Lifecycle of A Project
As early as 300 BCE men have understood the importance of effective project planning and execution. The great Greek philosopher Aristotle understood this as well, and defined success in this way, “All men seek one goal: success or happiness. The only way to achieve true success is to express yourself completely in service to society. First, have a definite, clear, practical ideal-a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends-wisdom, money, materials and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end” (qtd in Forbes.com). The thoughts of Aristotle, although simplistic provide a sound basis for modern project management processes. The modern definition of planning has not changed significantly throughout time. Author Timothy J. Kloppenborg describes planning as a process that “Defines and refines objectives and plans and actions to achieve objectives. The importance of establishing a solid plan cannot be understated. In an article titled 100 Years of Project Planning authors illustrates the benefit of good planning when the state that “Planning allows us to make all kinds of mistakes or errors before we spend the money, time or effort to do something” (Muther, Richard, and Gerald Nadler 42). A well-defined plan is one that minimizes rework, scope change, schedule inefficiencies. Furthermore a well laid plan will have well defined measures to monitor and control the project. A key consideration when developing a plan is the project’s critical path. Which is defined by the Project Management Institute as “The sequence of activities that represent the longest path through a project, which determines the shortest possible duration” (536). The critical path is important because it determines the projects end date. The critical path method involves conducting two passes over the activity network. The