
- The success of the project
- Deviations from the original plan
- The effectiveness of tools, processes and software (informs future plans)
- The maintainability of the deliverable - what happens if the client changes to a cloud based structure or changes the operation system or software running the deliverable.
What are the advantages of following a Project life cycle?
- Structured approach - everyone can see which task can be completed by when.
- Defined outputs and inputs for each phase
- Roles and responsibilities are clearly defined
- Resources can be allocated in advance this saves time later on
- The project manager can manage the progress of the project.
- End of phase reviews ensure the project is meeting the success criteria.
What is meant by iteration within projects?
Iteration means to repeat.
- If any of the phases are missing essential information the manager needs to return to the previous phase and repeat it for example:
- Planning phase - if it is found that the requirements have not been defined then the project manager needs to revert to the initiation phase to complete this task.
- Execution phase - If a new task is identified that doesn’t appear in the planning phase then the project should stop and the planning phase should be updated.
- Evaluation phase - If an element is found to be incompatible with the success criteria then the execution phase should be revisited.
What are SMART targets?
One of the tools for target setting in the initiation phase is using SMART targets which is an acronym:
- Specific - the more specific the goal is the easier the project will be developed.
- Measurable - each goal should be measurable so it can be assessed at the phased review.
- Achievable - It should be possible to achieve what the client wants within the timescale
- Realistic - The goals set should be able to be achieved
- Time - There must be a timescale for the project.
What are user requirements?
The client will issue their user requirements to the project team at the start of the process, these requirements could be quite vague if is up to the project team to form these requirements into specific objectives and success criteria. It is the success criteria that will be referred to in phased reviews.
What could be the risks and mitigation for the project?
All projects have associated risks, for example:
- The project may not finish in time.
- The deliverable may not work or be to the client’s requirements
- Work could be lost, deleted or accessed by unauthorised people.
What is risk mitigation?
When you mitigate you reduce. For example:
- Risk of losing work,
- File and folder naming conventions
- Regular backups
- Keeping different versions of files.
Unauthorised access
- Logical measure through the software
- Access controls (passwords, user priviledges)
- Firewalls and encryption
- Physical measures
Physical measures
- Locked doors
- Securing equipment to desk, closing blinds etc.
- Screen protectors.
Running out of time
- Creating a detailed project plan and using it to monitor the progress of the project.
- Building contingency time into project plans - if something takes longer there is some slack in the plan to allow for this.
Project not working
- Creating a comprehensive set of success criteria based upon the users requirements
- Referencing the success criteria in phased reviews
- Developing test plans around the test criteria.
