Lessons · Project management · the project life cycle
The life cycle: start, plan, do, watch, finish
Every project passes through the same five kinds of work: initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing; the middle three overlap, the first and last do not.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
Asked in week two whether the team can start building, you need to know where the project is. If the plan is not baselined, starting means building to a target that will move. Knowing the phases is knowing what has to be true before the next thing starts.
How to think about it
Name the phase before you act. Initiating produces a charter; planning produces baselines; executing produces deliverables; monitoring compares the two and raises changes; closing produces acceptance and a record.
Worked example
Initiating: charter signed, stakeholders listedThe project exists and you know who it touches.
Planning: scope, schedule and cost baselines agreedThe three yardsticks every later measurement is taken against.
Executing: the work is done and deliverables appearMost of the money is spent here.
Monitoring and controlling: measure against the baselines, run change controlRuns alongside executing from the first day to the last.
Closing: acceptance signed, lessons written, team releasedThe end is a signature, not a silence.
Your turn
Name the phase that runs alongside execution rather than after it.
and controlling
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Treating the phases as a strict line. Monitoring does not wait for executing to finish; a project that is only measured at the end is measured too late to fix.