Project lifecycle
A path that takes your project from the beginning to the end is called the project lifecycle. It has typical phases, including project initiation, execution, testing, and closure.
Initiation
Any project starts with the initiation phase intended to arrange all the prerequisites for project delivery. Project delivery requires a defined project scope, plan, and deliverables.
During the first phase of the project, scoping and planning take place. Depending on the project scale and objectives, planning can be an independent project phase that starts right after the initiation. For most of the WorkFusion projects, scoping and planning are conducted in parallel, and they also have interrelated deliverables, so we'll consider them together within the initiation phase.
For project scoping requirements, elicitation is needed. Requirements should come through all the stages: elicitation, analysis, specification, and validation with a client. After that, correct and unambiguous requirements are collected, and the team can estimate the project and propose a solution.
To identify exact tasks to deliver the solution and timelines for it, perform project planning. The scope is broken down into tasks, and tasks are grouped into sprints. Sprints should be planned so that MVP shipments and DEMO sessions are delivered to the client on a regular basis.
The team's performance during the initiation phase is crucial for the project's success. Gaps in requirements, inconsistent planning, or wrong estimations can result in project delay or cancellation. Most business analysis activities are carried out during this phase, and the Data Analyst plays a crucial role in that process.
Delivery
The delivery phase is where your plan designed during the initiation phase turns into action. If the process is documented correctly, project execution will be much easier. The team is responsible for presenting features and deliverables defined during project scoping. The Delivery Manager keeps track of timelines and if the work is done according to the original plan. Changes in the plan or project scope should be recorded and considered within the change management procedure.
The delivery phase implies active solution development, including coding, data analysis, machine learning, and creating of the user interface and custom dashboards. Team members start working in parallel to build project deliverables. The Data Analyst's work during the project's delivery phase is covered in the Data Analysis for Machine Learning course. Finalized deliverables are presented to the client in demo sessions. Once complete, all the solution parts are integrated and ready for testing.
UAT and testing
The testing phase is needed to prove that the actual outcome of a Business Process corresponds to the expected results of the final solution, and to identify and fix any possible errors and test software behavior in an exception case when some bad data comes or a user makes unexpected actions.
During the testing phase, all project deliverables are reviewed for quality and measured against the acceptance criteria.
Testing can include internal testing and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) by a client. The Data Analyst needs to prepare test cases to test all the functionality developed. Then, the Data Analyst performs manual, functional, and end-to-end tests to validate input and output toward expected results. Additionally, you can test models on unseen data prepared by a client. Also, capture and analyze statistics and identify and fix bugs.
The client's Ops team performs UAT testing and confirms that the system operates according to the business rules, functional requirements, and acceptance criteria.
The Data Analyst should analyze defects reported while UAT, validate them against the initial requirements, and categorize as bugs or change requests (CRs). All bugs that are errors and process defects should be fixed before the final release. All CRs should be captured, documented, and prioritized. The Delivery Manager should align separately with a client when and by what resources to deliver requested CRs.
Go-live
When the UAT phase is completed with a client sign-off to migrate the process to production, the go-live phase of the project starts. During the stage, the team deploys the processes to a production environment, transfers knowledge to the support team and the client's IT department, and shares the corresponding documentation that is prepared in advance before deployment.
After the release, according to the agreement with the client, the team can monitor the processes' behavior in production for a short period, usually from one to two weeks. After a customer accepts the final solution, the project is ready for closure.
| Project phase | Initiation | Delivery | Testing and UAT | Go-live |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goal | Identify project scope, plan, deliverables, and acceptance criteria. | Create project deliverables. | Review the solution for functioning and completeness against the acceptance criteria. | Deploy Business Processes to the production environment. |
| Input | Initial requirements and documentation, client communication, documents for ML, SOW, other relevant documents. | Project plan, Solution Design. |
| Business Processes tested and signed off by a client with bugs fixed. |
| Output |
| Functioning and integrated business process. |
| Full production release of the solution |
| DA responsibilities |
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| Analyze bugs, CRs, and production issues reported for the root course and against initial requirements. |