PMP Exam Definitions Flashcards
PROJECT MANAGEMENT OFFICE (PMO)
A management structure that standardizes the project-related governance processes and facilitates the sharing of resources, methodologies, tools and techniques. PMOs are more common in larger organizations because of the number of projects that can be in process at the same time.
TAILORING
Tailoring is the deliberate adaptation of the project management approach, governance, and processes to make them more suitable for the given environment and the work at hand.
STRATEGIC PLAN
A high-level business document that explains an organization’s vision and mission plus the approach that will be adopted to achieve this mission and vision, including the specific goals and objectives to be achieved during the period covered by the document.
BENEFITS MANAGEMENT PLAN
The documented explanation defining the processes for creating, maximizing, and sustaining the benefits provided by a project or program. It also describes how and when the benefits of a project will be derived and measured. Both the business case and the benefits management plan are developed with the benefits owner prior to the project being initiated. Additionally, both documents are referenced after the project has been completed. Therefore, they are considered business documents rather than project documents or components of the project management plan.
COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS
Is one method of measuring or evaluating a project’s benefit and value.
OPPORTUNITY COST
A concept applied to quantify the missed opportunity when deciding to use a resource (e.g. investment dollars) for one purpose versus another. Alternately opportunity cost is the loss of potential future return from the second-best unselected project. In other words, it is the opportunity (potential return) that will not be realized when one project is selected over another.
INTERNAL RATE OF RETURN (IRR)
The interest rate that makes the net present value of all cash flow equal to zero. This rate is a function of the cost of capital for project implementation.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI)
A financial metric of profitability that measures the gain or loss from an investment relative to the amount of money invested.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
A comprehensive, cyclic, and structured approach for transitioning individuals, groups, and organizations from a current state to a future state in which they realize desired benefits. It is different from project change control, which is a process whereby modifications to documents, deliverables, or baselines associated with the project are identified and documented, and then are approved or rejected.
THRESHOLD
A predetermined value of a measurable project variable that represents a limit that requires action to be taken if it is reached.
TOLERANCE
The quantified description of acceptable variation for a quality, risk, budget, or other project requirement.
ESCALATE
The act of seeking helpful intervention in response to a threat that is outside the scope of the project or beyond the project manager’s authority.
PROJECT LIFE CYCLE
The series of phases that a project passes through from its start to its completion.
PHASE
Refers to a collection of activities within a project. Each project phase is goal oriented and ends at a milestone.
PHASE GATE
A point review at the end of a phase in which a decision is made to continue to the next phase, to continue with modification, or to end a project or program.
MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT (MVP)
The smallest collection of features that can be included in a product for customers to consider it functional. In Lean methodologies, it can be referred to as “bare bones” or “no frills” functionality.
SEQUENTIAL RELATIONSHIP
Refers to a consecutive relationship between phases; phases occur in procession and without overlap.
OVERLAPPING RELATIONSHIP
A type of phase-to-phase relationship characterized by phases that start prior to the ending of the previous phase. Therefore, activities in different phases run concurrently with one another.
QUALITY POLICY
The basic principles that should govern the organization’s actions as it implements its system for quality management.
STAKEHOLDER
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 ANALYSIS
A technique of systematically gathering and analyzing quantitative and qualitative information to determine whose interests should be considered throughout the project.
STAKEHOLDER REGISTER
A project document including the identification, assessment, and classification of project stakeholders.
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT PLAN
A component of the project management plan that identifies the strategies and actions required to promote productive involvement of stakeholders in project or program decision-making and execution. Used to understand stakeholder communication requirements and the level of stakeholder engagement in order to assess and adapt to the level of stakeholder participation in requirements activities.
COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT PLAN
A component of the project, program, or portfolio management plan that describes how, when, and by whom information about the project will be administered and disseminated.
COMMUNICATION MODEL
A description, analogy, or schematic used to represent how the communication process will be performed for the project.
CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TEAM
Teams that have all the capabilities to deliver the work they’ve been assigned. Team members can specialize in certain skills, but the team is capable of delivering what they’ve been called on to build. See also “self-organizing teams”.
GENERALIZING SPECIALISTS
Refers to a project team member who has a particular area of deep expertise but also has experience in many other areas that may not be directly related to their core area. These team member types are valued on agile projects because of their ability to be interchangeable.
T-SHAPED
Refers to a person whose skill set comprises one area of specialization and broad ability in other skills required by the team.
TEAM CHARTER
A document that records the team values, agreements, and operating guidelines as well as establishes clear expectations regarding acceptable behavior by project team members.
GROUND RULES
Expectations regarding acceptable behavior by project team members.
VIRTUAL TEAM
A group of people with a shared goal who fulfill their roles with little or no time spent meeting face-to-face.
COLOCATION
An organizational placement strategy in which the project team members are physically located close to one another to improve communication, working relationships, and productivity.
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIs)
A set metric used to evaluate a project, an organizational unit, or a project team’s performance against the project vision and objectives. KPIs can be time bound.
PRODUCT BOX EXERCISE
A technique used to explain a desired solution or outcome. Stakeholders try to describe aspects of a solution in the same way a marketer might describe product features and benefits on a box.
XP METAPHOR
A common Extreme Programming (XP) technique that describes a common vision of how a program works.
PROJECT CHARTER
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.
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
The integration of people, data, processes, and business systems to create, maintain, and evolve a product or service throughout its life cycle.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN COMPONENTS
(SUBSIDIARY MANAGEMENT PLANS)
- Scope management plan
- Requirements management plan
- Schedule management plan
- Cost management plan
- Quality management plan
- Resource management plan
- Communications management plan
- Risk management plan
- Procurement management plan
- Stakeholder engagement plan
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN COMPONENTS
(BASELINES)
- Scope baseline
- Schedule baseline
- Cost baseline
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN COMPONENTS
(ADDITIONAL COMPONENTS)
- Change management plan
- Configuration management plan
- Performance measurement baseline
- Project life cycle
- Development approach
- Management reviews
PROJECT DOCUMENTS
Any documents that are prepared in support of a project – for example, requirements, specifications, contracts with vendors, design documents, test plans, and publications that will be delivered to the client along with the final product.
PROJECT SCOPE
The features, functions, and works that characterize the delivery of a product, service, and/or result.
PRODUCT SCOPE
The functions and features that characterize a product or a service.
ROLLING WAVE PLANNING
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 is planned at a higher level.
PROGRESSIVE ELABORATION
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.
PRODUCT ROADMAP
A high-level visual summary of the product or products of the project that includes goals, milestones, and potential deliverables.
MILESTONE
A specific point within a project life cycle used as a measure in the progress toward the ultimate goal. A milestone marks a specific point along a project timeline. The point may signal anchors such as a project start and end date, a need for external review, or input and budget check. It is represented as a task of zero duration and is displayed as an important achievement in a project.
COLLECT REQUIREMENTS PROCESS
The process in which requirements documentation is developed. Precedes the Define Scope process.
REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENTATION
A description of how individual requirements meet the business need for the project.
USER STORY
An informal, general explanation of a product, service, or software feature written from the perspective of the end user. Its purpose is to articulate how the feature will provide value to the customer.
NOMINAL GROUP TECHNIQUE
A technique that enhances brainstorming with a voting process used to rank the most useful ideas for further brainstorming or for prioritization.
MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION ANALYSIS
A technique that utilizes a decision matrix to provide a systematic, analytical approach for establishing criteria, such as risk levels, uncertainty, and valuation, to evaluate and rank many ideas.
BENCHMARKING
The comparison of actual or planned products, processes, and practices to those of comparable organizations to identify best practices, generate ideas for improvement, and provide a basis for measuring performance.
CONTEXT DIAGRAM
Visual depiction of product scope, showing a business system (process, equipment, computer system, etc.) and how people and other systems interact with it.
STORYBOARDING
The prototyping method that uses visuals or images to illustrate a process or represent a project outcome. Storyboards are useful to illustrate how a product, service, or application will function or operate when it is complete.
PROTOTYPES
A method of obtaining early feedback on user requirements by building a working model of the expected product. Prototypes can be used to solicit aesthetics, functionalities etc. Several iterations maybe displayed.
SCOPE MANAGEMENT PLAN
A component of the project or program management plan that describes how the scope will be defined, developed, monitored, controlled, and validated.
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE (WBS)
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.
EPIC
A large body of work that can be broken down into smaller pieces—features and user stories. Epics can take months to complete.
FEATURE
A set of related requirements that allows the user to satisfy a business objective or need.
SCHEDULE MANAGEMENT PLAN
A component of the project or program management plan that establishes the criteria and activities for developing, monitoring, and controlling the schedule.
WORK PACKAGE
The work defined at the lowest level of the work breakdown structure (WBS) for which cost and duration are estimated and managed.
DEPENDENCY
A relationship between one or more tasks/activities. A dependency may be mandatory or discretionary, internal or external. See also “start-to-start”; “start-to-finish”; “finish-to-start”; and “finish-to-finish”.
PRECEDENCE RELATIONSHIP
A logical dependency used in the precedence diagramming methods
CRITICAL PATH
The sequence of activities that represents the longest path through a project, which determines the shortest possible duration.
PROJECT ACTIVITY
A distinct, scheduled portion of work performed during a project.
ACTIVITY LIST
A documented tabulation of schedule activities that shows the activity description, activity identifier, and a sufficiently detailed scope-of-work description so project team members understand what work is to be performed.
ACTIVITY DEPENDENCY
A logical relationship between two project activities.
PRECEDENCE DIAGRAMMING METHOD
A technique used to create the network diagram. It constructs 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.
