6 Stages of the Project Management Life Cycle

Every successful project follows the project life cycle — even if it was never explicitly outlined.

That’s because the project management life cycle is universally effective.

By following each step of each stage, you could do anything, from organizing a kids’ soccer team to coordinating change management across a global corporation.

In this article, we'll walk you through the six stages of the project management life cycle. We've also included templates for each stage to help you better plan, execute and manage your projects.

Table of Contents

• What is the Project Management Life Cycle?
• Stage 1: Project Initiation
• Stage 2: Project Planning
• Stage 3: Project Execution
• Stage 4: Monitoring and Controlling
• Stage 5: Project Closure
• Stage 6: Post-Project Optimization

What is the Project Management Life Cycle?

The project management life cycle (or, the project life cycle) is a framework that helps project managers oversee projects from start to finish. It's made up of 6 key stages:

1. Initiation
2. Planning
3. Execution
4. Monitoring and Controlling
5. Closure
6. Post-Project Optimization

The infographic below summarizes the important aspects of each stage.

Traditionally, there have been five steps to the project management life cycle. But that’s been in dire need of an update for at least the last 5 years.

Because while the five steps are logical, coherent and analytical, there’s a piece missing right at the end that ensures the next project is even better: post-project optimization.

These six stages keep the project on track, hitting standards of quality — and most importantly — support stakeholder buy-in by answering these questions:

• Why are we doing this?
• What do I have to do?
• When is it due?

To answer “why are we doing this?”, you need to kick off your project initiation.

Stage 1: Project Initiation

At this stage, you’re working on the “what” and the “why” of the project, where your responsibility is to prove the project is both valuable (has a worthwhile return of investment for undertaking the project) and is feasible (aka achievable).

During the initiation stage, the project manager is responsible for meeting with the client and stakeholders, and better understand the goals, feasibility and requirements of the project. Only then will they be able to assemble the right team for the project and plan for it accordingly.

Project managers can organize all of this information into a document called a project charter. As the guiding document for the project, a project charter covers:

• Goals of the project
• Positions and responsibilities of stakeholders
• Constraints of the project
• Budget for the project
• Timeline of the project

Let's take a look at these items in more detail:

1. Goals of the Project

The most important item to include in your project charter and to identify during the initiation stage are the high-level goals and objectives of your project. This is a statement of:

• What you want to achieve,
• To what specific benefit, and
• To whom it benefits

By detailing these three aspects, you’re able to definitively show at what point your project has been a success or reached its conclusion.

2. Positions and Responsibilities of Stakeholders

A big part of the project initiation phase is assembling a team for the project, and assigning roles and responsibilities to each team member.

You’ll want everyone involved in your project to know what their part is, what’s expected of them, and what they’ll be held accountable for.

You might want to create a project organizational chart like the one below:

The more buy-in and understanding you have with allocating positions and responsibilities, the less likely there’ll be confusion or finger-pointing later on.

3. Constraints of the Project

Anything that limits your project is a constraint. For example, you might have a limit of time for certain parts of the project (for example, you might only have access to a subject matter expert for two days.)

Knowing your constraints gives you the chance to organize your timeline and budget around them.

4. Budget for the Project

Your project budget is the estimate of all the expenses that go into making your project successful. You’ll have to consider where it’s being drawn from, where it’s going and how you can get the best possible outcome for every dollar spent.

When budgeting, you should think about both the best case and worst case scenarios, and plan accordingly.

5. Timeline of the Project

At this stage, you don’t need to get granular on how long every task involved in the project should take. Instead, try to create a high-level timeline of the major parts, phases, or milestones of the project, and estimate the time between each.

Here's a timeline template you can use for your own projects:

At the end of the initiation phase, you should bring all the relevant stakeholders to go over the charter. You’ll be able to get feedback early, make tweaks and adjustments where necessary, and get valuable buy-in.

Stage 2: Project Planning

In the way that initiation is the “what” and “why,” project planning is the “how.”

This is where you’ll be spending the majority of your time. A well-written project management plan will get you to your project’s goal on time, under budget and hitting the right level of quality.

Consequently, a badly laid plan could have you running enthusiastically in the wrong direction.

Here's a ready-made project plan template from Visme you can use right away:

Your project plan should include some key elements:

1. Communication Strategy

Poor communication can undo even the best laid plans, so it’s vital that you have a communication strategy ready. This will involve things like:

• Setting up the when and how you’re going to check in (e.g. with weekly reports online or daily catch ups on Slack)
• Keeping track of workflows (like with a plain spreadsheet or visual task management tool)
• Use Amazon six-pagers when sharing your strategy or updating major stakeholders.
• Preparing different communication plans to deal with any situation (like crisis communication, stakeholder communication, and internal communication)

Here's a communication plan template you can use for your own project:

2. Project Roadmap

A project roadmap is a combination of the timeline and project milestones you’re attempting to meet during the course of the project. It's literally a "roadmap" of the journey your project will take to completion.

Below is a roadmap template you can use for your next project:

Unlike the documents you prepared during the initiation stage, your project roadmap will go in more detail into the specific deliverables, deadlines and milestones of the project.

3. Scope Limits

Limits on exactly what the project will and will not cover will (hopefully) prevent scope creep. The more your project expands, the less likely you’re going to hit your targets, and the more likely your goals will become unwieldy.

4. Budget Allocation

Knowing where your money is going, who it’s going to and who is spending it before the project begins makes it easier to keep your project’s spend predictable and even flexible.

Below is a budget template you can use as part of your project planning process:

Make sure you include everything in your budget, from variable and operating costs to materials to labor to fixed costs. It will be useful to compare these budgeted costs with your actual costs at the end of the project to analyze and improve in the future.

5. Resource Allocation

Where budget is about money, resource is about time. It should be clear to all stakeholders how much time should be given to the project, whether that’s in work hours or in access to the products, materials and space needed for it to be successful.

6. Quality Agreement

To avoid being handed work that’s less than exemplary, you should invite stakeholders to set and agree to their own standards of quality. This gives them the chance to take responsibility in their areas and the motivation to achieve them.

7. Risk Assessment

Knowing what might go wrong gives you an advantage if it does go wrong. Your risk assessment plan should note what might interfere with the project’s success, as well as how critical that interference is, and ways you can overcome them if they eventuate.

Once you’re confident in your project plan, you’re ready to execute on your project.

Stage 3: Project Execution

This is where thinking becomes action, and stage 3 (execution) and stage 4 (monitoring) happen simultaneously.

Project execution is specifically about getting things done. Ensuring that tasks are completed as planned and on time is a key responsibility in your role as a project manager.

Below are some of the things you'll be in charge of during this phase:

• Providing vision and guidance: Keeping the goal squarely in mind for your stakeholders and maintaining their path to achieving that goal.
• Determining understanding: Checking in with stakeholders to ensure they understand what is expected of them and when it’s expected to be delivered by.
• Managing internal and external stakeholders: Stakeholder management is how you grease the wheels of your projects, ensuring that everyone has what they need to feel confident the project is progressing effectively.

Stage 4: Monitoring and controlling

Where project execution is about things to be done, monitoring and controlling are about assessing and acting on the things that have been done.

As mentioned above, this stage will happen simultaneously with the execution stage so the any issues can be fixed early and the project direction can be pivoted as needed.

Here’s what you’ll be monitoring and controlling as a project manager:

• Budget Flow: Your budget can tell you a lot about the health of your project. When reviewing spend, timesheets, and expenses, you should note any abnormalities or room for optimization. From there, you’ll be able to investigate and act.
• Time Management: Like budget, time is another indicator of your project’s health. Good project time management will ensure that items are delivered on time and that progress is being made in the right direction. Strong time management will also allow you to be flexible if and when an event disrupts the progress of your project.
• Quality Management: Performed either by spot-checks or formal reviews, quality management is about assessing and adjusting based on pieces of the project as they come to you. This manages poor quality work affecting the entire outcome of the project down the track. If you’re not an expert on the work you’re assessing, it’s important to get experienced eyes across it to ensure that what you’re working on is good stuff before it goes out.
• Risk Management: During your regular meetings or catch-ups, you can ask about any risks your stakeholders think they might encounter. This might be internal, like overspending or not delivering a project on time, or external, like weather or other factors outside your control. Again, knowing your project risks as they might happen gives you a head start to manage them and take appropriate action if they do happen.
• Client and Management Maintenance: If your project is for a client or involves higher-ups in your company, you should be keeping them confident in the course of the project. The best way to get their confidence and maintain it is honesty - let them know of any risks or setbacks, but be sure to also inform them how you’re planning to solve them.

We recommend asking your project lead for a consolidated project status report monthly, quarterly or weekly to stay updated with your team's progress.

Here's a project status report template your project team can use:

Project status reports could be provided in either document or presentation format, depending on what you, the client or the stakeholders prefer.

Stage 5: Project Closure

Effective project closings are about reflection and analysis, where you assess how the project went, what went wrong, what could do better, and how to prepare better for next time.

During your project closing, you should take care of the following:

1. Get Final Sign Off

Those accountable for specific tasks or outcomes for any project should sign off on the work they’ve provided. It can be formal, like signing a written document, or informal, with a reply to an email or a quick ‘yes’ in a Slack channel.

2. Conduct a Holistic Performance Analysis

This is the retelling of the story of your project, covering:

• What happened
• What changed
• How you adapted
• What risks you encountered
• What you learned
• Who stood out

It serves as a summary that you or others can learn from when running future projects.

Here's a KPI report template you can use for evaluating your projects:

3. Survey Internal & External Stakeholders

Asking everyone involved in the project how they felt about its execution, and what they think could be done better, will identify gaps you might never have thought of.

There’s a few key things to keep in mind when surveying stakeholders:

• Segment your questions: You don’t want to ask an external client and an internal team the same things.
• Think about what it is specifically you’d like to know: Did they feel it was competently handled? Did they feel stressed? Were they confident they were going to succeed?
• Do group and 1 on 1 surveys: People will say different things in different places, and 1 on 1 interviews gives a more human touch to understanding.

Make sure you visualize your survey data to understand the results and interpret them effectively and accurately. Below is a survey results template you can use to visualize your survey data:

But after sign-off, review and getting back your survey data, there’s one crucial thing left to do…

Stage 6: Post-Project Optimization

It’s good to learn from your project so you’re better prepared for the next one.

But it's even better to act on it before the next project begins.

Post-project optimization is all about implementing the changes that will improve the success of your future projects. Here are a few examples of post-project optimization in action:

• Scenario 1: You faced continuous risk with a tool that one of your teams used. It caused multiple delays and stressed out the team that was using it. Instead of accounting for that in your future projects, you should aim to either fix the tool or replace it before the next project begins.
• Scenario 2: In their project closing interview, your client said they felt every first draft they saw of the work being produced made them anxious. Instead of promising better results for first drafts for the next project, you sit with the teams to review the work and see what processes could be improved to improve first draft quality.
• Scenario 3: You found there was a lot of budget and time that went into a particular team. Instead of allowing more budget and time for that team in the next project, investigate why it was the case and put in place measures of improvement and efficiency.

Post-project optimization sounds simple, but the reality can be challenging.

At the end of a project, it’s likely you and every other stakeholder will be tired and want to cruise at work for a while.

But if you can maintain their energy into post-project optimization, you’ll find yourself working towards positive changes instead of hitting the same problems.

Keep Your Projects Aligned With Your Brand

If you’re looking for an easy way to keep every team, every report, and every document look, feel and live on-brand during your project management life cycle, check out Visme.

It’s a tool even the most data-obsessed spreadsheet wrangler can use to make professional, on-brand reports and documents.

Learn more about Visme’s brand management tools and features.

Written by Mark Ankucic

Mark Ankucic is a growth marketer and content consultant at CopyPlaybooks.com. Obsessed with finding the words and feelings that trigger conversions, you’ll most likely find him sorting voice of customer data, tweaking funnel journeys, and plugging gaps in messaging.