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Accepted deliverables The tangible work products and services that meet the sponsor’s or customer’s needs
Accuracy Within the quality management system, accuracy is an assessment of correctness
Active Listening A communication technique where the receiver processes information and offers feedback to the sender
Activity attributes Additional information about each activity such as duration, cost, resources, required skill sets, schedule time and date(s), tracking IDs, and others
Activity list Contains the actions and work required to create deliverables that meet project objectives
Adaptive Life Cycle A project life cycle that is intended to facilitate change and require a high degree of ongoing stakeholder involvement. It is also iterative and incremental, but differ in that iterations are very rapid and are fixed in time and resources.
Advertising Increasing awareness through promotional publications in popular newspapers, journals and/or online websites to increase the number of interested vendors in a procurement
Affinity Estimating A way to estimate large feature backlogs where user stories are assigned shirt sizes, cup sizes, or Fibonacci numbers so they can be placed into groups of similar sizes.
Agile Manifesto A 2001 document that outlines the fundamental principles and values of Agile methodology.
Agile release planning The development of the project schedule over a series of iterations (sprints) instead of building it completely during a single, major planning “phase”
Agreements The mutually agreed-upon and legally binding terms that the parties to it must follow
Analogous estimating The act of creating approximations by using actual estimates of the same or similar type of activity performed in the past, when faced with limited information about the project
Approved change requests The proposed ideas that stakeholders have evaluated and found worthy of adding to the project
Assumptions log The project document used to record all premises that are considered to be factual for planning purposes
Audits Fact-finding activities conducted by people or departments external to the project, to identify and confirm within a project, best practices employed, nonconformance to procedures, and implementation of changes
Basis of estimates Describes how the estimates were derived
Bid documents Provide prospective vendors with a description of the products or services required by the purchaser
Bidder conferences Meetings held prior to the submission of proposals that the purchasing organization conducts with all interested sellers to answer all seller questions related to the procurement, and ensure that all sellers have the same understanding of the requirements
Bottom-up estimating Deriving approximations by dividing the work into smaller components, when the work is too large to be approximated with a reasonable degree of confidence
Brainstorming A technique used to elicit a large number of creative ideas from a group. Participants quickly suggest ideas, withholding comments until all ideas are expressed.
Burn-Down Chart A tool that illustrates the progress of an iteration by showing both the completed and the remaining stories.
Business documents Documents that describe the expected and desired project outcomes and how relevant stakeholders will evaluate the project's benefits
Business Value The net quantifiable benefit derived from a business endeavor. The benefit may be tangible,intangible, or both
Change requests Formal proposals to alter controlled documents or deliverables
Claims administration Managing and resolving conflicting opinions on applicable charges and expenses between the buyer and seller
Closed procurements Outsourcing engagements that have reached successful or unsuccessful completion
Collaboration Working together to achieve team goals.
Colocation The placement of the most important and active team members (or perhaps all team members) at the same physical location.
Command and Control Higher-ups make team decisions, a practice that is not compatible with Agile methodology.
Communication methods The ways information is sent and received, including push, pull, and interactive
Communication models Visual representation of the process to transfer an encoded message using one or more media from a sender to a receiver who decodes the message and provides feedback
Communication requirements analysis Techniques used to identify and gather stakeholder informational needs
Communication skills A wide variety of interpersonal skills to transfer information clearly and competently to strengthen relationships and enable decision making
Communication technology Tools used to facilitate communications and interactions between team members
Communications management plan The document that describes how the project management team will collect, distribute, and control, and eventually dispose of project information
Cone of Uncertainty Highlights how unknowns make it difficult to make early estimates. Estimates become more accurate over time as uncertainty diminishes.
Context diagram Describe interactions between business systems (e.g., process or equipment), the actors (stakeholders) who provide inputs to the systems, and the actors who receive outputs from the systems
Contingent response strategies Actions to be performed in anticipation of certain conditions being met or when planned responses to uncertainty fail to have the anticipated effect
Coordination Team members collaborate on work to improve productivity and performance.
Cost aggregation Summing cost estimates available at the lower levels of a WBS to higher levels
Cost baseline The aggregation of the cost estimates at the control account level, determined to undertake project activities, and employ resources – both human and material
Cost estimates Financial resources likely required to perform project work
Cost forecasts Expectations of total project costs based on current performance
Cost management plan The document that describes how the team will perform all other processes in the Project Cost Management Knowledge Area
cost of conformance The money spent during a project to avoid failures. This includes prevention costs that build a quality product and appraisal costs that assess the quality.
Cost of Quality (CoQ) All costs incurred over the life of the product by investment in preventing nonconformance to requirements, appraisal of the product or service for conformance to requirements, and failure to meet requirements
Cost Variance (CV) The amount of budget deficit or surplus at a given point in time, expressed as the difference between the earned value and the actual cost
Cost-Benefit Analysis A financial analysis tool used to determine the benefits provided by a project against its costs
Cost-Reimbursable Contract A type of contract involving payment to the seller for the seller’s actual costs, plus a fee typically representing the seller’s profit
Critical path method The technique that determines the longest sequence of activities (i.e., the longest path; the critical path) through the project, and represents the shortest possible amount of time required to complete the entire project
Customer A participant on an Agile team who determines business value. Can be a real customer or someone who represents customers' interests.
Data analysis Techniques used to assess, and evaluate data
Data gathering Collecting data from various sources and through various means
Data representation Techniques to display and convey data and information
Decision making The act of selecting courses of actions from among the options available
Decomposition The technique of dividing and subdividing work packages and deliverables described in the WBS in to smaller parts
Deliverables Verifiable (testable) products, or the tangible means to provide a service, and documents, created by a project
Dependency determination and integration A way of providing more context to the relationship between activities by defining two broad categories of dependencies viz. mandatory/discretionary and external/internal
Design for X A technique used to focus developmental efforts on one particular functional or non-functional aspect, where X is that aspect of the product or service being built
Disaggregation Separating epics or big stories into smaller stories.
Duration estimates The number of time periods required to perform an activity, a phase or the entire project
Emotional Intelligence A type of intelligence that includes self-awareness and social awareness. Agile leaders and team members should possess this.
Empowerment Enabling Agile team members to make decisions that increase the value of their work.
Enterprise environmental factors The many internal and external factors beyond the team’s control that can help or hinder the project
Enterprise environmental factors updates Changes that occur to those internal or external factors that are beyond the project team's control, which can help or hinder the project
Expert Judgment The ability to make sensible decisions due to one's own specialized training, knowledge, experiences or skill sets
Final product, service or result transition The transfer of the phase’s intermediate product, service or result, or the project’s final product, service or result to its intended recipients
Final report The summary of the project’s or phase’s achievements / benefits and performance on key parameters including planned versus actual scope, schedule, cost, quality, and risk
Financing Obtaining funding for a project
Five Whys Technique A tool for root cause analysis where individuals ask “why” five times in a row to reveal the fundamental problem.
Funding limit reconciliation The process of comparing expected spending against available money, and modifying when the work takes place to ensure sufficient money is available to pay resources
Ground rules The team’s agreed-upon principles and expected behaviors
Historical information review Discovering information past projects when faced with limited information about the current project
Imposed Date A fixed date imposed on a schedule activity or schedule milestone, usually in the form of a “start no earlier than” and “finish no later than” date.
Independent cost estimates Approximate expenses prepared either by the organization itself or by an outside estimator; often used to provide information to evaluate proposals from other organizations
Individual and team assessments Evaluations of team members' strengths and weaknesses, work ethic, skills, aspirations, and team spirit, among other factors
Information management The use of tools and techniques to generate information and connecting people to it
Inspection The customer’s or sponsor’s review of the product, with the goal of obtaining formal acceptance
Interactions Communications between individuals: preferably face-to-face between Agile team members.
Interpersonal and team skills Those abilities that allow one to effectively communicate with the project's stakeholders
Issue log The document that contains the problems faced on a project
Kanban (“Task Board”, “Sign Post”, or “Billboard”). A management framework that focuses on limiting work-in-progress (WIP) and keeping WIP artifacts easily visible.
Knowledge management The use of tools and techniques to create, gather, disseminate and integrated information that can used to benefit the organization
Leads and lags The amounts of time by which activities can be advanced or delayed, respectively
Lean A management philosophy that suggest that activities that create value for the end customer are the only activities that merit the expenditure of resources. All else is wasteful, and thus, should be eliminated.
Lessons learned register The document that contains situations from which project team members have learned or experienced something new that could help in dealing with similar situations on future projects
Make-or-buy decisions The choice to purchase or create a product or service required by the project
Meetings Gatherings of stakeholders to discuss various subjects or make decisions
Methodology A system of practices, techniques, procedures, and rules used by those who work in a discipline.
Milestone list The document containing all important, zero-duration events and dates in a project, and provides guidance to the project team on the expectations to be met
Negotiation Discussions focusing on exchanges of something valuable. In Agile methodologies, often involves on-going discussions of scope and schedule. For Agile projects, these discussions are less important than customer collaboration.
Organizational process assets The internal project management artifacts specific to the group performing the project, such as templates, guidelines, and historical data
Organizational process assets updates Modifications to items such as templates, guidelines, and historical data, often based on learning or actual project events
Organizational theory The field of understanding public and private institutions; involves disciplines such as psychology, sociology, leadership, among others
Outputs from other processes The many sources of data and information that leads to the creation of the project management plan
Parametric estimating Making use of formulas and algorithms to compute an approximation of hours of effort, expected cost, and other factors
Pareto charts A tool that displays items in prioritized order, such as the Minimal Marketable Features that add value to users or the sources of quality problems.
Physical resource assignments The allocation of tangible resources required on the project
Pre-assignment The allocation of resources to the project prior to the creation of the resource management plan
Precedence diagramming method The technique used to create logical relationships (sequences) between activities by depicting them as nodes linked by arrows
Problem solving The structured procedure to resolving issues and challenges encountered
Procurement documentation Contracts, reports, and other similar items created and used over the life of a contractual agreement
Procurement documentation updates Modifications made to contracts, reports, and other similar items created over the life of a contractual agreement
Procurement management plan The document that describes how the organization will conduct, control, and close project procurements
Procurement statement of work Describes the details of the work to be performed by the vendor/contractor to fulfill an agreement
Procurement strategy The plan of action of a purchasing organization to determine the delivery method, contract payment type, and procurement phases that describe the life cycle of the outsourcing arrangement
Product analysis Methods that enable the project management team and other relevant stakeholders to translate requirements into tangible deliverables and work
Progressive Elaboration Short and repeating cycles of planning, execution, and evaluation.
Project calendars ocuments that contain information about the days and shifts available to carry out project work
Project charter The high-level document that describes and formally approves the purpose and high-level solution of proposed project
Project communications The transmission of progress reports, project parameters for budget and schedule, resource utilization, deliverable quality, defects, issues, and changes to and from stakeholders
Project documents Documents created during the course of a project; as an input to many process, it excludes management plans and baselines
Project documents updates Modifications to documents beyond baselines and management plans, often created as outputs when performing project management processes
Project funding requirements The quantities of funds and points in time when funds are required to be dispensed for project work
Project management information system A methodology or software to manage data, information, and outputs of the project
Project management plan The document that describes how the project will be performed, controlled and closed
Project management plan updates Changes to the document that document that describes how the project will be performed, controlled and closed
Project reporting Creating and issuing ad hoc, on-demand project reports and presentations
Project schedule The presentation of information about the start and finish dates, durations of activities, and milestones
Project schedule network diagrams Graphical representations of the sequence of activities and milestones
Project Scope Statement The document that elaborates on the product, service, or result approved in the project charter, and driven by the requirements generated during the process Collect Requirements
Project Team Assignments The allocation of project staff, along with their project roles and responsibilities
Prompt Lists An outline or framework of pre-determined categories of risks or impact areas that could be used to identify specific project risks
Prototypes Representations of the desired system (perhaps using storyboards or mockups for an actual, scaled-down working version of the final product)
Quality Control Measurements Results of the assessments, tests, and activities conducted to evaluate and control quality
Quality Improvement Methods Tools and techniques like the PDCA or DMAIC cycles, or Six Sigma, or Lean, among others, used to find and recommend increase the likelihood of products and processes meeting stakeholder needs
Quality Management Plan The document that describes how the project team is to incorporate all relevant regulations, standards, best practices, and stakeholder requirements into the project work
Quality metrics Product or project attributes that will lead to stakeholder satisfaction, and how the team will measure those attributes
Quality report The document containing information about the current state of how well the project is meeting needs to stakeholders, among other information
Recognition and rewards Signs, words and deeds of appreciation used to encourage desired behavior, and motivate high performance over the life of the project
Relative Sizing An estimating technique where teams estimate the size of one story relative to the size of another.
Release Planning The process of determining the prioritized functionality to be developed, in one or more iterations or sprints, along with the expected timeframe of the development.
Representations of uncertainty Ways in which risks and uncertainty on the project are represented numerically and used as quantitative analysis inputs
Requirements Documentation Documentation describing the measurable, traceable, and testable characteristics needed by project stakeholders to meet their needs
Requirements Management Plan The document that describes the processes, tools, and techniques that the team will use to collect, document and manage the characteristics needed to satisfy stakeholder needs
Requirements Traceability Matrix The document that links each requirement to the deliverables that fulfill the requirements; can include information like rationale, test plans
Resource Breakdown Structure A hierarchical representation of resources by type/category
Resource Calendars Timetables that specify the hours, days, and durations when resources are available
Resource Management Plan A document that describes how resources will be acquired, managed and released
Resource optimization The act of adjusting the project schedule to reflect real-world resource limitations
Resource requirements The detailed quantities and attributes of the project staff and physical items (e.g., materials, facilities) needed to perform the project
Risk Burn-Down Chart Displays the overall uncertainty rating of a project. As features are completed successfully (which reduces uncertainty), the uncertainty “burns down”.
Risk categorization Grouping of similar risks to simplify the process of developing responses or to highlight the riskiest areas of a project
Risk management plan The document that describes the processes the team will employ over the life of the project to manage uncertainty
Risk register The document containing the project risks identified by the project team and relevant stakeholders
Risk report The document that depicts summary information about the overall project exposure to uncertainties along with their sources of individual uncertainties
Rolling wave planning Rolling wave planning is a method to plan the project in iterations, with each iteration providing more detail than the previous one
Schedule baseline The approved version of the project timeline used for all subsequent executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing processes
Schedule compression Reducing the duration of activities on the critical path while not changing the desired scope or quality of those activities; examples include crashing and fast tracking
Schedule data Facts related to resource requirements, alternative schedules that plan for the best/worst case scenarios, cash flows, and schedule reserves, that are used to build and control the timeline
Schedule forecasts Expectations of the project’s timeline performance based on current and past performance
Schedule management plan The document that describes how the project's schedule will be developed, monitored and controlled
Schedule network analysis Scheduling techniques like resource optimization techniques, critical path method, and other techniques like simulation and what-if scenarios to determine start and finish dates for activities and milestones
Scope baseline The approved project work and deliverables
Scope management plan The document that describes how the project's work and deliverables will be defined, built, controlled and validated
Selected sellers Vendor(s) with satisfactory bids/proposals that the buyer has chosen to fulfill the procurement
Seller proposals Vendors' documented responses to the purchasing organization’s procurement request
Servant Leadership The Agile notion suggesting that leaders are most effective when they provide for the needs of the team first and leads the team second.
Source selection analysis A tool and technique to review all prospective vendors with the goal of choosing the preferred vendor
Source selection criteria The characteristics the organization will use to evaluate all vendors during the Conduct Procurements process
Stakeholder engagement plan The document that describes the activities the project management team will implement to keep affected individuals, groups, and organization involved, interested, and supportive of the project
Stakeholder register The document that identifies, assesses, and classifies information on individuals, groups, and organizations affected by the project
Strategies for opportunities Courses of action that attempt to improve the likelihood and/or the benefits of events occurring that may positively affect the project
Strategies for overall project risk Courses of action for threats and opportunities, and may include avoiding, exploiting, transferring or sharing, mitigating or enhancing, and accepting overall uncertainties
Strategies for threats Courses of action that attempt to reduce the consequences or likelihood of events occurring that may negatively affect the project
Team charter The document that establishes the team values, agreements, and operating guidelines
Team performance assessments Evaluations of the team’s overall effectiveness, examining factors such as individual skills, collective competencies, knowledge sharing, collaboration, and staff attrition
Test and evaluation documents Guidelines and steps to be taken to assess whether the project's product(s) or process(s) comply with requirements
Test and inspection planning The act of determining the guidelines and steps to be taken to assess whether the project's product(s) or process(s) comply with requirements
Test-Driven Development An Agile practice where acceptance tests are developed before the product is developed.
Testing/product evaluations Structured activities performed to determine conformance to requirements by searching for defects and other areas of non-conformance
Three-point estimating An approximation technique involving the range of three estimates (best, worst and most likely scenarios) to accomplish an activity, phase or the entire project
Training Events designed to improve the knowledge, skills, and capabilities of project staff
Value Stream Mapping A Lean technique of analyzing a sequence of processes in order to reveal and reduce waste.
Verified deliverables The tested deliverables that successfully meet all relevant requirements
Virtual teams Team members situated in different geographical locations
Work performance data Unprocessed, lowest-level details related to the project work
Work performance information Data with context to provide a context for project performance; generally by comparing work performance data with baselines and other planned documents
Work performance reports Representations of project performance that provide stakeholders with only the relevant work performance they need in the desired format