What is a Program Life Cycle?
PMI's program life cycle has three phases: definition (build the business case, charter, and roadmap), delivery (components launch, deliver, and close in overlapping waves — the long middle), and closure (transition sustained benefits to operations and shut down program structures).
The shape differs from a project's: delivery is iterative by design, with benefits appraised continuously and components started or stopped throughout — a program can be healthy while individual components die.
Worked example
A university's campus-modernization program spends a year in definition (benefits case, roadmap, funding), then six years in delivery as building projects start and finish in waves — two get cancelled at gate reviews, one gets added — and closes by handing energy-performance monitoring to facilities, whose dashboards keep proving the benefit long after the program office disbands.