Topic 1 What is the Project Life Cycle?

A project life cycle is the number and the series of phases that a project goes through from its creation until its completion.

The phases are generally consecutive, and their number, form, structure, and content are identified and determined by the management team and monitoring needs of the organisations or partners involved, the nature of the project itself, and its specialized area of application.

The phases of each project can be analysed and identified by objectives related to their functionality or partiality, the intermediary results or deliverables of the project, the specific milestones within the overall scope of the project’s work, or the budget available for each phase.

In general terms, each phase has a time limit, with a starting and ending point, as well as a controlling stage.

The phases of a project are usually completed consecutively but they may overlap depending on the context and the situation of each project. Therefore, the phases of each project vary in duration, activities, and effort.