This document discusses different project life cycle models and how to choose the appropriate one based on a project's characteristics. It provides information on predictive, iterative, incremental, agile, and hybrid life cycles. Predictive life cycles are sequential with a single delivery, iterative life cycles use prototypes and feedback, incremental life cycles deliver in frequent smaller releases, and agile life cycles expect requirements to change with customer satisfaction increasing through early delivery. Hybrid models combine elements. The document also lists factors like demand patterns, team experience, and quality that influence tailoring the approach.

1. Characteristics of Life Cycles

2. Life Cycle Selection
Coincides with APG 3.1
Approach Requirements Activities Delivery Goal
Predictive Fixed
Performed once for
the entire project
Single delivery Manage cost
Iterative Dynamic
Repeated until
correct
Single delivery
Correctness of
solution
Incremental Dynamic
Performed once for
a given increment
Frequent smaller
deliveries
Speed
Agile Dynamic
Repeated until
correct
Frequent small
deliveries
Customer value
via frequent
deliveries and
feedback
Every project has characteristics around requirements, delivery, change and goals.
Understanding the different types of life cycle, you can choose the right one for the
circumstances of your project.

3. Characteristics of Life Cycles
Coincides with APG 3.1
Predictive Life Cycles
Analyse Design Build Test Deliver
• Also known as “Waterfall” life cycles, predictive life cycles take advantage of high certainty around
requirements, a stable team, and low risk.
• As a result, project activities often execute in a straight forward, serial manner.
• As the team progresses through the detailed plan, they monitor and control changes that might affect
the Scope, Schedule, or Budget (cost).
• Projects typically do not deliver business value until the end of the project.

4. Characteristics of Life Cycles
Coincides with APG 3.1
Iterative Life Cycles
• Iterative life cycles improve the product or result through successive prototypes or proofs of concept.
Each new prototype yields new stakeholder feedback and team insights.
• Teams may use time-boxing on a given iteration of two to four weeks to build, gather feedback, then put
that feedback into the next iteration.
• Useful when complexity is high, or scope is subject to change.
• Iterative life cycles take longer as they are optimised for learning, rather than speed of delivery.
Analyse
Analyse,
Design
Build,
Test
Deliver
Prototype Refine

5. Characteristics of Life Cycles
Coincides with APG 3.1
Incremental Life Cycles
Analyse
Design
Build
Test
Deliver
Analyse
Design
Build
Test
Deliver
Analyse
Design
Build
Test
Deliver
• When businesses or initiatives cannot afford to wait for everything to be completed.
• In this situation the customer, business, or sponsor are willing to receive a subset of the overall solution
delivered in frequent small releases.
• You could provide a single feature at a time
• Increments are time-boxed in iterative methods, or pulled in flow based methods like Kanban.

6. Characteristics of Life Cycles
Coincides with APG 3.1
Agile Life Cycles
Requirements
Analyse
Design
Build
Test
Requirements
Analyse
Design
Build
Test
Requirements
Analyse
Design
Build
Test
• In an Agile environment, the team expects requirements to change
• Iterative and Incremental approaches work together – to provide feedback for planning the
next iteration, and uncovering hidden or misunderstood requirements (using increments)
• For Kanban, or Flow based Agile, it is iterated for the number of features in the Work in
Progress (WIP) limit (on the board). The team pulls features from the backlog column on the
Kanban board based on their capacity.

7. Characteristics of Life Cycles
Coincides with APG 3.1
Agile Life Cycles
Requirements
Analyse
Design
Build
Test
Requirements
Analyse
Design
Build
Test
Requirements
Analyse
Design
Build
Test
• Customer satisfaction increases with early and continuous delivery of value
• This incremental, functional deliverable that provides value is the primary measure of progress.

8. An Introduction to Agile
Coincides with APG 2.2
Agile Approach to Constraints
Scope
Time Cost
Quality
Scope
Time Cost
Quality
Fixed
Variable
Waterfall Agile

9. Characteristics of Life Cycles
Coincides with APG 3.1
Hybrid Life Cycles
• Projects often combine elements of different life cycles in order to achieve their goals.
• A combination of predictive, iterative, incremental and agile approaches is a hybrid approach.
You might have:
• Largely agile, with some predictive
• Where you are integrating an external component developed by a
different vendor
• A single iteration might be required after their component is delivered
• Predominantly predictive, with some agile components
• Where you are delivering a straight forward project (a shed or patio), but
trialling a new roofing material.
• A combined predictive and agile approach
• A serial or linear project, where tasks are tracked using Kanban and daily
scrums are used for updating work.

10. Characteristics of Life Cycles
Coincides with APG 3.1
Project Factors That Influence Tailoring
Project Factor Tailoring Options
Demand pattern: Steady or sporadic
Many teams find that using a cadence (like a regular time-box)
helps them demo, retrospect and take in new work. In addition,
teams can use flow-based agile with a cadence to bring
flexibility in acceptance of their work.
Rate of process improvement required
by the level of team experience
Retrospect more often and select improvements
The flow of work is often interrupted
by various delays or impediments
Consider making work visible using Kanban boards and
experimenting with limits for the various area of the
work process in order to improve flow.
The quality of product increments is
poor
Consider using the various test-driven-development
practices. This mistake proofing discipline makes it difficult
for defects to remain undetected.
More than one team is needed to build
a product
To scale from one to several agile teams with minimal
disruption, first learn about agile program management or
formal scaling frameworks. Then craft an approach that fits the
project context.
The project team members are
inexperienced in the use of agile
approaches
Consider starting by training the team members in the
fundamentals of the agile mindset and principles and an
overview of the approaches. If the team decides to use a
specific approach like Scrum or Kanban, provide a workshop on
that approach so they can learn how to use it.