The phases of the infrastructure life cycle

Major projects have much longer life cycles than projects. The construction of a plant or an infrastructure may often involve many smaller projects.

For instance, if you are thinking about a power plant, you have pre-project activities (eg due diligence, getting authorisation). Then you have the first project life cycle (ie the life cycle to build the plant) which includes concept, design, implementation and handover phases.

A few years (or a decade) after the project has been completed and the plant is commissioned, you might need to carry out a maintenance project. This is sometimes calledrepowering or upgrade, which can happen halfway through the operations (or exercise) phase.

The diagram below shows all the different projects that may be associated with the life cycle of an infrastructure or power plant.

At the end of a power plant’s life cycle, there is the decommissioning or disposal. For a nuclear power plant or a chemical plant, this disposal phase might be very expensive. You could describe it as a project in its own right, as it involves concept, planning, design phases and the handover of the cleaned site.

Please refer to the glossary to check any terminology you are unfamiliar with: Glossary of Project Management Terms

Coming up....

In the following video, you will hear about the project life cycle and learn about the concept of the potential to add value versus the cost of change.