by 
The life cycle of a project is generally divided into five fundamental phases, as defined by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and widely adopted in Project Management. For each phase, the project team must produce some documents that are essential for the good management of the consortium.
Below are the 5 phases adapted for a European project, i.e. a project that provides funding coming directly or indirectly from the European Commission and which requires a consortium of 2 or more entities from different countries.
To learn more about the calls, consult our mini-guide and to better understand how to prepare a European project consult our ABC of European planning. We are available to offer more information – contact us here.
Launch of a European project.
This phase begins when the project is approved and the coordinator is informed of the success. The main reference documents for the start of the project are:
- The application contains the project scope, the list of partners and their responsibilities, the activity plan and the deadlines. It was prepared months before the start of the project. Activities between partners are based on what has been planned in the application. This document is shared with partners at launch.
- The Grant agreement is the formal contract between the applicant and the funding body. The document presents the rules for managing the budget and the duties of the applicant.
- The approved budget – during negotiation with the funding body, the budget may be modified. The official one is attached to the letter of approval of the project.
- Partner Agreement – Based on the Grant agreement, the applicant prepares the PA for each partner. The PA includes the list of specific tasks and responsibilities of the partner, the budget detail, rules for reporting and disbursement of the grant.
Planning
First formal activity of the partners. It involves the creation of various documents for the organized and timely management of project activities. For example:
- Project Management Plan it is the main document that integrates and consolidates all subsidiary plans (communication, risks, resources, etc.). It is the complete guide for execution.
- Activity plan/Gantt chart, the visual and logical representation of tasks, their dependencies, milestones, including task scheduling and deadlines
- Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) which presents the hierarchical breakdown of project deliverables into smaller, manageable components (Work Packages).
- Communication plan to make the project and its results visible among the partners and their stakeholders.
The implementation of the activities
In this phase, the actual work is done to create the deliverables of the project. Organization of meetings between partners, training for staff members, research and
The coordinator has the task of managing the work of the partners using the Project Management Plan, according to the Division of Work, respecting the Chronogram.
You can view the implementation of our projects here
Monitoring and Control
This phase takes place in parallel with the implementation of the activities and aims to ensure that the project remains on time, on budget and in line with the common purpose by monitoring the performance of the partners and their ability to communicate and collaborate.
The activities of this phase include the measurement of performance against the plan (KPI), risk management and problem solving, monitoring and control and evaluation of results.
Key documents
- The monitoring and control plan defines how the Project Manager and the team will track the progress of the project, measure performance and manage any deviations (variations) from the approved baseline plan (the scope, time and cost baseline).
- Quality Assurance and Management Plan, focuses on preventing and ensuring that the processes used for the construction of deliverables are efficient and effective, so as to avoid defects in the final product.
- Risk Register, a list of potential risks (threats and opportunities), their probability of occurrence, potential impact, and planned responses (mitigation, acceptance, transfer, etc.).
- The Evaluation Plan (often in combination with the Monitoring, forming the M&E Plan) is a strategic document that defines how the entire intervention (project, program, policy) will be analyzed, not only in terms of compliance with costs and times, but above all in terms of effectiveness, impact and sustainability of the results achieved.
- Progress Report is a document prepared by the coordinator to provide periodic updates (weekly/monthly) on the status of the project, including progress, results achieved and comparison with the baseline (time, costs, scope). It is shared with the members of the consortium and with the funding body. The timing, content and level of detail of the report change according to the duration of the project and its complexity.
Closing the project
The last phase of the project is the closure, i.e. a moment of verification to make sure that all the activities have been completed on time and that, above all, they have produced the results expressed by the application.
Among the activities to be carried out are the formal delivery of the product/service/result to the funding body, preparation of reports and sharing of results with stakeholders, archiving of project documentation.
The most important document at this stage is the Final Project Report, which is the mandatory document required by the funding body that summarizes the final results, whether the objectives have been achieved and the performance of the project with respect to the application.
