Projects are “born” when a need is identified by the customer—the people or the organization willing to provide funds to have the need satisfied. For example, for a growing family, the need may be for a larger house, whereas for a company, the problem may be a high scrap rate from its manufacturing process that makes its costs higher and production times longer than those of its competitors. The customer first must identify the need or problem. Sometimes the problem is identified quickly, as in the case of a disaster such as an earthquake or explosion. In other situations, it may take months for a customer to clearly identify a need, gather data on the problem, and define certain requirements that must be met by the person, project team, or contractor who will solve the problem.

      This first phase of the project life cycle involves the identification of a need, problem, or opportunity. Once the need has been identified, the customer may request proposals from individuals, project teams, or organizations (contractors) to address the identified need or solve the problem. The needs and requirements are usually written up by the customer in a document called a request for proposal (RFP). Through the RFP, the customer asks individuals or contractors to submit proposals on how they might solve the problem, along with the associated cost and schedule. A couple who needs a new house may spend time identifying requirements for the house—size, style, number of rooms, location, maximum amount they want to spend, and date by which they would like to move in. They may then write down these requirements and ask several contractors to provide house plans and cost estimates. A company that has identified a need to upgrade its computer system might document its requirements in an RFP and send it to several computer consulting firms. Not all situations involve a formal RFP, however. Needs are often defined informally during a meeting or discussion among a group of individuals. Some of the individuals may then volunteer or be requested to prepare a proposal to determine whether a project should be undertaken to address the need. Such a scenario might be played out when the management of a hospital wants to establish an on-site daycare center for the children of its employees. The management team or a specific manager may write down the requirements in a document and give it to an internal project team, who in turn will submit a proposal for how to establish the center. In this case, the contractor is the hospital’s own internal project team, and the customer is the hospital’s manager or, possibly, board of directors. It is important to accurately define the precise need. For example, is the need to provide an onsite daycare center, or is it merely to provide child care hospital employees? In other words, is it necessary for the daycare to be “on-site”?

      The second phase of the project life cycle is the development of a proposed solution to the need or problem. This phase results in the submission of a proposal to the customer by one or more individuals or organizations (contractors) who would like to be hired by the customer for paid implementation of the proposed solution. In this phase, the contractor’s effort becomes dominant. Contractors interested in responding to the RFP may spend several weeks developing approaches to solving the problem, estimating the types and amounts of resources that would be needed, and estimating the time it would take to design and implement the proposed solution. Each contractor documents this information in a written proposal. All of the contractors then submit their proposals to the customer. For example, several contractors may submit proposals to a customer to develop and implement an automated invoicing and collection system. After the customer evaluates the submissions and selects the winning proposal, the customer and the winning contractor negotiate and sign a contract (agreement). In many situations, a request for proposal may not involve soliciting competitive proposals from external contractors. A company’s own internal project team may develop a proposal in response to a management-defined need or request. In this case, the project would be performed by the company’s own employees rather than an external contractor.

      The third phase of the project life cycle is the implementation of the proposed solution. This phase begins after the customer decides which of the proposed solutions will best fulfill their need and an agreement is reached between the customer and the chosen individual or contractor. This phase, sometimes referred to as performing the project, involves detailed planning for the project and implementation of that plan to accomplish the project objective. During the course of the project, different types of resources will be utilized. For example, if the project is to design and construct an office building, the project effort might first involve a few architects and engineers who can draw up the building plans. Then, as construction gets under way, the resources needed will substantially increase to include steelworkers, carpenters, electricians, painters, and the like. The project will wind down after the building is finished, and a smaller number of different workers will finish up the landscaping and final interior touches. Once this final phase is completed, if the customer is satisfied that the full scope of work was completed on time, within budget, and in a quality manner, then the project can be said to be completed and the goal accomplished. For example, the third phase is complete when a contractor has completed the design and installation of a customized automation system that satisfactorily passes performance tests and is accepted by the customer or when an internal project team within a company has completed a project, in response to a management request, which consolidated two of its facilities into one.

      The final phase of the project life cycle is terminating the project. When a project is completed, certain close-out activities need to be performed, such as confirming that all deliverables have