The paper consists of six complementary chapters aimed at a detailed overview, definition and presentation of the most important elements of the project life cycle. The introductory part briefly discusses the history of project management and presents the purpose of the work. In the second part, term project is definied, also its characteristics and parametric are introduced and defined. The third chapter describes what project management is, and provides an explanation of the basic concepts, project characteristics, types and methods of management. The fourth chapter provides an overview defining the characteristics of the project life cycle, its main phases and models. The fifth chapter talks in more detail about the planning phase as one of the most important phase of the project life cycle and emphasizes its impact in more detail. The sixth chapter deals with the success factors of the project, and the seventh chapter talks about risk management plan and various risk identification techniques.