PMI Lexicon Flashcards
A set of conditions that are met before deliverables are accepted.
Acceptance Criteria
A distinct, scheduled position of work performed during the course of a project.
Activity
An alphanumeric value assigned to each activity the enables classifying, sorting, and filtering.
Activity Code
A unique alphanumeric value assigned to an activity and used to differentiate that activity from other activities.
Activity Identifier
A phrase that names and describes an activity.
Activity Label
The realized cost incurred for the work performed on an activity during a specific time period.
Actual Cost (AC)
A technique for estimating the duration or cost of an activity or a project using historical data from a similar activity or project.
Analogous Estimating
An activity where effort is allotted proportionality across certain discrete efforts and not divisible into discrete efforts.
Apportioned Effort
A factor in the planning process considered to be true, real, or certain, without proof or demonstration.
Assumption
A critical path method technique for calculating the late start and late finish dates by working backward through the schedule model from the project end date.
Backward Pass
The approved version of a work product that can be changed using formal change control procedures and is used as the basis for comparison to actual results.
Baseline
A method of estimating project duration or cost by aggregating the estimates of the lower-level components of the work breakdown structure.
Bottom-Up Estimating
The sum of all budgets established for the work to be performed.
Budget at Completion
A process whereby modifications to documents, deliverables, or baselines associated with the project are identified, documented, approved, or rejected.
Change Control
A formally chartered group responsible for reviewing, evaluating, approving, delaying, or rejecting changes to the project, and for recording and communicating such decisions.
Change Control Board
A set of procedures that describes how modifications to the project deliverables and documentation are managed and controlled.
Change Control System
A formal proposal to modify a document, deliverable, or baseline.
Change Request
A numbering system used to uniquely identify each component of the work breakdown structure.
Code of Accounts
A component of the project, program, or portfolio management plan that describes how, when, and by whom information will be administered and disseminated.
Communications Management Plan
A collection of procedures used to track project artifacts and monitor and control changes to these artifacts.
Configuration Management System
A factor that limits the options for managing a project, program, portfolio, or process.
Constraint
A document describing actions that the project team can take if predetermined trigger conditions occur.
Contingency Plan
Time or money allocated in the schedule or cost baseline for known risks with active response strategies.
Contingency Reserve
A management control point where scope, budget, actual cost, and schedule are integrated and compared to earned value for performance measurement.
Control Account
An intentional activity that realigns the performance of the project work with the project management plan.
Corrective Active
The approved version of work page cost estimates and contingency reserve that can be changed using formal change control procedures and is used as the basis for comparison to actual results.
Cost Baseline
A component of a project or program management plan that describes how costs will be planned, structured, and controlled.
Cost Management Plan
A measure of the cost efficiency of budgeted resources expressed as the ratio of earned value to actual cost.
Cost Performance Index
The amount of budget deficit or surplus at a given point in time, expressed as the difference between the earned value and the actual cost.
Cost Variance
A schedule compression technique used to shorten the schedule duration for the last incremental cost by adding resources.
Crashing
A schedule method that allowed the project team to place buffers on any project schedule path to account for limited resources and project uncertainties.
Critical Chain Method
The sequence of activities that represents the longest path through a project, which determines the shortest possible duration.
Critical Path
Any activity on the critical path in a project schedule.
Critical Path Activity
A method used to estimate the minimum project duration and determine the amount of scheduling flexibility on the logical network paths within the schedule model.
Critical Path Method
A point in time when the status of the project is recorded.
Data Date
A diagramming and calculation technique for evaluating the implications of a chain of multiple options in the presence of uncertainty.
Decision Tree Analysis
A technique used for dividing and subdividing the project scope and project deliverables into smaller, more manageable parts.
Decomposition
An intentional activity to modify a nonconforming product or product component.
Defect Repair
Any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that is produced to complete a process, phase, or project.
Deliverable
An activity that can be planned and measured and that yields a specific output.
Discrete Effort
The total number of work periods required to complete an activity or work breakdown structure component, expressed in hours, days, or weeks.
Duration
In the critical path method, the earliest possible point in time when the uncompleted portions of a schedule activity can finish based on the schedule network logic, the data date, and any schedule constraints.
Early Finish Date
In the critical path method, the earliest possible point in time when the uncompleted portions of a schedule activity can start based on the schedule network logic, the data date, and any schedule constraints.
Early Start Date
The measure of work performed expressed in terms of the budget authorized for that work.
Earned Value
A methodology that combines scope, schedule, and resource measurements to asses project performance and progress.
Earned Value Management
The number of labor units required to complete a schedule activity or work breakdown structure component, often expressed in hours, days, or weeks.
Effort
Conditions, not under the immediate control of the team, that influence, constrain, or direct the project, program, or portfolio.
Enterprise Environmental Factors
The expected total cost of completing all work expressed as the sum of the actual cost to date and the estimate to complete.
Estimation at Completion (EAC)
The expected cost to finish all the remaining project work.
Estimate to Complete (ETC)
A schedule compression technique in which activities or phases normally done in sequence are performed in parallel for at least a portion of their duration.
Fast Tracking
A logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot finish until a predecessor activity has finished.
Finish-to-Finish
A logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has finished.
Finish-to-Start
method of estimating earned value in which a specific percentage of the budget value of a work package is assigned to the start milestone and the remaining percentage is assigned when the work package is complete.
Fixed Formula Method
A critical path method technique for calculating the early start and finish dates by working forward through the schedule model from the project start date or a given point in time.
Forward Pass
The amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed without delaying the early start date of any successor or violating a schedule constraint.
Free Float
An organizational structure in which staff is grouped by areas of specialization and the project manager has limited authority to assign work and apply resources.
Functional Organization
A bar chart of schedule information where activities are listed on the vertical axis, dates are shown on the horizontal axis, and activity durations are shown as horizontal bars placed according to start and finish dates.
Gantt Chart
The amount of time whereby a successor will be delayed with respect to a predecessor activity.
Lag
In the critical path method, the latest possible point in time when the uncompleted portions of a schedule activity can finish based on the schedule network logic, the project completion date, and any schedule constraints.
Late Finish Date
In the critical path method, the latest possible point in time when the uncompleted portions of a schedule activity can start based on the schedule network logic, the project completion date, and any schedule constraints.
Late Start Date
The amount of time whereby a successor activity can be advanced with respect to a predecessor activity.
Lead
The knowledge gained during a project which shows how project events were addressed or schedule be addressed in the future for the purpose of improving future performance.
Lessons Learned
An activity that does not produce definitive end products and is measured by the passage of time.
Level of Effort
A dependency between two activities or between an activity and a milestone.
Logical Relationship
Time or money that management sets aside in additional to the schedule or cost baseline and releases for unforeseen work that is within the scope of project.
Management Reserve
An organizational structure in which the project manager shares authority with the functional manager temporarily to assign work and apply resources.
Matrix Organization
A significant point or event in a project, program, or portfolio.
Milestone
A type of schedule that presents milestones with planned dates.
Milestone Schedule
An estimate of the most probably activity duration that takes into account all of the known variables that could affect performance.
Most Likely Duration
An activity with a total float that is deemed to be low based on expert judgment.
Near-Critical Activity
A sequence of activities with low float which, if exhausted, becomes a critical path sequence for the project.
Near-Critical Path
All activity dependencies in a project schedule network diagram.
Network Logic
A sequence of activities connected by logical relationships in a project schedule network diagram.
Network Path
A point at which dependency lines connect on a schedule network diagram.
Node
A risk that would have a positive effect on one or more project objective.
Opportunity
An estimate of the shortest activity duration that takes into account all of the known variables that count affect performance.
Optimistic Duration
A hierarchical representation of the project organization, which illustrates the relationship between project activities and the organizational units that will perform those activities.
Organizational Breakdown Structure
A structural, cultural, technological, or human-resource practice that the performing organization can use to achieve strategic objectives.
Organizational Enabler
Plans, processes, policies, procedures, and knowledge bases specific to and used by the performing organization.
Organizational Process Assets
A framework in which portfolio, program, and project management are integrated with organizational enablers in order to achieve strategic objectives.
Organizational Project Management
The level of an organization’s ability to deliver the desired strategic outcomes in a predictable, controllable, and reliable manner.
Organizational Project Management Maturity
An estimating technique in which an algorithm is used to calculate cost or duration based on historical data and project parameters.
Parametric Estimating
A relationship in which a schedule activity has more than one predecessor.
Path Convergence
A relationship in which a schedule activity has more than one successor.
Path Divergence
An estimate expressed as a percent of the amount of work that has been completed on an activity or a work breakdown structure component.
Percent Complete
Integrated scope, schedule, and cost baselines used for comparison to manage, measure, and control project execution.
Performance Measurement Baseline
An enterprise whose personnel are the most directly involved in doing the work of the project or program.
Performing Organization
An estimate of the longest activity duration that takes into account all of the known variables that count affect performance.
Pessimistic Duration
A review at the end of a phase in which a decision is made to continue to the next phase, to continue with medication, or to end a project or program.
Phase Gate
The authorized budget assigned to scheduled work.
Planned Value
Projects, programs, subsidiary portfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives.
Portfolio
The process of optimizing the mix of portfolio component to further the strategic objectives of the organization.
Portfolio Balancing
A document issued by a sponsor that authorizes and specifies the portfolio structure and links the portfolio to the organization’s strategic objectives.
Portfolio Charter
The centralized management of one or more portfolios to achieve strategic objectives.
Portfolio Management
A document that specifies how a portfolio will be organized, monitored, and controlled.
Portfolio Management Plan
The person or group assigned by the performing organization to establish, balance, monitor, and control portfolio components in order to achieve strategic business objectives.
Portfolio Manager
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 Diagramming Method
An activity that logically comes before a dependent activity in a schedule.
Predecessor Activity
An intentional activity that ensures the future performance of the project work is aligned with the project management plan.
Preventive Action
A grid for mapping the probability of occurrence of each risk and its impact on the project objectives if that risk occurs.
Probability and Impact Matrix
A component of the project or program management plan that describes how a team will acquire goods and services from outside of the performing organization.
Procurement Management Plan
The series of phases that represent the evolution of a product, from concept through delivery, growth, maturity, and to retirement.
Product Life Cycle
Related project, subsidiary programs, and program activities managed in a coordinated manner to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually.
Program
A document issued by a sponsor that authorizes the program management team to use organizational resources to execute the program and links the program to the organization’s strategic objectives.
Program Charter
A technique used to estimate project duration through a weighted average of optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely activity durations when there is uncertainty with the individual activity estimates.
Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
The application of knowledge, skills, and principles to a program to achieve the program objectives and to obtain the benefits and control not available by managing program components individually.
Program Management
A management structure that standardizes the program-related governance processes and facilitates the sharing of resources, methodologies, tools, and techniques.
Program Management Office
A document that integrates the program’s subsidiary plans and established the management controls and overall plan for integrating and managing the program’s individual components.
Program Management Plan
The person authorized by the performing organization to lead the team or teams responsible for achieving program objectives.
Program Manager
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.
Progressive Elaboration
A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique project, service, or result.
Project
The sum of work package cost estimates, contingency reserve, and management reserve.
Project Budget
A calendar that identifies working days and shifts that are available for scheduled activities.
Project Calendar
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 Charter
An organizational structure in which the project manager has full authority to assign work and apply resources.
Projectized Organization
The series of phases that a project passes through from its start to completion.
Project Life Cycle
The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.
Project Management
A management structure that standardizes the project-related governance processes and facilitates the sharing of resources, methodologies, tools, and techniques.
Project Management Office
The document that describes how the project will be executed, monitored and controlled, and closed.
Project Management Plan
The person assigned by the performing organization to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives.
Project Manager
A collection of logically related project activities that culminates in the completion of one or more deliverables.
Project Phase
An output of a schedule model that presents linked activities with planned dates, durations, milestones, and resources.
Project Schedule
A graphical representation of the logical relationships among the project schedule activities.
Project Schedule Network Diagram
The work performed to deliver a product, service, or result with the specified features and functions.
Project Scope
The description of the project scope, major deliverables, assumptions, and constraints.
Project Scope Statement
A component of the project or program management plan that describes how an organization’s policies, procedures, and guidelines will be implemented to achieve the quality objectives.
Quality Management Plan
A component of the project or program management plan that describes how requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed.
Requirements Management Plan
A grid that links product requirements from their origin to the deliverables that satisfy them.
Requirements Traceability Matrix
The risk that remains after risk responses have been implemented.
Residual Risk
A hierarchical representation of resources by category and type.
Resource Breakdown Structure
A calendar that identifies the working days and shifts upon which each specific resource is available.
Resource Calendar
A resource optimization technique in which adjustments are made to the project schedule to optimize the allocation of resources and which may affect critical path.
Resource Leveling
A component of the project management plan that describes how project resources are acquired, allocated, and controlled.
Resource Management Plan
A technique in which activity start and finish dates are adjusted to balance demand for resources with the available supply.
Resource Optimization Technique
A resource optimization technique in which free and total float are used without affecting the critical path.
Resource Smoothing
A grid that shows the project resources assigned to each work package.
Responsibility Assignment Matrix
An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on one or more project objectives.
Risk
A risk response strategy whereby the project team decides to acknowledge the risk and not take any action unless the risk occurs.
Risk Acceptance
The degree of uncertainty an organization or individual is willing to accept in anticipation of a reward.
Risk Appetite
A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to eliminate the threat or protect the project from its impact.
Risk Avoidance
A hierarchical representation of potential sources of risk.
Risk Breakdown Structure
A group of potential causes of risk.
Risk Category
A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to increase the probability of occurrence or impact of an opportunity.
Risk Enhancement
A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to ensure that an opportunity occurs.
Risk Exploiting
An aggregate measure of the potential impact of al risks at any given point in time in a project, program, or portfolio.
Risk Exposure
A component of the project, program, or portfolio management plan that describes how risk management activities will be structured and performed.
Risk Management Plan
A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to decrease the probability of occurrence or impact of a threat.
Risk Mitigation
The person responsible for monitoring the risk and for selecting and implementing an appropriate risk response strategy.
Risk Owner
A repository in which outputs of risk management processes are recorded.
Risk Register
A risk response strategy whereby the project team allocates ownership of an opportunity to a third party who is best able to capture the benefit of that opportunity.
Risk Sharing
The measure of acceptable variation around an objective that reflects the risk appetite of the organization and stakeholders.
Risk Threshold
A risk response strategy whereby the project team shifts the impact of a threat to a third party, together with the ownership of the response.
Risk Transference
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 if planned at a higher level.
Rolling Wave Planning
The approved version of a schedule model that can be changed using formal change control procedures and is used as the basis for comparison to actual results.
Schedule Baseline
A technique used to shorten the schedule duration whiteout reducing the project scope.
Schedule Compression
A component of the project or program management plan that establishes the criteria and the activities for developing, monitoring and controlling the schedule.
Schedule Management Plan
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 Model
A process used to investigate or analyze the output of the schedule model in order to optimize the schedule.
Schedule Model Analysis
A technique to identify early and late start dates, as well as early and late finish dates, for the uncompleted portions of project activities.
Schedule Network Analysis
A measure of schedule efficiency expressed as the ratio of earned value to planned value.
Schedule Performance Index (SPI)
A measure of schedule performance expressed as the difference between the earned value and planned value.
Schedule Variance (SV)
The approved version of a scope statement, work breakdown structure, and its associated WBS dictionary that can be changed using formal change control procedures and is used as the basis for comparison to actual results.
Scope Baseline
The uncontrolled expansion to product or project scope without adjustments to time, cost, and resources.
Scope Creep
A component of the project or program management plan that describes how the scope will be defined, developed, monitored, controlled, and validated.
Scope Management Plan
A technique used to indicate performance trends by using a graph that displays cumulative costs over a specific time period.
S-Curve Analysis
A risk that arises as a direct result of implementing a risk response.
Secondary Risk
An individual or a group that provides resources and support for the project, program, or portfolio, and is accountable for enabling success.
Sponsor
A component of the resource management plan that describes when and how team members will be acquired and how long they will be needed.
Staffing Management Plan
An individual, group, or organization that may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project, program, or portfolio.
Stakeholder
A component of the project or project management plan that identifies the strategies and actions required to promote productive involvement of stakeholders in project or program decision making and execution.
Stakeholder Engagement Plan
A logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot finish until a predecessor activity has started.
Start-to-Finish
A logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has started.
Start-to-Start
A dependent activity that logically comes after another activity in a schedule.
Successor Activity
A group of related schedule activities aggregated and displayed as a single activity.
Summary Activity
A risk that would have a negative effect on one or more project objectives.
Threat
A technique used to estimate cost or duration by applying an average or weighted average of optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely estimates when there is uncertainty with the individual activity estimates.
Three-Point Estimating
A measure of the cost performance that is achieved with the remaining resources in order to met a specified management goal, expressed as the ratio of the cost to finish the outstanding work to the remaining budget.
To-Complete Performance Index (TCPI)
The amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed or extended from its early start date without dealing the project finish date or violating a schedule constraint.
Total Float
An event or situation that indicates that a risk is about to occur.
Trigger Condition
A technique for determining the. cause and degree of difference between the baseline and actual performance.
Variance Analysis
A projection of the amount of budget deficit or surplus, expressed as the difference between the budget at completion and the estimate at completion.
Variance at Completion (VAC)
A document that provides detailed deliverable, activity, and schedule information about each component in the work breakdown structure.
WBS Dictionary
A method of estimating earned value in which the budget value of a work package is divided into measurable segments, each ending with a milestone that is assigned a weighted budget value.
Weighted Milestone Method
The process of evaluating scenarios in order to predict their effect on project objectives.
What-If Scenario Analysis
An immediate and temporary response to an issue for which a prior response had not been planned or was not effective.
Workaround
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 (WBS)
The work defined at the lowest level of the work breakdown structure for which cost and duration as estimated and managed.
Work Package
