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A project’s life cycle is the series of phases that the project passes through as it goes from its genesis to its completion. A phase is a collection of logically related project activities that culminates in the completion of one or more project milestones or deliverables (see Chapters 5 and 6 for more on project deliverables). Every project, whether large or small, passes through the following four life cycle phases:

 Starting the project: This phase involves generating, evaluating, and framing the business need for the project and the general approach to performing it and agreeing to prepare a detailed project plan. Outputs from this phase may include approval to proceed to the next phase, documentation of the need for the project and rough estimates of time and resources to perform it (often included in a project charter), and an initial list of people who may be interested in, involved with, or affected by the project. This phase typically encompasses a set of project management process groups, collectively referred to as the Initiating processes.

 Organizing and preparing: This phase involves developing a plan that specifies the desired results; the work to do; the time, cost, and other resources required; and a plan for how to address key project risks. Outputs from this phase may include a project plan that documents the intended project results and the time, resources, and supporting processes needed to create them. The project management process groups that support this phase are called planning processes.

 Carrying out the work: This phase involves establishing the project team and the project support systems, performing the planned work, and monitoring and controlling performance to ensure adherence to the current plan. Outputs from this phase may include project results, project progress reports, and other communications. Executing processes is the general term for all those that are performed during this phase.

 Closing the project: This phase involves assessing the project results, obtaining customer approvals, transitioning project team members to new assignments, closing financial accounts, and conducting a post-project evaluation. Outputs from this phase may include final, accepted, and approved project results and recommendations and suggestions for applying lessons learned from this project to similar efforts in the future.

We began this chapter by discussing that PMI-updated PMBOK 7 to move away from rigidly prescribed life cycle phases and project management knowledge areas, in favor of more flexible project performance domains and project management principles. However, it is helpful to understand where the life cycle phases and knowledge areas of the past are complemented or replaced by the performance domains and principles of today.

For small projects, this entire life cycle can take just a few days. For larger projects, it can take many years! In fact, to allow for greater focus on key aspects and to make it easier to monitor and control the work, project managers often subdivide larger projects into separate phases, each of which is treated as a mini-project and passes through these four life cycle phases. No matter how simple or complex the project is, however, these four phases (start; plan; do; stop) are the same.

In a perfect world, you complete one phase of your project’s life cycle before you move on to the next one, and after you complete that phase, you never return to it again. But the world isn’t perfect, and project success often requires a flexible approach that responds to real situations that you may face.

Some common, unplanned scenarios might include:

 You may have to work on two (or more) project phases at the same time to meet tight deadlines. Working on the next phase before you complete the current one increases the risk that you may have to redo tasks, which may cause you to miss deadlines and spend more resources than you originally planned. If you choose this strategy, document and be sure people understand the potential risks and costs associated with it (see Chapter 10 for how to assess and manage risks).

 Sometimes you learn by doing. Despite doing your best to assess feasibility and develop detailed plans, you may realize you can’t achieve what you thought you could. When this situation happens, you need to return to the earlier project phases and rethink them in light of the new information you’ve acquired.

 Sometimes things change unexpectedly. Your initial feasibility and benefits assessments are sound, and your plan is detailed and realistic. However, certain key project team members leave the organization without warning during the project. Or a new technology emerges, and it’s more appropriate to use than the one in your original plans. Because ignoring these occurrences may seriously jeopardize your project’s success, you need to return to the earlier project phases and rethink them in light of these new realities.