There are many different methodologies or ways to complete projects. Project management methodologies fall into five broad lifecycle categories. What are the key criteria for determining which lifecycle to employ for a given project? Why?

Response: The five broad methodologies of life cycles are Predictive, Iterative, Incremental, Adaptive and Hybrid and each can be employed for different reasons based on the project needs. The key identifiers would be based on what the project objective is: is it a fixed requirement or do we know the scope of the project at the beginning or is it something we will determine as we work the project? We may also need to make small improvements to keep the project moving with each goal rather than have one massive goal to achieve. Is this project finished or will we need to continue to enhance its functionality over time. Perhaps the project is a combination of all or some of the above questions. All of these things and more need to be considered before applying the methodology for the best results.

I thought of the many times I tried to hang a picture on the wall as I was reading. I should have used the Predictive life cycle as I knew where the picture was to go and the size of the picture so it was a fixed result. However, I opted for the Iterative Life cycle and put some nails in the wall that I thought would work. Of course, I had to take them out and try again to have a straight picture that sat on the hooks. I, of course, had to repeat this process several times and created a mess of holes on my wall, and I still don't believe it s 100% straight. I could have taken the time to measure upfront, but went with many iterations. Project management is a much larger project and bigger scale, but it helped me realize how important it is to think about the methodology to employ prior to jumping into the project.