Importance of Project Management Life Cycle Phases

A project plan, also known as the project management plan, is the document that describes how the project will be executed, monitored, and controlled, and closed. Project Management involves to create a set of plans to guide a team through the implementation and closure phases of the project. The plans created during this phase will help the project team manage time, cost, quality, changes, risk and related issues. Project Managemet Phases, or stages, are very important for project managers. By thinking in terms of phases, you can ensure that the deliverables produced at the end of each phase meet their purpose, and that project team members (or sub-teams) are properly prepared for the next phase.

Project Life cycle provides a structure for project delivery. It improves communication between team members. It enables progress to be tracked across the organisation. It provides for the progressive evolution of the project.

Project Management Life Cycle is a series of essential activities for accomplishing project objectives or targets. The Project Management Life cycle process is divided into five main parts: 

1. Initiation phase, 
2. Planning phase, 
3. Execution phase and 
4. Monitoring and Controlling and 
5. Closing phase

Initiation phase defines those processes that are required to start a new project.This phase mainly composed of two main activities (i) Develop a Project Charter and (ii) Identify Stakeholders

The Project Charter defines the main elements of project and project has several stakeholders, and not all of them will be involved in every detail of the project. Project stakeholders include your customer, the end-users of the product, the company and its leaders, and the team working directly on the project.

Project Planning phase covers about 50% of the whole process. Planning phase determines the scope of the project as well as the objective of the project. The important aspects of planning process are : (i) Planning phase should not be executed before your initial planning is finished (ii) Until the execution process does not start, you should not stop revising plans

The Project Execution Phase is usually the longest phase in the project management life cycle and consumes the most energy and resources. ... These processes help you to manage time, cost, quality, change, risks and issues. They also help you to manage procurement, customer acceptance and communications. 

The execution phase involves carrying out the details of your project charter in order to deliver your products or services to your clients or internal stakeholders.

After execution phase, to check the project is on right track, monitoring and controlling phase becomes active. During this phase various changes and reviews to enhance the project performance is done. Monitoring and control processes continually track, review, adjust and report on the project's performance. It's important to find out how a project's performing and whether it's on time, as well as implement approved changes. This ensures the project remains on track, on budget and on time

Closing phase is the process that performs a controlled shut down of the project at the end. In a project, there are three closure activities that are going on

1. Closure of the product- Getting the customer to accept the final deliverables, if the project is external.
2. Closure of the project- This include formally closing of administrative procedures, updating project documents and archiving those databases & documents..
3. Closure of the resource behind the project- The financial closure of the project, resources assigned to the project should be returned