COST02-BP06 Track project lifecycle - AWS Well-Architected Framework
Implementation guidanceResources

COST02-BP06 Track project lifecycle

This best practice was updated with new guidance on December 6, 2023.

Track, measure, and audit the lifecycle of projects, teams, and environments to avoid using and paying for unnecessary resources.

Level of risk exposed if this best practice is not established: Low

Implementation guidance

Tracking project lifecycle effectively allows organizations to have better control over costs through improved planning, management, and optimization of resources, time, and quality. The insights gained through tracking are invaluable for making informed decisions that contribute to the cost-effectiveness and overall success of the project.

Tracking the entire lifecycle of the workload helps you understand when workloads or workload components are no longer required. The existing workloads and components may appear to be in use, but when AWS releases new services or features, they can be decommissioned or adopted. Check the previous stages of workloads. After a workload is in production, previous environments can be decommissioned or greatly reduced in capacity until they are required again.

AWS provides a number of management and governance services you can use for entity lifecycle tracking. You can use AWS Config or AWS Systems Manager to provide a detailed inventory of your AWS resources and configuration. It is recommended that you integrate with your existing project or asset management systems to keep track of active projects and products within your organization. Combining your current system with the rich set of events and metrics provided by AWS allows you to build a view of significant lifecycle events and proactively manage resources to reduce unnecessary costs.

Similar to Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), tracking project lifecycle should involve multiple processes, tools, and teams working together, such as design and development, testing, production, support, and workload redundancy.

By carefully monitoring each phase of a project's lifecycle, organizations gain crucial insights and enhanced control, facilitating successful project planning, implementation, and completion. This careful oversight verifies that projects not only meet quality standards, but are delivered on time and within budget, promoting overall cost efficiency.

For more details on implementing entity lifecycle tracking, see the AWS Well-Architected Operational Excellence Pillar whitepaper.

Implementation steps

  • Establish a project lifecycle monitoring process: The Cloud Center of Excellence team must establish project lifecycle monitoring process. Establish a structured and systematic approach to monitoring workloads in order to improve control, visibility, and performance of the projects. Make the monitoring process transparent, collaborative, and focused on continuous improvement to maximize its effectiveness and value.

  • Perform workload reviews: As defined by your organizational policies, set up a regular cadence to audit your existing projects and perform workload reviews. The amount of effort spent in the audit should be proportional to the approximate risk, value, or cost to the organization. Key areas to include in the audit would be risk to the organization of an incident or outage, value, or contribution to the organization (measured in revenue or brand reputation), cost of the workload (measured as total cost of resources and operational costs), and usage of the workload (measured in number of organization outcomes per unit of time). If these areas change over the lifecycle, adjustments to the workload are required, such as full or partial decommissioning.

Resources

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