Executive's Guide to Project Management: Organizational Processes and Practices for Supporting Complex Projects

How to Choose the Best Fit Project Management Life Cycle

The five PMLC Models bear a closer look and comparison. If you have been counting, you expected to see six PMLC Models. Since the xPM PMLC and MPx PMLC Models are identical there are really only five distinct PMLC Models. Figure 2.7 gives us that view.

Figure 2.7 The Five PMLC Models

The project manager, in collaboration with the client, must choose the specific PMLC Model they will use to manage the project. You need not concern yourself with their choice except to have a perspective on the process they should follow. Figure 2.8 summarizes what we have discussed thus far.

Figure 2.8 The Process of Choosing a PMLC Model and Best Fit Project Approach

The approval of the Project Overview Statement (POS) is a statement that indicates the project merits further investigation in the form of gathering requirements. The resulting analysis of the requirements for completeness and clarity, is input to the process of determining the project type, the appropriate PMLC Model, and choice of best fit project approach.

For the SMT, having incomplete requirements is quite unsettling. Unless you want your project teams to take guesses about what is missing and what will be delivered you will have to abandon the traditional project management ...