Project Life Cycle and Organization

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Organization Types

Organization Types: Projectized (project manager has the ultimate authority over the project, team members are often collocated), Matrix (Strong, Balanced, Week), Functional

Composite – a combination of different types, depending on the actual need

Tight Matrix = co-location, nothing to do with the organization type (not necessarily a matrix org.)
Functional organizations => the project manager has little authority, often called project expeditor (no authority) or coordinator  (little authority), project coordination among functional managers

Matrix organization => multiple bosses and more complex

Project Based Organization (PBO) – conduct the majority of their activities as projects and/or privilege project over functional approaches, they can include: departments with functional organizations; matrix organizations; projectized organizations and other forms of organizations that privilege a project approach for conducting their activities, success is measured by final results rather than position/politics

Project Lifecycle 

Project Lifecycle: initiating, planning and organizing, carrying out/executing work, closing the project

Predictive [plan driven/waterfall] – scope, time and cost determined early in the lifecycle, may also employ rolling wave planning
Iterative [incremental] – repeat the phases as understanding of the project increases until the exit criteria are met, similar to the rolling wave planning, high-level objectives, either sequential / overlapping phases, scope/time/resources for each phase may be different

Adaptive [change driven/agile] – for projects with high levels of change, risk and/or uncertainty, each iterative is very short (2-4 weeks), work is decomposed into product backlog, each with a production-level product, scrum is one of the most effective agile methods, stakeholders are involved throughout the process, time and resources are fixed, allow low change cost/keep stakeholder influence high
each project phase within the product lifecycle may include all the five project management process groups

Product lifecycle: development > production > adoption & growth > maturity > decline > end of life


Organization Process Assets is a major input in all planning process, which may be kept at PMO, directly related to project management, including Processess and Procedures (including templates (e.g. WBS, schedule network diagrams, etc.), procedures for issuing work authorizations, guidelines, performance measurements) and Corporate Knowledge Base

The Configuration Management Knowledge Bases contain baselines of all organization standards
Lessons Learned – focus on the deviances from plan (baseline) to actual results
Enterprise Environment Factors (often are constraints) are influences not in the immediate control of the project team that affect the project, intra-organization and extra-organization, e.g. organizational culture, organization structure (functional/matrix/projectized structure), existing human resources, work authorization system, PMIS

The work authorization system (WAS) is a system used during project integration management to ensure that work gets done at the right time and in the right sequence
EEF are inputs for all initiating, most planning process, not much in the executing/controlling process, none in closing process

Organization culture: process-oriented/results-oriented, job-oriented/employee-oriented, professional-oriented/parochial-oriented, open system/closed system, tight control/loose control, pragmatic/normative

Project Governance – for the whole project lifecycle, fits in the organization’s governance model, define responsibilities and accountabilities, controlling the project and making decisions for success, alignment of project with stakeholders’ needs/objectives, provides a framework for PM and sponsors to make decisions to satisfy both parties, should be described in the PM plan

Analytical Techniques: used to find the root cause or to forecast
PMIS includes configuration system and change control system
Never accept a change request to trim down one element of the triple constraint without changing the rest.
Sponsor – provides resources/support to project, lead the process through initiation (charter/scope statement) through formally authorized, later involved in authorizing scope/budget change/review
Customer – NOT necessarily provide the financial resources, maybe external to the organization, final acceptance of the product
Business Partners – certification body, training, support, etc.
Organizational Groups – internal stakeholders
Business Case : background, analysis of the business situation, costs and benefits (cost-benefit analysis), to help in selection of project created by the initiator
Project Statement of Work (SOW) : describes the business need, high level scope of deliverables and strategic plan of the organization, created by the sponsor/initiator/buyer




Project Management System: includes a list of project management processes, level of implementation (what actions to take in the management processes), description of tools and techniques, resources, procedures, change control system [forms with tracking systems, approval levels]
Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM) – a matrix connecting deliverables to requirements and their sources (for managing scope)
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) – a hierarchal chart of decomposing deliverables into work packages
Activity List – a full list of all activities with indication of relationship to the work packages
Activity Attributes – further information (duration, start date, end date, etc.) of all the activities in the list (for scheduling)

Roles and Responsibilities (RAR) – a document listing all the roles and description of their responsibilities in the project (often by category)
Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) – a matrix connecting people to work packages/activities, e.g. the RACI matrix (responsible, accountable, consult, inform), usually only one person is accountable for each activity
Resources Breakdown Structure (RBS) – a hierarchical chart listing all the resources by categories, e.g. marketing, design, etc.
Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS) – a hierarchical chart listing all risks by categories
Project Information

Work Performance Data – raw data collected
Work Performance Info – analyzed in context and integrated data, e.g. some forecasts
Work Performance Reports – work performance information compiled in report format


Sunk costs – money already spent, not to be considered whether to terminate a project, similar to committed cost (often through contracts)
Direct costs, indirect (shared) costs, Fixed costs, Variable costs
Law of diminishing returns – beyond a point, the more input, the less return
Working capital – assets minus liability, what the company has to invest in the projects
Payback period – a time to earn back capital investment
Benefit-cost ratio (BCR) – an indicator, used in the formal discipline of cost-benefit analysis, that attempts to summarize the overall value for money of a project

Depreciation – straight-line depreciation vs accelerated depreciation (the amount of depreciation taken each year is higher during the earlier years of an asset’s life)
Under double declining balance, the asset is depreciated twice as fast as under straight line. Using the example above, 10% of the cost is depreciated each year using straight line. Doubling the rate would mean that 20% would be depreciated each year, so the asset would be fully depreciated in 5 years, rather than 10.

Economic value added – the value of the project brought minus the cost of project (including opportunity costs)

Net present value (NPV) – the sum of the present values (PVs) of the individual cash flows of the same entity
Present value (PV) – or called present discounted value, is a future amount of money that has been discounted to reflect its current value, as if it existed today (i.e. with inflation, etc.)
Future value (FV) – is the value of an asset at a specific date
Internal Rate of Return (IRR) – The inherent discount rate or investment yield rate produced by the project’s deliverables over a pre-defined period of time.
Forecast (future) vs Status Report (current status) vs Progress Report (what have been done/delivered)
Journey to Abilene (Abilene’s Paradox) – committee decisions can have a paradox outcome, the joint decision is not welcome by either party (because of fear of raising objections)
when something unusual happens, always refer to the PM Plan/Charter for instruction on how to proceed; if not found, ask for direction from the management
unresolved issues will lead to conflicts


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