Project Management Glossary

Glossary of project management terms and acronyms used by

project managers and business professionals. Understanding these
terms and acronyms is an important step towards success in project
management.

Agile Project Management

The ideas from Agile software development applied to project
management. Agile methods promote a process that encourages
development iterations, teamwork, stakeholder involvement,
objective metrics and effective controls.

Assumptions
Any factors that you are assuming to be in place that will contribute
to the successful outcome of the project.

Balanced Scorecard
A performance management tool which began as a concept for
measuring whether the smaller-scale operational activities of a
company are aligned with its larger-scale objectives in terms of
vision and strategy.

Baseline
A baseline is an approved configuration item, for example a project
plan that has been signed off for execution. The baseline records
the planned costs, schedule and technical requirements against
which a project is measured.

BOSCARD
A strategic planning tool used to provide the terms-of-reference for
new projects. The BOSCARD acronym stands for Background,
Objectives, Scope, Constraints, Assumptions, Risks and
Deliverables. These headings are commonly found in terms-of-
reference and project initiation documents.

Business Case
A document recording the justification for starting a project. It
describes the benefits, costs and impact, plus a calculation of the
financial case.

CAPM
Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) is a certification
in project management managed by the Project Management
Institute in accordance with their published ANSI standard A Guide
to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, shortened to PMBOK
Guide.

Change Control
The practice of identifying, documenting, approving and carrying
out changes within a project.

Constraints
The factors that you will need to consider during the life of the
project that you are not able to change. These may include
deadlines, regulatory requirements and dependencies on other
projects to deliver.

Cost Benefit Analysis

The cost benefit analysis is used to demonstrate that the expected
benefits of a project are sufficient to warrant the cost of carrying it
out. Monetary units are usually used for the comparison.

Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM)

A method of planning and managing projects that puts more
emphasis on the resources required to execute project tasks. It is
the Theory of Constraints (TOC) applied to projects.

Critical Path
The critical path is the sequence of activities that must be
completed on time for the entire project to be completed on
schedule. It is the longest duration path through the workplan. If an
activity on the critical path is delayed by one day, the entire project
will be delayed by one day unless another activity on the critical
path can be finished a day earlier than planned.

Critical Path Method (CPM)

A technique used to predict project duration by analysing which
sequence of activities has the least amount of scheduling flexibility.

Critical Success Factor

A factor identified as essential to achieving a successful project.

Deliverable
A tangible or intangible object produced through project execution.
A deliverable can be created from multiple smaller deliverables.

Delphi Technique
A method used to estimate the likelihood and outcome of future
events. A group of experts exchange views, and each individually
gives estimates and assumptions to a facilitator who reviews the
data and issues a report. This process continues until consensus is
reached.

Dependencies
Any events or work that are either dependent on the outcome of the
project, or the project will depend on.
Earned Value
An approach where you monitor the project plan, actual work and
work-completed value to see if a project is on track. Earned Value
shows how much of the budget and time should have been spent,
with regards to the amount of work done.

Estimating
Estimating uses a range of tools and techniques to produce
estimates. An estimate is an approximation of a projects timescale
and cost that is refined throughout the project.

Float
The time a task can be delayed without delaying the project. Tasks
on the critical path have no float.

Gantt Chart
A popular bar chart that aims to show the timing of tasks or
activities as they occur across time. Although the Gantt chart did
not initially show the relationships between activities, this has
become more common in current use as both timing and
interdependencies between tasks can be identified.

Logic Network
A diagram showing the sequence of activities in a project across
time. It shows which activity logically precedes or follows another
activity. It can be used to identify the milestones and critical path of
a project.

Milestone
A key event during the life of a project, usually completing project
deliverables or other noteworthy achievement.

Monte Carlo Simulation

The Monte Carlo Simulation is a technique used to estimate the
likely range of outcomes from a complex process by simulating the
process under randomly selected conditions a large number of
times.

MoSCoW
A prioritisation method is used to determine which project
requirements must be implemented first and which must come later
or will not be implemented at all. MoSCoW stands for Must, Should,
Could, Would. The o's are added to make the acronym
pronounceable

Murphy's Law
The law that says; "if anything can go wrong, it will" named after
Capt. Edward A Murphy, an engineer working on US Air Force Project
MX981 in 1949.

NPV
Net Present Value (NPV) is an estimate that helps organisations
determine the financial benefits of long-term projects. NPV
compares the value of a pound today to the value of that same
pound in the future, taking inflation and returns into account.
P3M3
P3M3, also known as the Portfolio, Programme and Project
Management Maturity Model is a reference guide for structured best
practice. It breaks down the broad disciplines of portfolio,
programme and project management into a hierarchy of Key
Process Areas (KPAs). P3M3 is owned by the Office of Government
Commerce (OGC).

Pareto Principle
Named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, the Pareto Principle is
the idea that by doing 20% of the work you can produce 80% of the
benefit of doing the whole job. Or for quality improvement, most
problems are produced by a few key causes.

Parkinson's Law
The law that says; "work expands so as to fill the time available for
its completion" by Cyril Northcote Parkinson as the first sentence of
a humorous essay published in The Economist in 1955.

PERT Chart
A tool used to schedule, organise and co-ordinate tasks within a
project. PERT stands for Program Evaluation Review Technique, a
method developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s to
manage the Polaris submarine missile programme. Also known as a
precedence diagram, a network chart and logic diagram.

PEST Analysis
A strategic planning tool used to evaluate the impact Political,
Economic, Social, and Technological factors might have on a project.
It involves an organisation considering the external environment
before starting a project.

PMBOK
Owned by the Project Management Institute (PMI) the Project
Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is a collection of
processes and knowledge areas accepted as best practice within the
project management discipline.

PMP
Project Management Professional (PMP) is a globally recognised
certification in project management. It is managed by the Project
Management Institute and is based on the PMP Examination
Specification published by PMI in 2005. Most exam questions
reference to PMI's ANSI standard A Guide to the Project
Management Body of Knowledge, shortened to PMBOK Guide.

Portfolio Management
The co-ordinated management of a portfolio of projects to achieve a
set of business objectives.

PRINCE2
PRINCE2 is an approach to project management, released in 1996
as a generic project management method. It provides a method for
managing projects within a clearly defined framework. PRINCE2
describes procedures to co-ordinate people and activities in a
project, how to design and supervise the project, and what to do if
the project has to be adjusted if it doesn't develop as planned.

Project Management
Project management is the discipline of planning, organising and
managing resources to bring about the successful completion of
specific project goals and objectives. The Project Management
Institute (PMI) defines project management as "the application of
knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order
to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations."

Project Management Office (PMO)

An organisation or department that oversees and mentors groups of
projects. Often the PMO is responsible for setting up policies and
standards for the projects in the organisation, reviewing and
consolidating project reports for external stakeholders, and
checking project performance against the organisation's standards.

Project Manager
The person who has the overall responsibility for the successful
planning, execution and closure of a project. Project Managers work
in the construction industry, architecture, information technology
and many different occupations that produce a product or service.

RACI Chart
A RACI chart is a matrix of all the activities or decision making
authorities undertaken in an organisation set against all the people
or roles. At each intersection of activity and role it is possible to
assign somebody Responsible, Accountable, Consulted or Informed
for that activity or decision.

Resources
Everything needed to complete the project, but in particular people
and money.

Risk
There may be potential external events that will have a negative
impact on your project if they occur. Risk refers to the combined
likelihood the event will occur and the impact on the project if the
event does occur. If the combined likelihood of the event happening
and impact to the project are both high, you should identify the
potential event as a risk and put a plan in place to manage it.

Risk Management
A subset of project management that includes risk identification,
risk quantification, risk response development and risk response
control used to identify, analyse and respond to project risks.

Scope
The overall definition of what the project should achieve and a
specific description of what the result should be. A major ingredient
of scope is the quality of the final product.

Scope Creep
The uncontrolled growth of the project scope resulting from
constant changes to requirements without consideration to the
impact on resources or timescale.

Scrum
An agile methodology for software project management. Scrum was
invented in 1993 by Jeff Sutherland, John Scumniotales and Jeff
McKenna.

Six Sigma
Six Sigma is a management philosophy developed by Motorola that
emphasises setting extremely high objectives, collecting data, and
analysing results to a fine degree as a way to reduce defects in
products and services. See Six Sigma Terminology

Sponsor
The person who has authority over the project, provides funding,
approves scope changes, provides high-level direction and
champions the project within an organisation.

Sprint
An iterative unit of time, typically a one, two, or four week period.
The term and concept comes from agile project management
techniques in the software industry. Sprints allow teams to leverage
incremental improvements. When a company decides to work in
two-week Sprints, it has the opportunity to reflect, make
adjustments, and plan every fourteen days based on events and
conditions.

Stakeholder
A stakeholder is anyone, internal or external to an organisation that
has an interest in a project or will be affected by its deliverables.

Statement of Work (SOW)

The Statement of Work is the bible for the work the project must
produce. The SOW is a key governance tool whether it is being used
to direct work for a vendor or contractor, or used to direct the work
internally, the SOW must contain a description of all the work that is
expected.

Student Syndrome
The type of procrastination students are prone to when facing a test
or exam, typically leaving their revision until the last minute no
matter how much time they had to prepare.

SWOT Analysis
A strategic planning tool used to evaluate the Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats to a project. It involves
specifying the objective of the project and identifying the internal
and external factors that are favourable and unfavourable to
achieving that objective.

TCO
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is a financial estimate that helps
consumers and enterprise managers determine direct and indirect
costs of a product or system.

Use Case
The specification of tests that are conducted from the end-user
perspective. Use cases tend to focus on operating software as an
end-user would during their day-to-day activities.

Waterfall Model
A sequential development process, in which development flows
steadily downwards (like a waterfall) through the phases of
initiation, analysis, design, build, test and maintenance. To follow
the waterfall model, you move from one phase to the next
sequentially, with no overlapping or iterative steps.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

An exhaustive, hierarchical tree structure of deliverables and tasks
that need to be performed to complete a project. A work breakdown
structure is a common project management tool and the basis for
much project planning.

Acceptance Management
The process by which deliverables produced by a project are
reviewed and accepted by the customer.
Acceptance Planning
The process of identifying and scheduling a suite of tests to
measure the completion of project deliverables against stated
criteria.

Activity
A group of tasks undertaken to produce a tangible project
deliverable.

Business Case
A document outlining the justification for initiation of a project. It
includes a description of the business problem or opportunity, a list
of alternative solutions, their costs and benefits and a
recommended solution for implementation.

Change Management
The process of identifying, documenting, approving and
implementing changes within a project.

Communications Management
The process of identifying, creating, reviewing and distributing
communications messages to stakeholders within a project.

Communications Planning
The process of identifying the information needs of project
stakeholders and scheduling communications activities to meet
those needs within the project.

Cost Management
The process of monitoring and controlling the costs incurred within a
project, through the completion and approval of Expense Forms.

Deliverable
A product, capability to perform a service, or other result, that must
be produced to complete a project. Deliverables can be produced by
the project team or, in some cases, by suppliers contracted to the
project.
Dependency
A logical relationship between two or more activities. The four types
of dependencies are: start-to-finish, start-to-start, finish-to-start, and
finish-to-finish.

Feasibility Study
A document that confirms the likelihood that a range of alternative
solutions will meet the requirements of the customer.

Financial Planning
The process of identifying, quantifying and scheduling the financial
resources required to undertake a project.

Goods
Any merchandise, wares and commodities required to complete the
project.

Issue: An event that currently affects a project's ability to produce

the required deliverables.
Issue Management
The process of identifying, quantifying and resolving project-related
issues.

Job Description
A document that describes a particular role and set of
responsibilities within a project.

Materials
Consumable and non-consumable items used to produce
deliverables, such as equipment, tools, machinery and supplies.

Milestone
The recognition of an important event within a project, usually the
achievement of a key project deliverable or a set of deliverables.

Phase
A set of project activities and tasks that usually result in the
completion of one or more project deliverables.
Phase Review
A checkpoint at the end of each project phase to ensure that a
project has achieved its stated objectives and deliverables as
planned.

Process
A set of related activities that are performed to deliver products,
services or results.

Procurement Item
Any item that is contractually obliged to be provided by a supplier,
such as:

•Products (e.g. goods, materials, equipment, tools, machinery)

•Services (e.g. labor, technical and consulting services)
•Results (e.g. a more efficient process, a more highly skilled team
and a restructured organization)
Procurement Management
The process of sourcing procurement items from suppliers and
managing their performance throughout a project.

Procurement Planning
The process of identifying, quantifying and scheduling the delivery
of procurement items to a project.

Product
A physical artifact that is produced by the project. Products are
produced primarily using goods and materials.

Project
A unique endeavor to produce a set of deliverables within clearly
specified time, cost and quality constraints.

Project Lifecycle
A series of phases undertaken to deliver a required project outcome.

Project Management
The skills, tools and management processes required to successfully
undertake a project.

Project Office
The physical premise, roles, tools and processes required to
administer a project.

Project Plan
A document that lists the Work Breakdown Structure, timeframes
and resources required to undertake a project.

Project Schedule
A document that identifies the timeframes for delivering a project
and the dependencies between activities within that project.

Project Task
A specific work item that usually results in the partial completion of
a project deliverable.

Project Team
A group of people who report to a Project Manager for the purpose
of delivering a project.

Quality
The extent to which the final deliverable conforms to the customer
requirements.

Quality Assurance
A structured review of the project by an external resource, to
determine the overall project performance (e.g. against schedule
and budget) and conformance (i.e. to the management processes
specified for the project).

Quality Control
The internal monitoring and control of project deliverables, to
ensure that they meet the quality targets set for the project.

Quality Management
The process by which the quality of the deliverables and
management processes is assured and controlled on a project.

Quality Review
A structured independent review of the project, to determine the
overall project performance (e.g. against schedule and budget) and
the project conformance (i.e. to the management processes
specified for the project).

Quality Planning
The process of identifying and scheduling Quality Assurance and
Quality Control activities to improve the level of quality within a
project.

Request for Information

A tender document issued to potential suppliers to enable them to
describe how they will meet the procurement requirements of a
project.

Request for Proposal

A tender document issued to suppliers in a short-listed group, to
enable them to submit detailed proposals defining how they will
meet the procurement requirements of a project.

Resource
The labor, equipment, materials and other items needed to
undertake a project.

Resource Planning
The process of identifying, quantifying and scheduling the resources
required to complete a project.
Result
The outcome of performing a project process or activity.

Risk
Any event that is likely to adversely affect a project's ability to
achieve the defined objectives.

Risk Management
The process of identifying, quantifying and controlling risks
throughout a project.

Risk Mitigation
The actions taken to avoid, transfer or mitigate risks within a
project.

Risk Planning
The identification and scheduling of actions needed to reduce the
level of risk within a project.

Scope
The total aggregation of deliverables to be produced by a project.

Service
Work carried out to benefit a customer. Note: A service does not
produce a physical product or tangible result, as this is called an
activity.

Solution
A combination of deliverables that solve a specified business
problem or realize a specified business opportunity.

Statement of Work
A tender document that defines the procurement requirements of a
project in enough detail to enable potential suppliers to determine
whether they can meet those requirements.

Supplier Contract
An agreement between a project team and an external supplier for
the completion of a defined scope of work within a project.

Tender Document
A formal document issued to potential suppliers during the tender
process to enable them to submit the information the project needs
to select a preferred supplier.

Tender Management
The process of identifying, evaluating and contracting suppliers for
the provision of a scope of work to a project.
Project Charter
A document that describes the purpose of a project, the manner in
which it will be structured and how it will be implemented.

Tender Process
The process of issuing a Request for Information, Request for
Proposal and Supplier Contract to select and contract a preferred
supplier to a project.

Time Management
The process of recording and quantifying time spent completing
tasks within a project.

Work Breakdown Structure

The complete set of phases, activities and tasks required to
undertake the project and meet the full requirements of the
customer