Foundational Terms & Concepts Flashcards
Process
Does or creates something of value for a project
Consists of: inputs, outputs and tools/techniques
May be performed more than one time
Carried out in parallel
Exit gate
Point at end of the phase where team decides If deliverables were completed successfully and the next phase can be started
Project
Temporary (finite) endeavor undertaken to create a unique product/service/result
Unique - has not been attempted before
Portfolio
Represents its entire investment in projects and programs
Should always be aligned to org strategic goals
Progressive elaboration
Agile - don’t know all characteristics of a product up front
Project is accomplished through several iterations
Project management
Application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements
Success
Delivering the product and the project within the boundaries of scope, cost, schedule, quality and customer satisfaction
Organizational process assets
Historical information found in records kept on previous projects
Can be used to help benchmark projects
Help predict trends and avoid mistakes
Evaluate project feasibility
Baseline
Original plan plus all approved changes
Measure how performance deviates from the plan
If changes are approved; new baseline
Lessons learned
Variances between plan and result
Gathered at end of phase/project
What we do if we did project again
Regulation
Official document that provides guidelines to be followed
Compliance to regulations is mandatory
Standard
Document approved by a recognized body that provides guidelines
Not mandatory but may be helpful
System
Incorporates all formal procedures and tools put in place to manage something
Project manager
Ultimately responsible for outcome of the project
Fixing problems is their responsibility
Project coordinator
Significantly weaker than project mgr
May not be able to make project/budget decisions
Senior management
Anyone more senior than pm
Help prioritize projects and makes sure pm has right authority and access to resources
Functional manager
Department manager in charge of most resources for the project
May be source of conflict
Stakeholder
Involved in the project or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by the outcome of the project
Sponsor
Person paying for the project
Internal/external
Also called project champion
Organic organization
Teams/groups form naturally
In charge varies based on priorities/personalities
Can be adaptive
Lack of org maturity, may be driven by short term urgency
Functional organization
Very common, team members work for a department
Functional mgr in charge
High degree of professionalism, deeper experience
Project mgr is weak, projects are prioritized lower
Matrix organization
Hybrid- Fxnl mgr for HR and PM for projects
Strong - pm has power, weak - fxnl, balanced - both
Power shared bw fxnl and pm
Best of both worlds, pm gains experience and empowered to use resources
High overhead and possibility for contention
Projectized organization
Structured to projects - pm over people and projects
Pm in charge
Pm has complete authority
Team members belong to project so growth is hard
Virtual organization
Distributed team, may be part time
In charge varies
No cost of transportation, can work around clock
No relationship bc never meet
Composite organization
One or more types of reporting structures
In charge varies
May include benefits from other types
Added org types may introduce complexity
PMs power
Fxnl -> weak matrix -> balanced matrix -> strong matrix -> projectized
PM skills
Leading, communicating, negotiating, problem solving, influence, project governance
Project life cycle
Conceptual -> planning -> construction -> testing -> implementation -> closure
Risk decreases over time
Stakeholder influence decreases over time
Staffing, resources and project costs increase, stabilize and then decrease over time
Triple constraint
Time, scope, cost
Can’t adjust one without affecting another
Quality and risk associated
Work authorization system
Part of PMIS makes sure that work gets performed at the right time in the right sequence
Project management plan
Single approved document that guides execution, monitoring and controlling and closure
Project charter
Projects birth certificate
Names project manager
Documents risk
High level budget, requirements, milestones
No project details
SDLC waterfall
Analysis -> design -> implementation -> testing -> evaluation
Resistant to change
