PMP Definitions 2

WORD	Definition
Node	One of the defining points of a schedule network; a junction point joined to some or all of the other dependency lines.
Nominal Group Technique	A technique that enhances brainstorming with a voting process used to rank the most useful ideas for further brainstorming or for prioritization.
Nonconformance Work	In the cost of quality framework, nonconformance work is done to deal with the consequences of errors and failures in doing activities correctly on the first attempt. In efficient quality management systems, the amount of nonconformance work will approach zero.
Objective	Something toward which work is to be directed, a strategic position to be attained, a purpose to be achieved, a result to be obtained, a product to be produced, or a service to be performed.
Observations	A technique that provides a direct way of viewing individuals in their environment performing their jobs or tasks and carrying out processes.
Opportunity	A risk that would have a positive effect on one or more project objectives.
Optimistic Duration	An estimate of the shortest activity duration that takes into account all of the known variables that could affect performance.
Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS)	A hierarchical representation of the project organization that illustrates the relationship between project activities and the organizational units that will perform those activities.
Organizational Process Assets	Plans, processes, policies, procedures, and knowledge bases that are specific to and used by the performing organization.
Organizational Project Management Maturity	The level of an organization's ability to deliver the desired strategic outcomes in a predictable, controllable, and reliable manner.
Output	A product, result, or service generated by a process. May be an input to a successor process.
Parametric Estimating	An estimating technique in which an algorithm is used to calculate cost or duration based on historical data and project parameters.
Pareto Diagram	A histogram, ordered by frequency of occurrence, that shows how many results were generated by each identified cause.
Path Convergence	A relationship in which a schedule activity has more than one predecessor.
Path Divergence	A relationship in which a schedule activity has more than one successor.
Payment Systems	The system used to provide and track supplier's invoices and payments for services and products.
Percent Complete	An estimate expressed as a percent of the amount of work that has been completed on an activity or a work breakdown structure component.
Perform Integrated Change Control	The process of reviewing all change requests; approving change sand managing changes to deliverables, organizational process assets, project documents, and the project management plan; and communicating their disposition.
Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis	The process of prioritizing risks for further analysis or action by assessing and combining their probability of occurrence and impact.
Perform Quality Assurance	The process of auditing the quality requirements and the results from quality control measurements to ensure that appropriate quality standards and operational definitions are used.
Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis	The process of numerically analyzing the effect of identified risks on overall project objectives.
Performance Measurement Baseline	An approved, integrated scope-schedule-cost plan for the project work against which project execution is compared to measure and manage performance. The PMB includes contingency reserve, but excludes management reserve.
Performance Reporting	The physical or electronic representation of work performance information compiled in project documents, intended to generate decisions, actions, or awareness.
Performance Reports	The physical or electronic representation of work performance information compiled in project documents, intended to generate decisions, actions, or awareness.
Performance Reviews	A technique that is used to measure, compare, and analyze actual performance of work in progress on the project against the baseline.
Performing Organization	An enterprise whose personnel are most directly involved in doing the work of the project or program.
Pessimistic Duration	Estimate of the longest activity duration that takes into account all of the known variables that could affect performance.
Phase	A collection of logically related project activities that culminates in the completion of one or more deliverables.
Phase Gate	A review at the end of a phase in which a decision is made to continue to the next phase, to continue with modification, or to end a project or program.
Plan Communications Management	The process of developing an appropriate approach and plan for project communications based on stakeholder's information needs and requirements and available organizational assets.
Plan Cost Management	The process that establishes the policies, procedures, and documentation for planning,managing, expending, and controlling project costs.
Plan Human Resource Management	The process of identifying and documenting project roles, responsibilities,required skills, reporting relationships, and creating a staffing management plan.
Plan Procurement Management	The process of documenting project procurement decisions, specifying the approach, and identifying potential sellers.
Plan Quality Management	The process of identifying quality requirements and/or standards for the project and its deliverables, and documenting how the project will demonstrate compliance with quality requirements.
Plan Risk Management	The process of defining how to conduct risk management activities for a project.
Plan Risk Responses	The process of developing options and actions to enhance opportunities and to reduce threats to project objectives.
Plan Schedule Management	The process of establishing the policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, developing, managing, executing, and controlling the project schedule.
Plan Scope Management	The process of creating a scope management plan that documents how the project scope will be defined, validated, and controlled.
Plan Stakeholder Management	The process of developing appropriate management strategies to effectively engage stakeholders throughout the project life cycle, based on the analysis of their needs, interests, and potential impact on project success.
Planned Value (PV)	The authorized budget assigned to scheduled work.
Planning Package	A work breakdown structure component below the control account with known work content but without detailed schedule activities. See also control account.
Planning Process Group	Those processes required to establish the scope of the project, refine the objectives, and define the course of action required to attain the objectives that the project was undertaken to achieve.
Plurality	Decisions made by the largest block in a group, even if a majority is not achieved.
Policy	A structured pattern of actions adopted by an organization such that the organization's policy can be explained as a set of basic principles that govern the organization's conduct.
Portfolio	Projects, programs, subportfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives.
Portfolio Management	The centralized management of one or more portfolios to achieve strategic objectives.
Practice	A specific type of professional or management activity that contributes to the execution of a process and that may employ one or more techniques and tools.
Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)	A technique used for constructing a schedule model in which activities are represented by nodes and are graphically linked by one or more logical relationships to show the sequence in which the activities are to be performed.
Precedence Relationship	The term used in the precedence diagramming method for a logical relationship. In current usage, however, precedence relationship, logical relationship, and dependency are widely used interchangeably,regardless of the diagramming method used. See also logical relationship.
Precision	Within the quality management system, precision is a measure of exactness.
Predecessor Activity	An activity that logically comes before a dependent activity in a schedule.
Predictive Life Cycle	A form of project life cycle in which the project scope, and the time and cost required to deliver that scope, are determined as early in the life cycle as possible.
Preferential Logic	A relationship that is established based on knowledge of best practices within a particular application area or an aspect of the project where a specific sequence is desired.
Preferred Logic	A relationship that is established based on knowledge of best practices within a particular application area or an aspect of the project where a specific sequence is desired.
Preventive Action	An intentional activity that ensures the future performance of the project work is aligned with the project management plan.
Prioritization Matrices	A quality management planning tool used to identify key issues and evaluate suitable alternatives to define a set of implementation priorities.
Probability and Impact Matrix	A grid for mapping the probability of each risk occurrence and its impact on project objectives if that risk occurs.
Procedure	An established method of accomplishing a consistent performance or result, a procedure typically can be described as the sequence of steps that will be used to execute a process.
Process	A systematic series of activities directed towards causing an end result such that one or more inputs will be acted upon to create one or more outputs.
Process Analysis	A process analysis follows the steps outlined in the process improvement plan to identify needed improvements.
Process Decision Program Charts (PDPC)	The PDPC is used to understand a goal in relation to the steps forgetting to the goal.
Process Improvement Plan	A subsidiary plan of the project management plan. It details the steps for analyzing processes to identify activities that enhance their value.
Procurement Audits	The review of contracts and contracting processes for completeness, accuracy, and effectiveness.
Procurement Documents	The documents utilized in bid and proposal activities, which include the buyer's Invitation for Bid, Invitation for Negotiations, Request for Information, Request for Quotation, Request for Proposal,and seller's responses.
Procurement Management Plan	A component of the project or program management plan that describe show a project team will acquire goods and services from outside the performing organization.
Procurement Performance Reviews	A structured review of the seller's progress to deliver project scope and quality, within cost and on schedule, as compared to the contract.
Procurement Statement of Work	Describes the procurement item in sufficient detail to allow prospective sellers to determine if they are capable of providing the products, services, or results.
Product	An artifact that is produced, is quantifiable, and can be either an end item in itself or a component item. Additional words for products are material and goods. Contrast with result. See also deliverable.
Product Analysis	For projects that have a product as a deliverable, it is a tool to define scope that generally means asking questions about a product and forming answers to describe the use, characteristics, and other the relevant aspects of what is going to be manufactured.
Product Life Cycle	The series of phases that represent the evolution of a product, from concept through delivery,growth, maturity, and to retirement.
Product Scope	The features and functions that characterize a product, service, or result.
Product Scope Description	The documented narrative description of the product scope.
Program	A group of related projects, subprograms, and program activities managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually.
Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT )	A technique for estimating that applies a weighted average of optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely estimates when there is uncertainty with the individual activity estimates.
Program Management	The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to a program to meet the program requirements and to obtain benefits and control not available by managing projects individually.
Progressive Elaboration	The iterative process of increasing the level of detail in a project management plan as greater amounts of information and more accurate estimates become available.
Project	A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.
Project-Based Organizations (PBOs)	A variety of organizational forms that involve the creation of temporary systems for the performance of projects. PBOs conduct the majority of their activities as projects and/or provide project over functional approaches.
Project Calendar	A calendar that identifies working days and shifts that are available for scheduled activities.
Project Charter	A document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.
Project Communications Management	Project Communications Management includes the processes that are required to ensure timely and appropriate planning, collection, creation, distribution, storage, retrieval,management, control, monitoring, and the ultimate disposition of project information.
Project Cost Management	Project Cost Management includes the processes involved in planning, estimating,budgeting, financing, funding, managing, and controlling costs so that the project can be completed within the approved budget.
Project Funding Requirements	Forecast project costs to be paid that are derived from the cost baseline for total or periodic requirements, including projected expenditures plus anticipated liabilities.
Project Governance	The alignment of project objectives with the strategy of the larger organization by the project sponsor and project team. A project's governance is defined by and is required to fit within the larger context of the program or organization sponsoring it, but is separate from organizational governance.
Project Human Resource Management	Project Human Resource Management includes the processes that organize, manage, and lead the project team.
Project Initiation	Launching a process that can result in the authorization of a new project.
Project Integration Management	Project Integration Management includes the processes and activities needed to identify, define, combine, unify, and coordinate the various processes and project management activities within the Project Management Process Groups.
Project Life Cycle	The series of phases that a project passes through from its initiation to its closure.
Project Management	The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.
Project Management Body of Knowledge	An inclusive term that describes the sum of knowledge within the profession of project management. As with other professions, such as law, medicine, and accounting, the body of knowledge rests with the practitioners and academics that apply and advance it. The complete project management body of knowledge includes proven traditional practices that are widely applied and innovative practices that are emerging in the profession. The body of knowledge includes both published and unpublished materials. This body of knowledge is constantly evolving. PMI's PMBOK® Guide identifies a subset of the project management body of knowledge that is generally recognized as good practice.
Project Management Information System	An information system consisting of the tools and techniques used to gather, integrate, and disseminate the outputs of project management processes. It is used to support all aspects of the project from initiating through closing, and can include both manual and automated systems.
Project Management Knowledge Area	An identified area of project management defined by its knowledge requirements and described in terms of its component processes, practices, inputs, outputs, tools, and techniques.
Project Management Office (PMO)	An organizational structure that standardizes the project-related governance processes and facilitates the sharing of resources, methodologies, tools, and techniques.
Project Management Plan	The document that describes how the project will be executed monitored, and controlled.
Project Management Process Group	A logical grouping of project management inputs, tools and techniques,and outputs. The Project Management Process Groups include initiating processes, planning processes, executing processes, monitoring and controlling processes, and closing processes. Project Management Process Groups are not project phases.
Project Management Staff	The members of the project team who perform project management activities such as schedule, communications, risk management, etc.
Project Management System	The aggregation of the processes, tools, techniques, methodologies, resources, and procedures to manage a project.
Project Management Team	The members of the project team who are directly involved in project management activities. On some smaller projects, the project management team may include virtually all of the project team members.
Project Manager (PM)	The person assigned by the performing organization to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives.
Project Organization Chart	A document that graphically depicts the project team members and their interrelationships for a specific project.
Project Phase	A collection of logically related project activities that culminates in the completion of one or more deliverables.
Project Procurement Management	Project Procurement Management includes the processes necessary to purchase or acquire products, services, or results needed from outside the project team.
Project Quality Management	Project Quality Management includes the processes and activities of the performing organization that determine quality policies, objectives, and responsibilities so that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken.
Project Risk Management	Project Risk Management includes the processes of conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis, response planning, and controlling risk on a project.
Project Schedule	An output of a schedule model that presents linked activities with planned dates, durations,milestones, and resources.
Project Schedule Network Diagram	A graphical representation of the logical relationships among the project schedule activities.
Project Scope	The work performed to deliver a product, service, or result with the specified features and functions.
Project Scope Management	Project Scope Management includes the processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully.
Project Scope Statement	The description of the project scope, major deliverables, assumptions, and constraints.
Project Stakeholder Management	Project Stakeholder Management includes the processes required to identify all people or organizations impacted by the project, analyzing stakeholder expectations and impact on the project,and developing appropriate management strategies for effectively engaging stakeholders in project decisions and execution.
Project Statement of Work	A narrative description of products, services, or results to be delivered by the project.
Project Team	A set of individuals who support the project manager in performing the work of the project to achieve its objectives.
Project Team Directory	A documented list of project team members, their project roles, and communication information.
Project Time Management	Project Time Management includes the processes required to manage the timely completion of the project.
Projectized Organization	Any organizational structure in which the project manager has full authority to assign priorities, apply resources, and direct the work of persons assigned to the project.
Proposal Evaluation Techniques	The process of reviewing proposals provided by suppliers to support contract award decisions.
Prototypes	A method of obtaining early feedback on requirements by providing a working model of the expected product before actually building it.
Quality	The degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements.
Quality Audits	A quality audit is a structured, independent process to determine if project activities comply with organizational and project policies, processes, and procedures.
Quality Checklists	A structured tool used to verify that a set of required steps has been performed.
Quality Control Measurements	The documented results of control quality activities.
Quality Function Deployment (QFD)	A facilitated workshop technique that helps to determine critical characteristics for new product development.
Quality Management and Control Tools	They are a type of quality planning tools used to link and sequence the activities identified.
Quality Management Plan	A component of the project or program management plan that describes how an organization's quality policies will be implemented.
Quality Management System	The organizational framework whose structure provides the policies, processes,procedures, and resources required to implement the quality management plan. The typical project quality management plan should be compatible to the organization's quality management system.
Quality Metrics	A description of a project or product attribute and how to measure it.
Quality Policy	A policy specific to the Project Quality Management Knowledge Area, it establishes the basic principles that should govern the organization's actions as it implements its system for quality management.
Quality Requirement	A condition or capability that will be used to assess conformance by validating the acceptability of an attribute for the quality of a result.
Quantitative Risk Analysis and Modeling Techniques	Commonly used techniques for both event-oriented and project-oriented analysis approaches.
Questionnaires and Surveys	Written sets of questions designed to quickly accumulate information from a large number of respondents.
RACI	A common type of responsibility assignment matrix that uses responsible, accountable, consult, and inform statuses to define the involvement of stakeholders in project activities.
Records Management System	A specific set of processes, related control functions, and tools that are consolidated and combined to record and retain information about the project.
Regression Analysis	An analytic technique where a series of input variables are examined in relation to their corresponding output results in order to develop a mathematical or statistical relationship.
Regulation	Requirements imposed by a governmental body. These requirements can establish product, process, or service characteristics, including applicable administrative provisions that have government-mandated compliance.
Reporting Systems	Facilities, processes, and procedures used to generate or consolidate reports from one or more information management systems and facilitate report distribution to the project stakeholders.
Request for Information (RFI)	A type of procurement document whereby the buyer requests a potential seller to provide various pieces of information related to a product or service or seller capability.
Request for Proposal (RFP)	A type of procurement document used to request proposals from prospective sellers of products or services. In some application areas, it may have a narrower or more specific meaning.
Request for Quotation (RFQ)	A type of procurement document used to request price quotations from prospective sellers of common or standard products or services. Sometimes used in place of request for proposal and, in some application areas, it may have a narrower or more specific meaning.
Requested Change	A formally documented change request that is submitted for approval to the integrated change control process.
Requirement	A condition or capability that is required to be present in a product, service, or result to satisfy a contract or other formally imposed specification.
Requirements Documentation	A description of how individual requirements meet the business need for the project.
Requirements Management Plan	A component of the project or program management plan that describes how requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed.
Requirements Traceability Matrix	A grid that links product requirements from their origin to the deliverables that satisfy them.
Reserve	A provision in the project management plan to mitigate cost and/or schedule risk. Often used with a modifier (e.g., management reserve, contingency reserve) to provide further detail on what types of risk are meant to be mitigated.
Reserve Analysis	An analytical technique to determine the essential features and relationships of components in the project management plan to establish a reserve for the schedule duration, budget, estimated cost, or funds fora project.
Residual Risk	A risk that remains after risk responses have been implemented.
Resource	Skilled human resources (specific disciplines either individually or in crews or teams), equipment,services, supplies, commodities, material, budgets, or funds.
Resource Breakdown Structure	A hierarchical representation of resources by category and type.
Resource Calendar	A calendar that identifies the working days and shifts on which each specific resource is available.
Resource Histogram	A bar chart showing the amount of time that a resource is scheduled to work over a series of time periods. Resource availability may be depicted as a line for comparison purposes. Contrasting bars may show actual amounts of resources used as the project progresses.
Resource Leveling	A technique in which start and finish dates are adjusted based on resource constraints with the goal of balancing demand for resources with the available supply.
Resource Optimization Techniques	A technique that is used to adjust the start and finish dates of activities that adjust planned resource use to be equal to or less than resource availability.
Resource Smoothing	A technique which adjusts the activities of a schedule model such that the requirement for resources on the project do not exceed certain predefined resource limits.
Responsibility	An assignment that can be delegated within a project management plan such that the assigned resource incurs a duty to perform the requirements of the assignment.
Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)	A grid that shows the project resources assigned to each work package.
Result	An output from performing project management processes and activities. Results include outcomes(e.g., integrated systems, revised process, restructured organization, tests, trained personnel, etc., and documents(e.g. policies, plans, studies, procedures, specifications, reports, etc. Contrast with product. See also deliverable.
Rework	Action taken to bring a defective or nonconforming component into compliance with requirements or specifications.
Risk	An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on one or more project objectives.
Risk Acceptance	A risk response strategy whereby the project team decides to acknowledge the risk and not take any action unless the risk occurs.
Risk Appetite	The degree of uncertainty an entity is willing to take on, in anticipation of a reward.
Risk Audits	Examination and documentation of the effectiveness of risk responses in dealing with identified risks and their root causes, as well as the effectiveness of the risk management process.
Risk Avoidance	A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to eliminate the threat or protect the project from its impact.
Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS)	A hierarchical representation of risks according to their risk categories.
Risk Categorization	Organization by sources of risk (e.g. using the RBS), the area of the project affected (e.g. using the WBS), or other useful category (e.g. project phase) to determine the areas of the project most exposed to the effects of uncertainty.
Risk Category	A group of potential causes of risk.
Risk Data Quality Assessment	Technique to evaluate the degree to which the data about risks is useful for risk management.
Risk Management Plan	A component of the project, program, or portfolio management plan that describes how risk management activities will be structured and performed.
Risk Mitigation	A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to reduce the probability of occurrence or impact of a risk.
Risk Reassessment	Risk reassessment is the identification of new risks, reassessment of current risks, and the closing of risks that are outdated.
Risk Register	A document in which the results of risk analysis and risk response planning are recorded.
Risk Threshold	Measure of the level of uncertainty or the level of impact at which a stakeholder may have a specific interest. Below that risk threshold, the organization will accept the risk. Above that risk threshold, the organization will not tolerate the risk.
Risk Tolerance	The degree, amount, or volume of risk that an organization or individual will withstand.
Risk Transference	A risk response strategy whereby the project team shifts the impact of a threat to a third party, together with ownership of the response.
Risk Urgency Assessment	Review and determination of the timing of actions that may need to occur sooner than other risk items.
Role	A defined function to be performed by a project team member, such as testing, filing, inspecting, or coding.
Rolling Wave Planning	An iterative planning technique in which the work to be accomplished in the near term is planned in detail, while the work in the future is planned at a higher level.
Root Cause Analysis	An analytical technique used to determine the basic underlying reason that causes a variance or a defect or a risk. A root cause may underlie more than one variance or defect or risk.
Scatter Diagram	A correlation chart that uses a regression line to explain or to predict how the change in an independent variable will change a dependent variable.
Schedule	A representation of the plan for executing the project's activities including durations,dependencies, and other planning information, used to produce a project schedule along with other scheduling artifacts.
Schedule Baseline	The approved version of a schedule model that can be changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results.
Schedule Compression	Techniques used to shorten the schedule duration without reducing the project scope.
Schedule Data	The collection of information for describing and controlling the schedule.
Schedule Forecasts	Estimates or predictions of conditions and events in the project's future based on information and knowledge available at the time the schedule is calculated.
Schedule Management Plan	A component of the project management plan that establishes the criteria and the activities for developing, monitoring, and controlling the schedule.
Schedule Model	A representation of the plan for executing the project's activities including durations,dependencies, and other planning information, used to produce a project schedule along with other scheduling artifacts.
Schedule Network Analysis	The technique of identifying early and late start dates, as well as early and late finish dates, for the uncompleted portions of project schedule activities. See also backward pass, critical path method,critical chain method, and resource leveling.
Schedule Network Templates	A set of activities and relationships that have been established that can be used repeatedly for a particular application area or an aspect of the project where a prescribed sequence is desired.
Schedule Performance Index (SPI)	A measure of schedule efficiency expressed as the ratio of earned value to planned value.
Schedule Variance (SV)	A measure of schedule performance expressed as the difference between the earned value and the planned value.
Scheduling Tool	A tool that provides schedule component names, definitions, structural relationships, and formats that support the application of a scheduling method.
Scope	The sum of the products, services, and results to be provided as a project. See also project scope and product scope.
Scope Baseline	The approved version of a scope statement, work breakdown structure (WBS), and its associated WBS dictionary, that can be changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison.
Scope Change	Any change to the project scope. A scope change almost always requires an adjustment to the project cost or schedule.
Scope Creep	The uncontrolled expansion to product or project scope without adjustments to time, cost, and resources.
Scope Management Plan	A component of the project or program management plan that describes how the scope will be defined, developed, monitored, controlled, and verified.
Secondary Risk	A risk that arises as a direct result of implementing a risk response.
Selected Sellers	The sellers which have been selected to provide a contracted set of services or products.
Seller	A provider or supplier of products, services, or results to an organization.
Seller Proposals	Formal responses from sellers to a request for proposal or other procurement document specifying the price, commercial terms of sale, and technical specifications or capabilities the seller will do for the requesting organization that, if accepted, would bind the seller to perform the resulting agreement.
Sensitivity Analysis	A quantitative risk analysis and modeling technique used to help determine which risks have the most potential impact on the project. It examines the extent to which the uncertainty of each project element affects the objective being examined when all other uncertain elements are held at their baseline values. The typical display of results is in the form of a tornado diagram.
Sequence Activities	The process of identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities.
Seven Basic Quality Tools	A standard toolkit used by quality management professionals who are responsible for planning, monitoring, and controlling the issues related to quality in an organization.
Simulation	A simulation uses a project model that translates the uncertainties specified at a detailed level into their potential impact on objectives that are expressed at the level of the total project. Project simulations use computer models and estimates of risk, usually expressed as a probability distribution of possible costs or duration sat a detailed work level, and are typically performed using Monte Carlo analysis.
Soft Logic	A relationship that is established based on knowledge of best practices within a particular application area or an aspect of the project where a specific sequence is desired.
Source Selection Criteria	A set of attributes desired by the buyer which a seller is required to meet or exceed to be selected for a contract.
Specification	A document that specifies, in a complete, precise, verifiable manner, the requirements, design,behavior, or other characteristics of a system, component, product, result, or service and the procedures for determining whether these provisions have been satisfied. Examples are: requirement specification, design specification, product specification, and test specification.
Specification Limits	The area, on either side of the center line, or mean, of data plotted on a control chart that meets the customer's requirements for a product or service. This area may be greater than or less than the area defined by the control limits. See also control limits.
Sponsor	A person or group who provides resources and support for the project, program, or portfolio and is accountable for enabling success.
Sponsoring Organization	The entity responsible for providing the project's sponsor and a conduit for project funding or other project resources.
Staffing Management Plan	A component of the human resource plan that describes when and how project team members will be acquired and how long they will be needed.
Stakeholder	An individual, group, or organization who may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project.
Stakeholder Analysis	A technique of systematically gathering and analyzing quantitative and qualitative information to determine whose interests should be taken into account throughout the project.
Stakeholder Management Plan	The stakeholder management plan is a subsidiary plan of the project management plan that defines the processes, procedures, tools, and techniques to effectively engage stakeholders in project decisions and execution based on the analysis of their needs, interests, and potential impact.
Stakeholder Register	A project document including the identification, assessment, and classification of project stakeholders.
Standard	A document that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines, or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context.
Start Date	A point in time associated with a schedule activity's start, usually qualified by one of the following:actual, planned, estimated, scheduled, early, late, target, baseline, or current.
Start-to-Finish (SF)	A logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot finish until a predecessor activity has started.
Start-to-Start (SS)	A logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has started.
Statement of Work (SOW)	A narrative description of products, services, or results to be delivered by the project.
Statistical Sampling	Choosing part of a population of interest for inspection.
Subnetwork	A subdivision (fragment) of a project schedule network diagram, usually representing a subprojector a work package. Often used to illustrate or study some potential or proposed schedule condition, such as changes in preferential schedule logic or project scope.
Subproject	A smaller portion of the overall project created when a project is subdivided into more manageable components or pieces.
Successor Activity	A dependent activity that logically comes after another activity in a schedule.
Summary Activity	A group of related schedule activities aggregated and displayed as a single activity.
SWOT Analysis	Analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of an organization, project,or option.
Tailor	The act of carefully selecting process and related inputs and outputs contained within the PMBOK® Guide to determine a subset of specific processes that will be included within a project's overall management approach.
Team Members	A set of individuals who support the project manager in performing the work of the project to achieve its objectives.
Technique	A defined systematic procedure employed by a human resource to perform an activity to produce a product or result or deliver a service, and that may employ one or more tools.
Templates	A partially complete document in a predefined format that provides a defined structure for collecting,organizing, and presenting information and data.
Threat	A risk that would have a negative effect on one or more project objectives.
Three-Point Estimate	A technique used to estimate cost or duration by applying an average of optimistic,pessimistic, and most likely estimates when there is uncertainty with the individual activity estimates.
Threshold	A cost, time, quality, technical, or resource value used as a parameter, and which may be included in product specifications. Crossing the threshold should trigger some action, such as generating an exception report.
Time and Material Contract (T&M)	A type of contract that is a hybrid contractual arrangement containing aspects of both cost-reimbursable and fixed-price contracts. Time and material contracts resemble cost-reimbursable type arrangements in that they have no definitive end, because the full value of the arrangement is not defined at the time of the award. Thus, time and material contracts can grow in contract value as if they were cost-reimbursable type arrangements. Conversely, time and material arrangements can also resemble fixed-price arrangements. For example, the unit rates are preset by the buyer and seller, when both parties agree on the rates for the category of senior engineers.
Time-Scaled Schedule Network Diagram	Any project schedule network diagram drawn in such a way that the positioning and length of the schedule activity represents its duration. Essentially, it is a bar chart that includes schedule network logic.
To-Complete Performance Index (TCPI)	A measure of the cost performance that is required to be achieved with the remaining resources in order to meet a specified management goal, expressed as the ratio of the cost to finish the outstanding work to the remaining budget.
Tolerance	The quantified description of acceptable variation for a quality requirement.
Tornado Diagram	A special type of bar chart used in sensitivity analysis for comparing the relative importance of the variables.
Tool	Something tangible, such as a template or software program, used in performing an activity to produce a product or result.
Total Float	The amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed or extended from its early start date without delaying the project finish date or violating a schedule constraint.
Tree Diagram	A systematic diagram of a decomposition hierarchy used to visualize as parent-to-child relationships a systematic set of rules.
Trend Analysis	An analytical technique that uses mathematical models to forecast future outcomes based on historical results. It is a method of determining the variance from a baseline of a budget, cost, schedule, or scope parameter by using prior progress reporting periods' data and projecting how much that parameter's variance from baseline might be at some future point in the project if no changes are made in executing the project.
Trigger Condition	An event or situation that indicates that a risk is about to occur.
Unanimity	Agreement by everyone in the group on a single course of action.
Validate Scope	The process of formalizing acceptance of the completed project deliverables.
Validated Deliverables	Deliverables that have been accepted as being correct by the customer.
Validation	The assurance that a product, service, or system meets the needs of the customer and other identified stakeholders. It often involves acceptance and suitability with external customers. Contrast with verification.
Value Engineering	An approach used to optimize project life cycle costs, save time, increase profits, improve quality, expand market share, solve problems, and/or use resources more effectively.
Variance	A quantifiable deviation, departure, or divergence away from a known baseline or expected value.
Variance Analysis	A technique for determining the cause and degree of difference between the baseline and actual performance.
Variance at Completion (VAC)	A projection of the amount of budget deficit or surplus, expressed as the difference between the budget at completion and the estimate at completion.
Variation	An actual condition that is different from the expected condition that is contained in the baseline plan.
Velocity	A measure of a team's productivity rate at which the deliverables are produced, validated, and accepted within a predefined interval. Velocity is a capacity planning approach frequently used to forecast future project work.
Verification	The evaluation of whether or not a product, service, or system complies with a regulation, requirement,specification, or imposed condition. It is an internal process. Contrast with validation.
Verified Deliverables	Completed project deliverables that have been checked and confirmed for correctness through the quality control process.
Voice of the Customer	A planning technique used to provide products, services, and results that truly reflect customer requirements by translating those customer requirements into the appropriate technical requirements for each phase of project product development.
WBS Dictionary	A document that provides detailed deliverable, activity, and scheduling information about each component in the work breakdown structure.
Weighted Milestone Method	An earned value method that divides a work package into measurable segments,each ending with an observable milestone, and then assigns a weighted value to the achievement of each milestone.
What-If Scenario Analysis	The process of evaluating scenarios in order to predict their effect on project objectives.
Work Authorization	A permission and direction, typically written, to begin work on a specific schedule activity or work package or control account. It is a method for sanctioning project work to ensure that the work is done by the identified organization, at the right time, and in the proper sequence.
Work Authorization System	A subsystem of the overall project management system. It is a collection of formal documented procedures that defines how project work will be authorized (committed) to ensure that the work is done by the identified organization, at the right time, and in the proper sequence. It includes the steps, documents,tracking system, and defined approval levels needed to issue work authorizations.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)	A hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables.
Work Breakdown Structure Component	An entry in the work breakdown structure that can be at any level.
Work Package	The work defined at the lowest level of the work breakdown structure for which cost and duration can be estimated and managed.
Work Performance Data	The raw observations and measurements identified during activities being performed to carry out the project work.
Work Performance Information	The performance data collected from various controlling processes, analyzed in context and integrated based on relationships across areas.
Work Performance Reports	The physical or electronic representation of work performance information compiled in project documents, intended to generate decisions, actions, or awareness.
Workaround	A response to a threat that has occurred, for which a prior response had not been planned or was not effective.

Print this post