Processes: the seven-step project lifecycle
What you must know
The seven processes, in lifecycle order, are: starting up a project (SU), directing a project (DP), initiating a project (IP), controlling a stage (CS), managing product delivery (MP), managing a stage boundary (SB) and closing a project (CP). Each has activities, and each activity has recommended actions and outputs - none of which are mandatory in detail once tailored.
Learn what each process produces. SU is pre-project and produces the project brief (and the outline business case) so the board can decide whether initiation is worth funding. DP runs for the whole project and is the board's process: its activities are authorising initiation, authorising the project, authorising a stage or exception plan, giving ad hoc direction, and authorising project closure. IP produces the project initiation documentation. CS is the project manager's day-to-day controlling of work packages, issues and risks, reviews and reports. MP is where the team manager accepts, executes and delivers a work package. SB plans the next stage (or an exception plan) and reports on the ending stage. CP confirms acceptance, evaluates the project and recommends closure.
Traps in questions
- Authorising always belongs to DP, never to the project manager.
- SB is used at the end of every stage except the final one, where CP follows instead.
- A stage can contain several work packages; MP is not a stage.
- SU is not part of the project itself - it happens before initiation is authorised.
Rule of thumb
At every boundary, the board decides; the project manager prepares and seeks approval. If a question says 'approve' or 'authorise', the answer is almost always a project board action in DP.