Chapter 6. Establishing a Solution Delivery Lifecycle

In this chapter:
Solution Delivery Environment	142
The Microsoft Solution Delivery Lifecycle	142
MSF Governance Model	148
Adapting the Microsoft Solution Delivery Lifecycle	164
Summary	164

Hundreds, if not thousands, of books describe and define solutions delivery and its processes. The reasons so many books are written on the subject is because no one delivery model or process has yet met the needs of all projects. Each method provides a different perspective on how to balance team member productivity with team delivery predictability. Too little process might enable high initial productivity, but at the expense of low predictability and quality. Too much process might ensure predictability, but at a severe cost in productivity. So, what is the right balance for a project and for an organization?

As discussed in this chapter, a project team should select and adapt a solution delivery life cycle that best fits their needs within the bounds of their organizational guidelines. This involves their not only adapting life cycle guidance, but also understanding and adapting workflow, policies, templates, reports, permissions, and so forth. This, of course, is much easier for a project team if an organization has tools, templates, and guidance preconfigured and ready for adapting. Other factors that need to be considered include process maturity and tolerance of a team as well as maturity of technology being used. To start to determine which solution delivery life cycle will work best, a team needs to understand the environment(s) in which they must deliver their solution.

Clarity Point

The difference between project life cycle and solution delivery life cycle is scope. Project life cycle is focused on a project to deliver some or all of a solution; whereas solution delivery life cycle is focused on a solution, which can encompass a few projects to deliver a solution. Taking an even broader perspective, a team might need to consider using an enterprise life cycle in which many solutions are needed to deliver on a business strategy.