Project Life Cycle vs Product Life Cycle

You may think that the project life cycle and the product life cycle are similar; they are not. As a project manager, you should know the difference between these two concepts to align your business objectives with your project objectives.

Since a project produces a product and then ends and the product stays for a longer time, the product life cycle is bigger than the project life cycle.

On the PMP exam, you may see a few questions on this topic, so understand it well.

Project Life Cycle

A project life cycle is the sequence of phases that a project goes through from initiation to closure. Projects are undertaken to produce a product, service, or result, and after delivering the output the project ceases to exist and the project life cycle ends.

A project life cycle has many phases, and each phase consists of activities from these process groups: initiation, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. The phases are generally sequential and can overlap.

In the initiation phase, you develop theproject charterand identifystakeholders.

The project management plan will be developed during the planning phase and you build the actual product in the execution phase.

监视和控制活动在整个项目中都会发生，尽管这些过程可以重叠或重复。

结束时，您将产品移交给客户并关闭项目。

Project life cycles are not necessarily a part of the product life cycle. If the project’s output is a service or result, it will not be a part of the product life cycle.

Themanbet最新版defines the project life cycles in four phases:

1. Starting the project
2. 组织和准备
3. Carrying out the project work
4. Closing the project

The following are some characteristics of a project life cycle:

• Risksare higher when the project starts and decrease as the project progresses.
• 在项目开始时，员工要求很低，执行期间的最大值和之后，可能会减少。
• The cost of changes is lowest at the beginning of the project, and it starts increasing as the project moves further.
• 在项目开始时，利益相关者的影响力更高，随着项目进一步的发展，它开始减少。
• Most of the funds and time are spent during the execution phase.

例子

Suppose you have a project to build a new motorcycle.

First, you identify the stakeholders and collect the requirements. Once the requirements are collected, you will develop a plan to build the motorcycle.

Then you start the real work of building the motorcycle.

Finally, you will hand over this product to your client, and the project will be closed.

Product Life Cycle

The product life cycle describes the stages a product passes through from conception to retirement.

产品生命周期的阶段是发展，引入，增长，成熟度和退休。这些阶段是顺序的，不会重叠。项目生命周期可以成为产品生命周期中一个或多个阶段的一部分。

在开发阶段，您将产生想法并创建产品。

介绍阶段营销名单t and starting to sell the product to customers.

In the growth stage the sales increase.

在到期阶段，该产品被接受，销售额达到顶峰。

The last stage is the retirement stage. At this level, you will try to sell out all of your inventory and move on to the next product. This stage happens due to technical advancement or because your product is not selling enough to support its production cost.

请注意，并非所有产品都进入最后阶段；有些被丢弃，有些则永远不会过期。

产品生命周期阶段没有持续时间限制，一个阶段可能比其他阶段更长。例如，丰田花冠和凯美瑞是旧产品，仍处于增长或成熟阶段，我看不到它们很快就会在退休阶段处于退休阶段。

A product life cycle can have many project life cycles. For example, the first project life cycle can be the development of the project, and the other, adding a function to the product.

In most cases, the project life cycle is a subset of the product life cycle because the product life cycle continues even after the project is completed.

例子

Let’s consider the product life cycle for a new motorcycle that your company wants to launch.

The first step is idea generation. This includes afeasibility study, market research, and a business plan. Then you initiate a project to build this bike.

Once the motorcycle is ready, your project is complete and the project life cycle ends. However, the product life cycle continues. Now the next phase of the product life cycle begins, and that is selling and marketing the motorcycle.

You will provide after-sale support after selling, and finally, the retirement phase begins.

退休阶段可能包括以折扣价出售摩托车。

During the product life cycle, if you add new functions to the product, you will create a new project for this process: for example, increasing the engine capacity of the motorcycle to support faster pickup.

The Differences Between the Project and Product Life Cycle

The following are a few differences between the project life cycle and the product life cycle:

• A product life cycle can have single or multiple projects.
• The product life cycle is longer than the project life cycle.
• The project life cycle has a definite end while the product life cycle may not.
• 产品生命周期的地图是概念性的，并且取决于市场状况，而项目具有预测性且定义明确的路线图。
• The product life cycle phases do not overlap while the project phases may overlap.
• Phases generally occur only once in the product life cycle while in the project life cycle phases may repeat.
• Phases are sequential in the product life cycle, while in the project life cycle phases may or may not be sequential.

Summary

The project life cycle is a part of the product life cycle. The project life cycle is usually a subset of the product life cycle. The product life cycle starts from the inception of the idea and ends when the product is retired. The organization’s business model depends on the product cycle. A product life cycle includes the entire life of the product including update and upgrade, however, products are upgraded with the help of a project.

Please share your role in the project or product life cycle in the comments section.