Podcast Episode 026: The meaning of life… or at least of process groups [8:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3463)

So, do you know what the difference is between project phases and project management process groups? 

I recently received an email from Emmanuel, and guess what?  Emmanuel wants to know what the difference is between project management phases and project management process groups!  Wow, Good question, Emmanuel, and thank you for your email!  I like getting email, and I like getting email concerning project management topics even more.  I guess I am just kind of silly in that regard.  But, before talking about the differences between project phases and process groups, we need to first understand the difference between Project Lifecycles and Product Lifecycles.

Product and Project Lifecycles 

A product lifecycle includes everything from a product’s first concept to the point when the product is eventually discontinued and made into that EBay collectable that you are sure your Aunt Sally would love!  And within the product lifecycle, we have the project lifecycle.  The project lifecycle is a subset of the product lifecycle, where the product or service is developed and goes from initial concept to initial production.  So, to summarize, the Project Lifecycle is the process whereby the product is created, and Product Lifecycle is the entire life of the product.Confused yet?  Well hang on to your saddle as we start down the path of project phases and process groups.  Yee Haw!

Project Phases

Project phases are discrete sections of the project lifecycle that are established to help projects follow a common process methodology within an organization.  Not all organizations use project phases, although there are many good reasons to use them, including:

• Better resource planning
• Better deliverable tracking
• Project decision points throughout the project
• Tighter project control and risk management
• Earlier identification of problems
• And increased process consistency from project to project

Process Groups

Process groups are part of every project, whether we realize it or not.  The Project Management Institute defines the five project management process groups as Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing.  PMI states that “collectively, these five groups are required for any project; [they] have clear internal dependencies, and must be performed in the same sequence on each project.”  A lot of folks interchange the phrase “project management process group” with “project phase” without really knowing truly what the differences are.  However, the PMBOK is quite clear that “Project management process groups are not project phases!”  Just like your brother Frank does not equal “rocket scientist”.  Sorry Frank!

True, some industries use project phases that resemble the naming conventions of process groups, but process groups are repeated throughout the project and even throughout a phase.   

Guide to the Project management Body of Knowledge, 3rd Edition, 2004, Project Management Institute, PA, 2004, Figure 3-2 p40.

Putting It All Together

Let’s use a simple example to demonstrate the difference between project phases and process groups.  Let’s even choose an industry we are all familiar with - our lives! Consider the lifespan of a person.  Would you agree that there are different phases within a human life?  You start off your life for the first 20 or so years in the Childhood phase.  You move on and enjoy the Young Adulthood phase between the ages of 21 and 41.  Then comes the Midlife phase from 42 to 62,  Elderhood Phase between 63 and 83, and then the Late Elderhood Phase.  Each phase in your life has certain milestones and deliverables, such as learning to walk and talk, graduating from school, getting married, having children, having grandchildren, sometimes even great-grandchildren, retirement, and then the day when you get to meet the great program manager in the sky!

Now, getting back to Process Groups, let’s take a look at how project management process groups work within just the Childhood phase.  The Childhood phase begins with the first process group, Initiating.  Your life and childhood was perhaps initiated with a bottle of white wine and a twinkle in your father’s eye!  And perhaps a few months later, after a lot of cheering and happiness (or perhaps some panic and promises not to drink so much white wine again) the next process group, Planning, was done before you even entered the world and through out your childhood.  Soon you came to be and life’s plan for your childhood was executed through the Executing process group as you grew from an infant to a toddler to a child to an adolescent.  And throughout the Childhood phase of your life, you had guardians that spent time Monitoring and Controlling your development to insure that you met important milestones such as learning to eat solid food, learning to walk and talk, and becoming educated, and not eating buttons!  When you started to drift from plan, there were people there to help correct your course.  

Finally, as you got closer to your twenties, your reliance on your guardians started to lessen (unless you made the decision to spend the rest of your life with mom and dad - like Frank).  And perhaps you spent time Closing this phase in your life with a night of debauchery on your 21st birthday where you woke up the next morning in your elderly neighbor’s tree….  Sorry, about that Mr. and Mrs. Crady!

What you need to remember is that Process groups focus on repeated steps within both projects and project phases and they are not just something that you do once during a project and forget about.

So there you have it, the meaning of project lifecycles, phases and process groups.  Oh, and if you are interested, I believe that the meaning of life is to stay out of the neighbors trees.  At least that is what my father taught me during one of our Monitoring and Controlling discussions during my Childhood Phase.

Listen up friends!  If you have any questions or comments about lifecycles, project phases and process groups, why not leave us something in our comment basket or email satchel?   If you enjoyed this episode, why not also consider clicking the link below to receive free updates by email whenever new content is available.  Did I mention that it’s free and takes 10 seconds?  Frank says that free equals good!

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