The Project Life Cycle and Project Management Processes

As discussed in your reading, the project life cycle has four phases that includes project initiation, project planning, performing the work required to complete the project deliverables, and project closure activities. Note that the text does not separate out the “fifth” step, as in Textbook 2—monitoring and control—but consolidates it into the performing phase.

Initiating Phase

The initiating phase of a project includes project identification and selection. During this phase, it is important to determine whether a project should be completed. All organizations have a limit on resources and a determination must be made as to whether a project should be undertaken. You will review project selection in more detail in Chapter 2 of your book.

As discussed in your readings, a project is formally initiated through a project charter. Project charters typically come from the sponsor of the project, where the sponsor formally authorizes the project. You will explore project charters in more depth in Chapter 2/Lesson 2.

As reviewed earlier, the project management process includes five process groups that map onto the project cycle. The initiating phase of a project falls within the initiating process group and includes all of the activities related to 4.1: Develop Project Charter and 13.1: Identify Stakeholders project management processes (see Table 1–2).

Planning Phase

The planning phase of a project maps to the planning project management process group. It includes the development of the project management plan that includes many different sub-components that span planning activities related to project scope, time, cost, quality, resources, communications, risk, procurement, and stakeholders. Of the 49 project management processes that you will cover in this course, 24 of them are in the planning process group.

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Focus on Application

The ability to properly plan a project can be one of the key distinguishing attributes of young engineers, an attribute that can accelerate their career over their contemporaries.

While much of what you will discuss can be considered common sense, the expectations and tools that constitute accepted program management standards are universal. “Doing your own thing” may suffice for one project, but not for another. Doing it the proven way will succeed!

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Performing Phase

The performing phase of a project includes an activities map to both the executing process group and the monitoring and controlling process group. There are 10 project management processes in the executing process group, and 12 processes in the monitoring and controlling process group. You have completed your planning, and now you need to get down to the work to accomplish the project objectives.

Closing Phase

The closing phase of a project maps to the closing project management process group. As discussed in your readings, the closing phase of the project is an important component of project management and often overlooked. There is 1 project management process associated with this process group, closing the project or phase.

“Project management planning, organizing, coordinating, leading, and controlling resources to accomplish the project objective. The project management process involves planning the work and then working the plan” (Gido et al., 2018, p. 15).

As discussed in your readings and as highlighted by the amount of focus on the planning process, it is evident that planning is a critical part of the success of a project.