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Accepted Deliverables Products, results, or capabilities produced by a project and validated by the project customer or sponsors as meeting their satisfied acceptance criteria.
Acquisition Obtaining any resources necessary to perform project activities.
Activity Attributes Multiple attributes associated with each schedule activity that can be included within the activity list. They include activity codes, predecessor activities, successor activities, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, imposed dates, constraints, and assumptions.
Activity Cost Estimates The projected financial sum of a schedule activity that includes the cost for all resources required to perform and complete the task.
Activity Duration Estimate Quantitative assessment of the likely amount or outcome for the duration of an activity.
Activity List A documented tabulation of schedule activities that shows the activity description, activity identifier, and a sufficiently detailed scope of work description so project team members understand what work is to be performed.
Activity Resource Requirements The types and quantities of resources required for each activity and work package.
Additional Quality Planning Tools Supplementarily used to define the conditional requirements into plan effective quality management activities. They can include force field analysts, nominal group techniques, quality management and control tools.
Advertising The process of calling public attention to a project or effort.
Agreements Any form of communication that defines the initial intentions of a project.
Alternative Analysis A technique used to evaluate identified options in order to select which options were purchased to use, execute and perform the work of the project.
Alternatives Generation Technique used to develop as many potential options as possible in order to identify different approaches to execute and perform the work of the project.
Analogous Estimating An estimating technique that uses the values of parameters, such as scope, cost, budget, and duration or measures of scale such as size, weight, and complexity from a previous, similar activity as the basis for estimating the same parameter or measure for a future activity.
Analytical Techniques Various procedures used to evaluate, analyze, or forecast potential outcomes based on possible variations of project/environmental variables.
Approved Change Requests A change request that has been processed through the integrated change control process and approved.
Approved Change Requests Review Inspection to an appeal that is been processed through the integrated change control process and approved.
Assumptions Analysis A technique that explores the accuracy of expectations and identifies risks from inaccuracy, inconsistency, or incompleteness of project presumptions.
Basis of Estimates Supporting documentation outlining the details used in establishing project estimates such as assumptions, constraints, level of detail, ranges, and confidence levels.
Benchmarking The comparison of actual plan practices to those of comparable organizations to identify best practices and generate a basis for measuring performance.
Bidder Conference Meetings with prospective sellers prior to the preparation of a proposal to ensure all perspective vendors have a clear and common understanding of the procurement.
Bottom-up estimating A method of estimating a component of work. The work is decomposed into more detail. An estimate is prepared of what is needed to meet the requirements of each of the lower, more detailed pieces of work, and these estimates are then aggregated into a total quantity for the component of work.
Business Case Feasibility study used to establish validity of the benefits of a selected component lacking sufficient definition. Used as a basis for the authorization of further project management activities.
Change Control Tools Manual or automated assistance with change and/or configuration management. At a minimum, it should support the activities of the CCB.
Change Log Comprehensive list of revisions made during the project. This typically includes dates of the revision and impact in terms of time cost and risk.
Change Requests Requests to expand or reduce the project scope, modify policies, processes, plans, or procedures, modify costs or budgets, or revise schedules.
Checklist Analysis Technique for systematically reviewing materials using a list for accuracy and completeness.
Claims administration Processing, adjudicating and communicating contract claims.
Close Procurements The process of completing each project procurement.
Closed Procurements When the buyer informs the seller with a formal notice that the contract has been completed
Co-location An organizational placement strategy where the project team members are physically located close to one another in order to improve communication, working relationships, and productivity.
Communication Methods A systematic procedure, technique, or process used to transfer information among project stakeholders.
Communication Models A description, analogy or schematic used to represent how the communication process will be performed for the project.
Communication Requirements Analysis Technique that determines the information needs of the project stakeholders through interviews, workshops, study of lessons learned from previous projects, etc.
Communication Technologies The actual methods of transferring information among stakeholders. Such as phone, e-mail, meetings and websites.
Communications Management Plan A planned component that describes how, when, and by whom information about the project will be administered.
Conflict Management Handling, controlling and guiding a discording situation to achieve a resolution.
Context Diagrams A visual depiction of the product scope showing a business system and how people and other systems interact with it.
Contingent Response Strategies Responses provided which may be used in the event that a specific trigger occurs.
Contract Change Control System Used to collect, track, adjudicate, and communicate changes to the contract.
Cost Aggregation Summing the lower-level cost estimates associated with the work packages, and then summing those costs for higher levels of the WBS such as control accounts.
Cost Baseline Approved version of the time-phased project budget. Only changed through formal change control procedures and used as a basis for comparison to actual results.
Cost Forecasts Projections derived from progress against the cost baseline and computed estimates to complete (ETC).
Cost Management Plan The document that sets out the format and establishes the activities and criteria for planning, structuring, and controlling the project costs. It is contained in, or is a subsidiary plan of, the project management plan.
Cost of Quality A method of determining the costs incurred to ensure quality.
Cost-Benefit Analysis Tool used to determine the advantages provided by a project against its costs.
Critical Chain Method A schedule network analysis technique that modifies the project schedule to account for limited resources.
Critical Path Method A method used to estimate the minimum project duration and determine the amount of scheduling flexibility on the logic network paths within the schedule module.
Data Gathering and Representation Techniques Techniques used to collect, organize and present information and particulars.
Decomposition A planning technique that subdivides the project scope and project deliverables into smaller, more manageable components, until the project work associated with accomplishing the project scope and providing the deliverables is defined in sufficient detail to support executing, monitoring, and controlling the work.
Deliverable Any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that must be produced to complete a process, phase, or project.
Dependency Determination A technique used to identify the type of reliance that is used to create the logical relationships between predecessor and successor activities.
Design of Experiments A statistical method for identifying which factors may influence specific variables of a product or process under development or in-production.
Diagramming Techniques Approaches to presenting information with logical linkages that aid in understanding.
Document Analysis An elicitation technique that examines existing documentation and identifies information relevant to the requirements.
Documentation Reviews The process of gathering a corpus of information and reviewing it to determine accuracy and completeness.
Earned Value Management A management methodology for integrating scope, schedule, and
resources, and for objectively measuring project performance and progress. Performance is measured by determining the budgeted cost of work performed (i.e., earned value) and comparing it to the actual cost of work performed (i.e., actual cost).
Enterprise Environmental Factor Updates Changes that might include a variety of factors such as regulations, standards, risk tolerance, employee skills, or infrastructure
Enterprise Environmental Factors Any or all external environmental factors and internal organizational environmental factors that surround or influence the project's success.
Expert Judgment Judgment provided based upon expertise in an application area, knowledge area, discipline, industry, etc. as appropriate for the activity being performed. Such expertise may be provided by any group or person with specialized education, knowledge, skill, experience, or training.
Facilitated Workshops Focused sessions that bring key cross-functional stakeholders together to define product requirements.
Facilitation Techniques Brainstorming, conflict resolution, problem-solving, and meeting management are methods used by facilitators to help accomplish project activities.
Final Product, Service, or Result Transition Output referring to that which the project was authorized to produce.
Focus groups Elicitation technique that brings together prequalified stakeholders and subject matter experts to learn about their expectations and attitudes about a proposed product, service, or resolved.
Forecast An estimate or prediction of conditions and events in the project's future based on info and knowledge available at the time of initial planning.
Funding Limit Reconciliation Process of comparing the planned expenditure of project fines against any limits on the commitment of funds for the project to identify any variances between the funding limits in the planned expenditures.
Ground Rules Expectations regarding acceptable behavior by project team members.
Group Creativity Techniques Techniques that are used to generate ideas within an assembly of stakeholders.
Group Decision-Making Techniques Techniques to assess multiple alternatives that will be used to generate, classify, and prioritize product requirements.
Historical Relationships Any preexisting association involving the use of project characteristics that result in parametric or analogous estimate models.
Human Resource Plan A document describing how roles and responsibilities, reporting relationships, and staffing management will be addressed and structured for the project. It is contained in or is a subsidiary plan of the project.
Independent Estimates Process of using a third-party to obtain and analyze information to support prediction of cost, schedule or other items.
Information Gathering Techniques Repeatable processes used to assemble and organize data across the spectrum of sources.
Information Management Systems Facilities, processes and procedures used to collect, store and distribute info between producers and consumers of information in physical or electronic format.
Inspection Examining or measuring to verify whether inactivity, component, product, result or service conforms to specified requirements.
Inspections and Audits As specified by the procurement contract, they are conducted during the execution of the project to verify compliance in the seller's work processes and deliverables.
Interpersonal Skills Ability to establish and maintain relationships with other people.
Interviews Formal or informal approach to elicit information from stakeholders by talking to them directly.
Issue Log A list used to document and monitor elements under discussion or in dispute between project stakeholders.
Leads and Lags The technique that is used to adjust the amount of time between predecessor and successor activities.
Make-or-Buy Analysis The process of gathering and organizing data about product requirements and analyzing them against available alternatives including the purchase or internal manufacturer of the product.
Make-or-Buy Decisions Selections made regarding the external purchase or internal manufacturer of the product.
Management Skills The ability to plan, organize, direct and control individuals or groups of people to achieve specific goals.
Market Research The process of gathering information at conferences, online reviews and a variety of sources to identify market capabilities.
Meetings A group discusses and address pertinent topics of the project when directing and managing project work.
Milestone List A record identifying all project milestones and normally indicates whether a milestone is mandatory or optional.
Modeling Techniques Used to review various scenarios guided by risk monitoring to bring the schedule model into alignment with the project management plan and approved baseline.
Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis Utilizing a decision matrix to provide a systematic, analytical approach for ranking ideas on relevant criteria such as risk levels or valuation.
Negotiation The process and activities to resolving disputes through consultations between involved parties.
Networking Formal and informal interactions with others. For project staffing, it helps the project manager understand the political and interpersonal factors that affect staffing management options.
Observation and Conversation Methods used to stay in touch with the attitudes and work of the team, often more useful and meaningful than reading project reports.
Observations A technique that provides a direct way of viewing individuals and their environment performing their jobs or tasks and carrying out processes.
Organization Charts and Position Descriptions This tool includes hierarchical, matrix and text-oriented formats, which can depict the broad roles of team members or be more suited to describe detailed task responsibilities.
Organizational Process Asset Updates Changes made to elements like templates, policies, procedures, and historical data.
Organizational Process Assets Any or all process related assets, from any or all of the organizations involved in the project that are or can be used to influence the project's success. These process assets include formal and informal plans, policies, procedures, and guidelines.
Organizational Theory Provides info regarding the way people, teams and assembled units behave, recognizing each may have a different individual response.
Outputs From Other Processes Any baselines and subsidiary plans that come from other planning processes are now inputs in this phase.
Parametric estimating An estimating technique that uses a statistical relationship between historical data and other variables (e.g., square footage in construction, lines of code in software development) to calculate an estimate for activity parameters, such as scope, cost, budget, and duration.
Payment systems The setup used provide an track suppliers invoices and payments for services and products.
Performance reporting Work performance info compiled in project documents intended to generate decisions, actions or awareness.
Performance reviews Technique that is used to measure, compare and analyze actual performance of work in progress on the project against the baseline.
Personnel assessment tools These tools give the project managers and team insight into areas of their own strength and weakness. These tools can include attitudinal surveys or ability tests.
Pre-assignment The situation when a project is dependent on the expertise of particular persons or staff has been designated in the project charter before work begins.
Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) A schedule network diagramming technique in which schedule activities are represented by boxes (or nodes). Schedule activities are graphically linked by one or more logical relationships to show the sequence in which the activities are to be performed.
Probability and Impact Matrix A common way to determine whether a risk is considered low, moderate, or high by combining the two dimensions of a risk: its probability of occurrence and its impact on objectives if it occurs.
Process analysis Examining the steps outlined in the process improvement plan to identify needed improvements.
Process improvement plan A subsidiary plan of the project management plan. It details the steps for analyzing process to identify activities that enhance their value.
Procurement audits The review of contracts and contracting processes for completeness, accuracy and effectiveness.
Procurement documents The documents utilized in bid and proposal activities, which include the buyer's Invitation for Bid, Invitation for Negotiations, Request for Information, Request for Quotation, Request for Proposal and seller's responses.
Procurement Management Plan The document that describes how procurement processes from developing procurement documentation through contract closure will be managed.
Procurement Negotiations Deliberations that clarify the structure, requirements and other terms of purchases so that mutual agreement can be reached prior to signing the contract.
Procurement Performance Reviews Structured assessment of the seller's progress to deliver project scope and quality, within cost and on schedule, as compared to the contract.
Procurement Statement of Work Describes the procurement item in sufficient detail to allow prospective sellers to determine if they're capable of providing the products, services or results.
Product analysis A tool to define scope that generally means asking questions about a product and forming answers to describe the use, characteristics and other relevant aspects of what is going to manufactured.
Project Calendar A calendar of working days or shifts that establishes those dates on which schedule activities are worked and nonworking days that determine those dates on which schedule activities are idle. Typically defines holidays, weekends, and shift hours.
Project Charter A document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project, and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.
Project Communications Activities that are required for information to be created, distributed, received, acknowledged and understood. Influenced by factors like urgency of messaging, delivery method and level of confidentiality.
Project Documents Agreements, reports, logs or anything obtained using the seven basic quality tools or the quality management and control tools.
Project Documents Updates Changes made to a potentially wide variety of written information NOT part of the project management plan, such as the risk register, the requirements documentation, change requests, assumptions log, etc.
Project Funding Requirements Forecast project cost to be paid that are derived from the cost baseline for total or periodic requirements, including projected expenditures plus anticipated liabilities.
Project Management Information System (PMIS) An information system consisting of the tools and techniques used to gather, integrate, and disseminate the outputs of project management processes. It is used to support all aspects of the project from initiating through closing, and can include both manual and automated systems.
Project Management Plan A formal, approved document that defines how the project is executed, monitored, and controlled. It may be a summary or detailed and may be composed of one or more subsidiary management plans and other planning documents.
Project Management Plan Updates Changes made to components like baselines and subsidiary management plans.
Project Management Software Tool that has the capability to help plan, organize and manage resource pools and develop resource estimates. Used to assist in optimizing resource utilization.
Project Performance Appraisals Tool used for clarification of roles and responsibilities, constructive feedback for team, discovery of unknown issues and the establishment of goals for the near-future.
Project schedule The planned dates for performing schedule activities and the planned dates for meeting schedule milestones.
Project Schedule Network Diagrams Graphical representation of the logical relationships among the project schedule activities.
Project Scope Statement The narrative description of the project scope, including major deliverables, project assumptions, project constraints, and a description of work, that provides a documented basis for making future project decisions and for confirming or developing a common understanding of project scope among the stakeholders.
Project Staff Assignments Identifies the people who are on the team, their responsibilities and contributions.
Project Statement of Work A narrative description of products, services, or results to be delivered by the project.
Proposal Evaluation Techniques Process of reviewing proposals provided by suppliers to support contract award decisions.
Prototypes Method of obtaining early feedback on requirements by providing a working model of the expected product before actually building it.
Published Estimating Data Information on resource production rates and unit costs, often publically available.
Quality audits A structured, independent process to determine if project activities comply with organizational and project policies, processes and procedures.
Quality Checklists A structured tool used to verify that a set of required steps has been performed.
Quality Control Measurements The documented results of quality control activities.
Quality Management and Control Tools They are a type of quality planning tools used to link and sequence the activities identified.
Quality Management Plan It describes how the project management team will implement the performing organization's quality policy, and is a component or a subsidiary plan of the project management plan.
Quality Metrics A description of a project or product attribute and how to measure it.
Quantitative Risk Analysis and Modeling Techniques Commonly used for both event-oriented and project-oriented analysis approaches.
Questionnaires and Surveys Written sets of questions designed to quickly accumulate information from the large number of respondents.
Recognition and Rewards Motivation for team members demonstrated by merits and awards given to them by their organization for desirable behavior or excellence on their parts of a project.
Records Management System Specific set of processes, related control functions and tools that are consolidated and combined to retain information about the project.
Requested Change A formally documented change request that is submitted for approval to the integrated change control process.
Requirement A condition or capability that must be met or possessed by a system, product, service, result, or component to satisfy a contract, standard, specification, or other formally imposed document. Includes the quantified and documented needs, wants, and expectations of the sponsor, customer, and other stakeholders.
Requirements Documentation A description of how individual requirements meet the business need for the project.
Requirements Management Plan A component of management plans that describes how requirements will be analyzed, documented and managed.
Requirements Traceability Matrix A table that links requirements to their origin and traces them throughout the project life cycle.
Reserve Analysis An analytical technique to determine the essential features and relationships of components in the project management plan to establish a reserve for the schedule duration, budget, estimated cost, or funds for a project.
Resource Breakdown Structure A hierarchical structure of resources by resource category and resource type used in resource leveling schedules and to develop resource-limited schedules, and which may be used to identify and analyze project human resource assignments.
Resource Calendars A calendar of working days and nonworking days that determines those dates on which each specific resource is idle or can be active. Typically defines resource specific holidays and resource availability periods.
Resource Optimization Techniques Used to adjust the start and finish dates of activities that adjust planned resource used to be equal or less than resource availability.
Risk Audits The examination of risk processes and risk responses to determine their overall effectiveness.
Risk Categorization Organized details determining the areas of a project most exposed to the effects of uncertainty.
Risk Data Quality Assessment Technique used to evaluate the degree of which the data about risks is useful for risk management.
Risk Management Plan The document describes how project risk management will be structured and performed on the project. It is contained in or is a subsidiary plan of the project management plan. Information in the risk management plan varies by application area and project size.
Risk Probability and Impact Assessment Technique that investigates the likelihood each specific uncertainty will occur and the potential effects (both positive and negative) on project objectives.
Risk Reassessment Identification of new risks, reassessment of current risks and the closing of risks that are outdated.
Risk Register The document containing the results of the qualitative risk analysis, quantitative risk analysis, and risk response planning. It details all identified risks, including description, category, cause, probability of occurring, impact(s) on objectives, proposed responses, owners, and current status.
Risk Urgency Assessment Review and determination of the timing of actions that may need to occur sooner than other risk items.
Rolling Wave Planning A form of progressive elaboration planning where the work to be accomplished in the near term is planned in detail at a low level of the work breakdown structure, while the work far in the future is planned at a relatively high level of the work breakdown structure.
Schedule Baseline A specific version of the schedule model used to compare actual results to the plan to determine if preventive or corrective action is needed to meet the project objectives.
Schedule Compression Shortening the project schedule duration without reducing the project scope.
Schedule Data The collection of information for describing and controlling the schedule.
Schedule Forecasts Calculated predictions of conditions and events in the project's future based on current information and knowledge.
Schedule Management Plan The document that establishes criteria and the activities for developing and controlling the project schedule. It is contained in, or is a subsidiary plan of, the project management plan.
Schedule Model A model used in conjunction with manual methods or project management software to perform schedule network analysis to generate the project schedule for use in managing the execution of a project. See also project schedule.
Schedule Network Analysis The technique of identifying early and late start dates, as well as early and late finish dates, for the uncompleted portions of project schedule activities.
Scheduling Tool Provided schedule component names, definitions, structural relationships and formats that support the application of a scheduling method.
Scope Baseline An approved specific version of the detailed scope statement, work breakdown structure (WBS), and its associated WBS dictionary.
Scope Management Plan The document that describes how the project scope will be defined, developed, and verified and how the work breakdown structure will be created and defined, and that provides guidance on how the project scope will be managed and controlled by the project management team.
Selected Sellers The sellers which have been selected to provide a contracted set of services or products.
Seller Proposals Formal responses from sellers to request for a procurement document specifying capabilities the seller will do for the requesting organization that, if accepted Would bind the seller to perform the resulting agreement.
Seven Basic Quality Tools Standard toolkit used by quality management professionals who are responsible for planning, monitoring and controlling the issues related to quality and organization.
Source Selection Criteria A set of attributes desired by the buyer which is seller is required to meet or exceed to be selected for a contract.
SOW A narrative description of products, services or results to be delivered by the project.
Stakeholder Analysis Systematically gathering and analyzing quantitative and qualitative information to determine whose interest should be taken into account throughout the project.
Stakeholder Management Plan A subsidiary plan that defines the process, procedures, tools and techniques to effectively engage stakeholders and project decisions and execution based on the analysis of their needs, interests and potential impact.
Stakeholder Register A project document including the identification, assessment and classification of project stakeholders.
Statistical Sampling Choosing part of the population of interest for inspection.
Strategies for Negative Risks or Threats Typically dealing with detrimental impacts on project objectives, you can either avoid, transfer or mitigate the risks at hand.
Strategies for Positive Risks or Opportunities Dealing with potentially optimistic impacts on project objectives, you can either exploit, enhance or share these types of likelihoods.
SWOT Analysis This information gathering technique examines the project from the perspective of each project's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to increase the breadth of the risks considered by risk management.
Team Performance Assessments Formal or informal evaluations of the project team's effectiveness after team-developmental efforts are implemented.
Team-Building Activities Events or proceedings whose objective is to help individual team members work together effectively.
Technical Performance Measurement A performance measurement technique that compares technical accomplishments during project execution to the project management plan's schedule of planned technical achievements. It may use key technical parameters of the product produced by the project as a quality metric.
Three-Point Estimating An analytical technique that uses three cost or duration estimates to
represent the optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic scenarios. This technique is applied to improve the accuracy of the estimates of cost or duration when the underlying activity or cost component is uncertain.
To-Complete Performance Index (TCPI) The calculated projection of cost performance that must be achieved on the remaining work to meet a specified management goal, such as the budget at completion (BAC) or the estimate at completion (EAC). It is the ratio of “remaining work” to the “funds remaining.”
Training Activities designed to enhance the competencies of the project team members.
Validated Changes Provides the necessary data to confirm that the revision was properly executed.
Validated Deliverables Deliverables that are result of executing quality control process to determine correctness.
Variance Analysis A method for resolving the total variance in the set of scope, cost, and schedule variables into specific component variances that are associated with defined factors affecting the scope, cost, and schedule variables.
Variance and Trend Analysis Technique used for monitoring overall project performance. Outcomes from this may forecast potential deviation of the project at completion from coast and schedule targets.
Vendor Bid Analysis Research of what the project should cost based on the responsive bids from qualified vendors.
Verified Deliverables The results of performing the Control Quality process. Formalized acceptance as an input to Validate Scope.
Work Performance Data The raw observations and measurements identified during activities being performed to carry out the project work.
Work Performance Information Information and data, on the status of the project schedule activities being performed to accomplish the project work, collected as part of the direct and manage project execution processes. Information includes: status of deliverables; implementation status for change requests, corrective actions, preventive actions, and defect repairs; forecasted estimates to complete; reported percent of work physically completed; achieved value of technical performance measures; start and finish dates of schedule activities.
Work Performance Reports Physical or electronic representation of information compiled in project documents, intended to generate decisions, actions, or awareness.