Because of its temporary nature, a project has a beginning, a middle and an end, and it is organized according to its life cycle. In this video, professor Lavagnon talks about the Project Life Cycles:
2:30- 4:08 – Project Life Cycles ADM4103 Project Management – Video 5 – YouTube
Each stage of the project lifecycle is related to different kinds of activities and deliverables, that represent the passage from one stage to another. In this video, professor Lavagnon introduces some examples of possible deliverables for each stage.
4:08 – 4:55 – Project Life Cycles ADM4103 Project Management – Video 5 – YouTube
This is a standard way of project management. Some project management methodologies and philosophies propose other forms of organizing a project over time. For instance, the Dragon Dreaming design philosophy divides the project life cycle into 4 stages: Dreaming, Planning, Doing and Celebrating.
To know more about these stages and the implementation of the Dragon Dreaming philosophy in one practical experience, you can read the article available on this link as well as the excerpt at the end of this lesson.
In your e-portfolio:
a) In what stage of the project is your community in at the moment?
b) Is your community in the same stage for all the projects that are ongoing?
Excerpt from the article Dragon Dreaming Methodology and the Brazilian Movement “Tempo de Plantar”: a case study of the Estrutural Committee :
According to Croft (2014, p.4), the Dragon Dreaming methodology is inspired by the Gaia theory, which highlights biological and geological cycles that create an organic structure with water, air, fire and earth components. Dreaming (air), planning (earth), executing (fire) and celebrating (water) build an organic mandala. Besides that, since the human being is not separated or different from the environment, from the Mother Earth, some researchers also uphold that the structure of the methodology reflects, somehow, the architecture of the human brain. Therefore, the left side of the brain, responsible for writing, calculation, analysis and logic, is directly assigned to planning and executing activities while the right side, responsible for emotions, creativity, innovation, daydream and arts, is assigned to dreaming and celebrating (Croft, 2008).
Source: By authors, diagram based on the Dragon Dreaming ebook (Croft, 2008)
Through this balanced structure, the philosophy stimulates cooperation and creativity, valuing different contributions from the members or the volunteers, who generally reproduce known archetypes – the dreamer, the planner, the doer and the celebrator – although everyone blends these features. This structure stimulates win-win thinking, with the aim to eliminate all kinds of exclusion, promoting a culture where, in order to win, others must win too since everyone and every step is essential. Thus, the methodology preserves sustainability in a holistic and participative approach, which is used to manage collectivity with three main objectives: personal growth, community building and service to earth (Dragon Dreaming, 2019).