Project Phases: An Overview

Projects get exciting as soon as they move off the drawing board. But, what phases do they go through? And should every successful project be broken down into the same ones?

In this article, we'll tell you everything you need to know about project phases and which models are best for your needs.

Before we discuss project phases, we should clear up two different terms that are often used interchangeably: Project phases and project management phases.

Knowing where to start with a large project can be difficult. To help make projects both more structured and easier to understand, managers often break them down into smaller phases.

A phase typically has some or all of these characteristics:

In other words, during a project phase, a specific goal is accomplished. Phases provide a roadmap for management that highlights new tasks that move projects further along.

Fixed project management phases are defined according to the German Institute for Standardization's DIN-69901. These aren't time-bound, but rather, should be seen as a decoupled process that can be repeated.

The result is a lifecycle that includes all managerial and organizational activities needed to complete the project.

Project phases vary and follow an individual plan. The focus is entirely on the project's needs and requirements.

Project management phases, on the other hand, are more of an ideal. They're goal rather than task-specific, and management is in the spotlight.

DIN 69901 and PMI® are the two most frequently used project lifecycle models. Both consist of five process phases that differ slightly from one another.

DIN 69901 lists the following five phases:

The Project Management Institute is a globally recognized organization that issues Project Management Professional (PMP) certifications.

In 2020, it delineated these project management phases:

Below, we'll go into more detail about each of the PMI model's phases.

Each phase has tasks and goals, all of which help to bring a project closer to its successful completion.

This phase lays the foundation for the entire project and should be handled carefully and thoroughly. The project's team, management, and stakeholders should all be involved in this phase.

Once all participants have been notified of the upcoming project, a kick-off meeting will be organized to mark its launch.

During this phase, it's important to:

In this phase, information from the previous phase is firmed up. Once completed, the project should become more structured. In addition, all participants will have a good idea about what the next steps will look like.

The planning phase also ensures that work isn't duplicated. Clear lines of communication are established, which prevents misunderstandings. Some projects use the SMART formula to help concretize these.

In this phase, managers should:

Now that your project has been planned, it's time to execute it. During this phase, it's important to maintain high levels of motivation and visualize progress. Management should monitor progress, while the team gets to work.

Some common characteristics of this phase include:

The monitoring phase is all about comparing what should be completed with what has been accomplished. Depending on the situation, management can and should intervene.

Both the details and the big picture should be evaluated, as well as the project's content and its workflows.

Ultimately, this phase helps ensure that the project meets its original goals and often overlaps with the third phase. It's recommended to perform the two in tandem so that, if needed, corrective measures can be taken.

There's nothing worse than having executed the project only to learn in Phase 4 that the efforts don't match the original goals.

Management should:

The last project management phase is about wrapping up the project. After all, a project isn't concluded when all of its work packages are finished.

During this phase, stakeholders evaluate the project's results and process. This is a time of reflection and transferring of control, since most projects are turned over to their owners.

The goals of this phase are to learn what went well, and what could be improved, as well as to hand over control to those who commissioned the project.

During this phase, the following should be done:

There are many different models that project managers can use that are based on these five project management phases. These are known as project phase models or lifecycle phase models.

Project phase models serve many different purposes: They help visualize where a project is currently at, offer insight into its resource requirements, and provide a framework for it.

As mentioned above, the number of project phases can and does vary considerably.

The basic phase model proceeds linearly, with each phase following the next. Additional milestones can be specified between individual phases.

This model is more realistic since phases can occur at the same time. Needing to wait to complete one finish to start the next can be disadvantageous and inefficient.

The ability to intervene when necessary makes it possible to react quickly and prevent situations from escalating out of control.

Particularly for larger and more complex projects, the ability to simultaneously work on multiple phases conserves resources and effort. However, teams might start a phase without having all of the prerequisites for it.

In iterative phase models, phases can loop and occur multiple times. This helps to improve processes and exerts a positive impact across the entire project.

The only downside is that this approach is more time-intensive since the processes need to be established. A team might get stuck in an optimization loop and fail to document any progress.

A hybrid phase model combines the parallel and iterative types summarized above. Phases can occur simultaneously, however, there are loops in which phases are repeated.

The V-model is a special kind of phase model developed for software development. Phases are structured so that project teams work towards their set goals and create the evaluation tests.

Its phases can be broadly grouped into three stages: Definition, Implementation, and Validation (Testing).

Enough about how phase models work in theory, let's see what they can do in practice.

The processes and types of phase models mentioned in this article come from classic project management. They differ significantly from agile project management methods, like Scrum and Kanban.

Agile methods require greater flexibility and have different approaches, even if they might structurally look like those above. In this, a project's size only has a limited impact on the usage of a particular phase model.

These days, project managers don't have to start from scratch, and can instead use a range of different templates. In addition to standard ones available in programs like Excel, there are also dedicated options.

Among these is Blue Ant, which can be used for task management as well as resource planning, activities, costs, and integrations. The tool also helps to compile status reports and document any project.

Other popular applications include:

Using a phase model offers many advantages, but also a few disadvantages.

There are different ways to break projects down into more manageable pieces. Project management phases visualize the ideal project lifecycle, whereas project phases show what a project should accomplish and when.

A project that's been segmented into phases will be more tenable, and easier to follow for all involved since there's something of a roadmap.

Depending on the type of project, there are a range of different phase models. These help to manage classic projects by specifying clear assignments every step of the way.

Agile projects, on the other hand, will benefit less from these models, since they're too rigid by design.