Project Initiation
This is an evaluation of the project’s goals, timeline and costs to determine if the project should be executed. It balances the requirements of the project with available resources to see if pursuing the project makes sense.
Project Planning
The project plan gives the team direction for producing quality outputs, handling risk, creating acceptance, communicating benefits to stakeholders and managing suppliers.
Project Monitoring and Control
Monitoring and control are sometimes combined with execution because they often occur at the same time. As teams execute their project plan, they must constantly monitor their own progress.
Project Execution
This is the phase that is most commonly associated with project management.
Project Closure
Teams close a project when they deliver the finished project to the customer, communicating completion to stakeholders and releasing resources to other projects.