Project life-cycle “refers to a series of activities which are necessary to fulfill project goals or objectives” ("Project Life Cycle," 2016, para. 1). Within the project life-cycle there are typically 4 stages: defining, planning, executing, and delivering (Larson, 2013) Each of the 4 phases of the cycle has specific activities that help the program manager keep the project on track. This is a significant benefit to an organization; when the project management team comes together with the stakeholder it helps define goals, cost, responsibilities, risks, status reports, and lessons learned. It works as a checklist so that there won’t be any missed steps. Without it can be costly to the …show more content…
A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a chart in which critical work elements, called tasks, are illustrated to portray their relationships to each other and to the project as a whole. (Rouse, 2011). When creating the WBS a project manager first determines the project’s scope as well as the deliverables. Once these are determined, the project manager begins to systematically subdivide tasks into smaller work elements (Larson, 2013). WBS ensures project managers effectively identify the project scope and deliverables thus promoting project integration (Larson, 2013). It also promotes control over the project by providing a detailed project outline (Larson,