Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme, Sixth Edition

Incremental Project Management Life Cycle

The Incremental PMLC model is the second type of TPM approach and was originally posed as a way to get products and services to market sooner but with what has been labeled “crippled solutions.” That is a solution that is not fully functional. It is designed to enable your client to gain a foothold in a new market or enhance their leverage in an existing market.

Figure 10-4 is a graphical description of the Incremental PMLC model that shows the dependent increments. The increments follow sequentially, not concurrently.

Figure 10-4: The Incremental PMLC model

Note that the sequence formed by the Launching, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing Process Groups is repeated n times. Each repetition integrates another part of the solution until the nth repetition, when the final part of the solution is integrated and the project moves to the Closing Process Group.

Definition

An Incremental PMLC model consists of a number of dependent increments that are completed in a prescribed sequence. Each increment includes a Launching, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing Process Group for the functions and features in that increment only. Each increment integrates additional parts of the solution until the final increment, where the remaining parts of the solution are integrated.

Characteristics

To be used effectively the Incremental PMLC model requires ...