Project life cycle – stages of project management process.

Complex projects are far-reaching in scope, resource-intensive, and of high strategic importance. These projects require higher levels of project management expertise.

The Project Management Institute (PMI) created the project management life cycle to help. It’s a framework designed to guide project managers in running their projects smoothly and effectively.

For project managers, the life cycle brings greater cohesion to the project, ensuring that all team members — especially those from multiple departments — are aligned and can collaborate with relative ease.

Let’s go through how it works.

This post will cover:

• What is the project life cycle?
• What are the five stages of the project management process?
• Adapting project phases to different project life cycle models.
• Make sure projects succeed with Adobe Workfront.

The project life cycle encompasses the steps required for project managers to successfully manage a project from start to finish.

The primary purpose of a defined project life cycle is to provide a systematic approach to managing projects. It helps project managers execute their projects smoothly and efficiently — fostering cohesion among team members and ensuring that all departments involved are aligned. By breaking down the project into manageable phases, the life cycle enables better monitoring, ensuring the project stays on schedule and within the allocated budget.

This structured progression is vital for transforming strategic goals into successful project outcomes. The importance of this framework lies in its ability to provide a roadmap — which, in turn, enables more effective control over project variables, better resource allocation, and proactive risk management. Ultimately, understanding and implementing a project's life cycle are key factors in determining project success.

There are five phases to the project life cycle. Each of these project phases represents a group of interrelated processes that must occur for a project to be successful.

There are five stages in the project lifecycle:

1. Initiating
2. Planning
3. Executing
4. Monitoring and Controlling
5. Closing

Initiating phase.

The initiating phase of the project life cycle consists of two separate processes — the project charter and the stakeholder register. This phase involves determining the vision for your project, documenting what you hope to accomplish through a business case, and securing approvals from the sanctioning stakeholder.

The key components of the project charter include:

• Business case
• Project scope
• Deliverables
• Objectives
• Resources needed
• Milestone plan and timeline
• Cost estimate
• Risks and issues
• Dependencies

Taking the time to define your goals and objectives clearly will make the project easier to work on. Everyone involved will be able to discuss their suggestions or concerns, and the budget and costs can be agreed and signed off on. Having this initiating phase is essential — not only for the project, but for all the teams involved to have their say on what is needed for the success of the project.

Planning phase.

During the planning phase, it is crucial to outline and define the reason for the project. By answering the following questions, you can see what the project needs to achieve:

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

As a part of the planning phase, you will need to work with the team to implement the whole infrastructure and delegate specific tasks. This plan should include:

• Project management plan
• Project scope
• Work breakdown structure
• Resource plan
• Budget estimation

Getting the plan in place, with input from the entire team, is challenging. But when every department has a chance to contribute, it helps surface potential issues early and reduces roadblocks later in the project.

Executing phase.

The executing phase should involve the following vital parts:

• Team development
• Stakeholder engagement
• Quality assurance
• Communications
• Client management

This is the phase where magic happens — where most of the budget is allocated and most of the project deliverables are produced. You take your project plan and put it into action, whether that takes weeks, months, or even years. During this time, communication is essential. as there will be times when the client or stakeholders will want updates and progress reports.

Having a reliable project management system in place will save you and your team a lot of headaches. It will be easier to cross off tasks, see where deadlines and deliveries stand, and provide the team with insights into what needs to be done.

With Workfront, you can keep the whole project team updated and make reporting to clients and stakeholders easier.

Monitoring and controlling phase.

During the monitoring and controlling phase, you will need to ensure that you can keep track of the overall project progress as well as individual aspects. You will always need to stay vigilant and keep up to speed with tracking and reporting to the team, so you are aware of any potential problems before they escalate.

It is also worth having another member of the project team (or one from each department) to act as a quality controller or reporter. They can help you keep track of everything within their team and hold regular meetings to update on all aspects, ensuring the project stays on track.

Closing phase.

The final phase of the project life cycle is the closing phase. It is more than simply checking off the project as done and closing the project down. It’s essential to formally close the project and secure a sign-off or approval from the customer, stakeholders, and/or project sponsor.

This process might include:

• Delivering the project
• Hosting a post-mortem meeting
• Archiving project records
• Celebrating or acknowledging the achievement
• Officially disbanding or releasing the team

The importance of this final step in the project’s life cycle cannot be overstated. This is because more organizations bring in temporary teams to complete a specific project, then disband and regroup for another project. This is important for project management teams — especially those involving freelancers or consultants.

The following table provides a high-level overview of these five process groups:

The versatility of the five project management process groups is further demonstrated by their adaptability to various project life cycle models. While the core principles of initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing remain constant, their emphasis and mode of application can differ significantly — depending on whether the project follows a predictive, iterative, incremental, agile, or hybrid life cycle.

• Waterfall life cycle: In traditional predictive models, often referred to as the waterfall model, the project scope, time, and cost are determined as early as possible. Project life cycle phases tend to be applied more sequentially to the project, with distinct phase gates marking the transition from one phase to the next (e.g., completing all planning before execution begins). While there is still progressive elaboration during planning, the overall flow is more linear.
• Agile life cycles: Agile approaches, such as Scrum and Kanban, embrace change and involve rapid, iterative development cycles. Here, the process groups are applied in a highly condensed and repetitive fashion within each iteration or sprint.

• Iterative and incremental life cycles: These models involve developing the product through repeated cycles (iterative) and/or producing deliverables in a series of functional pieces (incremental). For instance, an iteration might involve planning the features for that cycle, executing their development, monitoring progress, and then closing the iteration with a review — before planning the next one.

• Hybrid life cycles: Hybrid models strategically blend elements from predictive and agile approaches to meet specific project needs. Consequently, the application of process groups is tailored. A project might employ detailed upfront planning for overall scope and architecture, followed by agile execution for developing specific components or features.

This adaptability demonstrates the robustness of the PMI process group framework. It is not rigidly tied to a single methodology. Still, it provides a universal set of management functions that can be tailored to the unique context and requirements of any project, regardless of the chosen delivery approach. This ensures that project managers have a consistent yet flexible toolkit to guide their projects to success.

Project management software, such as Workfront, offers features and functionalities that directly support these activities. Its reporting and dashboard capabilities are invaluable for the monitoring and controlling phase. The project management process framework, combined with the implementation of Workfront, helps achieve successful project execution. Workfront is designed to keep the whole project team updated and make reporting to clients and stakeholders easier — directly supporting the communication and control aspects vital throughout the project life cycle.

To explore how Workfront can support your team's project lifecycles and overall project management needs, watch the overview video.