Terms R-Z 2023 Flashcards
Glossary of Terms - Updated Feb 2023
RACI Chart
Stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. A common type of responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) that uses responsible, accountable, consult, and inform statuses to define the involvement of stakeholders in project activities.
Recognition
A more personalized, intangible, and experiential event that focuses on behavior rather than outcome.
Refactoring
Refers to software development. Improving the design of the code so that it is easier to test, debug, and maintain.
Referent Power
Refers to establishing trust, respect, and credibility with people in work or personal life contexts.
Regulations
Requirements imposed by a governmental body. These requirements can establish product, process, or service characteristics, including applicable administrative provisions that have government-mandated compliance.
Relative Authority
The project manager’s authority relative to the functional manager’s authority over the project and the project team.
Relative Estimating
Also called sizing. The process of estimating stories or backlog tasks in relation to each other instead of in units of time.
Release Plan
The plan that sets expectations for the dates, features, and/or outcomes a project expects to deliver over the course of several iterations.
Release Planning
The process of identifying a high-level plan for releasing or transitioning a product, deliverable, or increment of value to the customer.
Reports
A formal record or summary of information.
Request for Information (RFI)
A type of procurement document whereby the buyer requests a potential seller to provide various pieces of information related to a product or service or seller capability.
Request for Proposal (RFP)
A type of procurement document used to request proposals from prospective sellers of products or services. In some application areas, it may have a narrower or more specific meaning.
Request for Quotation (RFQ)
A type of procurement document used to request price quotations from prospective sellers of common or standard products or services. Sometimes used in place of request for proposal and, in some application areas, it may have a narrower or more specific meaning.
Requirement
A measurable condition or capability that must be present in a product, service, or result to satisfy a business need.
Requirements Documentation
A description of how individual requirements meet the business need for the project.
Requirements Management Plan
A component of the project or program management plan that describes how requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed.
Requirements Traceability Matrix
A grid that links product requirements from their origin to the deliverables that satisfy them.
Reserve
A provision in the project management plan to mitigate cost and/or schedule risk, often used with a modifier (e.g., management reserve, contingency reserve) to provide further detail on what types of risks are meant to be mitigated. See also ‘Buffer’.
Reserve Analysis
A method used to evaluate the amount of risk on the project and the amount of schedule and budget reserve to determine whether the reserve is sufficient for the remaining risk.
Residual Risk
The risk that remains after risk responses have been implemented.
Resource
A skilled individual or team, equipment, services, supplies, commodities, materials, budgets, or funds required to accomplish the defined work.
Resource Breakdown Structure
A hierarchical representation of resources by category and type.
Resource Calendar
A calendar that identifies the working days and shifts for which each specific resource is available.
Resource Histogram
A bar chart that represents when a resource will be needed in the project.
Resource Levelling
A resource optimization technique in which adjustments are made to the project schedule to optimize the allocation of resources and which may affect the critical path.
Resource Management Plan
A component of the project management plan that describes how project resources are acquired, allocated, monitored, and controlled.
Resource Optimization Techniques
A technique in which activity start and finish dates are adjusted to balance demand for resources with the available supply. See also ‘Resource Levelling’ and ‘Resource Smoothing’.
Resource requirements
The types and quantities of resources required for each activity in a work package.
Resource Smoothing
A resource optimization technique in which free and total float are used without affecting the critical path. See also ‘Resource Levelling’ and ‘Resource Optimization Technique’.
Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)
A grid that shows the project resources assigned to each work package.
Retrospective
Agile meeting held after the iteration/sprint/increment for the team to review the process and results to identify what went well and what can be done differently. Closely tied to continuous improvement. Process is the same as lessons learned.
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.
Reward
A tangible, consumable item that is given to a person based on a specific outcome or an achievement.
Reward and Recognition Plan
A formalized way to reinforce performance or behavior.
Rework
Action taken to bring a defective or nonconforming component into compliance with requirements or specifications.
Risk
An event or condition of uncertainty that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on one or more project objectives.
Risk Acceptance
A risk response strategy whereby the project team decides to acknowledge the risk and not take any action unless the risk occurs.
Risk Appetite
The degree of uncertainty an organization or individual is willing to accept in anticipation of a reward.
Risk Avoidance
A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to eliminate the threat or protect the project from its impact.
Risk Breakdown Structure
A hierarchical representation of potential sources of risk.
Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS)
A hierarchical representation of potential sources of risk.
Risk Categorization
Organization by sources of risk (e.g., using the RBS), the area of the project affected (e.g., using the WBS), or other useful category (e.g., project phase) to determine the areas of the project most exposed to the effects of uncertainty.
Risk Category
A group of potential causes of risk.
Risk Enhancement
A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to increase the probability of occurrence or impact of an opportunity.
Risk Exploiting
A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to ensure that an opportunity occurs.
Risk Exposure
An aggregate measure of the potential impact of all risks at any given point in time in a project, program, or portfolio.
Risk Impact
The likely effect on project objectives if a risk event occurs.
Risk Management Plan
A component of the project, program, or portfolio management plan that describes how risk management activities will be structured and performed.
Risk Mitigation
A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to decrease the probability of occurrence or impact of a threat.
Risk Owner
The person responsible for monitoring the risk and for selecting and implementing an appropriate risk response strategy.
Risk Probability
The likelihood that a risk event will occur or prove true during the project.
Risk Register
A repository in which outputs of risk management processes are recorded. As the central planning document for project risk analysis and control, the risk register contains a list of the most important risks to the project’s completion. For each risk, it identifies the likelihood of occurrence, the impact to the project, the priority, and the applicable response plans.
Risk Response Plan
This plan involves reducing and eliminating risks and their potential impacts through appropriate mitigation techniques.
Risk Sharing
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 for the project.
Risk Threshold
The level of risk exposure above which risks are addressed and below which risks may be accepted.
Risk Transference
A risk response strategy whereby the project team shifts the impact of a threat to a third party, together with ownership of the response.
Risk Workshop
A technique that uses a special meeting conducted for the purpose of identifying project risks. In addition to the project team members, this workshop might also include the project sponsor, SMEs, customer representatives, and other stakeholders, depending on the size of the project.
Role
Refers to a human-driven function in a work setting.
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.
Root Cause Analysis
An analytical technique used to determine the basic underlying reason that causes a variance or a defect or a risk. A root cause may underlie more than one variance or defect or risk.
SAFe® (Scaled Agile Framework)
A knowledge base of integrated patterns for enterprise-scale lean-agile development. A framework that implements Scrum at an enterprise level.
Salience Model
A classification model that groups stakeholders according to level of authority, immediate needs, and how appropriate their involvement is in terms of the project.
Schedule Baseline
The approved version of a schedule model that can be changed using formal change control procedures and is used as the basis of comparison to actual results. It is one of the main project documents that should be created before the project starts.
Schedule Compression
A method used to shorten the schedule duration without reducing the project scope.
Schedule Forecast
Estimates or predictions of conditions and events in the project’s future based on information and knowledge available at the time the schedule is calculated.
Schedule Management Plan
A component of the project or program management plan that establishes the criteria and the activities for developing, monitoring, and controlling the schedule.
Schedule Performance Index (SPI)
A measure of schedule efficiency, expressed as the ratio of earned value to planned value.
Schedule Variance (SV)
A measure of schedule performance is expressed as the difference between the earned value and the planned value.
Scope Baseline
The approved version of a scope statement, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and its associated WBS dictionary can be changed using formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results.
Scope Creep
The uncontrolled expansion of project scope without adjustments to time, cost, and resources.
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.
Scope Statement
Details about project deliverables and the major objectives of a project, including measurable outcomes.
Scrum
An agile framework for developing and sustaining complex products, with specific roles, events, and artifacts.
Scrum Master
The coach of the development team and process owner in the Scrum framework. Removes obstacles, facilitates productive events, and protects the team from disruptions.
Scrum of Scrums (SoS)
A technique to operate Scrum at scale for several teams working on the same product, coordinating discussions of progress on their interdependencies, and focusing on how to integrate the delivery of software, especially in areas of overlap.
Scrum Team
Dedicated, self-managing, cross-functional, fully empowered individuals who deliver the finished work required by the customer.
Secondary Risk
A risk that arises as a direct result of implementing a risk response.
Self-Organizing Team
A cross-functional team in which people fluidly assume leadership as needed to achieve the team’s objectives. See also ‘cross-functional team.’
Sensitivity Analysis
An analysis technique to determine which individual project risks or other sources of uncertainty have the most potential impact on project outcomes, by correlating variations in project outcomes with variations in elements of a quantitative risk analysis model.
Sequential Relationships
Refers to a consecutive relationship between phases; phases occur in procession and without overlap.
Servant Leadership
The practice of leading the team by focusing on understanding and addressing the needs and development of team members in order to enable the highest possible team performance.
Service-Level Agreement (SLA)
A contract between a service provider (either internal or external) and the end user that defines the level of service expected from the service provider.