PMI Lexicon of Project Management Terms Flashcards
A set of conditions that is required to be met before deliverables are accepted.
Acceptance Criteria
A distinct, scheduled portion of work performed during the course of a project.
Activity
The realized cost incurred for the work performed on an activity during a specific time period.
Actual Cost
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 proportionately across certain discrete efforts and not divisible into discrete efforts. (Note: Apportioned effort is one of three earned value management [EVM] types of activities used to measure work performance.)
Apportioned Effort
A factor in the planning process that is 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 only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison.
Baseline
A method of estimating project duration or cost by aggregating the estimates of the lower-level components of the work breakdown structure (WBS).
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 any 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.
Communication Management Plan
A limiting factor that affects the execution of a project, program, portfolio, or process.
Constraint
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 Action
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 (CPI)
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 (CV)
A technique used to shorten the schedule duration for the least incremental cost by adding resources.
Crashing
A schedule method that allows 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 sub-dividing 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 required to be produced to complete a process, phase, or project.
Deliverable
An activity that can be planned and measured and that yields a specific output. (Note: Discrete effort is one of three earned value management [EVM] types of activities used to measure work performance.)
Discrete Effort
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 (EV)
A methodology that combines scope, schedule, and resource measurements to assess 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.
Estimate 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
A critical path method technique for calculating the early start and early 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
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
A component of the project or program management plan that describes how the roles and responsibilities, reporting relationships, and staff management will be addressed and structured.
Human Resource Plan
The amount of time whereby a successor activity is required to 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 should 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. (Note: Level of effort is one of three earned value management [EVM] types of activities used to measure work performance.)
Level of Effort
A dependency between two activities, or between an activity and a milestone.
Logical Relationship
A significant point or event in a project, program, or portfolio.
Milestone
An estimate of the most probable activity duration that takes into account all of the known variables that could affect performance.
Most Likely Duration
A risk that would have a positive effect on one or more project objectives.
Opportunity
An estimate of the shortest activity duration that takes into account all of the known variables that could 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
Plans, processes, policies, procedures and knowledge bases specific to and used by the performing organization.
Organizational Process Assets