Project Management Your company planning construct a nuclear power plant Oregon.

What is a project life cycle, and how does it support project success? Ensure you define the basic stages of a project life cycle and the primary activities that take place.

According to Bin and Heiser (2004)

project life cycle refers to the stages a project goes through from the beginning till it is completed. The project life cycle will indicate how a project will be controlled, planned, and monitored. To ensure that a specific project does progress as required, there is need to have a project life cycle that will model the different phases that the project will go through. The phases make it easy for a project manager to establish exactly where the project has reached, and to identify how long the project will take at each particular phase. Without a project life cycle, one would not be able to manage a project properly as the project will not have set milestones that need to be completed within specific timeframes.

A project life cycle has four basic stages namely initiation, planning, execution, and closure. At the initiation phase, information is gathered in regards to the planned project in order to determine if the project is viable. This is the stage where justification of the project takes place. Once the project has received a go ahead, the next stage is planning. Identification of the specific problem and the solution that will be employed to solve the problem takes place. Development of the implementation plan also takes place in this phase. During the execution phase, the various project tasks are implemented in a structured and organized manner. There should be project management processes taking place continuously to ensure the project is executed as planned. The closure phase is the final phase of the project. This is the phase where a project audit is conducted by evaluating and reviewing of the project and the outputs. Once the project has passed evaluation it is officially signed off.

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Why is stakeholder analysis important as a precondition of the decision whether or not to follow through with the plan? Conduct a stakeholder analysis for a planned upgrade to a successful software product. Who are the key stakeholders?
Stakeholder analysis is important for planning purposes as it assists the company to identify the key decision makers, and to establish how the project will affect the people and the community Borisova, Racevskis, & Kipp, 2012.

Stakeholder analysis will also assist the company to determine if the people will be interested in the project and the long-term effects the project might have on the community. The needs of the people will provide valuable insights as to whether the company should progress with the project or not. The stakeholder analysis will allow the company to access both the positive and negative effects that the project might have on the people.

For a software product, the analysis will begin by first establishing the stakeholders who will be affected by the upgrade. This will allow the company to identify and group the stakeholders as per their various roles and the impact of the upgrade. Next, a plan on how the upgrade will be conducted will be developed. The plan will include how the software will be upgraded, and the timeframes the upgrade will take. Execution is the final stage. At this stage, the planned activities are executed based on the plan. Once execution is completed, the upgrade is accessed to determine if it has gone according to plan. The key stakeholders will include Chief Executive Officer, IT Manager, Departmental Managers, Administrators, key employees who use the software and the IT staff who will provide support to all other users.

Explain organizational culture. In your explanation include the different elements of culture, how a culture forms, and the affect it has on project management.

Organizational culture refers to the collective behavior of…