This chapter provides a sketch of the traditional method of projection direction. The model that is discussed here forms the basis for all methods of project direction. Later chapters go into more depth regarding a model that is peculiarly advisable for Information technology-related projects.

Dividing a project into phases makes it possible to atomic number 82 it in the best possible direction. Through this organisation into phases, the total work load of a project is divided into smaller components, thus making it easier to monitor. The following paragraphs depict a phasing model that has been useful in practise. Information technology includes 6 phases:

  1. Initiation phase
  2. Definition phase
  3. Design phase
  4. Development phase
  5. Implementation phase
  6. Follow-upwards stage

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Effigy 1: Project direction in six phases, with the cardinal theme of each phase

The initiation phase is the commencement of the projection. In this phase, the idea for the project is explored and elaborated. The goal of this phase is to examine the feasibility of the project. In addition, decisions are fabricated concerning who is to carry out the project, which party (or parties) will be involved and whether the project has an adequate base of back up among those who are involved.

In this phase, the current or prospective project leader writes a proposal, which contains a clarification of the to a higher place-mentioned matters. Examples of this type of project proposal include business plans and grant applications. The prospective sponsors of the project evaluate the proposal and, upon approving, provide the necessary financing. The projection officially begins at the time of approval.

Questions to be answered in the initiation phase include the post-obit:

  • Why this project?
  • Is it feasible?
  • Who are possible partners in this projection?
  • What should the results be?
  • What are the boundaries of this project (what is outside the scope of the project)?

The ability to say no is an important quality in a project leader. Projects tend to expand once people have become excited about them. The underlying thought is, While were at information technology, we might likewise Projects to which people keep calculation objectives and projects that keep expanding are nearly certain to go off schedule, and they are unlikely to attain their original goals.

In the initiation phase, the project partners enter a (temporary) human relationship with each other. To prevent the development of false expectations concerning the results of the projection, it makes sense to explicitly agree on the type of project that is being started:

  • a enquiry and development project;
  • a project that volition deliver a prototype or 'proof of concept';
  • a projection that will deliver a working production.

The choice for a particular type of projection largely determines its results. For example, a inquiry and evolution project delivers a report that examines the technological feasibility of an awarding. A project in which a prototype is adult delivers all of the functionalities of an application, merely they need not be suitable for use in a particular context (e.thou. by hundreds of users). A project that delivers a working product must also consider matters of maintenance, instructions and the operational management of the application.

Many misunderstandings and conflicts ascend because the parties that are involved in a project are not clear on these matters. Customers may expect a working product, while the members of the project squad think they are developing a paradigm. A sponsor may think that the projection volition produce a working slice of software, while the members of the project team must first examine whether the thought itself is technically viable.

After the project programme (which was developed in the initiation stage) has been approved, the project enters the second phase: the definition phase. In this phase, the requirements that are associated with a project event are specified as conspicuously equally possible. This involves identifying the expectations that all of the involved parties accept with regard to the project issue. How many files are to be archived? Should the metadata arrange to the Data Documentation Initiative format, or will the Dublin Core (DC) format suffice? May files be deposited in their original format, or volition only those that arrange to the Preferred Standards exist accepted? Must the depositor of a dataset ensure that information technology has been candy adequately in the archive, or is this the responsibility of the archivist? Which guarantees volition be made on the results of the project? The list of questions goes on and on.

Figure 2: Expectations of a project (Illustration: Rachèl Harmsen)

It is of import to identify the requirements as early in the process as possible. Wijnen (2004) distinguishes several categories of project requirements that tin serve as a memory assistance:

  • Preconditions
  • Functional requirements
  • Operational requirements
  • Design limitations

Preconditions grade the context inside which the project must exist conducted. Examples include legislation, working-condition regulations and approval requirements. These requirements cannot be influenced from inside the projection. Functional requirements are requirements that take to do with the quality of the project effect (e.grand. how energy-efficient must an automobile be or how many rooms must a new edifice have?). Operational requirements involve the use of the project result. For example, after a software project has been realised, the number of malfunctions that occur must exist reduced past ninety per cent. Finally, design limitations are requirements that involve the actual realisation of the projection. For case, the project cannot involve the use of toxic materials or international partners for whom information technology is unclear whether they use child labour.

During the definition stage of a project that involved developing a web application for a consortium of large organisations, no agreements were made concerning the browser that would be supported by the awarding. The consortium assumed that it would exist Microsoft Explorer, because it was the browser that everyone used. The programmers created the application in Firefox, because they worked with the browser themselves and because information technology had a number of functions that were peculiarly useful during the evolution. Because near of the websites that are fabricated for Firefox as well look skilful in Explorer, the difference was initially not noticeable. Near the end of the project, however, the customer began to mutter that the website didn't look good. The programmers, who had been opening the site in Firefox, did non empathise the complaint.

When the problem of the ii browsers became clear, the programmers reacted defensively, Tin can't they just install Firefox? Afterward all, it is complimentary. The organisations, however, were bound to the bureaucratic-minded organization administrators who, for some perhaps justified reason, refused to install Firefox in improver to Explorer. Even if they had wanted to install it, it would accept involved a lengthy procedure, and there would have been actress costs for the time that the system administrators would have to spend on the task. It was ultimately decided that the awarding would have to be made suitable for Explorer. That involved considerable extra work, whereby the projection ran fifty-fifty more behind schedule than it already had, and information technology was necessary to negotiate the extra costs. It was later discovered that the various organisations were working with different versions of Microsoft Explorer.

It is very important that all parties that are involved in the project are able to collaborate during the definition phase, particularly the end users who will be using the project result. The fact that end users are oftentimes not the ones that order the projection peradventure explains why they are often ignored. The client, who pays for the project, is indeed invited to collaborate on the requirements during the definition phase. Nonetheless, the project outcome benefits when its hereafter users are also invited. Equally a point of deviation, information technology is helpful to brand a addiction of organising meetings with all concerned parties during the definition stage of a project.

During the development of an educational video game, the users (young people) were involved in the project merely at a later stage. When the game was nearly completed, a group of immature people was asked to exam the game. Their initial assessments appeared balmy and friendly. When pressed, nevertheless, they admitted that they had actually found the game extremely boring and that they would certainly not play it themselves. Had these young people been involved in the project earlier, the game would probably accept been a success. As information technology stands, the game remains nearly unused on an Internet website.

The effect of the definition phase is a list of requirements from the various parties who are involved in the project. Every requirement obviously has a reverse side. The more elaborate the project becomes, the more fourth dimension and money information technology volition price. In addition, some requirements may conflict with others. New copy machines are supposed to have less environmental impact; they must also encounter requirements for fire safe. The fire-safety regulations require the use of flame-retardant materials, which are less environmentally friendly. As this illustration shows, some requirements must be negotiated.

Ultimately, a list of definitive requirements is developed and presented for the approving of the projects decision-makers. In one case the list has been canonical, the design phase can begin. At the close of the definition stage, most of the agreements between the client and the project team have been established. The list of requirements specifies the guidelines that the project must attach to. The project team is evaluated according to this listing. Afterward the definition stage, therefore, the customer can add together no new requirements.

A part of a new exhibit in a museum was comprised of a computer installation, the cosmos of which had been projection-based. Because at that place had been no definition phase in the project, no clear agreements between the museum and those responsible for building the installation had been made. When the computer for the installation broke down halfway through the exhibit, the museum assumed that it would exist covered by the projects guarantee. The project squad had a different opinion. Negotiations between the directors were necessary in order to arrive at an appropriate solution.

The list of requirements that is developed in the definition phase can be used to make design choices. In the design phase, one or more designs are developed, with which the project result tin apparently be achieved. Depending on the subject of the project, the products of the design stage tin include dioramas, sketches, flow charts, site trees, HTML screen designs, prototypes, photograph impressions and UML schemas. The project supervisors use these designs to choose the definitive pattern that volition be produced in the project. This is followed by the evolution phase. As in the definition phase, in one case the design has been chosen, it cannot be changed in a later on phase of the project.

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Figure 3: Instance: Global design for the DANS Architecture Archive

In a young, very informal company, the design department was run by an artist. The term design department was not accurate in this case; it was more a group of designers who were working together. In improver, everyone was much too busy, including the head of the department.

Ane project involved producing a number of designs, which were quite of import to the success of the projection. A young designer on the project team created the designs. Although the head of the design department had ultimate responsibleness for the designs, he never attended the meetings of the project team when the designs were to be discussed. The project leader e'er invited him, and sent him e-mails containing his young colleagues sketches, but the e-mails remained unanswered. The project leader and the young designer erroneously assumed that the department caput had approved the designs. The implementation stage began. When the projection was virtually finished, the event was presented to the section caput, who became furious and demanded that it be completely redone. The budget, however, was almost exhausted.

During the development phase, everything that will be needed to implement the project is arranged. Potential suppliers or subcontractors are brought in, a schedule is made, materials and tools are ordered, instructions are given to the personnel and and then along. The development stage is complete when implementation is set up to kickoff. All matters must exist articulate for the parties that will conduct out the implementation.

In some projects, specially smaller ones, a formal development phase is probably not necessary. The of import point is that it must exist clear what must be done in the implementation phase, by whom and when.

The projection takes shape during the implementation phase. This phase involves the construction of the actual project consequence. Programmers are occupied with encoding, designers are involved in developing graphic material, contractors are building, the actual reorganisation takes place. It is during this phase that the project becomes visible to outsiders, to whom it may appear that the project has just begun. The implementation phase is the doing phase, and it is important to maintain the momentum.

In one project, it had escaped the projection teams attending that one of the most important team members was expecting to get a father at any moment and would thereafter exist completely unavailable for about a calendar month. When the time came, an external specialist was brought in to take over his work, in lodge to keep the team from grinding to a halt. Although the team was able to proceed, the external expertise put a considerable paring in the budget.

At the end of the implementation phase, the result is evaluated according to the list of requirements that was created in the definition phase. It is also evaluated according to the designs. For example, tests may be conducted to decide whether the web application does indeed back up Explorer five and Firefox 1.0 and higher. It may be determined whether the trim on the building has been made according to the agreement, or whether the materials that were used were indeed those that had been specified in the definition stage. This phase is complete when all of the requirements accept been met and when the result corresponds to the design.

Those who are involved in a project should keep in listen that information technology is inappreciably always possible to accomplish a projection issue that precisely meets all of the requirements that were originally specified in the definition phase. Unexpected events or advancing insight sometimes require a project team to deviate from the original listing of requirements or other blueprint documents during the implementation of the project. This is a potential source of disharmonize, peculiarly if an external client has ordered the projection result. In such cases, the customer can entreatment to the agreements that were made during the definition phase.

As a dominion, the requirements cannot be inverse after the end of the definition stage. This too applies to designs: the blueprint may not be inverse after the design phase has been completed. Should this however be necessary (which does sometimes occur), the project leader should ensure that the changes are discussed with those involved (especially the decision-makers or customers) as soon as possible. It is as well important that the changes that have been chosen are well documented, in social club to forbid subsequently misunderstandings. More than information well-nigh the documentation of the projection follows later in this handbook.

Although information technology is extremely of import, the follow-up phase is oftentimes neglected. During this stage, everything is arranged that is necessary to bring the project to a successful completion. Examples of activities in the follow-up phase include writing handbooks, providing instruction and grooming for users, setting up a aid desk, maintaining the upshot, evaluating the project itself, writing the project report, holding a party to celebrate the result that has been accomplished, transferring to the directors and dismantling the project team.

The key question in the follow-upwards stage concerns when and where the project ends. Project leaders oftentimes joke among themselves that the starting time ninety per cent of a project proceeds chop-chop and that the final 10 per cent can take years. The boundaries of the project should be considered in the commencement of a project, so that the project can be closed in the follow-upward stage, in one case it has reached these boundaries.

It is sometimes unclear for those concerned whether the project result is to be a prototype or a working production. This is specially common in innovative projects in which the issue is not sure. Customers may expect to receive a product, while the project team assumes that it is building a epitome. Such situations are especially likely to manifest themselves in the follow-up stage. Consider the instance of a software project to exam a very new concept.

There was some feet concerning whether any results would be produced at all. The project eventually produced good results. The team delivered a slice of software that worked well, at least within the testing context. The customer, who did non know much about IT, thought that he had received a working product. Afterward all, information technology had worked on his office computer. The software did indeed work, only when information technology was installed on the computers of fifty employees, the prototype began to have issues, and it was sometimes instable.

Although the programmers would have been able to repair the software, they had no fourth dimension, as they were already involved in the side by side projection. Furthermore, they had no interest in patching up something that they considered a trial piece. Several months later, when Microsoft released its Service Pack 2 for Windows, the software completely stopped performance. The customer was angry that the production once once more did not work. Considering the customer was important, the project leader tried to persuade the programmers to make a few repairs. The programmers were resistant, even so, as repairing the bugs would cause too much disruption in their new project. Furthermore, they perceived the software as a prototype. Making it suitable for large-scale use would require changing the unabridged architectural structure. They wondered if the stream of complaints from the customer would ever finish.

The motto, Think before you deed is at the heart of the six-stage model. Each phase has its own piece of work bundle. Each piece of work package has its own aspects that should exist the focus of concentration. It is therefore unnecessary to go along discussing what is to exist made during the implementation phase. If all has gone well, this was already determined in the definition phase and the design phase. For a more detailed description of the half dozen-phase model and the task packets for each phase, encounter Wijnen (2004) and Kor (2002).