Project Life cycles BTEC National

Project Life cycles A project is broken down into stages in a number of different ways. How you break it down is called a project life cycle. We will look at one way of breaking a project down. There are other ways that are just as valid

Define and produce a specification This stage is about finding out what the customer wants. It may include recording what the users do now, what the customer wants to happen once the new system is in place and any performance needs. The four main activities are: Interview the customer Analyse the customer’s requirements Produce a specification Produce a business case The end result or deliverable of this phase are usually: A specification saying what the new system must do, buit not how it will be done A business case for going ahead with the new system, giving potential costs and benefits

Plan and design The plan for the design stage turns the customer’s requirements into a potential computer-based solution. The design stage often has these five major activities: Produce an overall design Design an input system Design an output system Design a processing system Produce design documentation Alternatively, the plan for design may be based on the proposed system’s functions – for example, create, update, delete and display. It could also be based on the system’s users – for example, sales, marketing and finance.

Collect information Your plan for a project needs to include a process for you to collect information on how the project is going from others who are working on the project. You will need to review and summarise that information and present it to stakeholders in your project

Implementation The implementation stage includes: Build the project Test that the produce meets the need Provide documentation and possibly training Hand the project over to the customer

Complete and review Completion involves the customer and the users using your product. It includes identifying the actual benefits and costs of building and running the product. It also includes a final project review, where the stakeholders review how well you did in managing the project and product delivery.

Test your knowledge! What are the 4 main activities of defining and producing a specification? What are the 5 main activities of planning and designing? What are the 4 main activities of implementation?