Welcome back to another post in our blog series on the PM2 project management methodology.
In our most recent post we discussed the evolution of this methodology from when it began to be developed right up to the current version that is available today. And remember, as we said from the beginning, it is free to use and adaptable to suit the kind of projects you are currently working on or plan to work on in the future. This week, our post is dedicated to the PM2 lifecycle.
First and foremost, the life cycle of a project refers to the sequence of phases that a project moves through from start to finish.
The PM2 life cycle has a total of 4 consecutive phases combined with one overarching phase.
Let’s have a look at the different phases and what is involved in each one:
Phase 1: The Initiating Phase
This first phase includes documenting the idea for the project, meeting with stakeholders and identifying their needs, defining the scope and organisation of the project and preparing business justification. Once you have these things completed you are ready to move to the next phase.
Phase 2: The Planning Phase.
The planning phase involves having your kickoff meeting, elaborating on your project scope and developing project plans. In addition, roles and responsibilities are assigned and stakeholders are provided with project plans. The PM2 processes can also be adapted to suit the project. When you have completed these things you can move on to phase 3.
Phase 3: The Executing Phase.
In this phase we coordinate the project team and have meetings. We also work on the creation and completion of the deliverables as well as report writing and the distribution of project information.
Phase 4: The Closing Phase.
The closing phase provides the opportunity for the formal closure of the project.There is a project-end meeting, lessons learned and recommendations are gathered and a final project report is produced. The project resources are made available while the project information can be archived.
Overarching Phase: Monitoring and Control.
In actual fact, monitoring and control is not really a phase at all. It is actually a group of management activities that recur throughout the duration of the entire project life cycle. These activities enable us to measure the progress of the project compared with the baseline and make corrective changes when and where necessary to stay on track.
Activities can include monitoring project performance, control costs and timeframes, risk, change and quality management, as well as managing stakeholders and business implementation.
At the end of each phase there are what we call “Phase Gates”. Ready for Planning (RfP), Ready for Executing (RfE) and Ready for Closing (RfC). These include an assessment and an approval that the work in the previous phase has been completed and your project is ready to move on to the next phase. In many ways, they are like checkpoints.
And that’s what we have for you on PM2´s project life cycle. Remember that we will be back again next week with another blog post focused on another area of the PM2 methodology. Follow our posts to stay informed!
