A glossary of key project management terms to help you during your project management training course

These are some of the things you can learn about on the project management training course.

Acceptance

The process of accepting the delivery of a deliverable.

Activity

Any work performed on a project which uses resources (people, materials or facilities) has an associated cost and duration and results in one or more products. Usually specified in a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

Actuals

The cost or effort spent on an activity or project. This is a measured value and is usually compared against the planned or expected cost or effort.

Assumption

Something which is taken as true but is without proof. Assumptions are made during project planning and are used as a basis for estimating. It's a good idea to document all assumptions and to adjust plans and estimates as necessary if the assumptions turn out to be false.

Baseline

A snapshot of the state of a project product and its constituent sub-products at a point in time. Plans are 'baselined' when they have been formally agreed and accepted and changes to baselines should be measured and managed accordingly. Baselined products such as software systems should be permanently recorded so that it can be recalled at any future time.

Budget

The amount of money or resources which has been allocated to perform the project.

Business case

The business case describes the reasons for doing the project. It should define the financial and other benefits expected from the project and the constraints (cost,  time) which the project must operate within. Should also define how project success will be measured.

Business Requirements

The business needs which the stakeholders require the project to accomplish. At the start of a project these are usually high level, but as the project develops, these are iteratively refined to an increasing level of detail until they are completely documented in a formal document.

Change control

The process of managing changes to the planned scope, schedule and budget. On small projects this will typically be an undocumented and informal process but on large projects there would typically be a well documented process involving many different stakeholders (change control board).

Change control board (CCB)

A group of stakeholders responsible for approving or rejecting changes to project baselines. In order to to this, they must know the scope of the change and its impact on the cost and schedule. They must either reject the change, adopt it immediately, or adopt it at some point in the future. In the latter two cases, the project will have a new scope and baselined plans and estimates must be amended accordingly.

Change Request

A formal way of proposing modifications to the end-product. They should be submitted to the Change Control Board who will rule on each change request.

Client

The people or organizations that will be the main beneficiaries of the project.

Close Out

The completion of work on a project.

Constraints

Any restrictions which the project must work within. Typically these are restrictions of time, budget and resources.

Contingency

A planned amount of time and cost for unforeseeable changes to a project.

Controlling

The process of monitoring, measuring and reporting on project progress. This involves comparing actual cost, schedule and scope against planned cost, schedule and scope and taking corrective action to ensure the actuals remain within the planned limits.

Corrective Action

Changes made in order to bring the project within the planned scope, budget or schedule.

Cost benefit analysis

An analysis of the potential costs and benefits of the project and comparison with alternative forms of investment. Used to determine if a project is worth spending the money on.

Critical Path

The critical path is the sequence of activities that will take the longest time to complete. This is important because if any of the activities on the critical path are delayed, then the project end date will also be delayed.

Deliverable

Any item produced as the outcome of a project or activity within a project which must be 'delivered' as part of the contractual obligations of the project. Some deliverables may be interim such as a design document and are often used in other activities (such as design). 

Dependency

A relationships between one or more activities or tasks. An task may be dependent upon another task if that task cannot be started until the other task has been completed.

Duration

The length of time needed to complete an activity.

Effort

The amount of time required to perform an activity. Can be measured in person hours, person days, person weeks, person months or person years. For planning purposes, activities are usually assigned to staff in terms of person days.

End Project Report

A report usually produced by the project manager and written at the end of a project. It is used to document the project performance and the major issues that were raised.

Estimate

A prediction of the cost, resources and duration of a project.

Gantt Chart

Sometimes called bar charts. A Gantt chart is a chart that shows a schedule of activities and milestones. Activities are listed on the vertical axis and the time line is shown on the horizontal axis in days or weeks. Activities are shown as horizontal bars with a specifed duration. Dependency relationships between activities are often shown as arrows between activities. Milestones can be shown as a diamond occurring on a specific date.

Impact

An assessment of the effect on the project if a risk materialises.

Lifecycle

Projects are always temporary, having both start and end dates. Projects are setup with the aim of delivering a defined end-product. Projects therefore have a lifecycle which is composed of distinct and separate phases. A typical project lifecycle is composed of the following phases: conceive, define, start, perform, close.

Milestone

An activity with zero duration which typically marks the end of a phase or project.

Mitigation

The planned series of actions to be performed to lesson the chances of a risk occurring or to reduce the effect if a risk does occur.

Objectives

The desired measurable outcomes of the project in terms of deliverables and non-tangible outcomes.

Phase

The series of activities required to meet a major milestone. Usually a project is broken down into a set of phases for control purposes. The phases are usually represented on the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

Planning

The process of identifying the costs, resources and actions necessary to accomplish an objective and to deliver the end-product.

Project

A project is a temporary structure setup for a fixed duration having a start and end date, a defined set of resources and with the aim of accomplishing a defined set of goals.

Product

Any tangible output produced by, or for, a project. A product may be a physical item, an item of software, an intellectual creation, a service or documentation. A product may itself be a collection of other (sub-)products. The overall deliverable of a project is termed the end-product. If a product is to be delivered as part of the contractual obligations of the project, then it is also a 'deliverable'.

Process

A series of steps or actions to accomplish something.

Resources

All of the things needed to complete the project. Normally people and money are referred to as resources but can also include physical resources such as offices, computers etc,

PMI

Project Management Institute.

Prince2

Projects IN Controlled Environments is a structured method for effective project management. It is the de-facto standard project management method used by the British Government and is used extensively in the UK and internationally.

Probability

The likelihood of a risk occurring.

Project Champion

A senior manager or executive who gains support and resources for the project. This person is usually higher in an organisation hierarchy than the project manager.

Project Management

Project Management is the process of managing a project.

Project Manager

The person responsible for managing a project's plan and performance. The project manager is ultimately accountable for the project.

Project Plan

Is produced at the beginning of a project and defines the products required, the activities, time, budget, resources and responsibilities which are required to produce the defined products. At the beginning of a project the project plan is typically high level, but as the project progresses, more details can be added and the plan becomes more accurate in its estimates of the time, cost, resources and activities required to complete the products.

Requirements

A formal statement of objectives that describes the features, functions and performance constraints to be delivered in the product.

Risk

Any event which might occur which can affect the successful outcome of a project.

Risk management

The process of managing the risks associated with a project so that if any risk occurs, the impact to the project is minimised.

Schedule

The timeline which identifies the start and end dates for all the project activities.

Scope

Scope is usually defined as the full set of features and functions to be provided as a result of the project. 

Slippage

When the project starts running over-time or over-budget, then slippage occurs. It is the variance between the planned and actual cost or schedule.

Stakeholders

Anyone with an interest in the successful outcome of the project.

Task

The same as an activity. Tasks are pieces of work done by staff over a period of time and produce one or more deliverables.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

The WBS is a hierarchical breakdown of the activities within a project. It is developed by a top down decomposition of higher level activities into lower level activities.

Now think about attending the project management training course.