What Is Product Life Cycle?

The term "project life cycle" describes the four main phases involved in carrying out a project. They are as follows:

Initiation or birth. In this first stage, you decide what you want the project to achieve and, broadly, what approach you will take in order to achieve it. At this point a team is chosen and a business plan or other document may be drawn up.

Planning. During the planning stage, the whole project should be broken down into smaller, manageable strages or tasks, and roles assigned to team members.

Execution. This is the time when the plans are carried out. This phase includes controlling/ checking that the criteria, decided on earlier, are being met.

Exit or closure. In the final stage, the project is completed. This normally involves a final assessment (success of the project, performance of team members etc) and the writing of a detailed report.

You can see various diagrams illustrating the project life cycle at

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(a) explain the product liife cycle concept and its importance inmarket managament.
(b)discuss the key situtional characteristics tha are observable at each stage of the product life cycle.
(c)Explain the changes in the markting mix or strategies required at each stage and how such changes may impact on sales.

Product life cycle is the biological life cycle which shows the stages of growth of products. Product life has some stages and the product can be positioned on the specific stage according to the market positioning of the product. The five stages of product life cycle include Introduction, Growth, Maturity, Decline and withdrawal. Now if a product is recently introduced then it comes in the first stage of product life cycle. If it is showing growth in the market then it comes in the second stage of product life cycle. If product has already established a suitable position in the market then it is positioned at maturity stage. Decline stage comes when product is no more in demand and it's withdrawal happens when it is no more available in the market. Product life cycle is very helpful in understanding the life cycles of various products and the time taken by each stage in the complete life of the product.

A Product Life Cycle is basically a sequence of several stages through which a new product progresses through its life. These stages are:
- Introduction
- Growth
- Maturity
- Decline

Product life cycle is very important concept. Product life cycle management actually helps the management in devising strategies for the different stages of the product based on the product and market needs. The PLC implies that the condition in which a specific product is sold is actually changing over time. So its management is very important. The various stages of the Life cycle of a product present a number of opportunities, challenges and also problems. So if a company knows about the PLC stage of a product it would be in a better position to tackle with all these opportunities, problems and challenges.

The term project life cycle refers to the act of planning, controlling and monitoring of a project, right from the time of its inception to up till the time when the project is completed.

Several various models of the project life cycle have been devised and propounded over the last few years. One of the first models to be propounded was the simplistic Waterfall Model. But, as the nature of software becomes more complicated due to the advancement of technology, this particular model of development has not yielded significant results, often becoming counter-productive. Other models have devised a more iterative approach like Rapid Application Development and Rational Unified Process.

The degree of regulation and intricacy of the lifecycle for every project is limited by several aspects, like budget limitations, the experience level of the project team etc.