ABSTRACT
Like projects, our own lives are only temporary. Our physical strength, for instance, changes. The rate at which we spend money changes throughout the life of a project. Total Number of People Engaged on a Project' follows the same shape as the trend of Rate of Expenditure'. The cumulative expenditure features very heavily in planning and control of projects, for example, within the Earned Value Management technique. Unsurprisingly, it is the inverse of, and wholly influenced by, the cost of implementing change'. The divisions of work between the Decision Gates are known as phases' and the series of phases and Decision Gates are known, collectively, as the project's lifecycle'. A well-conceived lifecycle is best thought of as a strategic plan. Tactical control' is the day-to-day control of work within the individual phases, exercised by the project manager. There is some latitude in the precise design of a project lifecycle model and different practitioners choose to slice and dice' projects differently.
