Question

What is project management? Briefly describe each of the five process groups.

Additionally, what is the SDLC? Describe, compare and contrast the predictive (traditional waterfall) model and the adaptive (agile) model.

Answer 1

1. Project management is the practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria at the specified time.The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals within the given constraints.

The five project management process groups include the initiating process, planning process, executing process, monitoring and controlling process, and closing process. The initiating process includes defining and authorizing a project or project phase. It takes place during each phase of a project. The planning process includes devising and maintaining a workable scheme to ensure that the project addresses the organization’s needs. Projects include several plans, such as the scope management plan, schedule management plan, cost management plan, and procurement management plan. The executing process includes coordinating people and other resources to carry out the various plans and create the products, services, or results of the project or phase. Monitoring and controlling processes includes regularly measuring and monitoring progress to ensure that the project team meets the project objectives. The project manager and staff monitor and measure progress against the plans and take corrective action when necessary. The last process, the closing process, includes formalizing acceptance of the project or project phase and ending it efficiently. Administrative activities are often involved in this process group.

2. A systems development life cycle (SDLC) is a framework for describing the phases of developing information systems. The predictive life cycle means that the scope of the project can be articulated clearly and the schedule and cost can be predicted accurately. The project team spends a large portion of the project attempting to clarify the requirements of the entire system and then producing a design. The adaptive model assumes that software requirements cannot be clearly expressed early in the life cycle, so software is developed using a less structured, flexible approach. Software developers focus on the rapid creation of working code and an evolution of the entire software system.