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What Is The Project Life Cycle: The 5 Phases Explained

The project life cycle is comprised of 5 key stages. Learn more about initiation, planning, executing, monitoring & controlling, and closing, and why the life cycle is so important.

the 5 stages of the project life cycle arranged in a circle: initiation planning execution monitoring and controlling and closing

All projects have a beginning and an end. They go through the same project management steps of initiation, planning, and execution. Projects are temporary efforts, born to create value, and when that value has been delivered, the project ceases to be. This cycle of project birth, maturity, and closure is known as the project life cycle, or project management life cycle.

I'm going to explore each phase of the life cycle and how you can apply it to your projects today and future projects. A key aspect of successfully managing projects within the project life cycle is being equipped with the right project management software tools or apps that can support each phase of the project.

What Is The Project Life Cycle?

The project life cycle is the phases of a project that are necessary for the effective delivery of that project. It dictates the order of processes and phases a project goes through as it's completed, and describes the high-level workflow of the project.

The PMI (Project Management Institute) has defined these five project management process groups, or project management phases, which come together to form the project life cycle.

Project Initiation
Project Planning
Project Execution
Project Monitoring & Controlling
Project Closure

The PMI took what’s really common sense and called it the project life cycle. The PMI methodology is the de facto standard for project delivery, which you can find in their 370 page 7th edition of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) .

It’s a really long, and to be honest, deathly boring read, so here’s a condensed breakdown of each project management step, which contains all the important takeaways.

What Are The 5 Phases Of The Project Management Life Cycle?

Below, I go into each of the life cycle stages and explain what happens in each of the 5 phases of project management .

1. Project Initiation Phase

project initiation phase with the outcome of defining the parts of the project

Initiating the first phase of the project life cycle is all about doing a project kickoff meeting with your team and with the client, and getting their commitment to start the project.

You bring together all of the available information in a systematic manner to define the project’s scope , cost, and resources. The goal of the initiation phase is to take the (sometimes) loose brief of a project and understand what the project needs to do and achieve in order to be successful.

That usually necessitates identifying the project stakeholders and making sure they all share the same perception of what the project is and the specific business case—the problem that the project is trying to solve.

It’s during this project initiation phase that you also decide whether delivering the business case is feasible. As a project manager, you will need to conduct adequate research to determine the project goals and then propose a solution to achieve them.

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Key Steps During Project Initiation

Make a project charter : What is the vision, objective, and goal of this project?
Identify the high-level scope and deliverables: What is the product or service that needs to be provided?
Conduct a feasibility study : What is the primary problem and its possible solutions?
Ballpark the high-level cost and create a business case : What are the costs and benefits of the solution?
Identify stakeholders: Who are the people this project affects, how does it affect them, and what are their needs?

Typically for Prince2 or PMI methodologies, the above is summed up in a Project Initiation Document (PID) , but in an agency, the information is usually captured in an initial statement of work (SoW).

2. Project Planning Phase

project planning phase with the outcome of a roadmap

After receiving approval to proceed in the initiation phase, you can begin project planning, typically using a Gantt chart tool .

Planning is where you define all the work to be done and create the project roadmap that you follow for the remainder of the project. This is when you figure out how you’re going to perform the project and answer these questions:

What exactly are we going to do?
How are we going to do it?
When are we going to do it?
How will we know when we’re done?

During this project management step, you have to decide how you and your team will attain the goals of the project. It’s worth evaluating those goals with three criteria: what’s possible , passionate , and pervasive ?

Possible: Strive for something that is achievable. Ask yourself, does this solution match the budget? Does my team have the ability to do this? Do we have enough time? Setting unrealistic goals is setting yourself up for failure.
Passionate: Projects are tough, so you want a team that is emotionally engaged in the project. Ask yourself, is this a project that your team can be passionate about? Is it something that can bring them together to collaborate and achieve the same goal? Even though it might be their job to do what you tell them to do, no one is going to invest into something they don’t think is worthwhile
Pervasive: Does this have the potential to become a ground-breaking success? Is this something that is a complete solution to the problem that was given to you or is it really just a band-aid solution? Does it have the potential to be improved on, developed, and to become a permanent way of working?

I like this 3 Ps lens for goals, but you might also be familiar with the principle of setting CLEAR goals: collaborative, limited, emotional, appreciable, and refinable. Read more about CLEAR goals and their benefits over SMART goals.

The planning phase results in a project plan that outlines the activities, tasks, dependencies, and time frames, as well as costs. In addition, it’s prudent to develop a plan for resources, quality, risk, acceptance criteria, communication, and procurement .

Key Steps For Project Planning

Create a project management plan : Identify the phases, activities, constraints , and project schedule, and create a project timeline with a work breakdown structure (WBS) and Gantt chart .
Create a financial plan : Create a project budget and cost estimate, and a plan to meet your maximum cost, complete with allocations across resources and departments
Create a resource plan : Build a great team and recruit and schedule the resources and materials needed to deliver the project in your resource management software
Create a quality plan : Set your quality targets and measures
Create a risk plan : Identify the possible risks, assumptions , issues, and dependencies; assign an owner; and develop a mitigation plan for how you will avoid/overcome them
Create an acceptance plan : Assign criteria for what constitutes ‘done’ and ‘delivered’
Create a communication plan : List your stakeholders and plan the communication cadence in your project communications tool
Create a procurement plan : Find any 3rd party suppliers required and agree on terms

3. Project Execution Phase

project execution phase with outcome of tasks to be completed

This is the part of the project life cycle where you finally get to execute on your awesome project plan. You bring your resources onboard, brief them, set the ground rules, and introduce them to one another. After that, everyone jumps in to perform the work identified in the plan. Easy peasy (in theory).

As the project manager, you shift from talking about a project and creating documentation to getting the green light to proceed with the execution phase. Now, you’re leading the team and managing them toward delivery. You’ll spend your time in briefings, meetings, and reviews, and keep the project on track as it moves through the project life cycle.

Key Steps For Project Execution

Team leadership: Cast a vision for success and enable the team to deliver on it
Create tasks : Clearly define what needs to be done and the criteria for each project task
Task briefing : Ensure the team is clear about what they need to do, and when they need to do it by
Client management : Work with the client to ensure deliverables are acceptable
Communications : Ensure you’re informing and updating the right people at the right time through the right channel

4. Project Monitoring & Controlling Phase

project monitoring and controlling phase with outcome of understanding if you're meeting timeline, cost, quality, and success goals

This project management step involves reporting on performance and monitoring and controlling the project.

That means ensuring the project is going according to plan, and if it isn’t, controlling it by working out solutions to get it back on track. As a project manager, you’ll be monitoring and controlling a project in some way throughout all of the project life cycle phases.

First, that means ensuring you capture the data (usually derived from timesheets and reports in your project management software) to track progress effectively against the original plan.

Second, it means taking the data and comparing overall project progress, milestone and task completion, budget spend, and time allocated in the original plan. By comparing the actuals against the plan, you can establish whether or not you’re hitting the objectives for timeline, cost, quality, and success metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs).

And when you realize that things aren’t quite going to plan (they rarely do), it’s figuring out the options for pivoting the project so that it still delivers something the client is happy with while meeting the budget, timeline, and quality constraints.

Pro-tip: usually that means reducing the scope of the project !

Key Steps For Project Monitoring And Controlling

Cost & time management : Review timesheets and expenses to record, control, and track against the project’s budget, timeline, and tasks
Quality management : Reviewing project deliverables and ensuring they meet the defined acceptance criteria
Risk management : Monitor, control, manage, and mitigate potential risks and issues
Acceptance management : Conduct user acceptance testing and create a reviewing system, ensuring that all deliverables meet the needs of the client
Change management : When the project doesn’t go to plan, managing the process of acceptable changes with the client to ensure they’re happy with necessary changes

5. Project Closure Phase

project closing phase with the outcome of a finished project

In the closing phase of the project life cycle, your project is essentially over and your job as a project manager comes to a close. But the project’s not over yet.

During this project closing step, before everyone forgets, it’s useful to hold a post-project review meeting or post-mortem to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the project and team, what went wrong or didn’t go so well, and how to improve in the future.

This can be one of the most rewarding stages of project management, as it’s a great opportunity to recognize and acknowledge valuable team members and celebrate successes.

Key Steps For Project Closure

Project performance analysis : This is an overall look at how well the project was managed, and whether the initial estimates of costs and benefits were accurate. Were there unforeseen risks? What issues arose and how well were they dealt with? Has the project plan been changed, and how?
Team analysis : Did everyone do what they were assigned to do? Were they passionate and motivated enough? Did they stay thorough and accountable? Was the communication within the project team healthy and constructive?
Project closure : Document the tasks needed to bring the project to an official end. This includes closing supplier agreements, signing off contracts, and handing in all the necessary project documentation.
Post-implementation review : Write down a formal analysis of successes and failure, resulting lessons learned , and suggestions for the future. At the end of every successful project, you will learn that room for improvement always remains.

the 5 phases of the project management life cycle laid out in order with text describing each one

Why Is The Project Life Cycle Important?

While the project life cycle might not sound that interesting, it is important because it’s what we as project managers lead and facilitate.

The steps involved in any project are generally the same: define a project’s objectives, create a project plan to meet the objectives, and then make stuff happen to accomplish it. Different project managers or agencies may use slightly different terms to describe the project life cycle phases in various projects, but fundamentally, they’re pretty much the same.

A project always has to start somewhere: the problem that needs fixing needs to be defined. A solution to fixing that problem and an approach to doing it then has to be created.

That plan has to then be put into action, and then that plan has to be tracked to make sure it does what it’s supposed to. The project is then deployed, performance is evaluated, and the project is officially over.

The project life cycle provides project managers with steps to follow throughout projects. It defines where to start, and where to go next at each stage in the project. No matter how crazy things get, you’ll have a reliable structure to go back to and regroup on.

When The Project Life Cycle Gets Complex

The project life cycle is simple, right? No, of course not! Like most things in life, projects are complex and involve a large number of variables, along with plenty of grey area.

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If you’re just diving into the world of project management for the first time, you might feel intimidated by starting a new project. Fortunately, you can utilize the project life cycle, which is a set of stages that takes a project from start to completion. Read on to learn about each phase of the project lifecycle, its role in the success of the project, and how you can properly manage each phase for optimum results.

What are Project Phases?

Project phases are smaller portions of a project that represent distinct goals or milestones in the larger project lifecycle. Within the project lifecycle, there are 5 project phases, as defined by the Project Management Institute:

Project Initiation
Project Planning
Project Execution
Project Monitoring and Control
Project Closure

An entire project comes with a lot of requirements before it could even start, which are often gathered during the discovery phase or requirement phase. Once the project kicks off, each stage of the actual execution itself has another set of specific requirements of the project team, as well as key deliverables and action items that keep the project moving forward successfully. Mastering project phases is essential for keeping the project on track while completing essential tasks and checkpoints throughout the process.

example of the project lifecycle in stages.

Project Planning Phase

Once the expectations and success criteria are clear, the next project management life cycle phase focuses on planning each task the team needs to perform to cover the scope, achieve the deliverables, and meet the overall goal.

In the Project Planning Phase, the project team members dive into specific requirements, tasks, timelines, and actions. The project manager works with the entire team to create the design, enumerate the task list, and estimate the budget.

The project team builds the resource plan, the communications plan, and the initial project schedule. The project manager also establishes the roles and responsibilities of the team and stakeholders. The project scope is finalized depending on approved available resources and client priorities.

During the Planning Phase , the project team finalizes the Work Breakdown Structure, Project Plan, Requirements List, Communications Management Plan, and other relevant documents to iron out the workflow and coordination with involved parties.

The Project Plan is a key deliverable and contains a detailed work breakdown structure (WBS) or task list with start and end dates, and estimated effort and duration. It identifies milestones, resources, and the schedule. It also includes task dependencies that will allow the project team to use the critical path method if it chooses.

Other important deliverables are the Communications Management Plan, which helps facilitate effective communication with stakeholders, and the Resource Allocation Plan which identifies the schedule of project team resources as to their availability during the whole project life cycle.

Something PMs should keep in mind: As you discover more information, you may have to adjust your previous Project Plan and related procedures. More complex projects will require more back-and-forth approvals for every task created.

Project planning is an iterative process so the project manager should review, revise, and revisit all the plans at least once a month until the completion of the project. It is crucial for the project team to involve relevant stakeholders in this stage of the project life cycle as well.

Read more: Project Management Communication Plan

Project Execution Phase

The Project Execution Phase is where the project team executes and follows through on tasks based on the Project Plan. At this stage, the team spends most of its time coordinating with people, helping to ensure quality work, keeping track of resources, and updating stakeholders.

Sometimes called the Implementation Phase, this is the phase when the project manager tries to manage every task and aspect of project delivery to keep the project on track for the remaining duration of the project life cycle.

The project team focuses on achieving all the objectives set in the earlier phases. At this phase, the project leader likely uses project management software to assign every task to team members. Tools that centralize task information, along with resource availability and team communication can simplify and optimize the needed project management processes.

Quality Assurance documentation, meeting minutes, and Work Orders are some of the documents created during the Execution Phase of the project management life cycle.

It’s also likely that you’ll discover new information that will require a revisit and update of the initial project management plans. Be vigilant with change requests, and make sure that the necessary adjustments are managed.

Read more: Understanding Different Types of Stakeholders and Their Roles

Project Monitoring & Control Phase

The best way to ensure progress and improvement is by tracking and reviewing project performance.

Simultaneously during execution, the project team carefully tracks the progress of the project based on the Project Plan established earlier. Tracking the performance of the project through various metrics is crucial to ensure the project stays on schedule, within budget, and within scope.

The project team keeps track of change management documents, spending records, QA checklists, and team time tracking. They are able to measure where efforts and resources go throughout the project life cycle, crosschecking it with the Project Plan.

Both the Execution Phase and Monitoring & Control Phase are critical times that can determine project success. Aside from monitoring the progress of tasks, the project manager also tries to identify issues or risks, creates a mitigation plan with the team, and reports the project status regularly to stakeholders.

Being diligent in recording and measuring project progress puts the project team in a strategic position. They can identify bottlenecks and initiate essential discussions or project management process improvements.

Having a proactive approach will allow the project team to respond rapidly to any change in the plan. Consistent and appropriate status reporting will update interested stakeholders and provide them the opportunity to intervene in or redirect the project as needed.

If additional planning, time, or resources are needed, you’ll need to communicate them to relevant project stakeholders before it’s too late. You’ll also have the data and results to back up your requests, so you have a better chance of justifying your requests and maintaining their trust despite circumstances.

Read more: 10 Best Project Management Software Buyers’ Guide

Project Closure Phase

In the last project management life cycle phase, all the activities related to its completion are concluded. These may involve the submission of a final deliverable, fulfilling contractual obligations, terminating relevant agreements, and releasing project resources.

The causes of a project closure can be completion, cancellation, termination, or transfer to a new organization. The documentation required to complete Project Closure will differ depending on the situation.

In this phase, the project manager communicates the final project disposition and status to all stakeholders. This phase also ensures to inform participants and stakeholders of any follow-on activities or continuing product life cycle so they can communicate and coordinate with the people in charge.

Regardless of the outcome of the project life cycle, however, it would be good for the team to conduct a project retrospective. During this post-mortem activity, the project team can process new lessons and ensure the improvement of current project management processes for a future project.

During the project closeout, documents to turn over can include various project documentation, final meeting minutes, and other closure reports. These documents can identify and capture lessons learned and best practices for future reference and reuse.

It is a good idea to organize and store project materials in a shared team folder. These materials can provide reference during performance evaluation. The opportunity to continuously test, improve, or reinvent ways to manage the whole project life cycle can help grow the organization and its business.

Read more: How to Host a Good Project Post-Mortem Meeting

VIDEO: Recap of 5 Project Management Phases

Why Are Project Phases Important?

All projects go through each of the five phases regardless of their size.

The decision to officially divide a project into phases is an excellent way to manage the team’s focus, allocate resources, and align the entire project life cycle with clients and stakeholders.

By thinking in terms of phases, the project team ensures that deliverables produced at the end of each phase meet the project’s goals. Managing a project by phase also makes sure that the team is properly prepared for the next phase.

Project life cycle phases provide additional benefits. The approach provides a structured approach for project delivery. Defined activities, outputs, and responsibilities create a clear and common roadmap for the project team to follow.

Defined phases and defined roles show a visible framework easily understood by all team members and stakeholders. Assignment of responsibilities by phase clarifies what the team should only be doing in each phase and helps streamline communication.

Working on projects phase by phase helps track and link progress directly to each phase. Completion of each phase is easily recognizable by all involved.

Another benefit of project management by phase is the progressive evolution of the project. This helps identify areas that need greater attention for a particular phase. It also marks clearly the points and opportunities for structured reviews to support project governance.

Though equally important, they are not to be confused with the process groups outlined in PMBOK’s IPECC model , which also includes initiation, planning, execution, control, and closure but refers to a collection of activities needed to achieve specific goals. Process groups are sometimes considered part of project phases.

While PMBOK recommends assigning project phases according to a project’s life cycle, project teams can follow their own system depending on their industry, organizational policies, and other relevant factors. For example, teams and organizations focused on monitoring the usage of resources can use the critical chain project management methodology.

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Blog Data Visualization What is The Project Life Cycle & its 5 Main Phases?

What is The Project Life Cycle & its 5 Main Phases?

Written by: Midori Nediger Oct 31, 2023

To an outsider, it might seem like the project management process is easy…just talking to clients, scheduling meetings, assigning tasks and reminding team members of deadlines.

But anyone who has managed a project will tell you it’s much more than that, which is why the project life cycle is so useful.

What is a project life cycle?

The project life cycle is a 5-step framework designed to help project managers guide their projects successfully from start to finish. The purpose of the project life cycle is to create an easy-to-follow framework to guide projects.

What are the 5 main stages of the project life cycle?

The project initiation stage : Define project goals, evaluate feasibility and establish the project’s purpose and stakeholders.
The project planning stage : Create a comprehensive project blueprint outlining tasks, timelines and resource allocation .
The project execution stage : Put the project plan into action, ensuring effective communication and coordination among team members.
The project monitoring & controlling stage : Track project progress, identify any deviations and make necessary adjustments to keep the project on course.
The project closure stage : Complete all project tasks, obtain client approval and conduct a thorough review to capture valuable insights for future projects.

Understanding and planning for the 5 stages of the project life cycle can help you manage, organize and plan so your project will go off without a hitch.

A project management life cycle will help:

Ease communication between project teams and stakeholders with the help of agile project management tools
Ensure goals are achievable with the available resources
Help mitigate risk and keep projects on track

But what does each stage of the cycle look like?

1. Project initiation stage: Define project goals, evaluate feasibility and establish the project’s purpose and stakeholders.

The initiation stage of the project management life cycle is when you meet with clients and stakeholders to understand their goals, motivations and hopes for the project.

During this stage the aim is to hash out the high-level goals that must be met for you to consider the project a success. There’s lots of research, discovery and discussion, but very little detailed planning in this phase.

The key project management steps for the initiation stage include:

Identifying project objectives and deliverables
Outlining project risks , dependencies, constraints and priorities
Establishing project scope based on deadlines and available resources
Submitting a project proposal for approval (our proposal maker can help you with that)

We’ve got a more detailed guide to writing a project management plan if you want more information. This covers project management basics along with all the elements that need to be included. You can also get PMP Certification to get specific training on how to do this.

I’ll go through the basics here.

Let’s take a look at what’s involved for each of these tasks.

Kick off the project management process by identifying project objectives and deliverables

Start by talking with your stakeholders or clients to get to know their needs. Try to tease out what’s important to them, what projects they’ve tried in the past and what they hope to see in the future.

From there, you can move on to building out the concrete objectives and deliverables that your team will be responsible for, given the scope of the project and the available resources.

Be sure to document the takeaways from these initial meetings…you’ll want to have a record of the agreed-upon deliverables when it comes to the project closure stage.

Pro-tip: Set S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals. For example: “In 3 months, increase blog conversion rates by 5%”.

Outline project risks, dependencies, constraints and priorities

Once you’ve mapped out the high-level project goals, it’s time to explore all of the variables that might impact the progress of the project, including:

Risks: Factors that can negatively impact the cost, goals, timeline, or results of a project
Dependencies: Relationships between activities or tasks
Constraints: Limiting factors like technology, resources, time and cost

By identifying all of these variables early on you can nip a lot of potential problems in the bud, before they throw off your whole project timeline .

A risk breakdown structure , like the one below, can aid in identifying and assessing all of the risks in your project. A risk breakdown structure is a hierarchical representation of risks, starting with the high-level risks and then breaking it down into more granular risks. It can be an essential tool for project risk management .

Establish project scope based on deadlines and available resources

With a handle on all of the variables at play, you can start breaking the project down into more actionable steps. Set boundaries on project scope based on your deadlines and the resources at your disposal and think about what skill set your future team will need .

Mind maps and flowcharts can be helpful for organizing all of the moving parts to map out what’s reasonable based on project constraints.

Summarize the takeaways of the project initiation stage in a project proposal

All of the details that you establish during the initiation stage should be outlined in a project proposal, the only major deliverable for this initiation stage.

A project proposal is a report that details all of the goals, scope, requirements, budget, participants and deadlines of a project.

Not to be confused with a project plan , which includes a much more in-depth description of how the project will be executed, a project proposal should be no longer than a few pages.

Depending on the complexity of a project, an action plan one-pager, like the one below, might suffice.

Check out our job proposal templates , business proposal templates and consulting proposal templates for more options.

Either way, when you’re a few months into the project, trying to prioritize the work of your team and make decisions that impact the direction of the project, you’ll thank yourself for creating clear documentation of these high-level project goals.

Create a professional looking project life cycle visualization

Make sure your project life cycle visualization sits within your company branding for a truly professional looking design. Venngage Business users can use the My Brand Kit and see their company colors, logos and fonts automatically applied to Venngage templates.

Business users can also invite feedback directly to their design with the Venngage comment feature. Learn more about My Brand Kit, Comment Mode and more features of the Venngage Business account:

2. Project planning stage: Create a comprehensive project blueprint outlining tasks, timelines and resource allocation.

Once your project proposal has been approved, it’s time to move on to the project planning stage of the project life cycle.

The project planning stage is when you create a comprehensive project plan , which involves:

Translating your proposal into a series of actionable tasks and scheduling them in a project roadmap
Documenting processes or workflows that your team will use (you could try using a process infographic for this)
Creating measurable short-term goals from high-level project goals
Addressing potential issues that could derail your roadmap

This project plan will be the source of truth for your team when any questions, conflicts, or issues arise throughout the project.

Let’s dig into the most important major deliverable of the project planning stage: the project roadmap.

Create a project roadmap with project tasks and milestones

Creating a project roadmap is one of the more important project management life cycle steps, crucial for organizing your team and keeping work on track. A project roadmap outlines all of the start and end dates of every major project task (plus any big milestones you’re working towards).

Pro Tip: Use our roadmap maker to create professional, engaging roadmaps.

Gantt charts (like the one below) are a great tool for project roadmapping, because they can show the duration and timing of a number of dependent tasks. They’re perfect for planning and scheduling and eventually monitoring progress throughout the execution stage of the project life cycle.

The best thing about using a Gantt chart for your project roadmap?

You can show a number of concurrent timelines on a single chart , which makes it easy to account for task dependencies.

For example, this Gantt chart template shows project tasks for multiple teams over the course of a few months:

The visual format of a Gantt chart makes visualizing and adjusting for dependencies much easier than a spreadsheet. And because it’s visual, it’s easy for you team to see, understand and give feedback on their upcoming tasks.

Once your roadmap is in place, the last step of the planning stage is to assemble your team and hold a project kickoff, launching you into the next stage of the project life cycle: the execution stage.

Check out this blog post for more Gantt chart templates .

3. Project execution stage: Put the project plan into action, ensuring effective communication and coordination among team members.

The project execution stage is the true start of the project, when you carry out all of the tasks and activities you mapped out in the planning stage.

This is where the majority of the project work takes place and it requires constant monitoring. Expect to adjust your goals and roadmap as you get deeper into the project.

As a project manager, your main responsibilities of the project execution stage are to:

Monitor and control the execution process, reviewing the quality of the team’s output
Adjust and update tasks, goals and deadlines to meet changing conditions
Communicate between your team and the project stakeholders

Create status reports to communicate execution progress throughout the project management process

Although most of your time during the execution stage of the project management process will be spent monitoring and adjusting to keep the project on track, you’ll also need to keep stakeholders up to date with any changes to the project status.

Using a project status report template , like the one below, will help make sure you don’t leave out any pertinent details when you’re communicating with stakeholders.

For example, this status report includes an overview of project performance so far, plus up-to-date project milestones:

While this status report template is shorter, focused around an executive summary, but includes space for notes from every team representative:

KPIs and budget updates should also be included, if you have any.

4. Project monitoring & controlling stage: track project progress, identify any deviations and make necessary adjustments

The monitoring and controlling stage of a project is a critical phase that ensures project activities align with the predetermined objectives and milestones.

During this phase, project managers and stakeholders closely oversee project progress, assess performance and make necessary adjustments to keep the project on track.

Effective monitoring and controlling practices are essential for mitigating risks, identifying potential issues and ensuring the project’s timely completion within the allocated budget.

During the monitoring and controlling stage of a project, the key project management steps include:

Measure and assess the project’s progress against the project plan and key performance indicators.
Identify and manage potential risks that could impact project objectives, and implement strategies to mitigate these risks.
Monitor and evaluate the quality of project deliverables to ensure they meet predefined standards and client expectations.
Assess and handle any changes to project scope, schedule or resources effectively, while considering their potential impact on the project.
Maintain open lines of communication with stakeholders, keeping them informed about the project’s progress and addressing any concerns or issues promptly.
Identify and address any project issues or conflicts that may arise, aiming to resolve them efficiently to prevent delays or disruptions.

Create a quality control checklist to maintain consistent quality standards throughout the project lifecycle

To systematically evaluate each deliverable against established quality benchmarks can take a lot of time. A great tip for project managers is to use a quality control checklist to quickly identify any deviations or discrepancies and take corrective actions to maintain the overall quality of the project.

Quality control checklists help in maintaining consistent quality standards throughout the project. By defining specific quality criteria, project managers can ensure that all deliverables meet the same level of quality, thereby enhancing the overall project integrity and customer satisfaction.

These checklists enable the early identification of any deficiencies or discrepancies in the project deliverables. By detecting quality issues early in the project lifecycle, quality control checklists help in minimizing the need for rework and additional corrections.

Here’s a quality control checklist template you can use in the monitoring and controlling stage of your project:

5. Project closure stage: analyze results, summarize key learnings and plan next steps

Once you’ve achieved your project goals and the results have been signed off on by your stakeholders, it’s time for the project closure stage.

In the project closure stage of the project management process, you:

Hand off deliverables
Release team members and project resources
Analyze project performance in a project retrospective

A project retrospective is as much about reviewing the success of the project as it is about extracting learnings that can apply to future projects. Projects will never go without obstacles and there will always be things to learn that will ease the progress of other projects.

There are many ways to run a project retrospective meeting , but you should try to identify your biggest wins and losses and come up with solutions. If you’re an external consultant, you might even ask your client for feedback .

Keep track of your notes somewhere that will be accessible by your whole team, like a shared spreadsheet (or send out an email after the meeting):

Another duty of a project manager in the project closure phase can be to analyze the performance of the team, based on the quality of their work and how well they were able to meet deadlines.

These performance reviews can be delivered to team members (or higher-ups) in the form of an easy to read visual summary, like the one below:

But remember…your project isn’t complete until all of your documents have been handed over and approved by your client or stakeholder.

Use Venngage to communicate your progress throughout the project life cycle

Any project manager worth their salt knows that clear communication is the backbone of any successful project. Venngage helps you make your communication visual , so that you can wow clients and keep your team aligned.

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The Project Life Cycles and Their Main Types

A project’s life cycle is the series of stages that it goes through from beginning to end. It is an essential component of project management and the foundation for success. Three of the most common project life cycles are predictive, design, and hybrid. Each life cycle has distinct advantages and disadvantages, and it is critical to understand each to select the best approach for a specific project.

The predictive life cycle is the most traditional and widely used project life cycle. The project cycle entails breaking the project into manageable phases, each with its objectives and activities to be completed before moving on to the next. All project life cycles consist of five phases: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and closure (Project Management Academy, 2017; Marjanowski et al., 2017). The initiation phase is the first step in the project life cycle. It involves defining the project’s goals and objectives and determining who will be responsible. The execution phase guarantees actual work to be done to ensure all project deliverables are managed. The project manager ensures resources are available for easier coordination and teamwork building. The monitoring and control phase is where the project’s progress is monitored, and any necessary changes are made. The closure phase is where the project is evaluated, and the lessons learned are documented (Project Management Academy, 2017). The predictive life cycle comprises five phases for managing and completing projects with precise requirements and scopes.

Unlike other project life cycles, the design Life Cycle approach to project management is characterized by its focus on flexibility throughout the different stages and design process. This cycle is typically used for projects where the scope and requirements could be better defined at the outset and require more creative input from the project team. Design cycles are ideal for projects that require a high level of creativity and customer engagement and are complex. The primary benefit of this approach is that it enables project managers to rapidly develop and refine the project plan as the project progresses. However, because there is often a need for more structure and the project is subject to frequent changes, this type of cycle can be challenging to manage (Rana & Chudoba, 2020). Design cycles are ideal for projects that require a high level of creativity and customer engagement and are complex.

The Hybrid Life Cycle is a hybrid of the Predictive and Design approaches to project management, and it is differentiated from other project life cycles by its emphasis on combining the benefits of both. This cycle is typically used for projects where the scope and requirements need to be better defined at the start but require high predictability. The main benefit of this approach is that it allows project managers to rapidly develop and refine the project plan while also creating a schedule that accounts for the project’s variables. However, due to the lack of structure and the project being subject to frequent changes, this type of cycle can be challenging to manage (Harris et al., 2019). Hybrid cycles are ideal for projects that require a high level of customer engagement and complexity

In conclusion, the Predictive Life Cycle is a traditional project management method that works best for projects with a clear scope and timeline. The Design Life Cycle is a more adaptable approach that works best for projects requiring creativity and improvisation. The Hybrid Life Cycle approach combines the Predictive and Design Life Cycle approaches. It is best suited for projects requiring well-defined requirements and a high level of creativity and improvisation. Each project life cycle has steps and processes to ensure the project is completed on time and within budget.

Harris, T. M., Eranki, P. L., & Landis, A. E. (2019). Life cycle assessment of proposed space elevator designs . Acta Astronautica , 161 , 465–474. Web.

Project Management Academy. (2017). The five traditional process groups explained – Project Management Academy . Web.

Marjanowski, J., Tomasiewicz, J., & Frączek, W. (2017). The electric-powered motorglider AOS-71–the study of development . Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology , 89 (4), 579-589. Web.

Rana, L., & Chudoba, B. (2020). Demonstration of a prototype design synthesis capability for space access vehicle design . The Aeronautical Journal , 124 (1281), 1761–1788. Web.

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Project management

5 phases of the project life cycle: An end-to-end guide

If you've ever been responsible for planning and delivering a project, you know how many moving parts fall into a project management life cycle.

First, you need to decide why this project is taking place and what it will accomplish.

Then comes planning, assigning, and setting deadlines. Of course, you should track your project milestones every step of the way. Finally, you must deliver the entire project to your client on time and within budget.

That’s a lot to plan and manage.

Breaking down the project life cycle and carefully planning tasks makes the process much easier. It helps you stay on top of your deadlines, progress, and goals so you deliver a successful product.

Today, we’ll explore the five phases of a project life cycle and how to tackle them like a pro!

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5 phases of the project life cycle

What is a project life cycle?

A project lifecycle is a series of phases that define the process of taking a project from its inception to completion. It provides structure — or, rather, a roadmap — to help you organize, manage, and track progress.

Each phase has its own objectives and deliverables that build on the next and eventually lead to the successful completion of a project. This allows the project manager to break down every task and request into smaller, manageable chunks so it's easier to carefully plan and deliver everything.

Learning a project life cycle (and why it is so useful) gives leaders a framework to plan, execute, and deliver every project like a smooth operator.

What are the 5 phases of the project life cycle?

Much like you would break down the life cycle of a customer or a product, there are phases to the process to help you stay on track. Knowing each phase's key milestones and deliverables will help you plan and manage your projects effectively. Here, we'll explore the five stages of the project life cycle phase and how to execute each one effectively.

1. Project initiation phase

Every project life cycle starts with the same question: Why are we doing this project in the first place?

This phase of the project management life cycle is called project initiation. It helps determine the vision, goals, and scope of the project. This is where you set up the roadmap for success and decide whether it’s feasible. Here, teams discuss the problem that the project will solve and how they plan to achieve their goals (whether internally or for a stakeholder).

Suppose your client is having problems turning landing page visitors into leads with their latest marketing campaign. In that case, the initiation phase will analyze the problem and brainstorm how to overcome the roadblocks.

To do this, your team will need to:

Break down the problem in detail so you can figure out whether or not your plan will actually fix or solve the project.

Calculate how long the project will last, how many resources you'll need, and whether or not your agency has the capacity to take it on.

Identify the individual deliverables for the project (i.e., landing page audit to track conversions, new strategy implementation).

Write a detailed description (project charter) of what the project work will look like (including a project timeline and costs) for the client, so they can see if it fits with their budget and time constraints.

Don't spend a ton of time and resources on the project initiation phase. It’s likely that you (and your client) are still deciding whether or not the project is a good fit. Try to think of it as a contract rather than a scope of work.

Once a project charter is delivered outlining your plan, you’re all set! Now, you just need to wait for their answer.

Project objectives during the initiation phase

Feasibility study: What problem must the client solve, and can you fix it?

Identify project scope: Outline the project's goals, milestones, and budget.

Establish the success criteria: Does your agency have the bandwidth to take on the project?

Identify the project stakeholders: Who will be involved in the project? How does the project affect them? What are their needs and expectations?

Prepare and deliver a project charter: Outline the project timeline, budget, and deliverables to your client for review.

Gain stakeholder approval: Get the client's sign-off to move forward.

Once the project has been given the green light, move on to Phase 2 of the project life cycle — planning.

2. Project planning phase

The planning phase is where your team goes from "How do we solve this problem?" to "Here's how we're going to solve this problem."

This is where ideas, deadlines, milestones, and expectations are put onto paper. It's also where the project schedule is put into place.

Before sitting your team down to start brainstorming about the project timeline, the project manager has some specifics to work out. For example:

Who will be working on the project?

Which team members will be responsible for delivering each task?

What are the key project milestones and goals, and when do they need to be delivered?

Will the project's timeline rely on dependencies? (i.e., what task must be finished before this other one can start?)

Where should your team communicate and collaborate once the project kicks off?

Which metrics will you use to measure project success once work begins?

As you can see, there are a lot of project pieces to organize before you can even meet with your team with a solid plan. The next part of the planning phase is to build an in-depth project plan that acts like your team's "north star."

This is where task lists, milestones, deadlines, and expectations are written in black and white to keep everyone aligned. You'll also need to consider the project's budget and timeline to ensure the client gets what they want within their specified time frame and budget.

However, building a project plan can be a time-consuming process. If you don't already have one, you can easily make your own , save it, and use it to plan future projects. Or simply download our free project plan template to help your team manage projects more efficiently to complete them on time and stay within budget.

Automate your processes with templates

Use project and task list templates to ensure your team never misses a step at each phase of your product development process, and use triggers to automatically add due dates or reassign tasks for smoother, more efficient team handovers as you move through the project’s life cycle.

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Once you've got a project plan in place, the next step is to call a team meeting to get feedback from the people working on it. This meeting will hash out some finer details, like whether the project deliverables and timelines are realistic.

Project objectives during the planning phase

Complete a detailed project plan: Clearly outline deliverables, dependencies, milestones, and deadlines. Devise a work breakdown structure to break tasks into smaller, more manageable pieces.

Allocate tasks: Assign tasks to team members based on each person’s skills and availability. Ensure everyone understands their roles, responsibilities, and expectations and they have access to the resources they need.

Create a financial plan: Map out the project’s budget and add in any contingencies for unexpected expenses — detail allocations for every cost associated with the project.

Establish timelines & expectations: Outline the project timeline, communication protocols, and rules of engagement. Set your quality targets, review points, and success criteria.

Devise a risk mitigation plan: Identify potential risks and create mitigation plans. Detail how to handle scope creep, unexpected delays, and other disruptions.

Now that your team is up to speed and your plan is in place, it's time to begin the project work.

3. Project execution phase

The execution phase is where the rubber meets the road. This is where your team puts in the work to bring ideas and plans to fruition.

You've already decided who is responsible for what tasks and when they need to be done, so it's time to get rolling. This is where the project manager keeps a close eye on progress, reviews team members' work, and ensures everyone stays on track.

Your responsibilities in this phase of the project include:

Task management and conducting regular meetings with your team to make sure everything is on track.

Ensure the team hits milestones and allocated resources aren’t stretched beyond capacity.

Talk to your team regularly to set expectations, provide updates on project progress, and give the next steps to keep the project moving smoothly.

Even with the smallest projects, keeping tabs on both individual and project-wide progress can be tough. Fortunately, you can automate most of this process with the right tools.

Project reporting solutions like Teamwork.com can be used to track milestones and flag them when they are at risk of being missed. Each project milestone is tracked automatically and kept inside a Planned vs. Actual Milestone Report you can access from anywhere.

This report breaks down the percentage of tasks completed within each milestone (and when they’re due) so project managers can easily see whether they’ll be finished in time.

Using the time period dropdown in the top right, you can switch between week, month, and quarter views.

If deadlines are at risk of being missed, the report will alert you so that additional resources can be allocated to get your timeline back on track.

Project objectives during the execution phase

Monitor progress: How is your team progressing against the project plan? Has your team completed all of their tasks on time and hit the planned milestones?

Provide feedback & support: Give consistent updates, recognize a job well done, and provide timely feedback. Encourage, support, and motivate your team to keep them engaged.

Manage risks & bottlenecks: Review the project plan, task list, and timeline regularly to spot any risks or bottlenecks. Is anything holding up progress? Are there any tasks that need to be reassigned or scheduled differently? Refer to your risk mitigation plan to address any issues quickly.

Communicate progress: Hold regular meetings with your team and other stakeholders. Give updates on project progress, answer questions, and address any potential issues.

With everything running smoothly, it's time to take a closer look at the project numbers and make sure budgets and productivity are on pace. This is phase four of the project life cycle — control.

4. Project control phase

Progress is fantastic, but not without the budget, deliverables, and client expectations aligning every step of the way. In other words, you need to ensure that nothing slips through the cracks and that you stay on track with your original targets. To ensure this happens, it’s time to dig into some critical metrics.

For project managers, this means:

Tracking resource utilization and task competition rates to ensure everyone is working at the predicted productivity rate

Measuring spent vs. remaining budget while also calculating if you need to cut costs to meet the forecasted project spend

Keeping in regular contact with the client and updating them on progress, as well as getting feedback about any issues they have throughout the project

Once again, doing all of this is hard without the right project management software . Manually keeping tabs on which tasks are getting done or how much money is being spent can easily take up most of your day.

Teamwork.com’s health report solves this by giving project managers a real-time snapshot of the most critical parts of a project.

Automatically track everything from task progress to milestones and budgets as Teamwork.com combines all this data into a dashboard. Project managers can quickly see which deliverables may be at risk if they don't take action.

This phase is also where you need to be strict about where your project team spends their time.

Let's say that your team is conducting a six-week website audit for a client. After two weeks, it's clear that there is a lot of work to do on their site — more work than in the original project outline.

It's up to the project manager to talk to the client and outline that if they want the extra problems tackled, the project charter needs to be updated to reflect the extra work (and extra costs). Communicating with the client before your team does any extra work is the only way to ensure the project doesn’t fall victim to scope creep.

Project objectives during the control phase

Review progress: Track project progress, resource utilization, and task completion rates. Is your team’s productivity meeting what you originally forecasted? Did any tasks slip through the cracks?

Analyze budget: Review your budget and ensure the project spend aligns with your initial predictions. Is the project staying on budget? Are there areas where you can cut costs?

Client communication and change management: Keep your client informed about possible problems with the project charter (i.e., extra work your team has come across that needs to be completed before the project can move forward). Address any issues they have and get their feedback.

Risk management: Are you monitoring possible risks to your project’s health and dealing with them so the work will still get delivered on time? This is critical to preventing costly delays and maintaining client relationships.

When all the work for the project has been completed, it is time to deliver it to the client and wrap everything up.

5. Project closure phase

Don’t be fooled by the name.

The final stage of a project life cycle — the project closure phase — is more than just delivering files to your client and waiting for your check.

First, you need to conduct a smooth handover with your client and make sure they're happy with your team's work as per the initial statement of work. Ask for their feedback and if they've got any suggestions on improving it if you work together again.

Then the team needs to complete a project retrospective to see what went right, what went wrong, and what needs to be improved. This should include:

A meeting with team feedback on what worked best or how it could improve

Analyzing report analytics to see how the project budget, resource utilization, and timeframes matched up to what was originally planned

Planning to fix any problems in the next project

Post-mortems don’t just help your team work better on the next project — they also show your clients that you're serious about doing your best work for them. This (hopefully) gets them jazzed about using your agency again.

Project objectives during the closure phase

Project performance analysis: An overview of the project management process, including how the project was managed, whether it met the cost and benefits, and any unforeseen issues that arose during the execution. How did the team perform? Did everyone meet their expectations, and was the communication plan effective?

Document project closure: Assess and outline all the tasks you need to do before the official project delivery. Sign off contracts, close open supplier agreements, and allocate unused budget for future projects.

Post-implementation review: Every project is a learning process. Document successes, failures, and suggestions for future projects.

Mastering the project life cycle makes your pipeline more efficient

The multi-step process of a project life cycle can be overwhelming if you don't have a project management plan in place. You'll need to plan everything from writing project charters to tracking progress and preventing scope creep to ensure a successful project.

When you understand each phase of a project's life cycle, this becomes a lot less daunting. Breaking each phase down into manageable pieces will help you navigate your project pipeline successfully and deliver every project on budget and on time.

With Teamwork.com, it’s easy to track every phase of your project from start to finish. Try it free for 30 days!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Willow is a Brand and Communications Specialist at Teamwork.com. She has a deep understanding of agencies, and works to develop content and campaigns that speak their language and support their unique needs.

The engineer’s guide to project management software

How architects use project management software (+ 5 top tools)

What does a finance project manager do?

Product project management: How to ensure your agency delivers for early-stage founders

Standardizing your product management workflow for superior project outcomes

How product leads leverage the sprint cycle to meet client deadlines

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Project Management and project lifecycle

2020, Project Management and project life cycle

a breif introduction to the project management with project life cycle

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