Good day all
Today, I just want to share a few images that might help us understand that IT (like Software Development, etc.) and Construction Projects is often misleading and that when we use these terms, we are most likely confusing “project” with “phase”.
Is this a construction project or a facility project?
Unless you are a construction contractor, than construction is only a stage in the capital project life cycle (facilities).
Is this an IT project or a business project?
Almost identical images.
What does this mean?
In both cases, one can notice that IT, Software, Engineering, Construction projects; from the project owner perspective DO NOT EXIST and using these terms is misleading. Projects must follow a certain End-to-End Project Life Cycle from Idea to Closure and even beyond closure. The technical work, whether it is software or construction, comes quite later in the project life cycle.
How about Agile Methods or Development Life Cycles?
Therefore, when someone says we use Agile Project Management or Agile Methods to manage projects (whether technology, software or construction), technically these statements are NOT correct. The correct statements would be that: these practitioners are using SOME agile concepts or principles in a traditional project life cycle model. In other words, Agile, Scrum, etc. ARE NOT Project Management Methodologies – they are approaches, methods for the development stage of a business project.
Here is another image that shows how we integrate Agile into a traditional project life cycle.
What do you think?