Performance Domain 3 of 8

Development Approach and Life Cycle Performance Domain

Choosing how the work will be done — predictive, adaptive, or a hybrid — and shaping the project's phases and delivery cadence to fit. Get this right early and everything downstream, from planning to governance, falls into place more naturally.

Before detailed planning, the project manager decides the development approach and the life cycle that suit the product and the environment. This is not a religious choice between waterfall and agile; it is a deliberate match between how well requirements are understood, how often value needs to ship, and the level of risk and regulation involved.

Development approach spectrum from predictive to adaptive
Most projects sit on a spectrum rather than at a pure extreme — and different deliverables can use different approaches.

Key decisions in this domain include:

  • Development approach — predictive when requirements are stable, adaptive when they will evolve, hybrid when different parts of the work differ.
  • Delivery cadence — single delivery, multiple deliveries, or continuous delivery, depending on when stakeholders need value.
  • Life cycle and phases — define phases with clear entry and exit criteria so work moves forward only when it is genuinely ready.
  • Tailoring — adjust the approach for deliverables individually rather than forcing one method across the whole project.

Common pitfalls. Picking an approach by fashion or mandate rather than fit; calling a project agile while keeping scope, schedule, and budget fixed; phases with vague exit criteria that let half-finished work slip downstream; and never revisiting the approach as the project and its risks change.

Outcomes to Expect

  • Development approaches that are consistent with project deliverables
  • A project life cycle consisting of phases that connect the delivery of business and stakeholder value from the beginning to the end of the project
  • A project life cycle consisting of phases that facilitate the delivery cadence and development approach required to produce the project deliverables

Checking the Outcomes

  • The development approach for deliverables (predictive, hybrid, or adaptive) reflects the product variables and is appropriate given the project and organizational variables.
  • Project work from launch to close is represented in the project phases. Phases include appropriate exit criteria.
  • The cadence for development, testing, and deploying is represented in the life cycle phases. Projects with multiple deliverables that have different delivery cadences and development methods are represented by overlapping phases or phase repetitions, as necessary.

How It Interacts with the Other Domains

This domain sets the frame for the Planning domain — an adaptive approach plans in rolling waves and backlogs, while a predictive one front-loads detailed baselines. It directly shapes the Team domain (adaptive work needs more self-organization), the Delivery domain (cadence determines when and how often value lands), and the Measurement domain (the chosen life cycle decides whether you track earned value, velocity, or both). Because it influences so much downstream, getting the approach wrong is expensive to unwind later.

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