Glossary For Project Management
A
- Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP measures the actual cost that has been spent, rather than the budgeted cost
- Agile software development is a set of fundamental principles about how software should be developed based on an agile way of working in contrast to previous heavy handed software development methodologies.
- Aggregate planning is an operational activity which does an aggregate plan for the production process, in advance of 2 to 18 months, to give an idea to management as to what quantity of materials and other resources are to be procured and when, so that the total cost of operations of the organization is kept to the minimum over that period.
B
- Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP) measures the budgeted cost of work that has actually been performed, rather than the cost of work scheduled.
- Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS) the approved budget that has been allocated to complete a scheduled task (or Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) component) during a specific time period.
C
- Constructability is a project management technique to review the construction processes from start to finish during pre-construction phrase. It will identify obstacles before a project is actually built to reduce or prevent error, delays, and cost overrun.
- Cost overrun is defined as excess of actual cost over budget.
- Critical Path Method (CPM) is a mathematically based modeling technique for scheduling a set of project activities, used in project management.
- Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) is a method of planning and managing projects that puts more emphasis on the resources required to execute project tasks
D
- Dependency in a project network is a link amongst a project’s terminal elements.
- Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) is a software development methodology originally based upon the Rapid Application Development methodology. DSDM is an iterative and incremental approach that emphasizes continuous user involvement.
- Duration of a project’s terminal element is the number of calendar periods it takes from the time the execution of element starts to the moment it is completed.
E
- Earned Value See Budgeted Cost of Work Performed
- Earned Schedule (ES) is an extension to Earned Value Management (EVM), which renames two traditional measures, to indicate clearly they are in units of currency or quantity, not time.
- Earned Value Management (EVM) is a project management technique for measuring project progress in an objective manner, with a combintion of measuring scope, schedule, and cost in a single integrated system.
- Estimation in project management is the processes of making accurate estimates using the approprate techniques.
- Event Chain Diagrams are diagrams that show the relationships between events and tasks and how the events affect each other.
- Event chain methodology is an uncertainty modeling and schedule network analysis technique that is focused on identifying and managing events and event chains that affect project schedules.
- Extreme project management (XPM) refers to a method of managing very complex and very uncertain projects.
F
- A Float in a project network is the amount of time that a task in a project network can be delayed without causing a delay to subsequent tasks and or the project completion date.
- Focused improvement in Theory of Constraints is the ensemble of activities aimed at elevating the performance of any system, especially a business system, with respect to its goal by eliminating its constraints one by one and by not working on non-constraints.
- Fordism, named after Henry Ford, refers to various social theories. It has varying but related meanings in different fields, and for Marxist and non-Marxist scholars.
G
- Henry Gantt was an American mechanical engineer and management consultant, who developed the Gantt chart in the 1910s.
- A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. It illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the project.
- A goal or objective consists of a projected state of affairs which a person or a system plans or intends to achieve or bring about — a personal or organizational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. Many people endeavor to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines
- Graphical Evaluation and Review Technique (GERT), is a network analysis technique that allows probabilistic treatment of both network logic and activity duration estimated.
H
- A Hammock activity is a schedule (project management) or project planning term for a grouping of subtasks that “hangs” between two end dates it is tied to. (Or the two end-events it is fixed to.)
- HERMES is a Project Management Method developed by the Swiss Government, based on the German V-Modell. The first domain of application was software projects.
I
- Integrated Master Plan (IMP) is an event-based, top level plan, consisting of a hierarchy of Program Events.
- ISO 10006 is a guidelines for quality management in projects, is an international standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization.
- Iterative and Incremental development is a cyclic software development process developed in response to the weaknesses of the waterfall model. It starts with an initial planning and ends with deployment with the cyclic interaction in between
K
- Kickoff meeting is the first meeting with the project team and the client of the project.
L
- Level of Effort (LOE) is qualified as a support type activity which doesn’t lend itself to measurement of a discrete accomplishment. Examples of such an activity may be project budget accounting, customer liaison, etc.
- Linear scheduling method (LSM) is a graphical scheduling method focusing on continuous resource utilization in repetitive activities. It is believed that it originally adopted the idea of Line-Of-Balance method.
- Lean manufacturing or lean production, which is often known simply as “Lean”, is the practice of a theory of production that considers the expenditure of resources for any means other than the creation of value for the presumed customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. In a more basic term,
M
- Management in business and human organization activity is simply the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal.
- Management process is a process of planning and controlling the performance or execution of any type of activity.
- A ‘megaproject is an extremely large-scale investment project.
N
- Nonlinear Management (NLM) is a superset of management techniques and strategies that allows order to emerge by giving organizations the space to self-organize, evolve and adapt, encompassing Agile, Evolutionary and Lean approaches, as well as many others.
O
- An organization is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, which controls its own performance, and which has a boundary separating it from its environment.
- Organization development (OD) is a planned, structured, organization-wide effort to increase the organization’s effectiveness and health.
P
- Planned Value See Budget Cost of Work Scheduled
- Project : A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.
- Project management : The complete set of tasks, techniques, tools applied during project execution’.
- Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) : The sum of knowledge within the profession of project management that is standardized by ISO.[4]
- PRINCE2 : PRINCE2 is a project management methodology. The planning, monitoring and control of all aspects of the project and the motivation of all those involved in it to achieve the project objectives on time and to the specified cost, quality and performance.[5]
S
- Scope creep refers to uncontrolled changes in a project’s scope. This phenomenon can occur when the scope of a project is not properly defined, documented, or controlled. It is generally considered a negative occurrence that is to be avoided.
W
- Work Breakdown Structure or WBS is a tree structure, that permits summing of subordinate costs for tasks, materials, etc., into their successively higher level “parent” tasks, materials, etc. It is a fundamental tool commonly used in project management and systems engineering.
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