From development of an idea into a fully costed business case, through to complete implementation and post project review, every project needs to move through cycles, and defined outcomes must be achieved at each point of these cycles to avoid carrying unnecessary risk forward.

From traditional waterfall methods through to the agile techniques being used more commonly today, the basic concept remains the same, without understanding status and how that relates to where a project should be, means you inherit project risk that your organisation could otherwise avoid.