Project Initiation

A project is formally started, named and defined at a broad level during this phase. Project sponsors and other important stakeholders perform their due diligence on whether to undertake a project or choose to undertake one project over another. Depending on the nature of the project, feasibility studies are conducted, requirement gathering, and analysis are performed in this phase.

Project Planning

It is during this phase that a project management plan is developed all comprehensive of individual plans for – cost, scope, time, quality, communication, risk and resources. Some of the important activities that mark this phase are -making WBS, development of schedule, milestone charts, GANTT charts, estimating and reserving resources, planning dates and modes of communication with stakeholders based on milestones, deadlines and important deliveries.

Project Execution

In the execution phase the project deliverable is developed and completed, adhering to the plan as developed in the previous phase. The project execution and project monitoring and Control are the 2 phases that mostly occur simultaneously.
Project Monitoring and Control
This phase mostly deals with measuring the project performance and progression with respect to the project management plan. Scope verification and control to check and monitor for scope creep, change control to track and manage changes to project requirement, calculating key performance indicators for cost and time are to measure the degree of variation if any and in which case corrective measures are determined and suggested to keep project on track

Project Closure

A project is formally closed in this phase. It includes a series of important tasks such as making the delivery, relieving resources, reward and recognition to the team members and formal termination of contractors in case they were employed on the project.