Project Management Glossary

Our glossary of project management terms and acronyms used by project managers and others within a project. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.