The areas of expertise, industry, or function where a project is centered.
Examples of application areas include architecture, IT, health care, or manufacturing.

Defines how a project affects people and how those
people may affect the project. Cultural and social environments include the economic, educational, ethical, religious, demographic, and ethnic composition of the people affected by the project.

A collection of related projects working in unison toward a common deliverable.

The process of gathering project details in steady, uniform steps. This process uses deductive reasoning, logic, and a series of information-gathering techniques to identify details about a project, product, or solution.

A short-term endeavor to create a unique product, service, or result. The end result of a project is also called a deliverable.

The location and culture of the environment where the project work will reside. The project environment includes the social, economic, and environmental variables the project must work with or around.

The management and selection of projects that sup-
port an organization’s vision and mission. It is the balance of project priority, risk, reward, and return on investment. This is a senior management process.

A smaller project managed within a larger, parent project. Subprojects are often contracted work whose deliverable allows the larger project to progress.

Also known as the Iron Triangle. This theory posits that time, cost, and scope are three constraints that every project has.

A triangle with the characteristics of time, cost,
and scope. Time, cost, and scope each constitute one side of the triangle; if any side of the Iron Triangle is not in balance with the other sides, the project will suffer. The Iron Triangle of Project Management is also known as the Triple Constraints of Project Management, as all projects are constrained by time, cost, and scope.

An organization where organizational resources are
pooled into one project team, but the functional managers and the project managers share the project power.

An organization that creates a blend of the functional, matrix, and projectized structures.

An organization that is divided into functions, and each employee has one clear functional manager. Each department acts independently of the other departments. A project manager in this structure has little to no power and may be called a project coordinator.

The review of a phase to determine if it accomplished its requirements. A kill point signals an opportunity to kill the project if it should not continue.

A stakeholder who does not want a project to succeed. He or she may try to negatively influence the project and help it fail.

The logical division of a project based on the work or deliverable completed within that phase. Common examples include the phases within construction, software development, or manufacturing.

The review of a phase to determine if it accomplished its requirements.

The review of a phase to determine if it accomplished its requirements.

The review of a phase to determine if it accomplished its requirements. A phase-end review is also called a phase exit, a phase gate, and a kill point.

A stakeholder who wants a project to exist and succeed. He or she may try to positively influence the project and help it succeed.

The life cycle of the product a project creates. For example, a project can create a piece of software; the software then has its own life cycle until it becomes
defunct. Project life cycle The collection

The collection of phases from the start of a project to its completion.

The defined set of rules, policies, and procedures that a
project manager follows and utilizes to complete the project.

Anyone who has a vested interest in a project’s operation and/or its outcome.

An organization that assigns a project team to one project for the duration of the project life cycle. The project manager has high-to-almost-complete
project power.

An organization where organizational resources are pooled into one project team, but the functional managers have less project power than the
project manager.

An organization where organizational resources are pooled into one project team, but the functional managers have more project power than the
project manager.

A belief that may or may not be true within a project. Weather is an example of an assumption in construction projects.

A documented request to add to or remove from the project scope. A change request may be initiated to change an organizational process asset, such as a
template or a form.

The project management process group that contains the
activities to close out a project and project contracts.

A condition, rule, or procedure that restricts a project manager’s options. A project deadline is an example of a constraint.

A corrective action brings project work back into alignment with the project plan. A corrective action may also address a process that is producing errors.

The aggregation of the project deliverables and their associated costs. The difference between the cost estimates and the actual cost of the project identifies
the cost variance.

The activity to repair a defect within the project.

Deming’s PDCA cycle

Standard project management is based on Deming’s plan-do-check-act cycle, which describes the logical progression of project management duties.

Any external or internal organizational factors that
can affect project success. Enterprise environmental factors include the culture, organizational structure, resources, commercial databases the project will use, market conditions, and your project management software.

The project management process group that provides the
activities to carry out the project management plan to complete the project work.

The project management process group that allows a project to be chartered and authorized.

The project management process group oversees, measures, and tracks project performance.

The methodology an organization uses to perform its
business, as well as the guidelines, procedures, and knowledge bases, such as the lessons learned documentation from past projects and any relevant historical information.

The project management process group that creates the
project management plan to execute, monitor and control, and close the project.

A risk-related action that avoids risk within the project. A work around to a problem within your project is an example of a preventive action.

A set of integrated activities to create a product, result, or service. Project management processes allow the project to move toward completion.

A document that comes from outside of the project boundaries and authorizes the existence of a project.

The project scope defines the project, the project deliver-
ables, product requirements, project boundaries, acceptance procedures, and scope control.

The calendar that documents which project resources are available for the project work.

A central repository of the project risks and their attributes.

An uncertain event or condition that can have a negative or positive impact on the project.

Iterations of planning throughout the project life cycle.

The expected timeline of the project. The difference between the planned schedule and the experience schedule reveals schedule variances within the project.

The sum of the project deliverables. The WBS is often called the project scope baseline. The differences between the WBS and what is created is a scope variance.

A document that defines every identified element of the WBS.

A breakdown of the project scope; often called
the scope baseline.

An immediate response to a negative risk within the project. This is an example of a corrective action.

This is an example of a benefits comparison model. It examines the benefit-to-cost ratio.

A committee that evaluates the worthiness of a pro-
posed change and either approves or rejects the proposed change.

An assumption is something that is believed to be true or false, but it has not yet been proven to be true or false. Assumptions that prove wrong can become risks for the project. All identified project assumptions are recorded in the assumption log for testing and analysis, and the outcomes are recorded.

The change control system communicates the process
for controlling changes to the project deliverables. This system works with the configuration management system and seeks to control and document proposals to the project’s product.

All changes that enter into a project are recorded in the change log. The characteristics of the change, such as the time, cost, risk, and scope details, are also recorded.

This plan details the project procedures for entertaining
change requests: how change requests are managed, documented, approved, or declined.

This final process group of the project management life cycle is responsible for closing the project phase or project. This is where project documentation is archived and project contracts are also closed.

This plan defines who will get what information, how they will receive it, and in what modality the communication will take place.

This includes the labeling of the components, how
changes are made to the product, and the accountability of the changes.

This plan is an input to the control scope process.
It defines how changes to the features and functions of the project deliverable, the product scope, may enter the project.

This system defines how stakeholders are
allowed to submit change requests, the conditions for approving a change request, and how approved change requests are validated in the project scope. Configuration management also documents the characteristics and functions of the project’s products and any changes to a product’s characteristics.

The organization of the product materials, details,
and prior product documentation.

The scope verification and completeness auditing of project or phase deliverables to ensure that they are in alignment with the
project plan.

The formal verification of the contract completeness by the vendor and the performing organization.

This is the aggregated costs of all of the work packages within the work breakdown structure (WBS).

This plan details how the project costs will be planned for, estimated, budgeted, and then monitored and controlled.

A benefit comparison model to determine a future value of money. The formula to calculate future value is FV = PV(1 + I)n, where PV is present value, I is the given interest rate, and n is the number of periods.

This plan defines how project team members will be brought onto the project team, managed, and released from the project team. It also definesteam training, safety issues, roles and responsibilities, and how the project’s reward and recognition system will operate. Chapter 9 defines the human resource plan in detail.

A process to consider and control the impact of a proposed change on the project’s knowledge areas.

Issues are points of contention where some question of the project’s direction needs to be resolved. All identified issues are documented in the issue log, along with an issue owner and a deadline to resolve the issue. The outcome of the issue is also recorded.

A project selection method to determine the likelihood of success. These models include linear programming, nonlinear programming, dynamic programming, integer programming, and multi-objective programming.

Milestones are timeless events in the project’s progress that represent accomplishment in the project. Projects usually create milestones as the result of completing phases within the project.

This list details the project milestones and their attributes. It is used for several areas of project planning, but also helps determine how quickly the project may be achieving its objectives.

Theseare committees that ask every conceivable negative question about the proposed project. Their goals are to expose the project’s strengths and weak-
nesses, and to kill the project if it’s deemed unworthy for the organization to commit to. Also known as project steering committees or project selection committees.

Evaluates the monies returned on a project for each period the project lasts.

An estimate to predict how long it will take a project to pay back an organization for the project’s investment of capital.

A benefit comparison model to determine the present value of a future amount of money. The formula to calculate present value is PV = FV÷(1 + I)n, where FV
is future value, I is the given interest rate, and n is the number of periods.

This plan aims to eliminate non-value-added activity,
eliminate waste, and to determine how the project work, execution, and management can be made better.

The procurement management plan controls how the project will be allowed to contract goods and services.

The documented approach of how a project will be
planned, executed, monitored and controlled, and then closed. This document is a collection of subsidiary project management plans and related documents.

Project scope management plan

Defines how the project scope will be planned, managed, and controlled.

This document defines all the products and services the project will provide.

Documents the quality objectives for the project, including the metrics for stakeholder acceptance of the project deliverable.

This plan defines what quality means for the project, how
the project will achieve quality, and how the project will map to organizational procedures pertaining to quality.

Documents the quality objectives for the project, including the metrics for stakeholder acceptance of the project deliverable.

This plan defines what quality means for the project, how
the project will achieve quality, and how the project will map to organizational procedures pertaining to quality.

Risk is an uncertain event or condition that may affect the project outcome. The risk management plan defines how the project will manage risk.

This subsidiary plan defines the risk responses that are to be used in the project for both positive and negative risks.

Schedule baseline

This is the planned start and finish of the project. The comparison of what was planned and what was experienced is the schedule variance.

Schedule management plan

Defines how the project schedule will be created and
managed.

The scope baseline is a combination of three project documents: the project scope statement, the work breakdown structure, and the WBS dictionary. The
creation of the project deliverable will be measured against the scope baseline to show any variances from what was expected and what the project team has created.

Scoring models

These models use a common set of values for all of the projects up for selection. For example, values can be profitability, complexity, customer demand, and so on.

This is a subsidiary plan of the human resource manage-
ment plan. It specifically addresses how the human resource requirements will be met in the project. It can address internal staffing, procurement of resources, or negotiations with other projects for shared resources.

A planning heuristic for creating the WBS. This rule states the work package in a WBS must take no more than 80 hours of labor to create and no fewer than 8 hours of labor to create.

The observer interacts with the worker to ask questions and understand each step of the work being completed; in some instances the observer could serve as an assistant in doing the work.

When stakeholders create a large number of ideas, you can use an affinity diagram to cluster similar ideas for further analysis.

A scope definition process of finding alternative solutions
for the project customer while considering the customer’s satisfaction, the cost of the solution, and how the customer may use the product in operations.

This approach encourages participants to generate as many ideas as possible about the project requirements. No idea is judged or dismissed during the brainstorming session.

A hierarchical numbering system for each item in the WBS. The PMBOK is a good example of a code of accounts, as each chapter and its subheadings follow a logical numbering scheme. For example, PMBOK 5.3.3.2 identifies an exact paragraph in the PMBOK.

This approach uses rounds of anonymous surveys to build con-sensus. Because the surveys are anonymous, participants are more likely to be honest with their requirements, opinions, and statements. The project manager organizes these comments and inputs and then sends them back to the participant for another round
of anonymous input.

A moderator-led requirements collection method to elicit requirements from stakeholders.

This is the study of the functions within a system, project, or, what’s more likely in the project scope statement, the product the project will be creating.
Functional analysis studies the goals of the product, how the product will be used, and the expectations the customer has of the product once it leaves the project and moves into operations. Functional analysis may also consider the cost of the product in operations, which is known as life cycle costing.

Most projects have a determined budget in relation to the project scope. There may be a qualifier on this budget, such as plus or minus 10 percent based on the
type of cost estimate created.

This approach maps ideas to show the relationship among requirements and the differences between requirements. The map can be reviewed to identify
new solutions or to rank the identified requirements.

As with brainstorming, participants are encouraged to generate as many ideas as possible, but the suggested ideas are ranked by a voting process.

The observer records information about the work being completed without interrupting the process; sometimes called the invisible observer.

A group-decision method where the largest part of the group makes the decision even if it’s not more than 50 percent of the total. (Consider three or four factions within the stakeholders.)

This project scope statement component works with the
project requirements, but focuses specifically on the product and what the conditions and processes are for formal acceptance of the product.

A scope definition technique that breaks down a product into a hierarchical structure, much like a WBS breaks down a project scope.

This is a narrative on what the project is creating as a
deliverable for the project customer.

Defines the product or service that will come about as a result of completing the project.

A project boundary clearly states what is included with the project and what’s excluded from the project. This helps to eliminate assumptions between the project management team and the project customer.

These are the measurable goals that determine a project’s acceptability to the project customer and the overall success of the project. Objectives often include the cost, schedule, technical requirements, and quality demands.

These are the demands set by the customer, regulations, or the performing organization that must exist for the project deliverables to be acceptable. Requirements are often prioritized in a number of ways, from “must have” to “should have” to “would like to have.”

This defines all of the work, and only the required work, to complete the project objectives.

This project management subsidiary plan controls
how the scope will be defined, how the project scope statement will be created, how the WBS will be created, how scope verification will proceed, and how the project scope will be controlled throughout the project.

A model of the finished deliverable that allows the stakeholder to see how the final project deliverable may operate.

This documentation of what the stakeholders expected
in the project defines all of the requirements that must be present for the work to be accepted by the stakeholders.

This subsidiary plan defines how changes to the
project requirements will be permitted, how requirements will be tracked, and how changes to the requirements will be approved.

This is a table that maps the requirements throughout the project all the way to their completion.

The project customer may have specific dates when phases of the project should be completed. These milestones are often treated as project constraints.

Undocumented, unapproved changes to the project scope.

The formal inspection of the project deliverables, which leads to project acceptance.

A scope definition process where the project management team interviews the stakeholders and categorizes, prioritizes, and documents what the project
customer wants and needs. Stakeholder analysis demands quantification of stakeholder objectives; goals such as “good,” “satisfaction,” and “speedy” aren’t quantifiable.

A scope definition approach that studies and analyzes a system, its components, and the relationship of the components within the system.

This project scope statement–creation process studies how a system should work, designs and creates a system model, and then enacts the working system based on the project’s goals and the customer’s expectations. Systems engineering aims to balance the time and cost of the project in relation to the scope of the project.

A group decision method where everyone must be in agreement.

As with value engineering, this approach examines the functions of the project’s product in relation to the cost of the features and functions. This is where, to some extent, the grade of the product is in relationship to the cost of the product.

This approach to project scope statement creation attempts to find the correct level of quality in relation to a reasonable budget for the project deliverable while still achieving an acceptable level of performance of the product.

A WBS companion document that defines all of the characteristics of each element within the WBS.

A prepopulated WBS for repetitive projects. Previous projects’ WBSs are often used as templates for current similar projects

A deliverables-oriented breakdown of the project scope

The smallest item in the WBS.

Status of the deliverables: the work that’s been started,
finished, or has yet to begin.

The primary output of breaking down the WBS work packages.

A somewhat unreliable estimating approach that relies on historical information to predict what current activity durations should be. Analogous estimating is more reliable, however, than team member recollections. Analogous estimating is also known as top-down estimating and is a form of expert judgment.

The most accurate time-and-cost estimating approach a project manager can use. This estimating approach starts at “the bottom” of the project and considers every activity, its predecessor and successor activities, and the exact amount of resources needed to complete each activity.

A WBS entry that considers the time, cost, and scope measurements for that deliverable within the WBS. The estimated performance is compared against the ac-
tual performance to measure overall performance for the deliverables within that control account. The specifics of a control account are documented in a control account plan.

A schedule compression approach that adds more resources to activities on the critical path to complete the project earlier. When crashing a project, costs are added, as the associated labor and sometimes resources such as faster equipment cause costs to increase.

A network analysis approach where the deadlines associated with individual tasks are removed and the only date that matters is the promised due date of the project deliverable. CCM works to modify the project schedule based on the availability of project resources rather than on the pure sequence of events, as in the critical path method.

The path in the project network diagram that cannot be delayed, or the project completion date will be late. There can be more than one critical path. Activities in the critical path have no float.

These dependencies are the preferred order of activities.
Project managers should use these relationships at their discretion and should document the logic behind the decision. Discretionary dependencies allow activities to happen in a preferred order because of best practices, conditions unique to the project work, or because of external events.

The earliest a project activity can finish. Used in the forward pass procedure to discover the critical path and the project float.

Early start

The earliest a project activity can begin. Used in the forward pass procedure to discover the critical path and the project float.

As the name implies, these are dependencies outside of the project’s control. Examples include the delivery of equipment from a vendor, the deliverable of another project, or the decision of a committee, lawsuit, or expected new law.

A schedule compressionmethod that changes the relationship of activities. With fast tracking, activities that would normally be done in sequence are allowed
to be done in parallel or with some overlap. Fast tracking can be accomplished by changing the relation of activities from FS to SS or even FF or by adding lead time to downstream activities. However, fast tracking does add risk to the project.

An activity relationship type that requires the current activity be finished before its successor can finish.

An activity relationship type that requires the current activity be finished before its successor can start.

A representation of a project network diagram that is often used for out-sourced portions of a project, repetitive work within a project, or a subproject. Also
called a subnet.

Hard logic

Logic that describes activities that must happen in a particular order. For example, the dirt must be excavated before the foundation can be built. The foundation must be in place before the framing can begin.

Positive time that moves two or more activities farther apart.

The latest a project activity can finish. Used in the backward pass procedure to discover the critical path and the project float.

The latest a project activity can begin. Used in the backward pass procedure to discover the critical path and the project float.

Negative time that allows two or more activities to overlap where ordinarily these activities would be sequential.

A percentage of the project duration to combat Parkinson’s Law. When project activities become late, their lateness is subtracted from the management reserve.

These dependencies are the natural order of activities. For example, you can’t begin building your house until your foundation is in place. These relationships are called hard logic.

A project simulation approach named after the world-famous gambling district in Monaco. This predicts how scenarios may work out, given any number of variables. The process doesn’t actually churn out a specific answer, but a range of possible answers. When Monte Carlo analysis is applied to a schedule, it can examine, for example, the optimistic completion date, the pessimistic completion date, and the most likely completion date for each activity in the project and then predict a mean for the project schedule.

A quantitatively based duration estimate that uses mathematical formulas to predict how long an activity will take based on the quantities of work to be completed.

A theory that states: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” It is considered with time estimating, because bloated or padded activity estimates will fill the amount of time allotted to the activity.

Planning package

A WBS entry located below a control account and above the work packages. A planning package signifies that there is more planning that needs to be completed for this specific deliverable.

A network diagram that shows activities in nodes
and the relationship between each activity. Predecessors come before the current activity, and successors come after the current activity.

This is the total time the project can be delayed without passing the customer-expected completion date.

A diagram that visualizes the flow of the project activities and their relationships to other project activities.

An update to the work breakdown structure.

This is a hierarchical breakdown of the project
resources by category and resource type. For example, you could have a category of equipment, a category of human resources, and a category of materials. Within each category, you could identify the types of equipment your project will use, the types of human resources, and the types of materials.

A method to flatten the schedule when resources are
overallocated. Resource leveling can be applied using different methods to accomplish different goals. One of the most common methods is to ensure that workers are not overextended on activities.

The imminent work is planned in detail, while the work in
the future is planned at a high level. This is a form of progressive elaboration.

The order of the activities doesn’t necessarily have to happen in a specific order. For example, you could install the light fixtures first, then the carpet, and then paint the room. The project manager could use soft logic to change the order of the activities if so desired.

An activity relationship that requires an activity to start so that its successor can finish. This is the most unusual of all the activity relationship types.

An activity relationship type that requires the current activity to start before its successor can start.

A representation of a project network diagram that is often used for out-sourced portions of projects, repetitive work within a project, or a subproject. Also called a fragnet.

A previous project that can be adapted for the current project.

Three-point estimate

An estimating technique for each activity that requires optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimates to be created. Based on these three estimates, an average can be created to predict how long the activity should take.

Total float

This is the total time an activity can be delayed without delaying project completion.

The smallest item in the work breakdown structure.