Project Management Life Cycle and Key Characteristics

The provided document is an assignment that explores various aspects of project management. It starts with defining what a project is, including its key characteristics such as being purposeful, well-structured, and having a specific life cycle. The five stages of project management are outlined: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and closure. Stakeholder analysis is also discussed, which involves identifying the interests of stakeholders who can affect or be affected by the project. A network diagram is drawn to illustrate this concept. Additionally, the document covers the attributes of a project manager and provides references from various sources such as books, journals, and online resources.

MANAGING PROJECTS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Characteristics of the Project.......................................................................................................3
Stages in Project Management.....................................................................................................4
Intention of Project Initiation Document (PID)...........................................................................5
Importance of knowledge areas of Project Management.............................................................6
Attributes or characteristics of Project Manager.........................................................................7
Purpose of stakeholder analysis and its importance in Project Management..............................8
Corresponding network diagram and critical path.......................................................................9
TASK 2..........................................................................................................................................10
Case Study & Application of Key stages in Project Life Cycle................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
The project's success and failure is actually determined by the management of project.
There are different guidelines and procedures for the various activities of the project. The
examples of different projects can be development of new products and services, construction of
any facility or building, renovation of kitchen or house, designing of transportation vehicle,
getting any new or modified or altered data system, organising the meetings or implementation
of new or modified business process.
The present assessment report explains about the key characteristics of project and its key
stages. Knowledge areas of the project management and attributes or characteristics of the
project manager are also briefly explained. Purpose of stakeholder analysis and its importance in
the project management is explained in the report. Further the report explains in detail about the
development of an Information System (IS) and application of key stages of the project life cycle
is done.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
Characteristics of the Project
Project can be defined as series of tasks or activities which have specified goals to be
accomplished within the specified time and also specified specification. The features of the
project can be explained as: Temporary: Any project has the finite beginning and ending dates. The start time of
project is when projects are initiated and development of concepts is done. And when the
goals and objectives of projects are met, it is considered as the end of the project (Petri
and et.al., 2018). Thus, any project is temporary in nature having start and end dates. The
projects are also limited by the available resources. Unique Deliverable: The projects aim at producing some specific deliverables that can
include product, services or any other result. The unique deliverables focuses on
addressing a problem and these deliverables are also need to be analysed before starting
the project (WHAT IS A PROJECT? – DEFINITION AND KEY CHARACTERISTICS,
2019). Any project may also involve risk because of various elements of the risks.

 Progressive Elaboration: Progress of any project includes constant inquiry and also
continuous improvement and this is considered as an important characteristics as this
allows development of more comprehensive and accurate plans. This characteristics of
project ensures that there is successive iteration of planning procedure which brings
effective results for the development of accurate and effective solutions for the project
progress and development.
Stages in Project Management
The project management means that the practice of initiating, plans, executing, control
and closure the work of group for achieving the particular targets and also achieving specified
success criteria at the particular time. The main and central challenge for any project
management is for accomplishing all the goals of project management within the specified
constraints.
 Project Initiation: The objective of this stage is to briefly define the project at wide level
as this is the start of project. At this stage, value and feasibility of project is measured.
The project manager uses different evaluation tools for deciding if to engage with the
project or not. The different evaluation tools can be: business case document and
feasibility study. Project Planning: This is needed for guiding and directing the project team and also to
keep team on budget and time track. The well-written and structured project plan is
required for providing guidance regarding resource obtaining, acquiring, procuring and
financing of the required materials. Overall the project planning stage provides direction
Illustration 1: Project Management stages

to team for production of quality outputs, handling and managing risks, creation of
acceptation, communication benefits with stakeholders and also managing the suppliers. Project Execution: This refers to developing the deliverables which helps in effectively
satisfying the customers. This stage involves allocation of resources and also keeping
members focused on the allotted activities. This stage rely heavily on the project planning
stage. Project Monitor and control: After effectively executing the project plan, team focuses
on constantly monitoring project progress. In order to guarantee the targeted delivery,
team aim at monitoring the project so that they can prevent scope creep and also keep
project moving in smooth manner.
 Project Closure: The project is closed when the finished projects are delivered to
customers, communicating the project completion with stakeholders and also releasing
resources to other projects.
Intention of Project Initiation Document (PID)
PID is considered as the most essential component of the project management and this
also forms as the foundation for the company project. PID can be referred as the decision
documents on the basis on which mandate is generally implemented. The PID may be used for
following purposes:
 Based on the data or information within the Project Initiation Document, project
management provides commitment. When the project is pursued or approved, this refers
that PID effectively and accurately describes about which people, resources and also
budget are needed for the specific project (Kliem and Ludin, 2019).
 Based on the data or information within the PID, project manager and project
management can effectively supervising and controlling the project progress.
Following are given the contents or items included in the Project Initiation Document.
This may vary in accordance with the project management methods, industries or organisations.
 Document information
 Description of the project
 Purpose
 Objectives of project
 Scope and exclusion of the project

 deliverables
 Interfaces
 criteria of Assumption
 criteria of Acceptance
 Monitor and evaluation
 delivery of Project
 Initial risk log
 Structure of project organization
 plan of Communication
 Quality management
 Milestones of project
 Resource plan
 Project exception and tolerance process
 Appendices
 Record of amendment to project initiation document
 specifications of Deliverable package
 Budget or financial requirements
 Detailed schedule.
Importance of knowledge areas of Project Management
Project management knowledge areas are important which needs to know about for
effectively managing the project. After properly following these knowledge areas, the projects
run in smooth and effective manner and stakeholders can also be easily delighted. Following is
given the list of project management knowledge areas:
1. Project Integration Management
2. Project Scope Management
3. Project Schedule Management
4. Project Cost Management
5. Project Quality Management
6. Project Resource Management
7. Project Communication Management
8. Project Risk Management

9. Project Procurement Management
10. Project Stakeholder Management
Importance of Project Integration Management: The project integration management
is very important as it acts as a umbrella which helps to cover all the other project management
knowledge areas. This knowledge area ensures to knit together all the individual task and
processes into one single project with defined deliverables and goals. Thus, the importance of
this knowledge area is to effectively manage and also coordinate the various activities and
processes of the project throughout its life cycle.
Importance of Project Schedule Management: All the projects relies on specific
timelines and schedules of different people. This includes creation of schedule for the project and
also determines who is responsible for which task or activity (Kerzner, 2018). This knowledge
area will help in determining which activity can be adjusted and also how resources can be
managed and allocated throughout the project. Thus, it helps in defining different project
activities in order to effectively accomplishing the targeted goals.
Attributes or characteristics of Project Manager
In order to be a good and effective project manager, one needs to have specific character
trait or qualities which are explained as follows:
 Effective and good communication skills
 Strong leadership skills
 Technical skills and expertise
 Good decision-making skills
 Inspiring a shared vision
 Good team building skills
 Effective negotiation skills
 Empathetic and competence
The project manager needs to have effective knowledge for articulating the vision with
other members of team in smooth manner (10 Attributes of an Effective Project Manager, 2018).
A visionary person can effectively manage and lead the team and guide them with right
direction. The project leader having the visionary attribute can easily adapt to changes which
comes in way and also accomplish the targeted objectives of the project.

The project manager needs to be good and effective communicator in order to connect
with the other team members at all the levels. The project manager having good and effective
communication skill can explain the project objectives to all members and also their roles and
responsibilities, expectations and feedback as well.
Purpose of stakeholder analysis and its importance in Project Management
The stakeholders of project are the individuals or organisations which are involved in the
project and also whose interest is generally get affected due to the project execution and/or
project completion. The purpose of stakeholder analysis is to identify:
 Key people for the distribution of information at execution stage (Kasemsap, 2018).
 Potential issues which can disrupt the projects.
 Groups which needs to be encouraged for participating in the different project stages.
 Communication plans and stakeholder management strategies during project planning
stage.
 Ways for reducing and managing the potential negative impacts.
The stakeholder analysis is important to be performed because it helps project managers
to understand various essential factors and engage various stakeholders and also increase their
desire for contributing to the project and ensuring its success.

Corresponding network diagram and critical path
Illustration 2: Network Diagram
The dummy activities in the network diagram have zero completion time and this are
used for representing the precedence relationship which cannot be easily represented using the
actual project activities. Two dummy are created in this network diagram i.e. from C to F and D
to H. the convention dummies are shown in the dotted arcs in this network diagram.
There are five different critical path for completing this project activities.
1. ABCD- 37
2. AFGED- 50
3. AFHED- 60
4. ABCFGD- 71
5. ABCFHED- 81
The longest critical path for completing the project is the last option i.e. ABCFHED having 81
sequence.

TASK 2
Case Study & Application of Key stages in Project Life Cycle
Project Management refers to the application of experiences, skills, knowledge, processes
and methods for achieving the goals and objectives of specific project (Heldman, 2018).
Project Initiation: At this stage, business need or objectives are figured out for the project. It is
also determined that whether the project is feasible or not and also identification of major project
deliverables are done. The main purpose of Project Initiation Document (PID) is for capturing
and recording the basic data or information that is required for correctly defining and planning
the project. This document represents the detailed version of start-up document and it is also
known as Project Brief. The London Skills Concern (LSC) aims at developing an Information
System (IS) in order to change from a predominantly face to face advice provision way to the
hybrid system.
1. The feasibility study is undertaken for identifying for identifying that particular project
will effectively deliver a solution for the problem. The EClips product can be used for
providing support and guiding to young people in terms of their career and study
information.
2. Project scope can be determined by defining the breadth and depth of the project. The
EClips product can help to limit the face to face communication and it can also support
utilisation of social media and online games that are based on learning and advising
young people.
3. Deliverables of this Information System or EClips product is that it can be used for
providing basic study and career information to young people and guiding them for their
future career. The EClips product or application is currently ininteractive and which
needs to be integrated into offering. The other project deliverables also includes:
collecting of appropriate and required data, summarizing the inputs and outputs, mapping
the processes and delivering a responsibility matrix.
4. The project stakeholders are the young people including school children and
disadvantaged children and the ones who are Not in Education Employment or Training
(NEET). The stakeholders for this projects also includes project management team,
London donors and well-wishers, various revenue streams, local council education
departments, private sector companies, social enterprises and local authorities.

5. The initiation stage also involves development of a business case. The above criteria is
considered for comparing between the benefits and costs of the project for determining if
it needs to be moved forward. The EClips product can be used by London Skills
Concerns in the long run and will also gain benefits in terms of future expansions.
Project Planning: At this stage of project life cycle, the large project is divided into smaller
activities or tasks. The planning stage aims at refining the objectives which are collected during
the initiation stage.
Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
Project Initiation 50 days Tue 5/28/19 Mon 8/5/19
Communicating ideas
with project members 30 days Tue 8/6/19 Mon 9/16/19 1
Designing mission and
vision 110 days Tue 9/17/19 Mon 2/17/20 1,2
Project Planning 20 days Tue 2/18/20 Mon 3/16/20 3,2
Identifying objectives 140 days Tue 2/18/20 Mon 8/31/20 3
Identifying price or
budget of the project 25 days Tue 2/18/20 Mon 3/23/20 3
Developing Project
team 32 days Tue 3/17/20 Wed 4/29/20 4
Amenities selected 42 days Tue 9/1/20 Wed
10/28/20 5
Analyzing Project
target market 36 days Tue 3/24/20 Tue 5/12/20 6
Market survey 28 days Thu 4/30/20 Mon 6/8/20 7
Planning for required
tools 38 days Thu 10/29/20 Mon
12/21/20 8
Operational planning 34 days Wed 5/13/20 Mon 6/29/20 9
Planning for Marketing 15 days Tue 6/9/20 Mon 6/29/20 10
Financial planning 17 days Tue 12/22/20 Wed 1/13/21 11
Human resource
planning 50 days Tue 6/30/20 Mon 9/7/20 12
Marketing and
Advertisement 40 days Tue 6/30/20 Mon 8/24/20 13
Marketing material 50 days Thu 1/14/21 Wed 3/24/21 14
Printing advertisement 20 days Tue 9/8/20 Mon 10/5/20 15
Promotional activities 15 days Tue 8/25/20 Mon 9/14/20 16
Distribution of goods
and services 14 days Thu 3/25/21 Tue 4/13/21 17

Building effective
customer relationship 26 days Tue 10/6/20 Tue 11/10/20 18
Building effective supply
chain 85 days Tue 9/15/20 Mon 1/11/21 19
Implementation of
information system
technology
98 days Wed 4/14/21 Fri 8/27/21 20
Digital technology 88 days Wed
11/11/20 Fri 3/12/21 21
Manufacturing machine 98 days Tue 1/12/21 Thu 5/27/21 22
Research and
development 60 days Mon 8/30/21 Fri 11/19/21 23
Patent and copyright 110 days Mon 3/15/21 Fri 8/13/21 24
Identifying required
resources 99 days Fri 5/28/21 Wed
10/13/21 25
Packaging and
distribution 160 days Mon
11/22/21 Fri 7/1/22 26
Assigning roles and
responsibilities 39 days Mon 8/16/21 Thu 10/7/21 27
Identifying associated
risk 200 days Thu 10/14/21 Wed 7/20/22 28
Tracking and monitoring
the progress 100 days Mon 7/4/22 Fri 11/18/22 29
Project Closure 5 days Fri 10/8/21 Thu 10/14/21
30

1. The project manager focuses on building an effective team, prepares schedule in order to
complete the project on time (Harris And et.al., 2018). Project timeline is 18 months
which is included in the project plan. The plan also includes tasks which needs to be
performed by different members.
2. Possible constraints are also identified and in this project, it can be cost and schedule.
Because deadline for delivering the project is hard to met and also local government
budgets are also cut down.
3. Workflow documents or process maps are created for visualising the project timeline and
diagramming the key milestones. The key milestones of project needs to represent the
clear and accurate sequence of the different events which incrementally build up until the

project is completed. In this project, key milestones are approval from stakeholders and
clients, delivery of project on time and important presentations and meetings.
Illustration 3: PERT Chart
4. The budgets are estimated and financial plan is created using the cost estimates for
determining how much to spend on the project for getting maximum return on the
investment. This information system can effectively provide strategic advantage in form
of service offered and also cost of providing the services.
5. Resources are gathered and functional team is built from both the internal and external
talent pools. It is also ensured that everyone has the required tools such as hardware and
software skills for effectively completing their assigned tasks or activities.
6. The potential quality roadblocks and risks are also anticipated at this stage. The issues are
identified that may cause project to stall during planning for mitigating such risks and
maintain the quality and timeline of projects. The project issues may be meeting the
deadlines and scope creep.
Project Execution: After receiving the business approval, developing business plan and building
the project team, it is time for executing the project plan into action (Fangel, 2018). The project
manager ensures that project life cycle works on planned track, organising team members,
effectively managing the timelines and also making sure that activities are completed in
accordance with the original plans.

1. Creation of tasks and workflows are organised. The manager of project aims at
effectively assigning the granular aspects of project to appropriate members of team and
he also makes sure that team members do not have over-workload.
2. The project manager also brief the different team members on the activities. He briefly
explains the tasks with the members and also provides necessary guidance for completing
the EClips project. The project manager also ensures that organising and process related
trainings are provided to member regarding the development of information system.
3. The manager of project then communicates with clients, team members and also with
upper management of London Skills Concern. The required information and updates are
provided to the different stakeholders of project at all levels.4. The manager of project also ensures about the budget management. Project manager aims
at effectively monitoring the spending on project and keeps track on project in terms of
resources and assets as well.
Project monitoring and control: This stage occurs at the same time as execution stage. This
stage aims at dealing with the measurement of project progression and management accordingly
with the project plan prepared (Top 5 Project Management Phases, 2018).
1. the project manager focuses on having control and scope verification to check and also
monitor the scope creep, change the control for tracking and also managing changes
according to the requirements of project.
2. Quality of work is monitored and ensured that team members are effectively meeting the
quality and time of their given activities or task related with the development of
information system.
3. The key performance indicators are calculated for time and cost in order to effectively
measure the degree of variation (Chawla and et.al., 2018). The manager also implements
corrective measures for keeping the project on planned track.
Project Closure: After effectively completing the work and activities on project i.e. development
of Information System, the London Skills Concern enters the Project Closure stage. This stage
provides final deliverables of the project, releases various project resources and also determines
the project success.

1. the project manager aims at effectively analysing the performance of project and also
determines whether the project objectives are met. The London Skills Concern effectively
completed the planned tasks on time and within the prepared budget.
2. The team performance is also analysed at the project closure stage. How members of the
project team performed is evaluated and it also includes whether they met their goals with
quality and timeline of the activities. The different team members effectively met and
achieved the project objectives and meth the quality and timeline as well.
3. The next step in this stage is to document the project closure and making sure that every
aspect of project is completed and no loose ends are remaining. The project manager then
provides reports to various key stakeholders of the project (Calderón, 2018).
4. Post implementation reviews are conducted in order to take into account the lessons
learned for some similar future projects. The project manager also allocates remaining
project resources to the future projects.
CONCLUSION
There are different types of project which have scheduled series of activities aiming
towards the creation of specific asses based on planned specifications for generating wealth as
estimated for the future time. Every project is purposeful and well-structured as it is
interdependence between its activities and tasks. The projects are logical as this includes specific
life cycle. The efforts of project management are divided into five key stages or phases which
helps in simplifying and structuring the efforts into the set of manageable and logical steps. The
stakeholder analysis helps the project for identifying the interest of stakeholders, who can affect
the project and also who may get affected by project. The report explains about the key
characteristics of project, stages in project management and intention of Project Initiation
Document. Knowledge areas of the project management and attributes of project manager are
also explained in brief. Intention of stakeholder analysis is explained and network diagram is
drawn. Further the stages in project life cycle is explained in accordance with the given case
study.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Calderón, A., 2018. Gamification and simulation-based serious games for software engineering
training: an application in software project management (Doctoral dissertation,
Universidad de Cádiz).
Chawla, V. and et.al., 2018. The sustainable project management: A review and future
possibilities. Journal of Project Management, 3(3), pp.157-170.
Fangel, M., 2018. Proactive Project Management. Van Haren.
Harris, J.L. And et.al., 2018. Project planning and management. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Heldman, K., 2018. PMP: project management professional exam study guide. John Wiley &
Sons.
Kasemsap, K., 2018. The roles of information technology and knowledge management in project
management metrics. In Global Business Expansion: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools,
and Applications (pp. 1191-1221). IGI Global.
Kerzner, H., 2018. Project management best practices: Achieving global excellence. John Wiley
& Sons.
Kliem, R.L. and Ludin, I.S., 2019. Reducing project risk. Routledge.
Petri, G. and et.al., 2018. Games for Teaching Software Project Management: An Analysis of the
Benefits of Digital and Non-Digital Games. Journal of Universal Computer
Science. 24(10). pp.1424-1451.
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WHAT IS A PROJECT? – DEFINITION AND KEY CHARACTERISTICS. 2019. [Online].
Available through: <https://mymanagementguide.com/basics/what-is-a-project/>