The World Bank project cycle includes six-stages:

 Identification
 Preparation
 Appraisal
 Negotiation/approval
 Implementation
 Completion/validation and evaluation

Below is an outline of the six stages, the key documents produced during the various stages, and
links to access them.

1. Identification

The task of identifying and proposing projects for World Bank financing lies mainly with the
Borrower. The Borrower and the World Bank Group (WBG) produce a Country Partnership
Framework (CPF) to identify the country’s main priorities for ending extreme poverty and
promoting shared prosperity. Used in conjunction with a Systematic Country Diagnostic
(SCD), the CPF is a key tool that guides the WBG’s partnership and support for a Borrower’s
development program. For further information, click on the WBG Directive and Guidance.

Once a project is identified, the Borrower and the Bank agree on an initial project concept and its
beneficiaries, and the Bank's project team outlines the basic elements in a Project Concept
Note. This document identifies proposed objectives, risks to these objectives’ achievement,
alternative scenarios, and a likely timetable for the project preparation process. Two Bank
documents are prepared and disclosed to the public during this phase. The Project Information
Document which outlines the scope of the intended project and the Environmental and Social
Review Summary (ESRS) for investment projects starting in October 2018 that apply the
Environmental and Social Framework (ESF). For investment projects under the previous
Safeguard Policies, an Integrated Safeguards Data Sheet is made available to the public. The
transition from the Safeguard Policies to the ESF will take several years, as projects approved
under the Safeguard Policies continue to apply those policies through the end of the Project
cycle.

 Project Information Document

 Environmental and Social Review Summary
 Integrated Safeguards Data Sheet

2. Preparation

The borrower is responsible for the project preparation phase, which includes conducting
technical, economic, social and environmental assessments and preparing feasibility studies,
engineering and technical designs, among others. Most Borrowers typically contract with
consultants and private sector firms for goods, works and services, as needed, during this phase
and later during the project's implementation phase. During preparation, the Borrower and the
Bank team also give attention to other important concerns including citizen engagement, gender,
climate change, fraud and corruption, and grievance redress mechanisms. Beneficiaries and
stakeholders are also consulted during this phase to ensure the project considers their needs.

In addition to providing financing, the World Bank serves as a vehicle for global knowledge
transfer and technical assistance and generally takes an advisory role and offers analysis and
advice during this phase. The Bank team supports the Borrower in developing the project design,
identifying implementation arrangements, and conducting various reviews and studies. The
Bank assesses the relevant capacity of the implementing agencies at this point to reach
agreement with the Borrower on arrangements for overall project management, such as the
systems required for financial management, procurement, environmental and social risk
management, reporting, and monitoring and evaluation.

Earlier screening by Bank staff may have determined that a proposed project could have
potential adverse environmental or social impacts. For new IPF projects, the Bank currently
applies the Environmental and Social Framework (ESF). The ESF sets out the World Bank’s
commitment to sustainable development through a Bank Policy and a set of Environmental and
Social Standards that are designed to support Borrowers’ to better manage environmental and
social (E&S) risks. It uses an up-to-date and risk-based approach, addresses a wider range of
environmental and social risks and potential impacts and better integrates the Bank’s
Environmental and Social policies. The ESF clearly defines the role of the World Bank versus
the Borrower, whereby the Bank applies due diligence to the project under the Environmental
and Social Policy (ESP) and the Borrower follows the requirements of the ten Environmental and
Social Standards (ESS1-10). Development Policy and Program-for-Results financing do not
apply the ESF and have their own provisions for environmental and social risk management.

 Environmental Assessment
 Environmental Action Plan
 Indigenous Peoples Plan
 Procurement Plan

3. Appraisal

Appraisal gives the Borrower an opportunity to review the project design in detail and resolve
any outstanding questions. The Borrower and the Bank review the work done during the
identification and preparation phases and confirm the expected project outcomes, intended
beneficiaries, application of ESF requirements (for IPF) and evaluation tools for monitoring
progress. Agreement is reached on the viability of all aspects of the project at this time. The
Bank team confirms that all aspects of the project are consistent with all World Bank operations
requirements, assesses the project’s readiness for implementation, and that the Borrower has
institutional arrangements in place to implement the project efficiently. All parties agree on a
project timetable and on public disclosure of key documents and identify any unfinished business
required for final Bank approval. The Project Information Document and Environmental and
Social Review Summary (for IPF) are updated and disclosed during this phase.

4. Negotiation/Approval
Once all project details are negotiated and accepted by the Borrower and the Bank, the Bank
team finalizes the Project Appraisal Document (for IPF), the Program Appraisal Document
(for PforR) or the Program Document (for DPF), along with other financial and legal
documents, for submission to the Bank's Board of Executive Directors for consideration and
approval.

 Project Appraisal Document

 Program Document
 Loan Agreements

5. Implementation

Project implementation is the responsibility of the Borrower, while the Bank’s role is to provide
effective implementation support to improve results, help manage risks, and increase institutional
development. With technical assistance and support from the Bank, the Borrower prepares the
specifications for the project and carries out all procurement of goods, works and services
needed, as well as any environmental and social impact mitigation set out in agreed plans,
including those described in the Environmental and Social Commitment Plan (ESCP). Financial
management and procurement specialists on the Bank's project team ensure that adequate
fiduciary controls on the use of project funds are in place. Changing circumstances, project
delays and unexpected events can sometimes require adjustments to the project design, such as
implementation arrangements or even objectives, resulting in a restructuring.

The implementing agency reports regularly on project progress and results. The Borrower and
the Bank also join forces at least twice a year to prepare a review of project progress. Based on
this review, the Bank team prepares an Implementation Status and Results Report.

 Implementation Status and Results Report

6. Completion/Validation & Evaluation

When a project is completed and closed at the end of the loan disbursement period, the World
Bank, with input from the Borrower and other stakeholders, compiles an Implementation
Completion and Results Report, which evaluates the project’s outcomes; challenges, and
lessons learned to determine what additional measures are needed to sustain the benefits derived
from the project. In addition, the evaluation team assesses how well the entire operation
complied with the Bank's operations policies and accounts for the use of Bank resources.

Project Schedule Network Diagram:

Definition | Uses | Example
What Is a Project Schedule Network Diagram?

A project schedule network diagram is an output type of the process ‘sequencing activities’
according to PMI’s Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®, 6th ed.,
ch. 6.3.3).

Project schedule network diagrams show the order in which activities should be scheduled to
address logical relationships between these activities.

Example of a Project Schedule Network Diagram.

It typically comprises of nodes that represent activities and arrows that show the sequence and
dependencies. This way of presentation is also referred to as ‘activities on nodes’ (AON)
diagramming. It is probably the most common type of project schedule network diagram.

An alternative form of presentation is the ‘activities on arrows’ (AOA) method where, as the
name indicates, activities are shown as arrows while nodes represent the logical relationships.
Example of an Activity-on-Arrow Project Schedule Network Diagram.

A technique to create project schedule network diagrams is the precedence diagramming method
which we are explaining in this article (incl. example).

Logical Relationships

The diagram is based on and often enriched with information about the type of logical
relationship between activities. The 4 types of dependencies are

 Finish to finish (FF),

 Finish to start (FS),
 Start to start (SS), and
 Start to finish (SF).

The first part of these terms indicates the status the predecessor activity must obtain before the
successor activity can have the status referred to in the second part. In a finish to start
dependency, for instance, the predecessor must have finished for the successor to start. Read
more, incl. examples, in this introduction to the predecessor diagramming method.

Apart from dependencies, a project schedule diagram can also show leads and lags. These are
characteristics of the timing and scheduling of activities that we are explaining in detail in this
article.
What Is A Project Network Diagram Used for?

A project network diagram is used to develop and document the sequence of activities. It belongs
to the ‘project schedule management’ knowledge area where it is served as an input for other
scheduling techniques, such as the schedule network analysis or the critical path method
(PMBOK®, ch. 6.5.2.1).

In a project, you can also use this type of diagram to discuss sequences and dependencies, as
well as for the stakeholder communication. In larger projects, however, it is often a rather
detailed and complex working document that links the dependencies and sequences of all
activities to the overall project schedule and duration. For the communication of the project
schedule, other ways of presentation (such as Gantt diagrams) and a more aggregated view tend
to be more common than schedule network documents in many organizations.

Schedule network diagrams are also used to document the slacks and floats and the leads and
lags of activities. They are the basis to identify the critical path, i.e. the chain of activities with
the longest duration.

How Do You Create a Schedule Network Diagram?

Relevant inputs of the schedule network diagram are the list of defined activities, the estimated
durations of these activities and the logical relationships among them (also referred to as
dependencies).

To draw a schedule network diagram (in line with the AON method), you will need to

1. Draw a starting point,

2. Insert activities on the (future) nodes of your diagram, including details and additional data (see
explanation below),
3. Connect the activities with arrows that represent the type of logical relationships (as explained
in our article on the precedence diagramming method),
4. Add details to each relationship, such as the type of dependency (e.g. SS, FS), whether it is
required or discretionary, leads and lags, as well as other data relevant for your scheduling, and
5. Create an endpoint of the diagram.

You will find an example in the next section.

Details that are often added to the activities include the earliest start and latest finish date, the
criticality of an activity as well as references to work packages or the work breakdown structure.
Waiting time for activities, referred to as slack or float, can also be included.

If you prefer the activities-on-arrows (AOA) method to develop your schedule network diagram,
you draw activities as arrows and dependencies as nodes.

In projects that use scheduling software to support the project management, such diagrams are
usually created by the software. However, the input data requirements, i.e. the list of activities,
logical relationships and leads and lags, are the same and need to be provided by the user. The
software is then able to draw the diagram and determine the optimal sequence of activities.

If you do not have the right software at hand or if you work in smaller, less complex projects,
you can also use standard office software such as Visio or PowerPoint (which we have used to
create the example diagram below) to create the diagram manually.

Example of a Schedule Network Diagram

In this section, we are going to introduce a (simplified) set of activities that need to be sequenced
and documented in a project schedule network diagram. A part of this case study is also used in
our example of the precedence diagramming method. You will find it in our PDM article
together with more details on how we have identified and categorized the logical relationships
among these activities.

This example is about an IT development and implementation project. However, the creation and
use of a schedule network diagram are similar for all kinds of projects irrespective of their
subject matter.

Activities and Logical Relationships

The project comprises of the phases

 designing,
 developing,
 implementing,
 testing and
 deploying the software.

The activities are as follows:

1. technical design of module A (duration: 10 days),

2. technical design of module B (duration: 5 days),
3. development of module A (duration: 15 days),
4. development of module B (duration: 20 days),
5. development of feature F in module B (duration: 1 day),
6. implementation of module A (duration: 5 days),
7. implementation of module B (duration: 7 days),
8. testing of module A (duration: 6 days),
9. testing of module B (duration: 10 days),
10. integration testing (duration: 5 days),
11. Deployment (duration: 1 day).

The first 5 activities have logical relationships of FF, FS, SS and SF. Check this example in our
PDM article to learn how we have identified these dependency types.
In addition to those logical relationships, there are leads and lags in this sequence of activities:

 The testing of module A can start 4 days after the implementation of that module has started,
hence it is a SS dependency with 4 days lag time.
 The integration test is basically scheduled to start after the testing of the modules (FS
relationship). However, this is not hard logic: integration tests can already begin once the testing
of module B is 80% completed. The successor has therefore a lead time of 2 days.

If you are not yet familiar with this technique, read this introduction to lags and leads that also
comes with an illustrated example.

Creating and Understanding the Project Schedule Network Diagram

Transferring this into a project schedule network diagram leads to the following result:

The Project Schedule Network Diagram of this example.

To create such a diagram, the first step is to identify the logical relationships among these
activities. These relationship types define the sequence of activities and they are represented by
arrows in this diagram. For a better understandability, it is not uncommon to write the respective
dependency type next to the arrows.

In the simplest case of dependency, i.e. the finish-to-start relationship, the predecessor activity
must finish first before the successor can start. This is represented in the diagram by drawing an
arrow from the predecessor to the successor activity. In our example, this has been done e.g. for
the technical design and the development of module A in the above diagram.

The lag of the activity ‘testing of module A’ (lag time 4 days) is shown as a positive number, as
it extends the overall duration of that path of activities.

The lead of the ‘integration testing’ activity is shown with a negative number for the opposite
reason.
Implications for Project Schedule Management

You can follow the arrows along each sequence of activities and add the durations as well as the
lead and lag times to determine the duration of a path. The path of module A, from its design to
its deployment, consists of the following activities:

 technical design of module A (duration: 10 days),

 development of module A (duration: 15 days),
 implementation of module A (duration: 5 days),
 testing of module A (duration: 6 days),
 integration testing (duration: 5 days),
 Deployment (duration: 1 day).

The total duration of that particular path, if it were a project on its own, would be 44 days (10 +
15 + 5 + 4 + 4 [for testing: it takes 6 days, however, due to the SS relationship and lag of 4 days,
2 days of the testing duration are performed in parallel to the implementation. Thus, only 4 days
of additional time are needed, hence 4 days added to this path] + 5 + 1).

However, this is not the correct duration of our sample project!

The path of module B takes a longer time to arrive at the point ‘testing of module B 80%
finished’ (45 days), which is the condition for the integration test to start. As it takes a minimum
of only 34 days for the path of module A to finish its predecessor activity of the integration test
(i.e. testing of module A), this path would need to “wait” for the path of module A to finish its
module testing. This “waiting time” is also called slack or float.