Project Life Cycle Management and Evaluation

The provided document is an assignment that delves into the topic of project life cycle management, highlighting its significance in ensuring projects are completed on time and smoothly. The five stages of planning, initiation, execution, monitoring and control, and closure are discussed in detail, along with the importance of evaluating project outcomes to measure performance. The study also emphasizes the benefits of sharing project outcomes within an organization, including transparency, better decision-making, and efficient collaboration.

SPM3: Strategic project
management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
SPM 3.0: ANALYSE WAYS IN WHICH THE OUTCOMES OF A PROJECT ARE
EVALUATED TO MEASURE PROJECT PERFORMANCE......................................................1
Introduction..................................................................................................................................1
Why project outcomes are evaluated...........................................................................................1
How outcomes of a project is evaluated......................................................................................2
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................3
SPM 3.1: ANALYSE WAYS IN WHICH TO MEASURE PROJECT PERFORMANCE
AGAINST AGREED CRITERIA...................................................................................................3
Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
What is the importance of criteria when measuring performance...............................................3
How project performance is measured against the criteria..........................................................4
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................5
SPM 3.2: ASSESS THE BENEFITS OF SHARING THE OUTCOMES OF A PROJECT
EVALUATION, WITHIN AN ORGANISATION.........................................................................5
Introduction..................................................................................................................................5
What does sharing project outcomes involve..............................................................................5
Benefits of sharing project outcomes...........................................................................................6
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................6
SPM 3.3: CONSIDERING ALL PHASES OF THE PROJECT LIFE CYCLE REFLECT AND
DISCUSS HOW YOU APPROACHED EACH PHASE, INCLUDING AN ANALYSIS OF
THE OUTCOME AND LESSONS LEARNED ............................................................................7
Introduction..................................................................................................................................7
Initiate..........................................................................................................................................7
Plan..............................................................................................................................................7
Execute.........................................................................................................................................8
Monitor and control.....................................................................................................................8
Closure.......................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................10

CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................12
........................................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Strategic project management is define as the selecting, managing and measuring the
outcomes of the project (Kerzner, 2017). All the projects are performed to meet a desired
objective thus it requires a strategic vision and leadership to meet the required goal. Present
report is based on strategic project management which includes how outcomes of a project are
used to measure the performance of project, analysing the ways in which project performance is
measured against the agreed criteria. Further report also highlights the benefits of sharing
outcomes of project evaluation in the organisation and briefly explaining the project life cycle.
SPM 3.0: ANALYSE WAYS IN WHICH THE OUTCOMES OF A
PROJECT ARE EVALUATED TO MEASURE PROJECT
PERFORMANCE
Introduction
Project outcomes are the final results that are delivered at the end of a project. The
success or failure of a project are determined based on the outcomes delivered (Kerzner, 2019).
It is important to measure the outcomes of a project in order to find out whether an individual has
achieved a desired goals or not, whether project is successful or not. This part of the report
highlights the the need to evaluate project outcomes and how can a project outcome be evaluated
by taking various measures.
Why project outcomes are evaluated
We evaluate the outcomes of a project in order to determine whether all the specific
targets have been delivered or met. In other words, considering the project as a success or failure
depends on the evaluation of the outcome delivered in the project (Andersson and Chapman,
2017). In addition, the evaluation is also undertaken to analyse the impact and implications of the
project on the organisation and it also provides a chance to identify mistakes that occurred during
the project such that they are not repeated in future projects. Project outcomes are evaluated to
find out the strengths, weakness, issues and sustainability of a particular project. It is essential to
evaluate a project and find out weakness in the project which need to be overcome or fixed
which leads to success of a project. Through evaluation an individual is able to find out the
sustainability of a project, how long a particular project will last and what changes does it require
to make project last for longer period. Evaluation of project also helps organisation to find

various opportunities and make crucial changes, install technologies which will reduce the cost
of a project. Assessment of project also leads to further planning of a project to achieve a
predetermined objective (Romero, 2018).
Evaluation provides a birds eye look of a project, it is also important to find out that
resources are fully utilized effectively and efficiently. There are various benefits of evaluation of
a project such as it enhances the productivity of project, it also benefits in managing the cost and
completing the project within the designed budget. Evaluation also impacts the decision making
by considering the whole situation and perspective of the outcome.
How outcomes of a project is evaluated
There is a systematic process of evaluating the project outcomes that is performed by the
project manager (Papke-Shields and Boyer-Wright, 2017). The evaluation process involves
analysis of the project report document that is recording during the entire project. Furthermore,
feedbacks are gathered from the project team and the performance report is measured against the
criteria that are agreed at the start of the project. Finally, the outcomes are jointly reviewed by all
the stakeholders before closing the project.
Outcomes are evaluated by using 4 measures of evaluation of a project which helps in finding
out the success or failure of a project. To find out the outcomes project manager need to follow
these steps:
 Schedule: To determine the outcome of a project, project manager draft a schedule which
helps in identifying whether project is completed within the time frame. Project manager
generates a monthly report which is submitted to stakeholders and project board
(Meredith and et.al., 2017). It is necessary to update the project schedule and meet the
deadlines to find out the accurate outcome.
 Quality: Under this step project manager will review the quality of work and project.
This step is necessary to determine the outcome of a project because this step identifies
the loopholes in a project and implement change in enhancing it. Quality review includes
whether project has met all the standards predetermined in the plan.
 Cost: Many project manager consider this step as a crucial element to check the how a
project is running financially. Cost evaluation states comparison of actual spending
towards the budgeted cost in determining how strong or weak the project financially. This

process is also used to forecast the budget again and track performance (Kaiser, El Arbi
and Ahlemann, 2015).
 Stakeholders satisfaction: As they invest in the project thus, they expect to know the
outcome of project or work-in-progress. The outcomes are communicated with the
stakeholders and find out how they feel about the project, whether it has achieved the
standards which were set before etc.
Conclusion
It is concluded that evaluating the project is beneficial for in determining the
opportunities, strengths, weakness and sustainability of a project, it helps in changing the process
and meeting the desired outcomes. Evaluation of project outcomes is important in order to ensure
that the project has been successful or failure based on the criteria set at the beginning. To
measure the outcomes of a project project manager need to follow 4 steps such as scheduling,
quality, cost and stakeholders satisfaction.
SPM 3.1: ANALYSE WAYS IN WHICH TO MEASURE PROJECT
PERFORMANCE AGAINST AGREED CRITERIA
Introduction
Analysing the performance of a project is important for determining the success of the outcomes
delivered in the project (Danesh and Ryan, 2018). Analysing the performance of a project is
beneficial to determine whether project has fulfilled agreed criteria. Measuring project
performance is used to enhance the performance and skills of workers and check the satisfaction
of stakeholders. This project will consist of importance of measuring performance and how it can
be measured against the agreed criteria.
What is the importance of criteria when measuring performance
The criteria is defined as the measuring term or the desired outcome which need to be
achieved after completion of a particular project. The criteria need to be accepted by end users,
customers, clients. Project criteria is important in planning, achieving and measuring the
performance of project. In measuring the performance of a project, criteria helps to compare the
actual and expected performance of a project. When measuring the performance of a project, it is
checked if the agreed criteria are met (Kerzner, 2017). The agreed criteria are set during planning
using SMART technique. The importance of using this technique is that once the criteria are set,

they cannot be changed and the project must meet them in order to ensure the success of the
project. Project acceptance criteria includes the expectation, important conditions, requirements
that need to be achieved at the end of the project completion. The importance of criteria in
measuring performance is:
 It is required to measure the actual performance with expected performance to find out
whether project has achieved the set criteria within the given time frame by the client.
Performance measurement will identify the loopholes or drawbacks which need to be
achieved.
 It is used to determine whether the project has met the clients expectation level.
 It is used to identify that the project is completed within the given budget or has cross the
line of budget.
 The project criteria does not lead to miscommunication and misunderstanding (Kerzner,
2019).
How project performance is measured against the criteria
There are number of techniques for measuring project performance against criteria. The
most popular technique is KPI (Key Performance Indicator) in which the overall performance is
judged using various criteria. Again, the satisfaction of the stakeholders is important in
measuring the project performance (Andersson and Chapman, 2017). Finally, the cost and
schedule are also used to measure the project performance as budget and schedule overshoot are
not desired in the project. There are various techniques to measure the performance against the
predetermined criteria which are as follows:
 Return on investment: One of the criteria set up is how much return we will get after
the completion of an investment or project. Comparing the return with the project goal
and cost company is able to identify the performance of project against the criteria setup.
 Financials: A budget is prepared before starting a project and it is expected that project
will be completed within the forecasted budget. A criteria of budget is set and project
manager expects that all the activities need to be performed and completed within the
budget. Actual cost and the projected budget is compared to determine whether the
project has crossed the budget line or completed in the budget (Romero, 2018). If a
project is completed within a projected budget then it is efficient and successful.

 Impact of project: A project is started for in order to reduce the cost, satisfy customers
and improve quality of work. After completion of a project. It is compared with the old
business operation to find out the difference (Papke-Shields and Boyer-Wright, 2017).
Conclusion
It is concluded that while measuring performance of project organisations mainly
consider project criteria such as return on investment, finance and impact of project on business.
Performance of a project can be measured using various techniques but whatever techniques are
used, the main focus of any organisation is the cost and schedule involved in the project as the
overshoot of both can cause disastrous consequences. These elements help in comparing the
actual performance with the expected performance and measure the success of a project.
SPM 3.2: ASSESS THE BENEFITS OF SHARING THE OUTCOMES OF A
PROJECT EVALUATION, WITHIN AN ORGANISATION
Introduction
It is beneficial to share the project outcomes within an organisation so that the success
and failure of project is communicates (Danesh and Ryan, 2018). Sharing of project outcome
means allocation of the success or failure of the project among all the stakeholders rather than
singling out one particular person. Success of work will lead to motivation in the workers
whereas failure will demotivate them but if taken positively there is a chance to make project
successful. This part of project will include what sharing project outcomes involve and what are
the benefits of sharing project evaluation outcomes.
What does sharing project outcomes involve
Sharing project outcomes involve informing all the stakeholders regarding the outcomes
and also reviewing the outcomes by all the stakeholders rather than by just the project manager.
Project outcomes are the success or failure of a project or the output of the input (Kaiser, El Arbi
and Ahlemann, 2015). It is necessary to share project outcomes with the organisation so that
performance is measured. Project outcomes includes various elements such as:
 It includes the result or output after completion of a project. A completion report is made
and it is shared to stakeholders and project manager as well.
 Performance report is also shared with the stakeholders and employees of the
organisation involved in the completion of a task.

 Success and failure of a project is also communicated with the employees of the
organisation.
 Whether a task is completed within the given time frame or not is shared within the
company (Meredith and et.al., 2017).
Benefits of sharing project outcomes
The main benefits of sharing the project outcomes including maintaining transparency
among the project team members and stakeholders and helping in developing future project
decisions. Furthermore, it acts as the basis for learning and evaluating the mistakes for all the
project team members (Andersson and Chapman, 2017). There are various benefits in sharing
outcomes of tasks are as follows:
 Creates transparency: Sharing the outcomes within the company will create
transparency in business as all the important information is transmitted in the firm
accurately, there will be not misunderstanding. Employees or workers are directly related
to the project thus, it is necessary for them to know the outcomes og the project and
prevent mistakes in future. Transparency will motivate employees and they will work
hard and efficiently in achieving goals (Romero, 2018).
 Better decision making: Communicating outcomes will be beneficial for organisation in
better decision making. Sharing information will help in determining the strengths,
weakness, opportunities and threats of a company which will be useful in decision
making. Company will formulate policies to overcome weakness and face challenges.
 Efficient collaboration: Information is shared to every department in the company so
that performance of individual department is seen. Each department work hard and give
their 100 percent in achieving the desired outcomes. Sharing information will make them
more creative and increase the productivity and reduce cost of the project (Kerzner,
2019).
Conclusion
From the study it is concluded that sharing project outcome will increase the performance
and productivity of workers, they better coordinate and achieve business goals. Sharing of
outcomes increases transparency and team bonding that helps in the future ventures. It is
important to share important in the company so that firm is able to face coming challenges and
overcome its weakness, it also motivates employees.

SPM 3.3: CONSIDERING ALL PHASES OF THE PROJECT LIFE CYCLE
REFLECT AND DISCUSS HOW YOU APPROACHED EACH PHASE,
INCLUDING AN ANALYSIS OF THE OUTCOME AND LESSONS
LEARNED
Introduction
Project life cycle is a process which includes 5 steps i.e. initiation to closure of a project.
A project need to go through all the steps to achieve objective (Kerzner, 2017). These steps help
project manager to mange and control the project life. It is a framework of planning, managing,
organising and controlling the project. This part of activity will include various steps of project
life cycle. The project I was involved in included a facility cleaning on site for a construction
project while I was working in ISS World. The project was conducted in a number of specific
phases of project management life cycle.
Initiate
The first step of project life cycle is initiation where the value of project and feasibility is
determined. Project manager evaluated the business document and go through feasibility study to
find out the whether project need to be started or not (Meredith and et.al., 2017). The time frame
and cost of the project is determined and expected to be completed within the set criteria. It is an
important stage where the profitability of a project is projected and decided whether to start a
project or not. I approached this phase by calling a team meeting in which I wanted to discuss
about the project roadmap and feasibility. We collected all our ideas and discussed until we
reached a conclusion. The outcome was a project proposal document and I learnt that team
discussions and meetings are important for planning a particular project.
Plan
Once the project passes all the feasibility reports that means it is approves. The second
phases is planning the project, it states the scope of the project, selection of team members,
formulation of budget, obtaining resources, finance and acquisition of raw materials (Romero,
2018). This stage provides team a direction towards achieving goals and producing quality
results which is beneficial for both stakeholders and company. The purpose of making plan is to
set a criteria which is need to be achieved. Work break down structure is created and roles and
responsibilities is assigned to every team member. I developed a detailed project plan document

including defining the scope, estimating budget and schedule, assessing risks and others. I used
project management tools and techniques to develop the same including use of software like MS
Project that helped me determine accurate results. Moreover, I deployed the stakeholders in the
project to perform various activities like assessing and managing risks, develop quality standards
and others. The output of this phase was a project plan document that defined all the necessary
attributes of the project.
Execute
It is one of the most important phase in the project life cycle which is associated with the
execution of a project plan. Team leader allocates all the resources efficiently and focus on
satisfying customers by delivering project according to their expectations (Papke-Shields and
Boyer-Wright, 2017). This phase is a conversion of a project plan into actions. All the members
work according to the work break down structure and perform their roles and responsibility
towards meeting the desired goal. I have conducted on site facility cleaning process to execute
the plan. I deployed the project team to perform the necessary activities for the project as defined
in the project plan document. The team members needed to perform the activities as defined in
the work breakdown structure of the project and also ensure the budget and schedule specified
are followed. The outcome was the delivery of the project by the project team.
Monitor and control
Monitoring and execution phase generally occur on same time, under this phase the
execution of a project is monitored and controlled constantly to avoid problems. Project manager
monitors all the activities and task performed by the team, they also track the performance, time
and cost of project to identify the variance between the projected and actual output (Danesh and
Ryan, 2018). The main aim of this stage is to move project towards its goal smoothly and
effectively without any disturbance. I constantly monitored the project progress and instructed
the team lead to provide progress report at the end of each day. Accordingly, I reported the
management and also solved the queries of the project team. The outcome was a successful
project in which all the deliverables have been met.
WBS Task Name Duration Start Finish
0 On Site Facility Cleaning Project 44 days Tue 05-
02-19
Fri 05-04-
19
1 Initiate 7 days Tue 05- Wed 13-

02-19 02-19
1.1 Team Meeting 2 days Tue 05-
02-19
Wed 06-
02-19
1.2 Requirement Analysis 2 days Thu 07-
02-19
Fri 08-02-
19
1.3 Feasibility Analysis 3 days Mon 11-
02-19
Wed 13-
02-19
1.4 Develop Project Proposal 0 days Wed 13-
02-19
Wed 13-
02-19
2 Plan 14 days Thu 14-
02-19
Tue 05-
03-19
2.1 Define Project Scope 1 day Thu 14-
02-19
Thu 14-
02-19
2.2 Determine SMART Objectives 2 days Fri 15-02-
19
Mon 18-
02-19
2.3 Estimate Schedule 2 days Tue 19-
02-19
Wed 20-
02-19
2.4 Estimate Budget 2 days Thu 21-
02-19
Fri 22-02-
19
2.5 Risk Assessment and Mitigation 3 days Mon 25-
02-19
Wed 27-
02-19
2.6 Quality Management Plan 4 days Thu 28-
02-19
Tue 05-
03-19
2.7 Develop Project Plan Document 0 days Tue 05-
03-19
Tue 05-
03-19
3 Execute 15 days Wed 06-
03-19
Tue 26-
03-19
3.1 Conduct On Site Facility Cleaning Process 15 days Wed 06-
03-19
Tue 26-
03-19
3.2 Project Handover 0 days Tue 26- Tue 26-

03-19 03-19
4 Monitor and Control 15 days Wed 06-
03-19
Tue 26-
03-19
4.1 Monitor Project Progress 15 days Wed 06-
03-19
Tue 26-
03-19
4.2 Receive Project Report 0 days Tue 26-
03-19
Tue 26-
03-19
5 Close 8 days Wed 27-
03-19
Fri 05-04-
19
5.1 Review the Entire Project 5 days Wed 27-
03-19
Tue 02-
04-19
5.2 Measure Project Performance 2 days Wed 03-
04-19
Thu 04-
04-19
5.3 Sign Off 1 day Fri 05-04-
19
Fri 05-04-
19
5.4 Project Closing 0 days Fri 05-04-
19
Fri 05-04-
19
Closure
It is also most important stage in the whole project life cycle, here the outcome or success
or failure of the project is determined. Team complete the project and deliver to the client,
customer or stakeholders
. Project manager communicates the completion of the project with the clients and take their
reviews or feedback in determining the success or failure of a project. Project need to be
completed within the time period set in the second stage I.e. planning phase. I have reviewed the
entire project and evaluate the actual performance with the projected one and found out that I
have completed the task on time. I also communicated the project with my seniors and signed off
from it. The outcome of the project was successful and I learned that all the steps are very
essential in completing the project smoothly on time.

Conclusion
From the above discussion it is concluded that project life cycles plays an important role
in completing the project on time and smoothly. It is beneficial to check the feasibility of a
project before starting it. Planning is very important for a project because there is a scarcity of
resources thus, it need to be utilized fully.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it is concluded that it is essential to evaluate the project outcomes
to measure the performance of a project, it is also identified that there various ways through
which project can be evaluated such as taking feedbacks from team members and measuring
actual performance or outcomes with expected performance. Further it is also determined that
there are various benefits of sharing the project outcomes within the organisation such as it
creates transparency in the company, it leads to better decision making, efficient collaboration
etc. Project life cycle is an important part in project management where all the 5 steps are used to
determine the success of a project.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Andersson, T. and Chapman, R., 2017. Project strategy for product innovation: the strategic
project management framework. International Journal of Project Organisation and
Management. 9(4). pp.328-349.
Danesh, D. and Ryan, M. J., 2018. An innovative strategic project and portfolio management
decision-making tool. In Systems Evaluation Test and Evaluation Conference 2018:
Unlocking the Future Through Systems Engineering: SETE 2018 (p. 96). Engineers
Australia.
Kaiser, M. G., El Arbi, F. and Ahlemann, F., 2015. Successful project portfolio management
beyond project selection techniques: Understanding the role of structural alignment.
International Journal of Project Management. 33(1). pp.126-139.
Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Kerzner, H., 2019. Using the project management maturity model: strategic planning for project
management. Wiley.
Meredith, J. R. And et.al., 2017. Project management: a managerial approach. John Wiley &
Sons.
Papke-Shields, K. E. and Boyer-Wright, K. M., 2017. Strategic planning characteristics applied
to project management. International Journal of Project Management. 35(2). pp.169-179.
Romero, E. F. F., 2018. Strategic project management.