What Is Meant By The Project Life Cycle?

The term "project life cycle" describes the four main phases involved in carrying out a project. They are as follows:

Initiation or birth. In this first stage, you decide what you want the project to achieve and, broadly, what approach you will take in order to achieve it. At this point a team is chosen and a business plan or other document may be drawn up.

Planning. During the planning stage, the whole project should be broken down into smaller, manageable strages or tasks, and roles assigned to team members.

Execution. This is the time when the plans are carried out. This phase includes controlling/ checking that the criteria, decided on earlier, are being met.

Exit or closure. In the final stage, the project is completed. This normally involves a final assessment (success of the project, performance of team members etc) and the writing of a detailed report.

You can see various diagrams illustrating the project life cycle at

google.co.uk/images

The term project life cycle refers to the act of planning, controlling and monitoring of a project, right from the time of its inception to up till the time when the project is completed.

Several various models of the project life cycle have been devised and propounded over the last few years. One of the first models to be propounded was the simplistic Waterfall Model. But, as the nature of software becomes more complicated due to the advancement of technology, this particular model of development has not yielded significant results, often becoming counter-productive. Other models have devised a more iterative approach like Rapid Application Development and Rational Unified Process.

The degree of regulation and intricacy of the lifecycle for every project is limited by several aspects, like budget limitations, the experience level of the project team etc.