Project Management: Workflow

In the initial iteration of the Inception Phase, the Project Management discipline begins in Conceive New Project, during which the initial Vision, Business Case and Risk List artifacts are created and reviewed. The objective is to obtain enough funding to proceed with a serious scoping and planning exercise.

An embryonic Software Development Plan is created, and the project bootstrapped into life with the initial Iteration Plan. With this initial authorization, work can continue on the Vision, Risk List and Business Case in Evaluate Project Scope and Risk, to give a firm foundation for fleshing out the Software Development Plan in Plan Project.

At the conclusion of Plan Project, enough should be known about the risks and possible business returns of the project, to allow an informed decision to be made to commit funds for the rest of the Inception Phase, or to abandon the project. Next, the initial Iteration Plan is refined to control the remainder of the initial iteration in inception, in an invocation of Plan for Next Iteration (the workflow detail used here is the same as will be used for planning subsequent iterations - hence the somewhat odd name in this context). In Plan for Next Iteration, the Project Manager and Software Architect decide which requirements are to be explored, refined or realized. In early iterations, the emphasis is on the discovery and refinement of requirements; in later iterations, on the construction of software to realize those requirements.

At this point, the Project Management discipline merges into a common sequence for all subsequent iterations.

The iteration plan is executed in Manage Iteration, which is concluded by an iteration assessment and review, to determine if the objectives for the iteration have been achieved. The Iteration Acceptance Review may determine that the project should be terminated, if the iteration has significantly missed its objectives, and it is judged that the project cannot recover during subsequent iterations.

Optionally, at about the mid-point of the iteration, an Iteration Evaluation Criteria Review may be held, to review the iteration Test Plan, which by this stage should be well-defined. This optional review is usually held only for lengthy (six months and longer) iterations. It gives project management and other stakeholders the opportunity to make mid-course corrections.

In parallel with Manage Iteration, the routine daily, weekly and monthly tasks of the project management are performed in Monitor & Control Project, in which the status of the project is monitored and problems and issues are handled as they arise.

Following the iteration assessment and acceptance review, and before planning the next iteration, the Vision, Risk List and Business Case are revisited in Evaluate Project Scope and Risk, with the idea that expectations may need to be reset based on the experience of the previous iteration.

When the final iteration of a phase completes, a major milestone review is held as part of Close-Out Phase and planning is done for the next phase, assuming the project is to continue. At the conclusion of the project, a Project Acceptance Review is held as part of Close-Out Project and the project terminates, unless the review determines that the delivered product is not acceptable, in which case a further iteration is scheduled.

Detailed planning, in Plan for Next Iteration, then leads into the next iteration. In parallel, changes to the Software Development Plan are made at this time, in Plan Project, capturing lessons learned, and updating the overall Project Plan (in the Software Development Plan) for later iterations.