Painless Project Management: A Step-by-Step Guide for Planning, Executing, and Managing Projects

Chapter 2. The Project Management Life Cycle, the Work Cycle, and the Business Context

Project management relies on applying a very specific tool set within an ordered process. This ordered process is called the Project Management Life Cycle (PMLC). The PMLC has a number of variations including some that are proprietary (Agile) and others that are promoted by standards organizations (PMI’s PMBOK). Some variations start the cycle earlier than others, other variations use brand-specific terminology and focus on a number of processes. Some use different names for the tools, define them in marginally different ways, and use different symbols to represent the tools in pictorial representations. But, cutting through words and symbols, all healthy projects follow a similar life cycle and use the same basic tool set. Unhealthy projects wander off in any number of different directions. In this chapter, we introduce you to the PLMC, the useful concept of a Work Cycle (which is subordinate to and controlled by the PMLC), and the utility of ascertaining the business context (position) of any project you come across in order to better manage that project as well as the associated stakeholders, sponsor, clients, and other interested parties.

Yes, the project manager has to manage them, and their expectations, as well.

Project Management Life Cycle

As defined earlier, a project is temporary work that can be viewed as a journey from Start (Concept) to Finish (Close). To make this journey successful, ...