Project management life-cycle on a page

A lot is made of this life-cycle concept in project management (including in this text).

With life-cycles, there are agreed stages (or phases), a planned order, sequential evolution, checkpoints, approval opportunities and a whole lot more. I admit that there is more to life than project management life-cycles, but once you accept that every project (PMBOK®, PRINCE2®, Agile, etc.) evolves over a period of time from the assessment stage through to the completion (and possible evaluation) stage, it is the project management life-cycle that provides the necessary navigation to get you there.

Humans have life-cycles, economies have life-cycles, political parties have life-cycles, marketing goods and services follow a life-cycle—so why shouldn’t project management have one too?

You should spend considerable time understanding the intent, process and benefit behind a life-cycle and how to construct one that both directs and controls the project’s progression over time. While life-cycle concepts will be explored in more detail in a subsequent chapter, Tables 0.1 and 0.2 provide two examples below of what life-cycles could look like in terms of the information they capture throughout the project.

There is no right or wrong life-cycle template for how your project will unfold (three stages, four stages, six stages, etc.), just some practical ideas on what to consider when you put one together yourself. Feel free to amend mine, delete them or design your own life-cycle complete with however many stages your project requires and label each stage with whatever heading might be appropriate.

Table 0.1 Key project management life-cycle functions

  Assess Prepare Plan Execution Completion Evaluate
Phase objectives            
Principal stakeholders            
Information needed            
Agreed deliverables            
Approvals required            
Budgeted cost            
Scheduled timeframe            
Project activities            
Major milestones            
Change control            
Relevant documentation            
Assigned resources            
Governance protocol            

Table 0.2 Project management knowledge areas

  Assess Prepare Plan Execution Completion Evaluate
Scope management            
Time management            
Cost management            
Quality management            
Risk management            
Human resource management            
Communications management            
Procurement management            
Stakeholder management            
Integration management