6 phases of a project
1. Enthusiasm
2. Disillusionment
3. Panic
4. Search for the Guilty
5. Punishment of the Innocent
6. Praise and Honors for the Non Participants
- Source unknown

The "six phases of a project" still hold true, but in July, 1995 (shortly after the release of the over-hyped Windows 95), Gartner Group analyst Jackie Fenn wrote The Microsoft System Software Hype Cycle Strikes Again. It explains what happens when a new product is issued to the hi-tech market.

Gartner's hype cycle has five stages:

1. Technology trigger
   • A breakthrough, public demonstration, product launch, press release or other event
   • Generates significant press and industry interest
2. Peak of inflated expectations
   • Startup companies and small vendors try to gain from the increasing marketing hype
   • The overenthusiastic and unrealistic projections about the technology cause it to take on an unnatural and superrealistic aura
   • The media buzz and marketing hype cause the public to anticipate greatness
   • The much-publicized technology is pushed to its limits
   • As a result, there are both successes and failures
   • Conference organizers and magazine publishers make a great deal of money
3. Trough of disillusionment
   • Problems show that the technology is less robust than advertised
   • Highly-publicized failures cause negative publicity to spread
   • Those who flocked to the technology when it was about to peak now scorn and discredit it
   • Some insist that they never liked it
   • Media interest is limited to cautionary reports about the now-unfashionable technology
4. Slope of enlightenment
   • Many organizations experiment on the technology
   • Their hard work leads to a true understanding of its applicability, risks and benefits
   • Utilities are released to make the product more usable
5. Plateau of productivity
   • The technology is used in humble but useful applications in the real world
   • It begins to be adopted by the mainstream population
   • Second- and third-generation tools and methodologies become more stable
   • The ultimate height of the plateau is determined by the audience
     • A lower plateau if it benefits a niche market
     • A higher plateau if it benefits a general audience

   Some have added two more stages:

6. Maturity
7. Visibility