Two concepts that are constantly confused — let's pull them apart first.

Project life cycle = the series of phases a project passes through from start to finish: each phase produces a set of deliverables, and at the end of a phase there is often a 'phase gate' — a go/no-go decision on whether to keep investing or stop here.

The five process groups = Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, and Closing — IPECC for short. They are not the five phases of a project, and not five sequential steps; they are groups of management activities that recur within every phase — each phase gets its own mini-initiating, mini-planning, mini-executing, mini-monitoring, and mini-closing.

IPECC stands for Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, and Closing. Initiating clarifies why the project exists and who decides; its outputs include the charter and stakeholder list. Planning aligns scope, schedule, and cost through plans and baselines. Executing organizes people and resources to produce deliverables and work records. Monitoring & Controlling compares actual results with the baseline, producing performance information and change requests. Closing secures acceptance, lessons learned, and archives. When a project stalls, use IPECC to locate the gap: unclear decisions point to initiating; repeated rework often points to planning or change control. These are process groups, not strictly sequential phases—they overlap and iterate.

The on-site project management quiz covers these five process groups.