The ICT – Project Life Cycle (PLC) is intended to provide a set of guidelines for the successful completion of application development projects. The PLC consists of six distinct phases as below:
| Phase 1 | Phase 2 | Phase 3 | Phase 4 | Phase 5 | Phase 6 |
| Planning | Definition | Analysis | Design | Build | Implementation |
Each phase contains one or more individual deliverables associated with the phase. These deliverables are themselves should be described in separate standards documents. The phases and the related deliverables may vary according to the nature and the budget of the project, but they can be adjusted to almost every case.
Software Development Deliverables and Standards
| Phase | Deliverable |
| Planning | Quality Assurance |
| Feasibility Study | |
| Tender Document | |
| Contract Document | |
| Definition | Project Plan |
| Analysis | Requirements Specification |
| System Analysis document | |
| Data Migration analysis | |
| Design | Detailed System Design |
| Data Migration design | |
| Build | Complete System Architecture Definition |
| Application forms and reports | |
| Tested application | |
| Data conversion | |
| Implementation | Implementation plan |
| Online help text | |
| User acceptance test | |
| User training planning | |
| User procedures | |
| Application delivery |
It could be simplified mostly simplified with below phases and best practices: It implies 4 phases in the implementation of an infrastructure project. During all phases within the lifecycle the project manager guards the scope, budget, timing, quality and project risks:
- Architecture Phase: During the Architecture Phase, high level design decisions and design goals will be taken together with the customer. Communication with the customer will be formalised by organising one or more architecture definition workshops. This will be formalised in Infrastructure Architecture Document(s).
- Design Phase: During the Design Phase, all directions that have been set-out during the Architecture phase will be translated to design documents that describe how each service will be configured. Information technology (IT) infrastructures are made up on a variety of services both within and outside the organization, many of which are mission critical. For each service we will define and produce design documents and related build & operation guides (optional). The design documents define the infrastructure setup in a level of detail that the implementation in the Build & Test phase can be entirely based upon these design documents.
- Implementation & Test Phase: During the Implementation & Test Phase all services in scope are being implemented in accordance to the design documents. Where appropriate, updates to the design documents will be made in order to reflect the real life situation. (documents will be subjected to customer approval at the end of the project). Implementing (building) the IT Infrastructure is a labour intensive activity which is driven by technology (and vendors or external services suppplier).
- Completion Phase: The Completion Phase is to demonstrate to the customer that in its final environment and configuration the system conforms to the agreed architecture & designs.
