PROJECT LIFE CYCLE

Project life cycle

Project life cycle

Introduction

Running an organization in the current market has become a challenge, the fluctuating stock market, unemployment rates and the current recession with no end in sight had lead organizations to initiate projects to help the company lower operating cost without sacrificing employees, some organizations have had to resort to early retirement programs, and layoffs to cut costs to stay in business. Business managers over the last couple of years have had to initiate programs and projects to help their organizations run, as organizations that have laid off employees have been forced to produce their normal output with less manpower.(Jack,1999) Businesses have experience this predicament understand the importance of project management, so this paper will give a brief explanation of what a project is, the phase of project life cycles and the importance of project management, and what project management means to an organization. (Robert, 2000)Organizations are not able to survive if project management on all initiated projects are not utilized in an orderly fashion.

It does not matter what business or industry is involved, all projects have the same trio at their cores. That trio is time, money, and scope. A project has a clear objective, with specific beginning and ending dates, and a budget. A project is a temporary enterprise in creating a unique product or service. Unlike business processes, a project is not routine or recurring, (Ernst, 2007). A project consists of a progression of tasks, planned from start to finish, and constrained by time, resources, and defined outcome and deliverables. The project's budget restricts the amount of people, supplies, and capital needed for completion. (John, 1997)

Discussion

A project, for some a project is an enormous task that needs organization and a great deal of time to accomplish, to an organization a project requires discipline, organization and a team willing to participate in the successful completion of a project. “A project is considered a series of tasks or activities that include, but not limited to specific objectives that must be completed by a specific period of time, has specific funding or alternative funding if possible, can be initiated and completed by humans, equipment made for specific tasks, and are multifunction meaning that the completion of the project requires cutting through several functional lines, at all career levels within the organization.”(Kerzner, 2006)

Major characteristics of a project are established objectives, having defined life span with a beginning and end, new or unique across-organizational participation, resources, specific time, along with cost and performance requirements. Every project has constraints like scope, time, and cost. Each project has starting and ending time, cost, and other management functions involved in the project to make it succeed or fail. Managing a project involves the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet such project requirements. Project management has been defined as “the planning, organizing, directing, and controlling of company resources for a relatively short-term objective that has been established to complete specific goals and objectives” (Krezner, ...