Glossary 1 Flashcards
1
Q
What are Acceptance Criteria?
A
A set of conditions that is required to be met before deliverables are accepted.
2
Q
What is an Activity?
A
A distinct, scheduled portion of work performed during the course of a project.
3
Q
What is an Activity Code?
A
A set of numeric or alpha-numeric characters that categorize the schedule activity. It allows for filtering and ordering of activities within reports.
4
Q
What is Activity Duration?
A
The time in calendar units between the start and finish of a schedule activity. In simple terms, it’s the length of time that it takes to complete an activity.
5
Q
What is an Activity Identifier?
A
A unique identifier for each schedule activity in a schedule network diagram.
6
Q
What is Actual Duration?
A
The length of time between the actual start date and the data date for in-progress activities, or between the actual start date and the actual finish date for completed activities.
7
Q
What is an Application Area?
A
A category of projects that have common elements not present in all projects. It is usually defined in terms of either the product (i.e., by similar technologies or production methods) or the type of customer (i.e., internal versus external, government versus commercial) or industry sector (i.e., utilities, automotive, aerospace, information technologies, etc.). Application areas can overlap.
8
Q
What is an Assumption?
A
A factor that is considered to be true or certain for the purpose of planning, without demonstration or proof.
9
Q
What is Authority?
A
The right to apply project resources, expend funds, make decisions, or give approvals.
10
Q
What is a Baseline?
A
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 to actual results.
11
Q
What is a Budget?
A
The approved (cost) estimate for a project, WBS component or a schedule activity.
12
Q
Who is a Buyer?
A
The owner of the final product, a subcontractor, the acquiring organization, a service requestor, or the purchaser.
13
Q
What is a Calendar Unit?
A
The unit of time used in scheduling a project. Example hours, days, weeks, months, etc.
14
Q
What is Change Control?
A
The process of identifying, documenting, approving or rejecting changes to project documents, deliverables, or baselines (scope, schedule, cost, etc.).
15
Q
What is a Change Control Board (CCB)?
A
A formally constituted group of stakeholders responsible for reviewing, evaluating, approving, delaying, or rejecting changes to the project, and for recording and communicating the decisions taken.
16
Q
What is a Claim?
A
A request, demand, or assertion of rights by a seller against a buyer, or vice versa, for consideration, compensation, or payment under the terms of a legally binding contract, such as for a disputed change.
17
Q
What is the definition of Constraint?
A
A limiting factor that affects the execution of a project, program, portfolio, or process.
18
Q
Define Contingency.
A
An event or occurrence that could affect the execution of the project that may be accounted for with a reserve.
19
Q
Define Control.
A
Comparing actual performance with planned performance, analyzing variances, assessing trends to effect process improvements, evaluating possible alternatives, and recommending appropriate corrective action as needed.
20
Q
What are Control Limits?
A
The area within three standard deviations on either side of the mean on a control chart that reflects the expected variation in the data.
21
Q
What is a Corrective Action?
A
An intentional activity that realigns the performance of the project work with the project management plan.
22
Q
What is Cost of Conformance?
A
It is the term to describe the total prevention and appraisal costs (such as costs associated with quality planning, quality control, and quality assurance activities) on the project.
23
Q
What is Cost of Non-Conformance?
A
It is the term to describe the failure costs (such as costs associated with rework, scrap, loss of business, and warranty) on the project.
24
Q
What is a Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) Contract?
A
A type of cost-reimbursable contract where the buyer reimburses the seller for the seller’s allowable costs (allowable costs are defined by the contract) plus a fixed amount of profit (fee).
25
What is a Cost Plus Incentive Fee (CPIF) Contract?
A type of cost-reimbursable contract where the buyer reimburses the seller for the seller's allowable costs (allowable costs are defined by the contract), and the seller earns its profit if it meets defined performance criteria.
26
What is a Cost-Reimbursable (CR) Contract?
A type of contract where the buyer reimburses the seller for the seller's actual costs, plus a fee representing the seller's profit.
27
What are Criteria?
Standards, rules, or tests used as a basis for decision making, or for evaluating a product, service, result, or process.
28
What is a Decision Tree?
A decision support tool that uses a tree-like graph or model of decisions and their possible consequences.
29
What is the definition of a Defect?
An anomaly or flaw, in a deliverable such that the deliverable does not meet its requirements or specifications.
30
What is Defect Repair?
An intentional activity to modify a nonconforming product or product component.
31
Define Duration (DU or DUR).
The total number of work periods (days, weeks, etc.), excluding holidays or other nonworking periods, required to complete an activity or work breakdown structure component.
32
Define Effort.
The number of labor units required to complete a schedule activity or work breakdown structure component, often expressed in hours, days, or weeks.
33
What is the definition of Execute as per the PMBOK® Guide, 6th Edition?
Directing, managing, performing, and accomplishing the project work, providing the deliverables, and providing work performance information.
34
What is Expected Monetary Value (EMV) Analysis?
A statistical technique that calculates the profit or loss of an outcome (e.g. a project) based on different scenarios, by taking into consideration the probability of occurrence and the expected profit or loss from each scenario. It is commonly used in Decision Tree Analysis.
35
What is a Finish Date?
The date of completion of a schedule activity, usually qualified by one of the following: actual, planned, estimated, scheduled, early, late, baseline, target, or current.
36
What is a Finish-to-Finish (FF) dependency?
The logical relationship where the successor ("to") activity cannot complete until the predecessor ("from") activity completes.
37
What is a Finish-to-Start (FS) dependency?
The logical relationship where the successor ("to") activity cannot start until the predecessor ("from") activity completes.
38
What is a Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) Contract?
A type of fixed price contract where the buyer pays the seller a set amount (as defined by the contract), regardless of the seller's costs.
39
What is a Fixed-Price-Incentive-Fee (FPIF) Contract?
A type of contract where the buyer pays the seller a set amount (as defined by the contract), and an additional amount (fee or profit) if the seller meets defined performance criteria.
40
Define Forecast.
An estimate or prediction of future conditions and events in a project based on project's performance, and other information available at the time of the forecast.
41
What is Forward Pass?
A Critical Path Method (CPM) technique for calculating the early start and early finish dates by working forward from the project's start date, in the network diagram.
42
What is Free Float?
The amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying any successor activity or violating a schedule constraint.
43
What is Grade?
A category assigned to a product or a service that has the same functional use but different technical characteristics.
44
What is an Imposed Date?
A fixed date imposed on a schedule activity or schedule milestone, usually in the form of a "start no earlier than" and "finish no later than" date.
45
What is an Invitation for Bid (IFB)?
A type of procurement document used to request a total price to do all the work, from prospective sellers. It is generally used in FP contracts.
46
Define Issue.
A current condition or situation that may have an impact on the project objectives.
47
What is a Log?
A document used to record and track selected items (like changes, issues, etc.) during the execution of a process or an activity. Usually used with a modifier, such as issue, change, issue, or assumption.
48
What is a Logical Relationship?
A dependency between two activities, or between an activity and a milestone. The four possible types are: Finish-to-Start; Finish-to-Finish; Start-to-Start; and Start-to-Finish.
49
What is a Milestone?
A significant point or event in a project, program, or portfolio, for example, completing a key deliverable.
50
What is meant by Monitor?
Collecting performance data, measuring performance, preparing and distributing performance reports.
51
What is Network Logic?
All activity dependencies in a project schedule network diagram.
52
What is a Network Path?
A sequence of activities connected by logical relationships in a project schedule network diagram.
53
What is a Node?
A point at which dependency lines connect on a schedule network diagram.
54
What is an Opportunity?
An uncertain event (or risk) that will impact the project positively, if it occurs.
55
What is Path Convergence?
A relationship in which a schedule activity has more than one predecessor.
56
What is Path Divergence?
A relationship in which a schedule activity has more than one successor.
57
What is Percent Complete?
The ratio of the estimated amount of work completed to the total estimated work on an activity or a WBS component, expressed in percentage.
58
What is a Performance Measurement Baseline?
An integration of scope, schedule and cost baselines of the project. It is used for measuring project performance including earned value measurement.
59
What is a Planning Package?
A WBS component within a Control Account that is identified and budgeted in early planning, but is not yet sub-divided into work packages.
60
What is a Predecessor Activity?
An activity that logically comes before a dependent activity in a schedule. In other words, it's the "from" activity of a logical relationship in a schedule network.
61
What is a Preventive Action?
An intentional activity that ensures the future performance of the project work is aligned with the Project Management Plan.
62
What is Product Scope?
The features and functions that characterize a product, service, or result.
63
What is Product Scope Description?
The documented narrative description of the product scope.
64
What is Project Communications Management?
A Project Management Knowledge Area that includes the processes required to ensure timely and appropriate planning, collection, creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, management, control, monitoring, and the ultimate disposition of project information.
65
What is Project Cost Management?
A Project Management Knowledge Area that includes the processes involved in planning, estimating, budgeting, financing, funding, managing, and controlling costs so that the project can be completed within the approved budget.
66
What is Project Resource Management?
A Project Management Knowledge Area that includes the processes to identify, acquire, and manage the resources needed for the successful completion of the project.
67
What is Project Initiation?
Launching a process that can result in the authorization of a new project.
68
What is Project Integration Management?
A Project Management Knowledge Area that includes the processes and activities needed to identify, define, combine, unify, and coordinate the various processes and project management activities within the Project Management Process Groups.
69
What is Project Management?
The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.
70
What is a Project Management Team?
The members of the project team who are directly involved in project management activities.
71
What is a Project Phase?
A logical group of work within a project, usually resulting in a major deliverable. For example, phases for an IT project could be requirements, design, development, testing and implementation. Note: Project phases are NOT the same as Project Management Process Groups.
72
What is Project Procurement Management?
A Project Management Knowledge Area that includes the processes necessary to purchase or acquire products, services, or results needed from outside the project team.
73
What is Project Quality Management?
A Project Management Knowledge Area that includes the processes for incorporating the organization's quality policy regarding planning, managing, and controlling project and product quality requirements, in order to meet stakeholders' expectations.
74
What is Project Risk Management?
A Project Management Knowledge Area that includes the processes of conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis, response planning, response implementation, and monitoring risk on a project.
75
What is Project Scope?
All the "work" that goes in producing project deliverables (products, services or results).
76
What is Project Scope Management?
A Project Management Knowledge Area that includes the processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully.
77
What is a Project Team Directory?
A documented list of project team members, their project roles, and communication information.
78
What is Project Schedule Management?
A Project Management Knowledge Area that includes the processes required to manage the timely completion of a project.
79
What is the definition of Quality?
The degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements.
80
What is a Request for Information (RFI)?
A type of procurement document used by the buyer to solicit information (about a product or a service or seller's capability) from a prospective seller. It is generally used "before" the actual procurement document (RFP, RFQ or IFB) is sent out.
81
What is a Request for Proposal (RFP)?
A type of procurement document used to request detailed proposals from prospective sellers, with information such as how the work will be done, who will do it, where will they do it, and how much will it cost, seller's past experience in this field, etc. It is generally used in CR contracts.
82
What is a Request for Quotation (RFQ)?
A type of procurement document used to request price quotations from prospective sellers for standard items or services, or price per unit of measure. It is generally used in T&M contracts.
83
Define Requirement.
A condition or capability that is required to be present in a product, service, or result to satisfy a business need.
84
What is a Requirements Traceability Matrix?
A grid that links product requirements from their origin to the deliverables that satisfy them.
85
What is a Reserve?
A buffer in the Project Management Plan to account for cost and/or schedule risk.
86
What is a Residual Risk?
A risk that remains after risk responses have been implemented.
87
What is a Resource?
Everything needed to complete a project. Examples include human resources, equipment, services, supplies, material and funds.
88
What is a Resource Breakdown Structure?
A hierarchical structure of project resources by resource category and type.
89
What is a Resource Calendar?
A calendar of working and nonworking days of a particular resource.
90
What is a Resource Histogram?
A bar chart showing the amount of time that a resource is scheduled to work on a project over a given period of time.
91
Define Result.
An output of a project management process or an activity. It could be an outcome (e.g. a business process, an upgraded system, a research study, a trained resource, etc.) or a document (e.g. a new policy document, a training plan, a research report, etc.).
92
Define Rework.
Action taken to bring a defective or non-conforming component into compliance with requirements or specifications.
93
Define Risk.
An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on one or more project objectives.
94
What is a Risk Category?
A group of potential causes of risk. Examples include technical, external, organizational, environmental, or project management.
95
Define Role.
A function that a person is assigned to perform. For example, a project manager's role is to manage a project and achieve its objectives.
96
What is a Schedule?
A generic term for project schedule, or schedule model.
97
Define Scope.
The sum of the products, services, and results to be provided as a project.
98
What is a Scope Baseline?
The approved version of a scope statement, work breakdown structure (WBS), and its associated WBS dictionary, that can be changed using formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results.
99
What is Scope Creep?
The uncontrolled expansion to product or project scope without adjustments to time, cost, and resources.
100
What is an S-Curve?
A graphical display of cumulative costs, labor hours, percentage of work, or other quantities, plotted against time. The S-shape of the curve results from the fact that factors such as cost and work completed are flat (low) at the beginning of a project, increase steadily as the project progresses, and then decline rapidly and become flat toward the end of the project.
101
What is a Secondary Risk?
A new risk that emerges as a result of applying risk responses.
102
What is Sensitivity Analysis?
A quantitative risk analysis and modeling technique used to help determine which risks have the most potential impact on the project. It examines the extent to which the uncertainty of each project element affects the objective being examined when all other uncertain elements are held at their baseline values. The typical display of results is in the form of a Tornado Diagram.
103
What is Simulation?
It translates the uncertainties in activity duration or cost into their potential impact on overall project objectives such as total project duration or cost. Project simulations use computer models and estimates of risk, usually expressed as a probability distribution of possible costs or durations at a detailed work level, and are typically performed using Monte Carlo technique.
104
Define Specification.
A precise statement of the needs to be satisfied and the essential characteristics that are required. Examples are: requirement specification, design specification, product specification, and test specification.
105
What are Specification Limits?
The area on either side of the mean on a control chart that reflects the customer's requirements for a product or service. This area may be greater than or less than the area defined by the control limits.
106
What is a Team Management Plan?
A component of the resource management plan that describes when and how project team members will be acquired and how long they will be needed.
107
Define Stakeholder.
A person, group, or organization (e.g., customer, sponsor, performing organization, or the public) that is actively involved in a project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by the project.
108
Define Standard.
A document established by an authority, custom, or general consent as a model or example.
109
What is a Start Date?
The start date of a schedule activity, usually qualified by one of the following: actual, planned, estimated, scheduled, early, late, target, baseline, or current.
110
What is a Start-to-Finish (SF) dependency?
A logical relationship in which the predecessor ("from") activity cannot finish until the successor ("to") activity has started.
111
What is a Start-to-Start (SS) dependency?
A logical relationship in which a successor ("to") activity cannot start until a predecessor ("from") activity has started.
112
What is a Statement of Work (SOW)?
A narrative description of products, services, or results to be delivered by the project.
113
What is Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) Analysis?
An information gathering technique used in risk management to increase the breadth of the risks considered, and devise contingency plans, by examining the project's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
114
What is a Successor Activity?
A dependent activity that logically comes after another activity in a schedule. In other words, it's the "to" activity of a logical relationship in a schedule network.
115
What is a Template?
A partially complete document in a predefined format that provides a defined structure for collecting, organizing, and presenting information and data.
116
What is a Threat?
An uncertain event (or risk) that will negatively impact a project, if it occurs.
117
What is a Threshold?
The point beyond which an event or risk becomes unacceptable and a response should be triggered.
118
What is a Time and Material (T&M) Contract?
A type of contract that is a hybrid of cost reimbursable (CR) and fixed price (FP) contracts.
119
What is Total Float?
The amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the project or violating a schedule constraint.
120
What is a Trigger Condition?
Warning sign or symptom that indicates that a risk is about to occur.
121
What is Validation?
The process to check whether the right product (or deliverable) was built. It is usually an external process and involves customer acceptance.
122
What is Variance?
The difference between the actual (measured) value (of scope, schedule, cost, quality, etc.) and the baseline value.
123
What is Verification?
The process to check whether the product (or deliverable) was built right. It is often an internal process.
124
What is Voice of the Customer (VOC)?
The term to describe the stated and unstated customer needs or requirements.
125
What is a Work Authorization?
A process for sanctioning project work to ensure that the work is done by the person or organization, at the right time, and in the proper sequence.
126
What is a Work Breakdown Structure Component?
An element at any level of the WBS.
127
What is a Work Package?
The work defined at the lowest level of the work breakdown structure for which cost and duration are estimated and managed.
128
What is What-If Scenario Analysis?
A technique used to develop and control project schedule by assessing the feasibility of project schedule under various scenarios. It works by asking questions such as "what if scenario X happens?".
129
What is Accuracy in the context of quality management?
An assessment of correctness.
130
What is Activity-on-Node (AON)?
A method of representing a precedence diagram.
131
Define Attribute Sampling.
A method of measuring quality that consists of noting the presence (or absence) of some characteristic (attribute) in each of the units under consideration.
132
What is a Backlog?
A listing of product requirements and deliverables to be completed, written as stories, and prioritized by the business to manage and organize the project's work.
133
Define Competence.
The skill and capacity required to complete assigned activities within the project constraints.
134
What is Conformance in the context of quality management system?
A general concept of delivering results that fall within the limits that define acceptable variation for a quality requirement.
135
What is Conformance Work?
The work done to compensate for imperfections that prevent organizations from completing planned activities correctly as essential first-time work. It consists of actions that are related to prevention and inspection.
136
What is a Cost Plus Award Fee (CPAF) Contract?
A category of contract that involves payments to the seller for all legitimate actual costs incurred for completed work, plus an award fee representing seller profit.
137
Define Customer.
The person(s) or organization(s) that will pay for the project's product, service, or result.
138
Define Customer Satisfaction in the context of quality management.
A state of fulfillment in which the needs of a customer are met or exceeded for the customer's expected experiences as assessed by the customer at the moment of evaluation.
139
What is Autocratic Decision Making?
One individual makes the decision for the group.
140
Define Emotional Intelligence.
The ability to identify, assess, and manage the personal emotions of oneself and other people, as well as the collective emotions of groups of people.
141
Define Fee.
Represents profit as a component of compensation to a seller.
142
What is a Fixed Price with Economic Price Adjustment (FP-EPA) Contract?
A fixed-price contract, but with a special provision allowing for predefined final adjustments to the contract price due to changed conditions, such as inflation changes, or cost increases (or decreases) for specific commodities.
143
What is a Fixed-Price (FP) Contract?
An agreement that sets the fee that will be paid for a defined scope of work regardless of the cost or effort to deliver it.
144
What are Decision-Making Techniques?
Techniques used to select a course of action from different alternatives.
145
What is a Guideline?
An official recommendation or advice that indicates policies, standards, or procedures for how something should be accomplished.
146
What is an Incentive Fee?
A set of financial incentives related to cost, schedule, or technical performance of the seller.
147
What constitutes a Majority?
Support from more than 50 percent of the members of the group.
148
What is meant by Most Likely Duration?
An estimate of the most probable activity duration that takes into account all of the known variables that could affect performance.
149
What is Negotiation?
A discussion aimed at reaching an agreement.
150
What is Nonconformance Work?
The work done to deal with the consequences of errors and failures in doing activities correctly on the first attempt. In efficient quality management systems, the amount of nonconformance work will approach zero.
151
What is meant by Optimistic Duration?
An estimate of the shortest activity duration that takes into account all of the known variables that could affect performance.
152
What are Performance Reviews?
A technique that is used to measure, compare, and analyze actual performance of work in progress on the project against the baseline.
153
What is meant by Pessimistic Duration?
Estimate of the longest activity duration that takes into account all of the known variables that could affect performance.
154
What is Plurality in the context of decision-making?
Decisions made by the largest block in a group, even if a majority is not achieved.
155
Define Policy.
A structured pattern of actions adopted by an organization such that the organization's policy can be explained as a set of basic principles that govern the organization's conduct.
156
What is Precision in the context of quality management?
A measure of exactness.
157
What is a Prioritization Matrix?
A quality management planning tool used to identify key issues and evaluate suitable alternatives to define a set of implementation priorities.
158
Define Procedure.
A sequence of steps that is used to execute a process in order to accomplish a consistent performance or result.
159
What are Procurement Audits?
The review of contracts and contracting processes for completeness, accuracy, and effectiveness.
160
What is Project Stakeholder Management?
A Project Management Knowledge Area that includes the processes required to identify the people, groups, or organizations that could impact or be impacted by the project, to analyze stakeholder expectations and their impact on the project, and to develop appropriate management strategies for effectively engaging stakeholders in project decisions and execution.
161
What is a Project Team?
A set of individuals who support the project manager in performing the work of the project to achieve the project's objectives.
162
What is a Quality Management System?
The organizational framework whose structure provides the policies, processes, procedures, and resources required to implement the Quality Management Plan. The typical project Quality Management Plan should be compatible to the organization's quality management system.
163
What is meant by Quality Policy?
A policy specific to the Project Quality Management Knowledge Area, it establishes the basic principles that should govern the organization's actions as it implements its system for quality management.
164
What is a Quality Requirement?
A condition or capability that will be used to assess conformance by validating the acceptability of an attribute for the quality of a result.
165
Define Responsibility.
An assignment that can be delegated within a Project Management Plan such that the assigned resource incurs a duty to perform the requirements of the assignment.
166
What is meant by Risk Appetite?
The degree of uncertainty an organization or individual is willing to accept in anticipation of a reward.
167
What is meant by Risk Threshold?
The level of risk exposure above which risks are addressed and below which risks may be accepted.
168
What is Soft Logic?
Another name for Discretionary Dependency.
169
What is a 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.
170
What is the definition of Tolerance?
The quantified description of acceptable variation for a quality requirement.
171
What is Unanimity in the context of decision-making?
Agreement by everyone in the group on a single course of action.
172
What are Verified Deliverables?
Deliverables that have successfully passed the Control Quality process.
173
Define Variation.
An actual condition that is different from the expected condition, which is contained in the baseline plan.
174
What is a Change (in the context of project management)?
A modification to any formally controlled deliverable, project management plan component, or project document.
175
Define Data.
Discrete, unorganized, unprocessed measurements or raw observations.
176
What is Development Approach in the context of project management?
The method used to create and evolve the product, service, or result during the project life cycle, such as predictive, iterative, incremental, agile, or a hybrid method.
177
What is Explicit Knowledge?
Knowledge that can be codified using symbols such as words, numbers, and pictures. In simple terms, knowledge that can be documented is known as explicit knowledge.
178
Define Information.
Organized or structured data, processed for a specific purpose to make it meaningful, valuable, and useful in specific contexts.
179
Define Knowledge.
A mixture of experience, values and beliefs, contextual information, intuition, and insight that people use to make sense of new experiences and information.
180
What is Organizational Learning?
A discipline concerned with the way individuals, groups, and organizations develop knowledge.
181
What is a Phase Gate?
A 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.
182
What is Procurement Documentation?
All documents used in signing, executing, and closing an agreement. Procurement documentation may include documents predating the project.
183
What is a Procurement Strategy?
The approach by the buyer to determine the project delivery method and the type of legally binding agreement(s) that should be used to deliver the desired results.
184
What is a Quality Report?
A project document that includes quality management issues, recommendations for corrective actions, and a summary of findings from quality control activities and may include recommendations for process, project, and product improvements.
185
Who is a Resource Manager?
An individual with management authority over one or more resources.
186
What is Risk Exposure?
An aggregate measure of the potential impact of all risks at any given point in time in a project, program, or portfolio.
187
Who is a Risk Owner?
The person responsible for monitoring the risks and for selecting and implementing an appropriate risk response strategy.
188
What is a Risk Report?
A project document developed progressively throughout the Project Risk Management processes, which summarizes information on individual project risks and the level of overall project risk.
189
What is a Risk Review?
A meeting to examine and document the effectiveness of risk responses in dealing with overall project risk and individual project risks.
190
What is a Self-Organizing Team?
A team formation where the team functions with an absence of centralized control.
191
What is a 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.
192
What is a 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.
193
What is an Update?
A modification to any deliverable, project management plan component, or project document that is not under formal change control.
194
What is Variance At Completion (VAC)?
A projection of the amount of budget deficit or surplus, expressed as the difference between the Budget at Completion (BAC) and the Estimate at Completion (EAC).
195
What is a Benefits Realization Plan?
A document outlining the activities necessary for achieving the planned benefits. It identifies a timeline and the tools and resources necessary to ensure the benefits are fully realized over time.
196
What is Tailoring in the context of project management?
Determining the appropriate combination of processes, inputs, tools, techniques, outputs, and life cycle phases to manage a project.
197
What is a Configuration Item (CI)?
An item that is placed under configuration control. It may include the product, its components, documentation or project artifacts (plans and documents).
198
What is Configuration Control?
Configuration Control is the activity of managing the specifications of project's deliverables and processes throughout the lifecycle of the project.
199
What is Configuration Status Accounting?
The recording and reporting of all the changes to the configuration items.
200
What is Configuration Verification and Audit?
The process of verifying the correctness of the product and its components in order to ensure conformance to requirements.
201
What are Kill Points?
Phase-end reviews in which the key stakeholders (such as management, sponsor or customer) decide whether it's worth continuing the project. There may be several reasons for killing or terminating a project. For example, if the project performance is below par, or the need for the project no longer exists, the project may be terminated.
202
What are project's Triple Constraints?
Traditionally, this term referred to project's Scope, Time and Cost. Later it was expanded to include Quality, Risk, and Customer Satisfaction. A change to one of these factors must be evaluated for impact to all the other factors, as part of integrated change control process.
203
What is a Burnup Chart?
A graphical representation of how much work is done. The total work is tracked on the vertical axis, with time along the horizontal. It allows progress to be tracked independently of scope changes. Though commonly used in Agile software development, these charts can be applied to any project containing measurable progress over time.
204
What is a Burndown Chart?
A graphical representation of work left to do versus time. The outstanding work (or backlog) is often on the vertical axis, with time along the horizontal. It is useful for predicting when all of the work will be completed. Though commonly used in Agile software development, these charts can be applied to any project containing measurable progress over time.
205
What is Product Analysis?
It is a tool to define the scope by studying how a product is to be built, how it should work, how it should look like, what it should cost, etc. It is used when the deliverable of the project is a product (as opposed to a service or result).
206
What is Value Analysis?
A technique of analyzing the functions of an item, assigning values to those functions, and providing the functions at the lowest overall cost without loss of performance. In simple words, value analysis is about doing the same work at lesser cost.
207
What is Joint Application Development (JAD)?
A methodology that involves the customer or end users in the design and development of an application, through a series of collaborative workshops. It uses customer involvement and group dynamics to accurately depict the user's view of the business need and to jointly develop a solution. It is used in the software development industry.
208
What is Quality Function Deployment (QFD)?
A facilitated workshop technique used in manufacturing industry that helps transform customer needs (the voice of the customer [VOC]) into engineering characteristics for a product or service. These characteristics are then prioritized, and goals are set for achieving them.
209
What is Apportioned Effort?
Effort that cannot be divided among or attributed to individual tasks or work packages on the WBS, an example being quality assurance effort.
210
What is Discrete Effort?
Effort that can be measured and directly attributed to a project activity or a work package on the WBS, for example, the effort required to develop a software, which is identified as a deliverable of the project. Discrete effort is one of three earned value management (EVM) types of activities used to measure work performance.
211
What is Level of Effort (LOE)?
A support activity which is difficult to measure but is directly related to the project's objectives. It usually consists of short amounts of work which must be repeated periodically. Examples of such an activity may be project budget accounting, customer liaison, etc.
212
What is a Mandatory Dependency?
A relationship that is contractually required or inherent in the nature of the work. Example - Foundation needs to be laid before the building can be erected. It is also known as Hard Logic or Hard Dependency.
213
What is a Discretionary Dependency?
A relationship that is established based on knowledge of best practices within a particular application area or an aspect of the project where a specific sequence is desired, even though there may be other acceptable sequences. Example - The building construction should start after the rainy season is over. It is also known as Preferred Logic, Preferential Logic, or Soft Logic.
214
What is an External Dependency?
A relationship between project activities and non-project activities. Such a dependency is usually outside the project team's control. Example - The building construction can start only after the government permit is obtained.
215
What is Negative Float?
The amount of time by which the early date (start or finish) of an activity exceeds its late date.
216
What is Padding?
The amount of unreasonable extra time added to the estimate, just to feel confident with the estimate.
217
What is Standard Deviation?
A statistical concept that gives a measure of the "spread" of the values of a random variable around the mean of a distribution. It shows how much variation there is from the average or the mean value.
218
What is Resource Smoothing?
A technique aimed to "smoothen" or achieve a more uniform resource utilization over a period of time. For example, instead of using 7 resources in Month 1 and 3 resources in Month 2, it is better to use 5 resources each month as long as the activities stay within their free and total float.
219
What is the Learning Curve Theory, and how is it relevant to project management?
It says that the time required to perform a task decreases as the task is repeated, and the amount of improvement decreases as more units are produced. In project management, this theory is used for schedule and cost estimation.
220
What is an Internal Dependency?
A relationship between/among project activities. Such a dependency is usually within the project team's control. Example - Developers need to complete coding the application before testers can test it.
221
What is Parkinson's Law?
Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
222
What is Heuristic Estimation?
Heuristic estimation technique uses "Rule of Thumb" or certain generally acceptable rules for estimation. Heuristic estimates are derived based on experience (on past projects) and not from scientific rules or formulae. For example, a software development company may have learned from experience that testing usually takes about 20% of the time it takes for coding.
223
What is Control Threshold?
An agreed-upon amount of variation to be allowed before some action needs to be taken.
224
What are Indirect Costs?
Costs that cannot be directly attributed to a specific project, such as management costs and general administration costs.
225
What is Life Cycle Cost?
The cost of a product over its entire life (including cost of development, acquisition, operation, support and disposal), and not just the project cost.
226
What is a Definitive Estimate?
A detailed estimate developed from well defined information. It is in the range of -5% to +10%.
227
What is a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) estimate?
A cost estimate based on high level requirements and expert judgment.
228
What are Direct Costs?
Costs that can be directly attributed to a specific project.
229
What is Earned Schedule (ES)?
The duration from the beginning of the project to the date on which the PV should have been equal to the current value of EV. On the EVM chart, it is the date on which the horizontal line through the current value of EV intersects the PV curve.
230
What is Gold Plating?
Giving customer extras like extra functionality, high quality, better performance than what is part of the project requirements.
231
What is the Rule of Seven?
Seven consecutive data points fall on the same side of the mean (either above or below the mean) on a control chart.
232
What is a Metric?
A verifiable measure.
233
What is a Histogram?
A bar chart used to plot the frequency of occurrence of a particular problem or situation. It can show the number of defects per deliverable, a ranking of the cause of defects, the number of times each process is noncompliant, or other representations of project or product defects in graphical form.
234
What is Kaizen?
A Japanese term - Kai (take apart) and Zen (make good). It's process improvement technique.
235
What is JIT Manufacturing?
A process in which raw materials are delivered just in time for use, thus eliminating costs associated with inventory handling, maintenance and even inspection.
236
What is Total Quality Management (TQM)?
The process of ensuring that the end result will meet the quality expectations of the customer.
237
What are Internal Failures?
Failures found by the project (team).
238
What are External Failures?
Failures found by the customer.
239
What is Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)?
It is a holistic approach to equipment maintenance that strives to achieve perfect production with no breakdowns, slowdowns, defects or accidents. It emphasizes proactive and preventive maintenance to maximize the operational efficiency of equipment. It places a strong emphasis on empowering operators to help maintain their equipment.
240
What is Halo Effect?
Judging a person to be good or bad in a particular area, depending upon his/her performance in another area. For example, if Miriam is a good designer, she would make a good project manager too (which may not necessarily be the case).
241
What is Accountability?
It is the acceptance of success or failure.
242
What does Journey to Abilene mean?
Organizations frequently take actions in contradiction to the problem they are trying to solve, and as a result, compound their problem rather than solve it.
243
What is the Theory of Constraints (TOC)?
It is a methodology for identifying the most important limiting factor (i.e. constraint) that stands in the way of achieving a goal and then systematically improving that constraint until it is no longer the limiting factor. In manufacturing, the constraint is often referred to as a bottleneck.
244
What is Horizontal Communication?
Communication among peers.
245
What is Vertical Communication?
Communicating up and down the levels of the organization.
246
Who is a Negative Stakeholder?
A stakeholder whose interests are negatively impacted by the project, or who is not interested in the success of the project. Such stakeholders may work to make the project a failure.
247
What is Political Awareness?
The recognition of power relationships, both formal and informal, and also the willingness to operate within these structures.
248
What is Cultural Awareness?
An understanding of the differences between individuals, groups, and organizations and adapting the project's communication strategy in the context of these differences.
249
What is Project Reporting?
The act of collecting and distributing project information.
250
What is a Business Risk?
A risk that provides an opportunity of profit or loss. The risk may be a threat or an opportunity.
251
What are Management Reserves?
The time and cost reserves that account for "unknown-unknowns" or simply "unknowns".
252
What is a Contingency Plan?
A plan specifying the actions to be taken when a risk event (positive or negative) occurs.
253
What is a Fallback Plan?
A plan specifying the alternative set of actions to be taken if the primary plan is not effective in dealing with a risk event.
254
What is Risk Premium?
The extra return in excess of (over and above) the risk-free rate of return of an investment (example, a project). It's a compensation for the risk to the party (example, a contractor to whom the risk is transferred) that accepts the risk.
255
What is Risk Priority Number (RPN) methodology?
A technique for analyzing the risk associated with potential problems identified during Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). RPN is calculated by multiplying Severity (S) or Impact, Occurrence (O) or Probability, and Detection (D). RPN = S x O x D.
256
What are known unknowns?
Known unknowns are things we know that we don't know. These are the risks that are identified in risk management, but have no suitable response strategy. In other words, these are the residual risks on the project. Known unknowns are managed by using Contingency Reserves.
257
What are unknown unknowns?
Unknown unknowns are things we do not even know that we don't know. These are risks that are not even identified during risk management. Unknown unknowns are managed by using Management Reserves.
258
What is risk urgency?
The period of time within which a response to the risk is to be implemented in order to be effective.
259
What is risk proximity?
The period of time before the risk might have an impact on one or more project objectives.
260
What is risk dormancy?
The period of time that may elapse after a risk has occurred before its impact is discovered.
261
What is risk manageability?
The ease with which the risk owner (or owning organization) can manage the occurrence or impact of a risk.
262
What is risk controllability?
The degree to which the risk owner (or owning organization) is able to control the risk's outcome.
263
What is risk detectability?
The ease with which the results of the risk occurring, or being about to occur, can be detected and recognized.
264
What is risk connectivity?
The extent to which the risk is related to other individual project risks.
265
What is risk strategic impact?
The potential for the risk to have a positive or negative effect on the organization's strategic goals.
266
What is risk propinquity?
The degree to which a risk is perceived to matter by one or more stakeholders.
267
What is Variability Risk?
Uncertainty about some key characteristics of a planned event or activity or decision.
268
What is Ambiguity Risk?
Uncertainty arising from lack of knowledge or understanding of certain aspects of the project.
269
What is Overall Project Risk?
It is the effect of uncertainty on the project as a whole, arising from all sources of uncertainty including individual risks, representing the exposure of stakeholders to the implications of variations in project outcome, both positive and negative.
270
What is Ceiling Price?
The maximum price that a buyer is willing to pay. It includes Target Price plus buyer's share of the cost overrun.
271
What is Sharing Ratio?
The ratio that describes how the buyer and the seller share cost savings or cost overruns. It is usually expressed as X:Y, where X is the percentage share of the buyer, and Y is that of the seller.
272
What is Target Cost?
It is the "goal" set for the total cost of the project which the seller should aim to keep within. It does not include seller's profit.
273
What is Privity of Contract?
It's a legal term for the relationship between the parties involved in a contract. For example, in a project involving sub-contracts, there is no privity of contract between the prime buyer and the sub-contractors.
274
What does Fait Accompli mean?
Something that cannot be changed or negotiated. For example, we cannot negotiate on government regulations.
275
What is Force Majeure?
A provision in a contract that excuses the parties involved from any liability or contractual obligations because of acts of God, wars, terrorism, or other such events.
276
What is an Indemnification Clause?
A provision in a contract in which one party agrees to be financially responsible for specified types of damages, claims, or losses.
277
What is Material Breach?
A breach serious enough to destroy the value of the contract and give a basis for an action for breach of contract.
278
What are Liquidated Damages (LD)?
An agreed upon sum of money that the buyer will be entitled to in the event that the contractor fails to meet certain contractual obligations. These are established at the time of signing the contract and are a part of the contract.
279
What is Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)?
It includes processes and techniques to resolve disputes without resorting to litigation.
280
What is Target Fee?
Seller's Fee or Profit.
281
What is meant by Velocity?
A measure of a team's productivity rate at which the deliverables are produced, validated, and accepted within a predefined interval. Velocity is a capacity planning approach frequently used to forecast future project work.
282
What is a User Story?
It is one or more sentences in the everyday or business language of the end user or user of a system that captures what a user does or needs to do as part of his or her job function. It is commonly used in Agile-based software development projects to capture requirements.
283
What is Storyboarding?
A prototyping technique showing sequence or navigation through a series of images or illustrations.
284
What are Retrospective Reviews?
Scheduled reviews to record lessons learned.
285
What is an Iteration Burndown Chart?
A chart that tracks the work that remains to be completed in the iteration backlog.
286
What is a Pull System?
It is a lean manufacturing strategy used to reduce waste in the production process. It creates a workflow where work is pulled only if there is a demand for it.
287
What is meant by a generalized specialist?
An individual with deep knowledge in a particular specialization who has also learned to be productive in other team roles.
288
What is meant by Information Radiator?
A generic term for any of a number of handwritten, drawn, printed or electronic displays which a team places in a highly visible location, so that all team members as well as passers-by can see the latest information at a glance. Examples include task board, burndown chart, incident report, continuous integration status, impediments list, etc.
289
What is a risk-adjusted backlog?
A backlog that contains activities relating to managing risk in addition to the usual features associated with delivering value.
290
What is Co-creation?
It is the process of including stakeholders, who are most affected by the work or outcomes of the project, in the team as partners.
291
What is Empiricism?
The idea that the best way of planning is to do work and learn from it. It is a fundamental for Scrum and agile approaches.
292
What is Empirical Process Control?
A style of work used in agile that leverages the principles of inspection, adaptation, and transparency.
293
What is a Product Backlog?
An ordered list of user-centric requirements that a team maintains for a product.
294
Define Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
It is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.
295
Define Minimum Marketable Feature (MMF).
A small, self-contained feature that can be developed quickly and that delivers significant value to the user.
296
What is a Spike?
A time-boxed iteration to research or experiment.
297
What is meant by Last Responsible Moment (LRM)?
A strategy of not making a premature decision but instead delaying commitment and keeping important and irreversible decisions open until the cost of not making a decision becomes greater than the cost of making a decision.
298
What is a Value Stream?
An organizational construct that focuses on the flow of value to customers through the delivery of specific products or services.
299
What is Value Stream Mapping?
A lean enterprise technique used to document, analyze, and improve the flow of information or materials required to produce a product or service for a customer.
300
What is meant by T-shaped skills?
T-shaped skills mean deep skills in a preferred functional area, discipline, or specialty, and broad skills outside one's core area.
301
What is meant by I-shaped skills?
I-shaped skills mean deep skills in the core area of expertise, but lack of skills outside the core area.
302
What is a Kanban Board?
A tool to visually depict work at various stages of process.
303
Define Impediments.
Situations, conditions, and actions that slow down or hinder progress.
304
Define Obstacles.
Barriers that are movable, avoidable, or able to be overcome with some effort or strategy.
305
Define Blockers.
Events or conditions that cause stoppages in the work or any further advancement.
306
Define Vision.
A desired end state, often described as a set of desired objectives and outcomes.
307
What is an XP Metaphor?
An Extreme Programming (XP) technique to describe a common vision for how a program works.
308
What are Personas?
Fictitious characters used to represent the users of a future product.
309
What is Little's Law?
The more things that you work on at any given time, the longer it is going to take for each of those things to finish.
310
What is Ideal Time?
A unit for estimating product backlog items used on agile projects based on how long an item would take to complete if it were the only work being performed, there were no interruptions, and all resources necessary to complete the work were immediately available. It is also called Ideal Days or Ideal Hours.
311
What is Timeboxing?
The technique of using a fixed duration, short cycle time of development work.
312
What is Lean?
Lean (or Lean thinking) is used to describe the system known as the Toyota Way developed by Toyota. Lean is a broad system that applies to the entire enterprise, including product development, production, sales, service and HR.
313
What is Scrum?
A single-team process framework used to manage product development.
314
What is Osmotic Communication?
Absorbing information subconsciously by overhearing useful discussions of other colocated team members.
315
What is a Story Map?
A visual model of all the features and functionality desired for a given product, created to give the project team a holistic view of what they are building and why.
316
What is meant by Fail Fast in agile?
An agile practice of experimenting (iterating) freely and often in order to learn from the mistakes and achieve the desired outcomes quickly.
317
What is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI)?
A set metric used to evaluate a team's performance against the project vision and objectives.
318
What is a Fishbowl Window?
A long-lived video conferencing link between the various locations in which the team is dispersed. People start the link at the beginning of a workday, and close it at the end. In this way, people can see and engage spontaneously with each other, reducing the collaboration lag.
319
What is Remote Pairing?
A replacement for face-to-face pairing using virtual conferencing tools to share screens, including voice and video links.
320
What is meant by the phrase "Caves and Common" in agile?
It refers to the creation of two zones in the office area - common and social areas (called common) to amplify osmotic communication and quiet areas or private spaces (called caves) where individuals can work without being interrupted.
321
What is a Product Box Exercise?
A technique used to explain an overarching solution wherein stakeholders try to describe aspects of a solution in the same way a marketer might describe product features and benefits on a box (or product packaging).
322
What is the Smooth technique for conflict resolution?
A conflict resolution technique that emphasizes agreements rather than differences. It does not solve a problem, but merely brushes it under the carpet. It is also known as Accommodate technique.
323
What is the Compromise technique for conflict resolution?
A conflict resolution technique that involves finding a "common ground" that brings some degree of satisfaction to all the parties involved in the conflict. It results in a lose-lose situation.
324
What is the Collaborate technique for conflict resolution?
A conflict resolution technique that involves incorporating multiple viewpoints in order to come to a consensus.
325
What is the Force technique for conflict resolution?
A conflict resolution technique that pushes one particular viewpoint at the expense of others. It generates a win-lose situation.
326
What is Dysfunctional Conflict?
Conflict which negatively impacts the project objectives.
327
What is the Withdraw technique for conflict resolution?
A conflict resolution technique that involves retreating away from or avoiding a conflict. It does not solve the problem and just "postpones" it. It usually isn't the best technique for conflict resolution. It is also known as Avoid technique.
328
What is Backward Pass?
A Critical Path Method (CPM) technique to calculate the late finish dates and late start dates by working backwards through the schedule model from the project end date.
329
What is Critical Path Activity?
Any activity on a critical path in a project schedule.
330
Define Critical Path.
In a project schedule network diagram, it is the longest path and corresponds to the shortest duration to complete the project. Its duration determines the duration of the project.
331
What is Early Finish Date (EF)?
In the critical path method, the earliest possible date on which a schedule activity can finish without violating any schedule constraint.
332
What is Early Start Date (ES)?
In the critical path method, the earliest possible date on which a schedule activity can start without violating any schedule constraint.
333
What is Late Finish Date (LF)?
In the critical path method, the latest possible date that a schedule activity can complete without delaying the project or violating any schedule constraint.
334
What is Late Start Date (LS)?
In the critical path method, the latest possible date that a schedule activity can begin without delaying the project or violating any schedule constraint.
335
What is a Near-Critical Activity?
A schedule activity that has low total float.
336
What is Project Float?
The amount of time that a project can be delayed without violating the project deadline imposed by the customer, or the delivery date committed to the customer.
337
What is a Network Loop?
A schedule network path that passes the same node twice. Network loops cannot be analyzed using traditional schedule network analysis techniques such as the Critical Path Method.
338
What is Budget at Completion (BAC)?
The budget for all the work on the project. It is also the total planned value for the project.
339
What is Cost Performance Index (CPI)?
A measure of cost efficiency on a project. It is the ratio of earned value (EV) to actual cost (AC).
340
What is Cost Variance (CV)?
It is the amount of budget deficit or surplus at a given point in time, and is expressed as the difference between earned value (EV) and actual cost (AC).
341
What is a Schedule Performance Index (SPI)?
A measure of schedule efficiency expressed as the ratio of Earned Value (EV) to Planned Value (PV).
342
What is Schedule Variance (SV)?
A measure of schedule performance expressed as the difference between the Earned Value (EV) and the Planned Value (PV).
343
What is To-Complete-Performance-Index (TCPI)?
The cost performance that must be achieved on the remaining work to meet a BAC (or EAC) target. It is the ratio of "remaining work" to the "funds remaining".
344
What is the Fixed Formula Method of calculating earned value?
A specified percentage of budget value is assigned when a work package is started, and the remaining budget value percentage is assigned when the work package is complete.
345
What is the Weighted Milestone Method?
An earned value method that divides a work package into measurable segments, each ending with an observable milestone, and then assigns a weighted value to the achievement of each milestone.
346
What is Actual Cost (AC)?
The "actual" cost incurred for the work accomplished. It is also referred to as the actual cost of work performed (ACWP).
