A glossary of terms relating to project management and consulting.
A 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.Peter Schuh (2005). Integrating Agile Development in the Real World. ebrary, Inc. p.2. 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. Allocation is the assignment of available resources in an economic way.
B Benefits management plan a document that describes the activities necessary for achieving the benefits of a project and when these planned benefits will be delivered. It also outlines metrics and procedures to measure progress against benefits. BOSCARD a strategic planning tool used in project management to give the Terms of reference for new projects. Budget generally refers to a list of all planned expenses and revenues. 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. Business case a document that examines business need and cost-benefits analysis of a project to justify the approval of the project and to set its boundaries. Business model is a profit-producing system that has an important degree of independence from the other systems within an enterprise. Business analysis is the set of tasks, knowledge, and techniques required to identify business needs and determine solutions to business problems. Solutions often include a systems development component, but may also consist of process improvement or organizational change. Business operations are those ongoing recurring activities involved in the running of a business for the purpose of producing value for the stakeholders. They are contrasted with project management, and consist of business processes. Business process is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks that produce a specific service or product (serve a particular goal) for a particular customer or customers. There are three types of business processes: Management processes, Operational processes, and Supporting processes. Business process modeling (BPM) is the activity of representing processes of an enterprise, so that the current ("as is") process may be analyzed and improved in future ("to be").
C
Capability maturity model (CMM) in software engineering is a model of the maturity of the capability of certain business processes. A maturity model can be described as a structured collection of elements that describe certain aspects of maturity in an organization, and aids in the definition and understanding of an organization's processes. Change control is the procedures used to ensure that changes (within quality management systems (QMS) and information technology (IT) systems) are introduced in a controlled and coordinated manner. Change control is a major aspect of the broader discipline of change management. Change management is a field of management focused on organizational changes. It aims to ensure that methods and procedures are used for efficient and prompt handling of all changes to controlled IT infrastructure, in order to minimize the number and impact of any related incidents upon service. Case study is a research method which involves an in-depth, longitudinal examination of a single instance or event: a case. They provide a systematic way of looking at events, collecting data, analyzing information, and reporting the results. Certified Associate in Project Management is an entry-level certification for project practitioners offered by Project Management Institute. Communications log is an ongoing documentation of communication events between any identified project stakeholders, managed and collected by the project manager that describes: the sender and receiver of the communication event; where, when and for how long the communication event elapsed; in what form the communication event took place; a summary of what information was communicated; what actions/outcomes should be taken as a result of the communication event; and to what level of priority should the actions/outcomes of the communication event be graded 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. Constructability review is a process of reviewing design documents, construction drawings, specifications, and other construction documentation intended for use by a builder to construct the project. The purpose of a constructability review is to eliminate design errors, omissions, and coordination issues prior to bidding the documents so that the project bid is accurate, and less likely to create uncertainty, delays, added costs, or other risks during construction. Constructability reviews identify those risks so they can be corrected before bidding and constructing the project. Constructability reviews should be conducted by a multi-disciplined team of design, engineering, and construction professionals independent of the project designers. Constructability review comments should be addressed and resolved by modifying the bid documents prior to bidding or obtaining the construction contractor's price and before starting construction work to ensure accurate biddable, and buildable construction documents maximize construction efficiency, quality, and safety at the best price. Costs in economics, business, and accounting are the value of money that has been used up to produce something, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in which case the amount of money expended to acquire it is counted as cost. Cost engineering is the area of engineering practice where engineering judgment and experience are used in the application of scientific principles and techniques to problems of cost estimating, cost control, business planning and management science, profitability analysis, project management, and planning and scheduling."AACE International's Recommended Practice 11R-88, Required Skills and Knowledge of Cost Engineering, provides some answers which are excerpted here. Beyond being a guiding document for AACE International’s education and certification developments, 11R-88 is an excellent reference for industry core competency and career model development. Construction, in the fields of architecture and civil engineering, is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of multitasking. Normally the job is managed by the project manager and supervised by the construction manager, design engineer, construction engineer or project architect. 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. Deliverable A contractually required work product, produced and delivered to a required state. A deliverable may be a document, hardware, software or other tangible product.
E
Earned schedule (ES) is an extension to earned value management (EVM), which renames 2 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 combination of measuring scope, schedule, and cost in a single integrated system. Enterprise modeling is the process of understanding an enterprise business and improving its performance through creation of enterprise models. This includes the modelling of the relevant business domain (usually relatively stable), business processes (usually more volatile), and Information technology Estimation in project management is the processes of making accurate estimates using the appropriate techniques. Event chain diagram : diagram 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. Executive sponsor is the senior member of the project board and often the chair. Extreme project management (XPM) refers to a method of managing very complex and very uncertain projects.
F 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.
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Henry Gantt was an American mechanical engineer and management consultant, who developed the Gantt chart in the 1910s. Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. It illustrates 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. 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 Goal setting involves establishing specific, measurable and time targeted objectives Graphical Evaluation and Review Technique (GERT) is a network analysis technique that allows probabilistic treatment of both network logic and activity duration estimated.
H Hammock activity is 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.