Task: Lifecycle Milestone Review

This task describes how to review the state of the project at the end of a phase and determine whether the project should proceed to the next phase.

Disciplines: Project Management

Relationships

Roles

Primary Performer:

Management Reviewer

Additional Performers:

Inputs

Mandatory:

Optional:

Outputs

Review Record

Main Description

A Lifecycle Milestone Review is held at the conclusion of each phase to determine, following the completion of the final iteration of the phase, whether the project should be allowed to proceed to the next phase. It marks a point at which management and technical expectations should be resynchronized, but the issues to be considered should relate mainly to the management of the project - major technical issues should have been resolved with the final iteration (of the phase), and in the subsequent Task: Prepare for Phase Close-Out.

A review is held at each of the major milestones, in particular at:

Lifecycle Objectives Milestone. This occurs at the end of the Inception Phase.
Lifecycle Architecture This occurs at the end of the Elaboration Phase
Initial Operational Capability Milestone This occurs at the end of the Construction Phase. Reference: Construction Phase
Product Release Milestone This occurs at the end of the Transition Phase. Reference: Transition Phase

Issues for Consideration

The issues to be considered are, by default, those canvassed in the Status Assessment, e.g.:

has the project made adequate progress (in delivering capability, quality and planned work products) across the phase?
is the project's risk profile acceptable to enter the next phase?
is the project's scope well-understood and acceptable to all stakeholders?
are the project's baselines in a known state according to configuration audits?
has the project performed acceptable on cost and schedule?

The Business Case, which was previously updated to take account of any changes to scope and risk, may also be examined, to revalidate its assumptions and conclusions, in the light of any changes in the business or overall systems context for the project.

Financial considerations will be particularly important if the phase end also marks the end of a contract.

Steps

Schedule Lifecycle Milestone Review Meeting

The Lifecycle Milestone Review meeting is a meeting between a customer representative(s), the project's management team (the project manager, plus the team leads for the various functional areas of the project team), and the Project Review Authority.

Once the attendees of the meeting have been identified, set a date/time for the meeting to take place. It is important that sufficient lead time is allowed for the participants to review the materials that will be used as the basis for the approval decision.

Distribute Meeting Materials

Prior to the meeting, distribute the review materials to the reviewers. Make sure these materials are sent out sufficiently in advance of the meeting to allow the reviewers adequate time to review them.

Conduct Lifecycle Milestone Review Meeting

During the meeting, the attendees will be mainly concerned with the Status Assessment and the Business Case. See the Issues for Consideration.

At the end of the meeting, the reviewers should make the decision to approve or not. If the remaining issues are few and relatively minor, the customer may decide to accept the product conditionally upon certain corrective actions being taken. In this situation the Project Manager may choose to initiate a new iteration to deal with the issues arising, depending on their significance, or simply deal with issues as an extension of the final iteration, the difference being in the amount of planning needed. If the results of the phase are found to be unacceptable, the Project Manager may be obliged to initiate another iteration, or perhaps the resolution of the problem is taken out of the Project Manager's hands, and left to the customer and the Project Review Authority.

The result of the Lifecycle Milestone Review Meeting can be one of the following:

Phase Accepted	The customer representative agrees that the project has met expectations for the phase, and can proceed to the next phase.
Conditional Acceptance	The customer representative agrees that the project may proceed to the next phase, subject to the completion of specified corrective actions.
Phase Not Accepted	The project has failed to achieve the expectations for the phase: either a further iteration is scheduled, or the various stakeholders have recourse to the contract, to re-scope or terminate the project.

Record Decision

At the end of the meeting, a Review Record is completed, capturing any important discussions or action items, and recording the results of the Lifecycle Milestone Review. If the result was "not accepted", a follow-up review should be tentatively scheduled - if the project is allowed to continue. A firmer date will be set following the planning for the additional iteration.