- Before a project can begin, the organization needs to answer a few fundamental questions like, do we need to think about everything up front before we start? Can we start with a rough idea and work it out from there? Is there a middle ground between the two that would suit us better? These questions are about what lifecycle or approach to take with the project. Different projects will have different lifecycles and no one is really better than the other, but having the right lifecycle for the project will be a key factor in that project success. In this video, we'll talk a little bit about four different life cycles, and when you should consider using them. You can think of the different approaches or philosophies to carrying out a project as a lifecycle. Regardless of which one you use, it will always have a few steps involved with decision gates built in to make sure that the organization is happy to continue work on the project. These decision gates act as a kind of braking system to make sure that the project doesn't get out of control. Okay, so let's move on now to talking about each of the life cycle options you have available for you. First up, the classic project management approach, the linear lifecycle. One of the defining features of this lifecycle is that it normally involves a lot of early and detailed planning. Using this approach, you deliver each part of the project in a step by step way. You will only ever start the next stage once the previous stage has been completed, and a go or no go decision has been made. This lifecycle is great if you know exactly what you want the project deliver before you begin, or in other words, it's a very low risk project. Okay, so let's move on now to the next type of lifecycle, the incremental approach. This approach is similar to linear because you often plan a lot of detail upfront. The difference here is that each step produces a product that you can use, with each step building on from the previous one. It delivers quick wins or champagne moments, or you can give the customer something that they can use early on in the project which gains their buy in and builds the excitement. Third, the iterative lifecycle. In this approach you start with an overall understanding of what you're going to produce. Then in each step, the delivery feeds back more information into the project. This lets you adapt future iterations and is often referred to as an agile approach. And last up for this video, the evolutionary lifecycle. You can use this approach if you don't fully understand, or you can't visualize the final product yet. You'll discover it during delivery. It's similar to iterative in that future steps are informed by previous steps, but here the final product will only be understood at the very end of the project. You might choose to combine parts of different lifecycles into a hybrid lifecycle. If you feel like this will help you to achieve success in your project. And that's it for this video, there are four main types of lifecycles for you to choose from and different projects might require different approaches. The important thing here is that the decision about which lifecycle you want to use is made before the project begins, as it will have a huge impact on the normal ways of working for project staff.