CAPM Glossary Pt. 1 Flashcards
A planning heuristic for creating the work breakdown structure (WBS). This rule states that the work package in a WBS must take no fewer than 8 hours of labor to create, and no more than 80 hours of labor to create
8/80 rule
The PMI publication that defines widely accepted project management practices. The CAPM and the PMP exams are based on this book.
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)
Treating others with conduct that may result in harm, fear, humiliation, manipulation, or exploitation. For example, berating a project team member because he/she has taken longer than expected to complete a project assignment may be considered humiliation.
Abusive manner
The process of accepting a risk because no other action is feasible, or because the risk is deemed to be of small probability, impact, or both, and a formal response is not warranted. This risk response is appropriate for both positive and negative risks but is often used for smaller risks within a project.
Acceptance
The receiver signals that the message has been received. Receipt of the message is shown, but not necessarily agreement with the message.
Acknowledgment
The receiver confirms that the message is being received through feedback, questions, prompts for clarity and other signs of confirmation.
Active listening
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
Active observation
Begins with problem definition - the ability to discern between the cause and effect of the problem. Root-cause analysis looks beyond the immediate symptoms to the cause of the symptoms–which then affords opportunities for solutions.
Active problem solving
The primary output of breaking down the WBS packages. Also known as schedule activities.
Activity list
A diagram, such as the project network diagram, that shows the flow of the project work.
Activity network diagram
The actual amount of monies the project has spent to date.
Actual cost (AC)
Life cycles can be either iterative or incremental. Change is highly probably, and the project team will be working closely with the project stakeholders. You might also know this approach as agile or change-driven.
Adaptive life cycle
Once the project is done, either the team moves on to other assignments as a unit, or the project team is disbanded and individual team members go on to other work.
Adjourning
A diagram that breaks down ideas, solutions, causes, and project components and groups them together with other similar ideas and components. When stakeholders create a large number of ideas, you can use this diagram to cluster similar ideas together for further analysis.
Affinity diagram
The identification of more than one solution. Consider roles, materials, tools, and approaches to the project work.
Alternatives analysis
When an issue or claim must be settled before the contract can be closed, the parties involved in the issue or claim will try to reach a settlement through mediation or arbitration rather than litigation.
Alternative dispute resolution
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.
Alternatives generation
Risks that have an uncertain, unclear nature, such as new laws or regulations, marketplace conditions, and other risks that are nearly impossible to predict.
Ambiguity risks
A somewhat unreliable estimating approach that relies on historical information to predict what current activity durations should be. However, this form of estimating is more reliable than team member recollections. It is also known as top-down estimating and is a form of expert judgment.
Analogous estimating
The area of expertise, industry or function where a project is centered. Examples include architecture, IT, health care, and manufacturing.
Application area
An assumption is something that is believed to be true or false, but 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 this document for testing and analysis.
Assumptions log
Project management team members may have authority over other project team members, may have the ability to make decisions, and perhaps even sign approvals for project work and purchases.
Authority power
A decision method where only one individual makes the decision for the group.
Autocratic
A risk response to avoid the risk.
Avoidance
The project manager refuses to act, get involved, or make decisions.
Avoiding power
An organization where organizational resources are pooled into one project team, but the functional managers and the project managers share the project power.
Balanced matrix structure
Comparing any two similar entities to measure their performance.
Benchmarking
An example of a benefits comparison model. It examines the benefit-to-cost ratio.
Benefit/cost ratio (BCR) model
A document the seller provides to the buyer. An estimate provided by a company when RFP does not contain clear scope or the requirements are not clearly defined. Price is the determining factor in the decision-making process.
Bid
A meeting of all the project’s potential vendors to clarify the contract statement of work and the details of the contracted work.
Bidders conference
An estimating approach that starts from zero, accounts for each component of the WBS and arrives at a sum for the project cost estimate. It is completed with the project team and can be one of the most time-consuming and most reliable methods to predict project costs. Produces a definitive estimate.
Bottom-up estimating
A data-gathering technique that is similar to brainstorming, but provides brainstorming meeting participants with the questions and topics for brainstorming before the stakeholder identification meeting.
Brain writing
The most common approach to risk identification; usually completed by a project team with subject matter experts to identify the risks within the project.
Brainstorming
A broad estimate that is used early in the planning processes and also in top-down estimates. The range of variance for this estimate can be from -10 percent to +25 percent.
Budget estimate
Risks that affect the business and that may have negative or positive outcomes. Examples include using a less experienced worker to complete a task, allowing phases or activities to overlap, or forgoing the expense of formal training for on-the-job education.
Business risks
A quantifiable return on investment. The return can be tangible, such as equipment, money or market share. The return can also be intangible, such as brand recognition, trademarks, and reputation.
Business value
A ranking approach to identify the probability and impact by using a numerical value, such as from .01 (very low) to 1.0 (certain).
Cardinal scale
Diagrams that show the relationships between variables within a process and how those relationships may contribute to inadequate quality. The diagrams can help organize both the process and team opinions, as well as generate discussion on finding a solution to ensure quality. An Ishikawa diagram is an example.
Cause-and-effect diagram
A person who has slightly less project management experience than a PMP, but who has qualified for and then passed the CAPM examination.
Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)
A committee that evaluates the worthiness of a proposed change and either approves or rejects the proposed change.
Change control board (CCB)
A documented system that 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 change the project’s product. Documented in the scope management plan, this system defines how changes to the project scope are managed and controlled.
Change control system (CCS)
A log in which all changes that enter into a project are recorded. The characteristics of the change, such as the time, cost, risk, and scope details, are also recorded.
Change log
A plan that details the project procedures for entertaining change requests, including how change requests are managed, documented, approved or declined.
Change management plan
The leader is motivating, has high-energy, and inspires the team through strong convictions about what’s possible and what the team can achieve. Positive thinking and a can-do mentality are characteristics of this kind of leadership.
Charismatic leadership
A simple list approach to ensure that work is completed according to the quality policy (done the same way each time).
Checklist
The best modality to use when communicating that is relevant to the information being communicated.
Choice of media
A disagreement between the buyer and the seller, usually regarding a change, who made the change, and even whether a change has occurred. Also called disputes and appeals, and are monitored and controlled through the project in accordance with the contract terms.
Claim
A final process group of the project management life cycle that is responsible for closing the project phase or project. This is where project documentation is archived and project contracts are also closed.
Closure processes
A numbering system for each item in the WBS. The PMBOK Guide is a great example because each chapter and its subheadings follow a logical numbering scheme. For example, PMBOK 5.3.3.2 identifies an exact paragraph in the PMBOK guide.
Code of accounts
The project manager has the authority to discipline the project team members if they don’t follow orders. The project team feels threatened or coerced into doing the project assignments. Also known as penalty power.
Coercive power
A preferred method of conflict resolution that confronts problems head-on. Multiple viewpoints and perspectives contribute to the solution.
Collaborate/problem-solving
Contracts and agreements with unions or other employee groups that may serve as constraints on the project.
Collective bargaining agreement constraints
A cost-estimating approach that uses a database, typically software driven, to create the cost estimate for a project.
Commercial database
Anything that the project management team believes to be true but that hasn’t proven to be true. For example, it may be assumed that all of the project team can be reached via cell phone, although some parts of the world don’t have cell signals.
Communication assumption
Anything that prohibits communication from occurring.
Communication barrier
N(N-1)/2, where N represents the number of identified stakeholders within a project.
Communication channels formula
Anything that limits the project management team’s communication options. This can include geographical locales, incompatible communications software, and even limited communications technology.
Communication constraint
A project management subsidiary plan that defines the stakeholders who need specific information, the person who will supply the information, the schedule for the information to be supplied, and the approved modality in which to provide the information.
Communications management plan
An attribute that defines what talents, skills, and capabilities are needed to complete the project work.
Competency
A negotiating approach that requires both parties to give up something.
Compromising
Includes the labeling of the components, how changes are made to the product, and the accountability of the changes.
Configuration identification
A system that 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. This system also documents the characteristics and functions of the project’s products and any changes to a product’s characteristics.
Change management system
The organization of the product materials, details, and prior product information.
Configuration status accounting
The scope verification and completeness auditing of project or phase deliverables to ensure that they are in alignment with the project plan.
Configuration and verification auditing
A situation in which a project manager may have two competing duties of loyalty. For example, purchasing software from a relative may benefit the relative, but it may do hard to the performing organization.
Conflict of interest
A diagram that shows the relationships between elements of an environment. For example, this type of diagram would illustrate the networks, servers, workstations, and people that interact with the elements of the environment.
Context diagram
An allowance to account for overruns in costs. These are used at the project manager’s discretion and with management’s approval to counteract cost overruns for scheduled activities and risk events.
Contingency reserve
A formal agreement between the buyer and the seller. Can be oral or written - through written is preferred.
Contract
A system that defines the procedures for how a contract may be changed. The process for changing the contract includes the forms; documented communications; tracking; conditions within the project, business, or marketplace that justify the needed change; dispute resolution procedures; and the procedures for getting the changes approved within the performing organization.
Contract change control system
The formal verification of the contract completeness by the vendor and the performing organization.
Contract closure
A document that requires that the seller fully describe the work to be completed and/or the product to be supplied. This becomes part of the contract between the buyer and the seller.
Contract statement of work (SOR also CSOW)
A WBS entry that considers the time, cost, and scope measurements for the deliverables within the WBS. The estimated performance is compared against the actual performance to measure overall performance for the deliverables within. The specifics are documented in a plan.
Control account
A quality control chart that maps the performance of project work over time.
Control chart
An inspection-driven process that measures work results to confirm that the project is meeting the relevant quality standards.
Control quality (quality control)
A predetermined range of acceptable variances, such as +/- 10 percent off schedule. Should the variance exceed this, project control processes and corrective actions will be enacted.
Control threshold
Costs are parallel to each WBS work package. The costs of each work package are aggregated to their corresponding control accounts. Each control account is them aggregated to the sum of the project costs.
Cost aggregation
A time-lapse exposure of when project monies are to be spent in relation to cumulative values of the work completed in the project. This is the aggregated costs of all of the work packages within the work breakdown structure (WBS).
Cost basline
The cost aggregation achieved by assigning specific dollar amounts for each of the scheduled activities or, more likely, for each of the work packages in the WBS. This applies the cost estimates over time.
Cost budgeting
A documented system that examines any changes associated with scope changes, the cost of materials, and the cost of any other resources, and the associated impact on the overall project cost.
Cost change control system
A plan that details how the project costs will be planned for, estimated, budgeted, and then monitored and controlled.
Cost management plan
The cost associated with the monies spent to attain the expected level of quality. Also known as the cost of quality.
Cost of conformance to quality
The cost associated with not satisfying quality expectations. Also known as the cost of poor quality.
Cost of nonconformance to quality
The monies spent to recover from not adhering to the expected level of quality. Examples include rework, defect repair, loss of life or limb because safety precautions were not taken, loss of sales, and loss of customers. Also known as the cost of non-conformance to quality.
Cost of poor quality
The monies spent to attain the expected level of quality within a project. Examples include training, testing, and safety precautions.
Cost of quality
A formula that measures the project based on its financial performance. The formula is CPI = EV/AC.
Cost performance index (CPI)
A contract type that pays the vendor all costs for the project, but also includes a buyer-determined award fee for the project work.
Cost plus award fee contract
A contract type that requires the buyer to pay for the cost of the good and services procured plus a fixed fee for the contracted work. The buyer assumes the risk of a cost overrun.
Cost plus fixed fee contract
A contract type that requires the buyer to pay a cost for the procured work, plus an incentive fee, or a bonus, for the work if terms and conditions are met.
Cost plus incentive fee
A contact type that requires the buyer to pay for the costs of the goods and services procured plus a percentage of the costs. The buyer assumes all of the risks for the cost overruns.
Cost plus percentage of costs
The difference between the earned value amount and the cumulative actual costs of the project. The formula is CV = EV - AC.
Cost variance (CV)
A process to study the tradeoffs between costs and the benefits realized from those costs.
Cost-benefit analysis
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 because the associated labor and sometimes resources (such as faster equipment) cause costs to increase.
Crashing
The path in the project network diagram that cannot be delayed without affection the project completion date. There can be more than one, but the activities therein have no float.
Critical path
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.
Cultural and social environment
The culture and the styles that exist in an organization. Examples such as work ethics, hours, view of authority, and shared values, can affect how the project is managed.
Cultural norms
The consideration of the risk ranking scores that takes into account any bias, the accuracy of the data submitted, and the reliability of the nature of the data submitted.
Data precision
A method to determine which of two or more decisions is the best one. The model examines the costs and benefits of each decision’s outcome and weights the probability of success for each of the decisions.
Decision tree
A device that decodes a message as it is being received.
Decoder
One of the most accurate estimate types. It’s used late in the planning processes and is associated with bottom-up estimating. You need the WBS to create this estimate. The range of variance for the estimate can be from -5 percent to +10 percent.
Definitive estimate
A product, service, or result created by a project. Projects can have multiple.
Deliverable
An anonymous method of querying experts about foreseeable risks within a project, phase, or component. The results of the survey are analyzed by a third party, organized, and then circulated to the experts. There can be several rounds of anonymous discussion without fear of backlash or offending other participants in the process. The goal is to gain consensus on project risks within the project.
Delphi Technique
An approach that relies on statistical scenarios to determine what variables within a project will result in the best outcome.
Design of experiments
Costs that are attributed directly to the project work and cannot be shared among projects. Examples include the equipment needed to complete the project work, salaries of the project team, airfare, hotels, long-distance phone charges, and other expenses tied directly to the project’s existence.
Direct costs
Dependencies that determine the preferred order of activities. Project managers should use these relationships at their discretion and should document the logic behind the decision. These dependencies enable activities to happen in a preferred order because of best practices, conditions unique to the project work, or external events. Also known as preferential or soft logic.
Discretionary dependencies
A project manager’s responsibility to be loyal to another person, organization, or vendor. For example, a project manager should promote the best interests of an employer rather than the best interests of the vendor.
Duty of loyalty
