Projects are dissimilar in novelty, scale and complexity, duration, and urgency. However, in most cases, they follow a similar sequence in some distinct activities as shown in figure 2 below. The only notable differences between the various stages are either marked by their complexity, type, the resources required, or just in duration of the activities involved (Hendrickson & Au 1989). It is worth noting that at times some of the stages in the project life cycle do overlap under various situations such as when the client requires a speedy completion of the project to take advantage of a lucrative business opportunity.

In essence, every project is initiated to meet the demand that may exist in the market in the shortest time possible. Depending on the agency, the conceptual planning stage may require various alternatives to be assessed in terms of economic and technological feasibility so as to come up with the best (ICE 2009). In addition, the financial aspect of the best alternative may have to be assessed to make sure it is in line with the completion time and the existing cash flow. This will help define the project scope so that it is easier to develop an engineering design that will serve as the blueprint for the entire construction and facilitate the projection of cost estimates. The cost estimates may serve as a baseline for subsequent cost control (Charted Institute of Building 2010).

In some instances, some stages shown above require iteration while some may be done in overlapping or parallel time frames depending on the size, urgency, or nature of the project. In addition, the owner may have the capacity to oversee these stages but at times he may enquire for professional advice and services to cover all the stages. In most cases, the owner of a project may prefer to do some of the work in-house and acquire professional services for more complex activities (APM Body of Knowledge 2006).&nbsp.