In some manner, people have all performed project management at various times in their lives, often without even knowing that they were doing it. Project management is performing and completing a group of activities to accomplish some specific goal. Project management can be applied to something as large and complex as putting humans on Mars to as small and simple as building a tree house in your backyard. In either situation, the projects progress through the same stages.

Think about something that you have done that fits the definition of a project, and discuss how the project progressed through the different phases of the project life cycle. Submit a 3-page paper that addresses the following:

• Describe the project and how it differed from an operation.
• What activities were performed that were part of following phases?
  • Initiating
  • Planning
  • Executing
  • Closing
• How were the principles of project management applied to this project?
• What skills and knowledge of the project manager were applied to make you successful (or were lacking, which led to failure)?
• What lessons were learned in this project that could be applied to future projects?