Project Management Fundamentals Flashcards
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)
The PMI publication that defines widely accepted project management practices. The CAPM and the PMP exam are based on this book.
Application Areas
The areas of expertise, industry, or function where a project is centered. Examples include architecture, IT, health care, and manufacturing.
Business Value
A quantifiable return on investment. The return can be tangible, such as equipment, money, or market share. The return can also be intangible such as brand recognition, trademarks, and reputation.
Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)
A person who has slightly less project management experience than a PMP, but who has qualified for and then passed the CAPM examination.
Cultural and Social Environment
Defines how a project affects people and how those people may affect the project. Includes the economic, educational, ethical, religious, demographic, and ethnic composition of the people affected by the project.
Deliverable
A product, service, or result created by a project. Projects can have multiple of these.
General Management Skills
These include the application of accounting, procurement, sales and marketing, contracting, manufacturing, logistics, strategic planning, human resource management, standards and regulations, and information technology.
International and Political Environment
The consideration of the local and international laws, languages, communication challenges, time zone differences, and other non-collocated issues that affect a project’s ability to progress.
Interpersonal Skills
The ability to interact, lead, motivate, and manage people.
Iron Triangle of Project Management
The characteristics of time, cost, and scope. If any is not in balance with the other, the project will suffer. Also known as the triple constraints.
Physical Environment
The physical structure and surroundings that affect a project’s work.
Process Groups
A collection of related processes in project management. There are five groups and 49 processes. The groups are Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing.
Program
A collection of related projects working in unison toward a common deliverable.
Progressive Elaboration
The process of gathering project details. This process uses deductive reasoning, logic, and a series of information-gathering techniques to identify details about a project, product, or solution.
Project
A temporary endeavor to create a unique product, service, or result. The end result is also called a deliverable.
Project Benefits Management Plan
A document created and maintained by the project sponsor and the project manager. It defines what benefits the project will create, when the benefits will be realized, and how the benefits will be measured.
Project Business Case
Created and maintained by the project sponsor and shows the financial validity of why a project is chartered and launched within the organization. Typically, it is created before the launch of the project and may be used as a go/no-go decision point.
Project Environment
The location and culture of the work environment where the project work will reside. Includes the social, economic, and environmental variables the project must work with or around.
Project Management Institute (PMI)
An organization of project management professionals from around the world, supporting and promoting the careers, values, and concerns of project managers.
Project Life Cycle
The phases that make up the project. They are unique to the type of work being performed and are not universal to all projects.
Project Management Office (PMO)
A central office that oversees all projects within an organization or within a functional department. Supports the project manager through software, training, templates, policies, communication, dispute resolution, and other services.
Project Management Professional (PMP)
A person who has proven project management experience and had qualified for and passed the PMP examination.
Project Portfolio Management
The management and selection of projects that support an organization’s mission and vision. It is the balance of project priority, risk, reward, and return on investment. This is a senior management process.
Subprojects
A smaller project managed within a larger, parent project. Often contracted work whose deliverable allows the larger project to progress
Triple Constraints of Project Management
Also known as the Iron Triangle. The theory posits that time, cost, and scope are three limits that every project has.
Work Performance Data
Raw data, observations, and measurements about project components. Gathered and stored in the project management information system.
Work Performance Information
The processed and analyzed data that will help the project manager to make project decisions.
Work Performance Reports
The formatted communication of work performance information. Communicate what’s happening in the project through status reports, memos, dashboards, or other modalities.
