Envisioning - Vision/Scope Approved Milestone

The vision/scope approved milestone culminates the envisioning phase. At this point, the project team and the customer have agreed on the overall direction for the project, as well as which features the solution will and will not include, and a general timetable for delivery.

The deliverables for the envisioning phase are:

• Vision/scope document
• Risk assessment document
• Project structure document

Planning - Project Plans Approved

At the project plans approved milestone, the project team and key project stakeholders agree that interim milestones have been met, that due dates are realistic, that project roles and responsibilities are well defined, and that mechanisms are in place for addressing areas of project risk. The functional specifications, master project plan, and master project schedule provide the basis for making future trade-off decisions.

After the team approves the specifications, plans, and schedules, the documents become the project baseline. The baseline takes into account the various decisions that are reached by consensus by applying the three project planning variables: resources, schedule, and features. After the baseline is completed and approved, the team transitions to the developing phase.

After the team defines a baseline, it is placed under change control. This does not mean that all decisions reached in the planning phase are final. But it does mean that as work progresses in the developing phase, the team should review and approve any suggested changes to the baseline.

For organizations using MOF, the team submits a Request for Change (RFC) to IT operations at this milestone.

The following deliverables are produced during the planning phase:

• Functional specification
• Risk management plan
• Master project plan and master project schedule

Developing - Scope Complete Milestone

The developing phase culminates in the scope complete milestone. At this milestone, all features are complete and the solution is ready for external testing and stabilization. This milestone is the opportunity for customers and users, operations and support personnel, and key project stakeholders to evaluate the solution and identify any remaining issues that must be addressed before the solution is released.

The deliverables of the developing phase are:

• Source code and executables
• Installation scripts and configuration settings for deployment
• Frozen functional specification
• Performance support elements
• Test specifications and test cases

Stabilizing - Release Readiness Milestone

The release readiness milestone occurs at the point when the team has addressed all outstanding issues and has released the solution or placed it in service. At the release milestone, responsibility for ongoing management and support of the solution officially transfers from the project team to the operations and support teams.

The deliverables of the stabilizing phase are:

• Golden release
• Release notes
• Performance support elements
• Test results and testing tools
• Source code and executables
• Project documents
• Milestone review

Deployment - Complete Milestone

The deployment complete milestone culminates the deploying phase. By this time, the deployed solution should be providing the expected business value to the customer and the team should have effectively terminated the processes and activities it employed to reach this goal.

The customer must agree that the team has met its objectives before it can declare the solution to be in production and close out the project. This requires a stable solution, as well as clearly stated success criteria. In order for the solution to be considered stable, appropriate operations and support systems must be in place.

Deliverables include:

• Operation and support information systems
• Procedures and processes
• Knowledge base, reports, logbooks
• Documentation repository for all versions of documents, load sets, and code developed during the project
• Project close-out report
• Final versions of all project documents
• Customer/user satisfaction data
• Definition of next steps