J WalkerProject Manager| Corvesta, IncLynchburg, Va, United States
In my experience, when you take a look at the project from the mile high viewpoint, there could be natural exchanges, hand-off points, or finished deliverables that can be transformed into Phases.. Agreement on those phases would be necessary (Sponsor). Saving Changes...
Satish SeetharamLooking out for Opportunities in Infrastructure| SearchingBangalore, Karnataka, India
I think that the PM should propose the decision of breaking the project into phases during the initiation stage. Saving Changes...
Aejaz ShaikhPM I| Alyx Technologies India Pvt LtdPune, Maharshatra, India
PM should decide in conjunction with PMO Saving Changes...
Anonymous
All
Do you realize that when you say PM decide that means there is not standard or organizational project management system? In organization that has proper systems and perform similar projects should have a standard project life cycle with clear split on phases and phase exits (or stages and stage gates).
The concept of phasing and project life cycle is not something should be taken lightly since at the gates / phase exits - there must be clear guidelines on passing through those approval points and including management resources (more than a sponsor).
Unfortunately, the PMBOK Guide is weak in this area but they still mention this in the earlier chapters. So in principle, the concept is in the guide although it is not a process or process groups; it is higher level. Saving Changes...
It may not need to decide that how much Phases procurement of the organization should have to be awarded to a specific vendor.
As per requirement, Operation In-charge contact with procurement accordingly to award next Phase to vendor. Moreover customer can postpone next phase due to bad performance in first phase by vendor or can change the vendor. Saving Changes...
If the PMO is the supportive type or there is not a PMO or strict company policies on it, the PM can decide, otherwise, the PMO decides, especially with a directive type PMO. Saving Changes...
Desiree ProudfitProject Manager| RetiredSummerville, Sc, United States
I will answer yes to number 1 and 2 but cannot answer number 3 but I will research it. The PM should be the one to decide based on the project itself and it could depend on the organizational system also. For example, in my organization we are preparing to launch a new product. Because we work mainly with functional departments, we break down some of our projects into phases and sub-phases. Usually the Training Dept., Marketing Dept., and IT have to be broke down into phases because they will have their own designing, setup, testing, launching phase. Saving Changes...
1. I believe that the project manager is in the best position to assess this and to make a recommendation to the sponsor and team. I have chosen to group a project into phases:
* by location for projects that span multiple geographic region
* based on lower risk deliverables first, to PoC, or mitigate risk for the rest of delivery
* based on external dependencies over which I have less control, such as procurement ETAs. If I can progress a grouping of work and hit a milestone while I await on procurement for another grouping of work, I'll sometimes do so
* Based on season. My customers have certain times of the year where to put new complex technology into production adds more risk than other times. In these cases I group by season.
2. I've seen organizations provide frameworks with variations on the PMBOK Processes labelled as 'Stages', but not a standard for phases. This makes sense as I believe any decisions on stages should suit the uniqueness of a given project.
3. I find this topic is very well addressed in section 2.4.2 of the Fifth Edition. An excerpt from this section: "There is no single ideal structure that will apply to all projects". I agree! :) Saving Changes...
Project Phases comes from project life cycle or we can say phases makes project life cycle, Now the question may come is how and who decide project life cycle.
Here is how PMBOK Defines Life Cycle
Project Life Cycle : A project life cycle is the series of phases that a project passes through from its initiation to its closure.
This is what PMBOK Says about Phases
The phase structure allows the project to be segmented into logical subsets for ease of management, planning,and control. The number of phases, the need for phases, and the degree of control applied depend on the size, complexity, and potential impact of the project.
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In most of the organizations OPA has guideline when to select which life cycle and phases, and it is dependent on type of project , customer , size , complexity etc and project manager usually play role in identifying all these factors and identifying the appropriate life cycle and project phases.
Seema SonkiyaHead Business Analysis Practices, PMI-PBA trainer| iZenBridge Consultancy Private LimitedJaipur, Rajasthan, India
Mounir, PMBOK has not defined the specific phases. It describes the phase-to-phase relationship (Sequential and overlapping relationships). Based on chosen relationship, project life cycle is formed.
