DC37_APM Section 1_Management Flashcards
Project management
The process of guiding a project from its beginning through its performance to its closure.
Project management includes three basic operations:
Planning, organizing, controlling
A set of goals that gives rise to specific projects but it can never be fully accomplished. Also, a group of projects that achieve a common goal.
Program
A comparative assessment of all benefits you anticipate from your project with all the costs to introduce the project, perform it, and support the changes resulting from it.
A benefit-cost analysis
The excess of a project’s expected benefits over its estimated costs in today’s dollars.
Net Present Value (NPV)
Market Requirements Document
A formal request to develop or modify a product.
Business Requirements Document
A description of the business needs that a requested product, service, or system must address.
Project request
A written request for a project by a group within the organization.
Project charter
A document issued by upper management that formally establishes a project and authorizes the project manager to use organizational resources to perform project duties.
Project profile
Highlights of key information about a project. Also called a summary or a project abstract.
Work order
A written description of work that people or groups within an organization will perform in support of the project.
Contract
A legal agreement for goods or services from an external vendor or contractor.
A series of routine steps to perform a particular function.
Process
SMART objectives:
Specific – define your objective clearly, in detail.
Measureable – Specify the measures or indicators you’ll use to determine whether you’ve met your objective.
Aggressive– Set challenging objectives
Realistic– Set objectives the project team believes it can achieve.
Time-sensitive – Include the date by which you’ll achieve the objective.
Activity
The work to go from one event to another in your project
Span time
The actual calendar time to complete an activity; also, duration.
Work effort
The amount of time a person needs to complete an activity.
Critical path
A sequence of activities that takes the longest time to complete.
Noncritical path
A sequence of activities that you can delay and still finish your project in the shortest possible time.
Slack time
The maximum amount of time that you can delay an activity and still finish your project in the shortest possible time
Earliest start date
The earliest date you can start an activity
Earliest finish date
The earliest date you can finish an activity
Latest start date
The latest date you can start an activity and still finish your project in the shortest possible time
Latest finish date
The latest date you can finish an activity and still finish your project in the shortest possible time.
Project manager
The person ultimately responsible for the successful completion of the project.
Project team members
People responsible for successfully performing individual project activities.
Functional managers
The team members’ direct line supervisors.
Upper management
People in charge of the organization’s major business units.
Authority
The ability to make binding decisions about your project’s products, schedule, resources, and activities.
Responsibility
The commitment to achieve specific results.
Accountability
Bringing consequences to bear in response to people’s performance.
Project Management Information System (PMIS)
A set of procedures, equipment, and other resources for collecting, analyzing, storing, and reporting information that describes project performance.
Three parts of a project management information system(PMIS):
Inputs, processes, and outputs
Inputs
Raw data that describe select aspects of project performance
Processes
Storage and analysis of the data to compare actual performance with planned performance.
Outputs
Reports presenting the results of the analyses.
Drivers
People looking for your project’s results.
Supporters
People who can help your project succeed.
Observers
People interested in your project
Interdependencies
What you must finish before you can begin your activity
Primary responsibility
You’ve committed to ensure the results are achieved
Secondary responsibility
You’ve committed to ensure some portion of the results is achieved.
Approval
You’re not actually working on the activity, but you approve what others have done.
