While reading about the different aspects of project life cycle, I came across another term, ( product life cycle), which seems rather ambiguous. It's my understanding that the product life cycle consists of sequential, non-overlapping product phases determined by the manufacturing and control need of the organization. Project life cycles occur in one or more phases of a product life cycle. What is the relationship between these two terms? I noted that all projects have a purpose or objective, but in those cases where the objective is a service or result, there may be a life cycle for the service or result, not a product life cycle. If the output of the project is related to a product, what possible relationships can there be?
From my understanding, the project life cycle does not necessarily occur during the product life cycle when the output of the project is the service. In this case, the project life cycle would go through initiation, planning, execution, and closing where the product is then presented to the client. At this point, the product life cycle begins. In the case where the project outcome is not a service but instead a product, the life cycles will overlap throughout their processes. The relationship between the two would occur during the introductory phase of the product life cycle and the closing phase of the project. Initially, the client will present the product to a project management team who will execute the project to present the output specified by the client. Once the output is complete, the project life cycle ends and the product life cycle begins.
The main difference between the two is that the project life cycle begins even before the product is completely finalized and as for the product life cycle as it suggest it begins right before the product is produced and enters the market. The main purpose of the product life cycle is to monitor how it behaves in the market over time. This is where things like number of sales and return or failure in cases of recall are tracked.
