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.
Relationships
RolesPrimary: Additional: Assisting:
InputsMandatory: Optional: External:
  • None
Outputs
Main Description

The end of a phase represents a point of synchronization (of technical and management expectations) and closure for a project, and it coincides (more or less) with the end of an iteration. However, unlike other iterations, the iteration that terminates a phase should leave few loose ends and issues to be carried forward into the next iteration (which will be in the next phase). Indeed, phase ends mark a point at which it is possible to consider re-scoping and even re-contracting a project. For example, the inception phase is exploratory and may be appropriately performed under a time-and-materials or cost-plus type of contract. The elaboration phase could be done as a fixed-price or cost-plus contract, depending on the degree of novelty of the development. Enough is known about the system by the construction and transition phases that fixed-price contracts are more appealing to acquirer and vendor.

The phase end is marked by a major milestone, at which a Lifecycle Milestone Review is conducted. This is intended to achieve concurrence among all stakeholders on the current state of the project. These reviews are usually formal and are conducted with some ceremony, to demonstrate to all stakeholders that the aims of the phase were achieved. The end of the transition phase is marked by the Product Release Milestone. Also Project Acceptance Review.

The Project Manager will have planned, going into the final iteration of the phase, to have all required work products ready for the Lifecycle Milestone Review. However, assess the iteration before the Lifecycle Milestone Review is held. If the iteration has gone well, there will be little to do to prepare for phase close-out other than distributing phase-end work products to stakeholders. The project manager may decide that certain issues arising from the Iteration Assessment or issues remaining in the Issues List need to be addressed before the Lifecycle Milestone review, and cannot be carried over into the next phase. This means that, in effect, a micro-iteration will occur, in which selected problems will be fixed and issues resolved, although in terms of workflow, this can be considered an extension of the final iteration.

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).

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

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
Check Status of Required Work Products

The Project Manager will check each of the work products required for the phase end, using information from the latest Iteration Assessment and Status Assessment. Where there are open issues or problems that the Project Manager believes would prevent a successful Lifecycle Milestone Review, work is initiated to resolve them, before the work products are distributed to the stakeholders.

Work Products Required

Schedule Configuration Audits

If required, the Project Manager arranges for functional and physical configuration audits to be conducted.

Conduct a Phase Post-Mortem Review

Once any tasks triggered by Check Status of Required Work Products have been completed, the Iteration Assessment can be amended to reflect the improved state. A post-mortem review is then held to determine whether the project is ready for the Lifecycle Milestone Review. The Iteration Assessment for the previous iteration, and the Issues List are again examined to make sure any residual issues are understood and it will be acceptable to the stakeholders to carry them forward. If any product was delivered to the customer for operational use in the current phase, then ensure that any required installation, training and transition tasks have progressed acceptably.

If the phase end is also the end of the current contract (with the intent to re-contract for the next phase), the Project Manager will settle the project's finances, making sure all payments have been received and all suppliers and subcontractors paid. Organizational policy or other regulatory requirement may also require a more formal audit process at contract termination, covering the project's finances, budgeting process, and assets.

The Project Manager produces a Status Assessment that captures the results of the phase post-mortem review and the configuration audits, in preparation for the Lifecycle Milestone Review.

Distribute Work Products to Stakeholders

Some time before the Lifecycle Milestone Review is to scheduled to be held, the Project Manager provides all stakeholders with copies of the work products which are to be considered at the Lifecycle Milestone Review. In a very formal contractual environment, the delivery of work products may well be contractually required to occur some weeks before the review. However, the Rational Unified Process recommends that the stakeholders be involved and engaged in the project to such a degree (in joint technical and management reviews, for example) that these deliveries should not be controversial; the stakeholders would already be familiar with the delivered material. They will have visibility of the evolution of the work products through the project's iterations. Even so, given the formal nature of these deliveries, deployment activities will ensure that proper regard is given to packaging, labeling, installation, transition, and so on.

Work Products Required

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. 
Complete Lifecycle Milestone Review Action Items

There may be some remaining actions following the Lifecycle Milestone Review, and sanction to begin the next phase may be conditional upon these. The Project Manager initiates work to resolve these items.

Properties
Multiple Occurrences
Event Driven
Ongoing
Optional
Planned
Repeatable