A project life cycle begins at the initiation stage, followed by planning. At the initiation, a feasibility study is conducted to identify the primary problems the project should solve. Thereafter, the scope of the project is identified, which is the breadth and depth of the project. The deliverables of the project should be defined clearly. Stakeholders should be identified at the initiation stage.
The project stakeholders are the people affected by the project and whose needs should be fulfilled by the project. At the end of this phase, a statement of work is developed to document the scope, deliverables, and objectives of the project. During this stage, minimal resources are required since no major activities are undertaken. In addition, anorganization is exposed to little risk at the initiation stage. A risk is termed as significant when it has the potential to suffer financial, relationship, physical, or other types of losses.
As compared to the early stages of a project lifecycle, the middle stage is characterized by numerous activities. The middle stage is the implementation stage, where the project is developed. Implementers are a group in teams according to their area of expertise. The management allocates different resources to the development teams in support of their work. At this stage, numerous resources are required to build up the project. Due to the high exposure of resources at this stage, the company is at higher risk.