Project Management Framework

Project management framework is established for correct prioritization and co-ordination of all projects. This framework helps in defining the scope and boundaries of projects. It also helps in defining project methodology to be implemented and applied to each project undertaken.

A standard project should follow the below phases to ensure successful implementation.

1.Feasibility & Analysis

In this phase, the business sponsors, the stakeholders and project manager must be able to answer these core questions

• Is the project really required?

• How feasible will it be to the business?

• What will be the high level budget for the project?

• How beneficial will it be to the business?

In order to find answers to these questions, the business case will be created i.e. project abstract which will help in understanding the reasoning behind the project undertaken and answering the above questions.

2.Scope and Planning

Planning is the most important phase in the project lifecycle. Here, the project plan, project team, scope of the project, constraints and dependencies, timelines and deliverables for the project will be decided and documented within the project charter and finalized by the business sponsors.

3.Requirement Analysis and Design

During this phase, high level design and detailed level design documents will be prepared based on the requirements captured. DLD includes scope of the project, review of user requirements, low level design of the module, technology to be used etc. Along with the designs, the test plans for unit and integration testing will also be prepared during this phase.

4.Development and Infrastructure

In this phase, the application will be built and code review will be conducted to ensure its alignment with the requirements. Unit and Integration testing will be undertaken in this phase and corresponding test reports will be provided for review. Test environment will be set up and testing teams will be identified for each testing type to continue work in the testing phase.

5.Testing

Each step of testing has a different purpose. Different phases of testing help us to assess various parts of the module, and work towards testing the entire system as a whole. Below are different/important phases of testing.

6.Training and Go-Live preparation

The objective of this phase is to complete the final preparation (including reviewing all the required plans and end user training) to finalize the willingness to go live. Here, training will be provided to the users (IT and Business) as well as to the support team and feedback will be obtained from them in the end of the session. Also, the technical infrastructure will be validated and critical open issues will be resolved during this phase. On obtaining the approvals from the concerned stakeholders and business sponsors, the system will be prepared to Go-Live.

7.Go Live

Success of Go-live depends upon the preparation done in the previous phase. Here, all the plans will be updated and the concerned resources will be made aware of their roles and responsibilities.  In addition to this, mitigation plan will also be prepared for the risks and impacts identified during this phase. Ensure that the concerned teams involved do not deviate from the plan in the last moment.

8.Project Closure

This is the last phase in the project life cycle. Here, the project team will formally close the project and submit the final post implementation review to the business sponsors. It involves handing over the final deliverables to the business, submitting the final documentation to the customer, releasing resources and informing stakeholders of the closure of the project. It also involves documenting the lessons learnt and user feedbacks.

The point of all this is: how you begin and end your project will often determine the success or failure of your project and project management framework is more than just another way of doing business i.e. a particular roadway that is already documented.

Nisha Bhatt is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, She actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. She can be contacted at:nisha.bhatt@spluspl.com