Glossary 2 Flashcards
1
Q
What is Earned Value (EV)?
A
The estimated (monetary) value of the work accomplished expressed in terms of the budget authorized for that work. It is also referred to as the budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP).
2
Q
What is Planned Value (PV)?
A
The authorized budget assigned to scheduled work.
3
Q
What is a Control Account?
A
A management control point in the WBS where Earned Value measurements take place. It is also known as a Cost Account.
4
Q
Define Earned Value Management (EVM).
A
A project management methodology that integrates scope, schedule and cost to measure project performance and progress in an objective manner.
5
Q
What are Activity Attributes?
A
Additional details to describe an activity, such as activity codes, predecessor activities, successor activities, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, imposed dates, constraints, and assumptions.
6
Q
What is an Activity List?
A
A list of project 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.
7
Q
What is an Approved Change Request?
A
A change request that has been processed through the integrated change control process and approved.
8
Q
What is a Change Request?
A
A formal proposal to modify any document, deliverable, or baseline. It may include corrective actions, preventive actions, defect repairs, and updates to project documentation and plans.
9
Q
What is a Communications Management Plan?
A
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.
10
Q
Define Contract.
A
A mutually binding agreement that obligates the seller to provide the specified product or service or result and obligates the buyer to pay for it.
11
Q
What is a Cost Management Plan?
A
A component of a project or program management plan that describes how costs will be planned, structured, and controlled.
12
Q
What is a Cost Baseline?
A
The approved time-phased budget of the project (excluding any management reserves) that is used to compare actual costs to planned costs in order to determine variance and need for preventive or corrective action.
13
Q
What is a Deliverable?
A
Any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that is required to be produced to complete a process, phase, or project.
14
Q
What is an Estimate?
A
A quantitative assessment of the likely amount or outcome of a variable, such as project costs, resources, effort, or durations. It should always include some indication of accuracy (e.g., ± x percent).
15
Q
What is Estimate at Completion (EAC)?
A
The expected total cost of completing all the work on a project expressed as the sum of the actual cost to date and the estimate to complete.
16
Q
What is Estimate to Complete (ETC)?
A
The expected cost to complete all the “remaining work” on a project.
17
Q
What is a Resource Management Plan?
A
A component of the project management plan that describes how project resources are acquired, allocated, monitored, and controlled.
18
Q
What is an Input?
A
Any item, whether internal or external to the project, which is required by a process before that process proceeds. May be an output from a predecessor process.
19
Q
What are Lessons Learned?
A
The knowledge gained during a project which shows how project events were addressed or should be addressed in the future with the purpose of improving future performance. They can be identified at any point during the project.
20
Q
What is an Output?
A
A product, result, or service generated by a process.
21
Q
What are Work Performance Reports?
A
The physical or electronic representation of work performance information compiled in project documents, intended to generate decisions, actions, or awareness.
22
Q
What are Procurement Documents?
A
The documents utilized in bid and proposal activities, including Invitation for Bid, Invitation for Negotiations, Request for Information, Request for Quotation, Request for Proposal and seller’s responses.
23
Q
What is a Procurement Management Plan?
A
A component of the project or program management plan that describes how a project team will acquire goods and services from outside of the performing organization.
24
Q
What is a Project Calendar?
A
A calendar of working and non-working days for a project. It typically defines holidays, weekends, and shift hours.
25
What is a Project Charter?
A document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the project. It outlines the project objectives, identifies the main stakeholders, and defines the authority of the project manager.
26
What is a Project Management Plan?
The document that describes how the project will be executed, monitored and controlled, and closed.
27
What is a Project Organization Chart?
A document that graphically depicts the project team members and their interrelationships for a specific project.
28
What is a Project Schedule?
An output of a schedule model that presents linked activities with planned dates, durations, milestones, and resources.
29
What is a Project Schedule Network Diagram?
A graphical representation of the logical relationships among the project schedule activities. Always drawn from left to right to reflect project work chronology.
30
What is a Project Scope Statement?
The description of the project scope, including major deliverables, and exclusions. It provides a basis for making future project decisions and provides a common understanding of project scope among the stakeholders.
31
What is a Quality Management Plan?
A component of the project or program management plan that describes how applicable policies, procedures, and guidelines will be implemented to achieve the quality objectives.
32
What is a Requested Change?
A formally documented change request that is submitted for approval to the integrated change control process.
33
What is a Risk Management Plan?
A component of the project, program, or portfolio management plan that describes how risk management activities will be structured and performed.
34
What is a Risk Register?
A repository in which outputs of risk management processes are recorded. It typically includes the list of identified risks along with their description, category, probability, impact, planned responses, owners and status.
35
What is a Schedule Baseline?
The approved version of a schedule model that can be changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results.
36
What is a 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.
37
What is a 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.
38
What is a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)?
A deliverable-oriented hierarchical breakdown of all the work that needs to be done in order to achieve the project objectives.
39
What is a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Dictionary?
A document that provides additional details on each element of the WBS, such as a unique ID for each element, description of the work to be done, deliverables, assumptions, milestones, etc.
40
What is Work Performance Information?
The performance data collected from controlling processes, analyzed in comparison with project management plan components, project documents, and other work performance information.
41
What are Accepted Deliverables?
The deliverables that meet the acceptance criteria and have been formally signed off by the customer or sponsor through the Validate Scope process. These deliverables may be reviewed by the customer before giving a final sign-off on the entire project.
42
Define Acquisition.
Obtaining human and material resources necessary to perform project activities.
43
What is Activity Duration Estimate?
A quantitative assessment of the likely amount of time required to complete an activity.
44
What are Resource Requirements?
The types and quantities of resources required for each activity in a work package.
45
What is an Agreement?
Any document or communication that defines the initial intentions of a project. This can take the form of a contract, memorandum of understanding (MOU), letters of agreement, verbal agreements, email, etc.
46
What is Basis of Estimates?
Supporting documentation outlining the details used in establishing project estimates such as assumptions, constraints, level of detail, ranges, and confidence levels.
47
What is a Business Case?
A documented economic feasibility study used to establish validity of the benefits of a selected component lacking sufficient definition, and that is used as a basis for the authorization of further project management activities. In simple terms, it's the justification for doing a project.
48
What are Closed Procurements?
Project contracts or other procurement agreements that have been formally acknowledged by the proper authorizing agent as being finalized and signed off.
49
What are Cost Forecasts?
An estimate or prediction of project's future cost performance based on information and knowledge available at the time of the forecast. These are typically expressed as estimate to complete (ETC), estimate at completion (EAC), budget at completion (BAC), and to-complete performance index (TCPI).
50
What is a Milestone List?
A list identifying all project milestones and normally indicates whether the milestone is mandatory or optional.
51
What are Quality Control Measurements?
The documented results of Control Quality activities.
52
What are Quality Metrics?
A description of a project or product attribute and how to measure it.
53
What is Requirements Documentation?
A description of how individual requirements meet the business need for the project.
54
What is Schedule Data?
The collection of information for describing and controlling the schedule.
55
What are Schedule Forecasts?
An estimate or prediction of a project's future schedule performance based on information and knowledge available at the time of the forecast. These are typically expressed in terms of schedule variance (SV) and schedule performance index (SPI).
56
What is meant by Selected Sellers?
The sellers who have been selected to provide a contracted set of services or products.
57
What are Seller Proposals?
Formal responses from sellers to a request for proposal or other procurement document specifying the price, commercial terms of sale, and technical specifications or capabilities the seller will do for the requesting organization that, if accepted, would bind the seller to perform the resulting agreement.
58
What are Source Selection Criteria?
A set of attributes desired by the buyer which a seller is required to meet or exceed to be selected for a contract.
59
What are Team Performance Assessments?
Assessments of the entire project team's performance.
60
What is Work Performance Data?
The raw observations and measurements made while activities are being performed. It includes % work complete, technical performance measures, activity start and finish dates, actual costs and durations, no. of defects, etc. It is collected as part of the Direct and Manage Project Work process, and is input to most M&C processes. It is combined with forecasts to generate Work Performance Reports.
61
What is an Assumption Log?
A project document used to record all assumptions and constraints throughout the project life cycle.
62
What is a Benefits Management Plan?
The documented explanation defining the processes for creating, maximizing, and sustaining the benefits provided by a project or program.
63
What are Bid Documents?
All documents used to solicit information, quotations, or proposals from prospective sellers.
64
What is a Change Management Plan?
A component of the project management plan that establishes the change control board, documents the extent of its authority, and describes how the change control system will be implemented.
65
What is a Configuration Management Plan?
A component of the project management plan that describes how to identify and account for project artifacts under configuration control, and how to record and report changes to them.
66
What is a Lessons Learned Register?
A project document used to record knowledge gained during a project so that it can be used in the current project and entered into the lessons learned repository for future projects.
67
What are Test and Evaluation Documents?
Project documents that describe the activities used to determine if the product meets the quality objectives stated in the quality management plan.
68
What is a Requirements Management Plan?
A component of the Project Management Plan that describes how project and product requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed throughout the project.
69
What are Project Funding Requirements?
Requirements that specify when funds need to be pumped into the project. They are derived from the cost baseline. Usually, funds are supplied in lump sum at specific times during the project.
70
What is a Change Log?
A document used for recording all the changes that occur during a project and their current status. It also includes the dates when changes were made and the corresponding impact to schedule, cost and risk.
71
What is an Issue Log?
A document used for recording and monitoring the resolution of issues.
72
What is a Stakeholder Register?
A document that contains the name and contact information of all the stakeholders, their assessment (major requirements, expectations, influence), and their classification (internal/external and supporter/neutral/resistor).
73
What is a Procurement Statement of Work?
A description of the procurement item in sufficient detail to allow prospective sellers to determine if they are capable of providing the products, services, or results. It includes specifications, quantity desired, quality levels, performance data, period of performance, work location, and other requirements.
74
What are Organizational Process Assets?
Plans, processes, policies, procedures, and knowledge bases that are specific to and used by the performing organization.
75
What is Contingency Reserve?
Time or money allocated in the schedule or cost baseline for known risks (or "known-unknowns") with active response strategies. It is also known as Contingency Allowance.
76
What is Leadership?
Leadership is the ability to lead a team and inspire them to do their jobs well.
77
What does the term Laissez-faire mean?
It literally means "let do", but broadly implies "let it be", or "leave it alone". In the context of project management, it is one of the leadership styles.
78
What are Operations?
Ongoing activities that produce repetitive outputs (e.g. manufacturing, accounting, etc.).
79
What is the PMBOK® Guide?
The standard for managing most projects most of the time across many types of industries. It describes the project management processes used to manage a project toward a more successful outcome.
80
What is Organizational Project Management (OPM)?
It is a framework in which portfolio, program, and project management are integrated with organizational enablers in order to achieve strategic objectives.
81
Define Methodology.
A system of practices, techniques, procedures, and rules used by those who work in a discipline.
82
What is an Objective?
Something toward which work is to be directed, a strategic position to be attained, a purpose to be achieved, a result to be obtained, a product to be produced, or a service to be performed.
83
Define Portfolio.
Projects, programs, subsidiary portfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives.
84
Define Practice.
A specific type of professional or management activity that contributes to the execution of a process and that may employ one or more techniques and tools.
85
Define Product.
An artifact that is produced, is quantifiable, and can be either an end item in itself or a component item. It is also described as material and goods.
86
What is a Product Life Cycle?
A series of phases, from concept to end-of-life, that a product passes through. A typical product life cycle may include the following phases: concept, definition, production, operation, and obsolescence (retirement or disposal).
87
Define Program.
A group of related projects, subprograms, and program activities managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually.
88
What is Program Management?
The application of knowledge, skills, and principles to a program to achieve the program objectives and obtain benefits and control not available by managing program components individually.
89
Define Project.
A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.
90
What is a Project Life Cycle?
A series of phases from concept to closure through which a project passes through. For example, phases for an IT project could be requirements, design, development, testing and implementation.
91
What is Project Management Body of Knowledge?
A term that describes the knowledge within the profession of project management. The project management body of knowledge includes proven traditional practices that are widely applied as well as innovative practices that are emerging in the profession.
92
What is a Project Management Office (PMO)?
A management structure that standardizes the project-related governance processes and facilitates the sharing of resources, methodologies, tools, and techniques.
93
Who is a Project Manager (PM)?
The person assigned by the performing organization to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives.
94
Who is a Sponsor?
A person or group who provides resources and support for the project, program, or portfolio and is accountable for enabling success.
95
What is an Adaptive Life Cycle?
A project life cycle that is iterative or incremental. Its iterations are very rapid (usually 2-4 weeks in length) and are fixed in time and resources.
96
What is Business Value?
The tangible and intangible benefits from an investment.
97
What is an Incremental Life Cycle?
An adaptive project life cycle in which the deliverable is produced through a series of iterations that successively add functionality within a predetermined time frame. The deliverable contains the necessary and sufficient capability to be considered complete only after the final iteration.
98
What is an Iterative Life Cycle?
A project life cycle where the project scope is generally determined early in the project life cycle, but time and cost estimates are routinely modified as the project team's understanding of the product increases. The product is developed through a series of repeated cycles, while increments successively add to the functionality of the product.
99
What is a Life Cycle?
It's a general term for Project Life Cycle.
100
What is a Predictive Life Cycle?
A form of project life cycle in which the project scope, time, and cost are determined in the early phases of the life cycle.
101
What is a Sponsoring Organization?
The entity responsible for providing the project's sponsor and a conduit for project funding or other project resources.
102
What are Enterprise Environmental Factors?
The external or internal factors, not under the immediate control of the team, that influence, constrain, or direct the project, program, or portfolio. Examples include organizational culture, industry standards, existing infrastructure and human capital, marketplace conditions.
103
What is Progressive Elaboration?
Continuously improving and detailing a plan as more detailed and specific information is available, and thereby producing more accurate and complete plans.
104
What is McGregor's Theory X?
A theory that assumes that the average worker is inherently lazy, avoids work and responsibility, and requires supervision.
105
What is McGregor's Theory Y?
A theory that assumes that the average worker is willing to get the job done without constant supervision and seeks opportunity for personal improvement and self-respect.
106
What is McClelland's Theory of Needs?
A theory that says that an individual's needs are acquired over time and are shaped by his/her life experiences. Most of the needs can be classified into 3 categories - Achievement, Affiliation and Power. It is also known as Acquired Needs Theory, Three Needs Theory, or Learned Needs Theory.
107
What is the Expectancy Theory?
A theory that says that individuals have different sets of goals and can be motivated if they have certain expectations. It explains the processes that an individual undergoes to make choices.
108
What is the definition of Respect, in the context of ethics and professional conduct?
Our duty to show a high regard for ourselves, others, and the resources entrusted to us.
109
What is the definition of Fairness, in the context of ethics and professional conduct?
Our duty to make decisions and act impartially and objectively.
110
What is the definition of Honesty, in the context of ethics and professional conduct?
Our duty to understand the truth and act in a truthful manner both in our communications and in our conduct.
111
What is Point of Total Assumption (PTA)?
The total cost on a Fixed Price Incentive Fee (FPIF) contract, above which the seller bears all cost overruns.
112
Define System.
A collection of various components that together can produce results not obtainable by the individual components alone.
113
Define Governance.
The framework within which authority is exercised in organizations.
114
Who is a Functional Manager?
Someone with management authority over an organizational unit (such as manufacturing, finance, IT, etc.) within a functional organization. The manager of any group that actually makes a product or performs a service. Sometimes called a Line Manager.
115
What is a Functional Organization?
An organizational structure in which staff is grouped by areas of specialization (such as engineering, marketing, IT, production, finance, etc.) and the project manager has limited authority to assign work and apply resources.
116
What is Historical Information?
Documents and data on prior projects including project files, records, correspondence, closed contracts, and closed projects.
117
What is a Lessons Learned Repository?
A store of historical information about lessons learned from previous projects, such as issues faced, things done right, things gone wrong, decisions made, etc. This is an integral part of the process of continuous improvement.
118
What is a Matrix Organization?
Any organizational structure, which is a hybrid of functional organization and projectized organization, where resources are controlled functionally by their functional manager, and for the project requirements by the project manager.
119
What is a Performing Organization?
An enterprise whose personnel are most directly involved in doing the work of the project or program.
120
What is a Projectized (or project-oriented) Organization?
An organizational hierarchy where resources are allocated on a dedicated basis to a project and are controlled by the project manager.
121
What are Regulations?
Requirements imposed by a governmental body.
122
Define Seller.
A vendor, supplier, or contractor that provides products, services, or results to an organization.
123
What is Project Governance?
The framework, functions, and processes that guide project management activities in order to create a unique product, service, or result to meet organizational, strategic, and operational goals.
124
What is a Weak Matrix Organization?
An organizational hierarchy that maintains many of the characteristics of a functional organization, and the project manager role is more of a coordinator or expediter than that of a true project manager.
125
What is a Strong Matrix Organization?
An organizational hierarchy that has many of the characteristics of the projectized organization, and can have full-time project managers with considerable authority and full-time project administrative staff.
126
What is a Balanced Matrix Organization?
An organizational hierarchy that recognizes the need for a project manager, but does not provide the project manager with the full authority over the project and project funding.
127
What is a Composite Organization?
An organizational hierarchy which may involve all structures (such as functional, matrix or projectized) at various levels.
128
What is the Acquire Resources process?
The process of obtaining team members, facilities, equipment, materials, supplies, and other resources necessary to complete project work.
129
What is the Control Procurements process?
The process of managing procurement relationships, monitoring contract performance, making changes and corrections as appropriate, and closing out contracts.
130
What is the Close Project or Phase process?
The process of finalizing all activities for the project, phase, or contract.
131
What is the Closing Process Group?
The process(es) performed to formally complete or close a project, phase, or contract.
132
What is the Collect Requirements process?
The process of determining, documenting, and managing stakeholder needs and requirements to meet project objectives.
133
What is the Conduct Procurements process?
The process of obtaining seller responses, selecting a seller, and awarding a contract.
134
What is the Control Costs process?
The process of monitoring the status of the project to update the project costs and manage changes to the cost baseline.
135
What is the Control Schedule process?
The process of monitoring the status of the project to update the project schedule and manage changes to the schedule baseline.
136
What is the Control Scope process?
The process of monitoring the status of project and product scope, and managing changes to the scope baseline.
137
What is the Create WBS process?
The process of subdividing project deliverables and project work into smaller, more manageable components.
138
What is the Define Activities process?
The process of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables.
139
What is the Define Scope process?
The process of developing a detailed description of the project and product.
140
What is the Determine Budget process?
The process of aggregating the estimated costs of individual activities or work packages to establish an authorized cost baseline.
141
What is the Plan Resource Management process?
The process of defining how to estimate, acquire, manage, and utilize physical and team resources.
142
What is the Develop Project Charter process?
The process of developing a document that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.
143
What is the Develop Project Management Plan process?
The process of defining, preparing, and coordinating all plan components and consolidating them into an integrated project management plan.
144
What is the Develop Team process?
The process of improving competences, team member interaction, and overall team environment to enhance project performance.
145
What is the Develop Schedule process?
The process of analyzing activity sequences, durations, resource requirements, and schedule constraints to create the project schedule model for project execution and monitoring and controlling.
146
What is the Direct and Manage Project Work process?
The process of leading and performing the work defined in the Project Management Plan and implementing approved changes to achieve the project's objectives.
147
What is the Manage Communications process?
The process of ensuring timely and appropriate collection, creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, management, monitoring, and the ultimate disposition of project information.
148
What is the Estimate Activity Durations process?
The process of estimating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with the estimated resources.
149
What is the Estimate Activity Resources process?
The process of estimating team resources and the type and quantities of material, equipment, and supplies necessary to perform project work.
150
What is the Estimate Costs process?
The process of developing an approximation of the monetary resources needed to complete project work.
151
What is the Executing Process Group?
The processes performed to complete the work defined in the project management plan to satisfy the project requirements.
152
What is the Identify Risks process?
The process of identifying individual risks as well as sources of overall risk and documenting their characteristics.
153
What is the Identify Stakeholders process?
The process of identifying project stakeholders regularly and analyzing and documenting relevant information regarding their interests, involvement, interdependencies, influence, and potential impact on project success.
154
What is the Initiating Process Group?
The processes performed to define a new project or a new phase of an existing project by obtaining authorization to start the project or phase.
155
What is the Manage Team process?
The process of tracking team member performance, providing feedback, resolving issues, and managing changes to optimize project performance.
156
What is the Manage Stakeholder Engagement process?
The process of communicating and working with stakeholders to meet their needs and expectations, address issues, and foster appropriate stakeholder involvement.
157
What is the Monitor and Control Project Work process?
The process of tracking, reviewing, and reporting overall progress to meet the performance objectives defined in the project management plan.
158
What is the Monitor Risks process?
The process of monitoring the implementation of agreed-upon risk response plans, tracking identified risks, identifying and analyzing new risks, and evaluating risk process effectiveness throughout the project.
159
What is the Monitoring and Controlling Process Group?
The processes that track, review, and regulate the progress and performance of the project against the Project Management Plan; identify any areas in which changes to the plan are required; and initiate the corresponding changes.
160
What is the Perform Integrated Change Control process?
The process of reviewing all change requests, approving changes and managing changes to deliverables, organizational process assets, project documents, and the Project Management Plan, and communicating the decisions.
161
What is the Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis process?
The process of prioritizing individual project risks for further analysis or action by assessing their probability of occurrence and impact as well as other characteristics.
162
What is the Manage Quality process?
The process of translating the quality management plan into executable quality activities that incorporate the organization's quality policies into the project.
163
What is the Control Quality process?
The process of monitoring and recording results of executing the quality management activities to assess performance and ensure the project outputs are complete, correct, and meet customer expectations.
164
What is the Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis process?
The process of numerically analyzing the combined effect of identified individual project risks and other sources of uncertainty on overall project objectives.
165
What is the Plan Communications Management process?
The process of developing an appropriate approach and plan for project communication activities based on the information needs of each stakeholder or group, available organizational assets, and the needs of the project.
166
What is the Plan Procurement Management process?
The process of documenting project procurement decisions, specifying the approach, and identifying potential sellers.
167
What is the Plan Quality Management process?
The process of identifying quality requirements and/or standards for the project and its deliverables, and documenting how the project will demonstrate compliance with quality requirements and/or standards.
168
What is the Plan Risk Management process?
The process of defining how to conduct risk management activities for a project.
169
What is the Plan Risk Responses process?
The process of developing options, selecting strategies, and agreeing on actions to address overall project risk exposure, as well as to treat individual project risks.
170
What is the Planning Process Group?
The processes required to establish the scope of the project, refine the objectives, and define the course of action required to attain the objectives that the project was undertaken to achieve.
171
What is a Project Management Knowledge Area?
A grouping of project management processes by areas of specialization.
172
What is a Project Management Process Group?
A logical grouping of project management processes. For example, all planning processes are grouped under the Planning Process Group. Project Management Process Groups are not project phases.
173
What is the Sequence Activities process?
The process of identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities.
174
What is the Validate Scope process?
The process of formalizing acceptance of the completed project deliverables.
175
What is the Monitor Communications process?
The process of ensuring that the information needs of the project and its stakeholders are met.
176
What is the Monitor Stakeholder Engagement process?
The process of monitoring project stakeholder relationships, and tailoring strategies for engaging stakeholders through the modification of engagement strategies and plans.
177
What is the Plan Cost Management process?
The process of defining how the project costs will be estimated, budgeted, managed, monitored, and controlled.
178
What is the Plan Schedule Management process?
The process of establishing the policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, developing, managing, executing, and controlling the project schedule.
179
What is the Plan Scope Management process?
The process of creating a scope management plan that documents how the project and product scope will be defined, validated, and controlled.
180
What is the Plan Stakeholder Engagement process?
The process of developing approaches to involve project stakeholders, based on their needs, expectations, interests, and potential impact on the project.
181
What is the Control Resources process?
The process of ensuring that the physical resources assigned and allocated to the project are available as planned, as well as monitoring the planned versus actual utilization of resources and performing corrective action as necessary.
182
What is the Implement Risk Responses process?
The process of implementing agreed-upon risk response plans.
183
What is the Manage Project Knowledge process?
The process of using existing knowledge and creating new knowledge to achieve the project's objectives and contribute to organizational learning.
184
What is the definition of a Process?
A systematic series of activities directed towards causing an end result such that one or more inputs will be acted upon to create one or more outputs.
185
What is Present Value (PV)?
The current value of future cash flow, discounted to reflect the time value of money and other factors such as investment risk.
186
What is Return on Investment (ROI)?
It is the ratio of the profit (or loss) to the amount invested in the project.
187
What is Straight-line depreciation?
A depreciation method that assumes the same amount of depreciation for each year of a product's life.
188
What is Double Declining Balance depreciation?
A depreciation method in which the depreciation rate is 200% (or double) that of the rate calculated with the Straight-Line depreciation.
189
What is a Murder Board?
A group of people who try to find reasons to not pursue a project.
190
What is the Law of Diminishing Returns?
The theory that after a certain point, the increase in input of a process does not lead to a proportional increase in the output.
191
What is Working Capital?
Current Assets minus Current Liabilities.
192
What is Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) method of project selection?
The method of discounting future cash flows at an interest rate that reflects time value of money and a risk premium. DCF is the amount that someone is willing to pay today in anticipation of future cash flows (returns).
193
What is Opportunity Cost?
Benefit (monetary or otherwise) foregone by selecting one project over another.
194
What is Future Value (FV)?
Value of an asset at a specific date in future.
195
What is Net Present Value (NPV)?
Present value of future cash inflows minus present value of future cash outflows.
196
Define Reward Power.
The power of directly or indirectly rewarding the team member. Rewards may be in the form of salary, promotion, bonus or better work assignments.
197
Define Expert Power.
The power derived from special knowledge or expertise.
198
Define Referent Power.
The power derived from personality traits or charisma. It is also known as Charisma Power.
199
What is servant leadership?
Servant leadership is the practice of leading through service to the team, by focusing on understanding and addressing the needs and development of team members in order to enable the highest possible team performance.
200
Define Legitimate Power.
The formal authority or power derived from the position. Team members perceive the project manager as being officially empowered to issue orders. It is also known as Formal Power.
201
Define Coercive Power.
The power to invoke discipline or negative consequences. It may be in the form of suspension, reprimand, unpleasant assignments, etc. It is also known as Punitive or Penalty Power.
202
What is a Buffer?
A reserve in the Project Management Plan to account for cost and/or schedule risk. It is also known as Reserve.
203
What is a Common Cause?
A source of variation that is inherent in the system and predictable. On a control chart, it appears as random data points within the control limits. It is also referred to as random cause.
204
What is Data Date?
It is the "as of" date or the date on which reporting is done. It is also known as As-of-Date or Status Date.
205
What is a Dependency?
A logical relationship 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. It is also known as Logical Relationship.
206
What is Float?
The difference between the time available for performing an activity and the time required to complete it. It is also known as Slack.
207
What is a Precedence Relationship?
The term used for a logical relationship in the Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM). Also referred to as logical relationship, and dependency.
208
What is a Slack?
Another name for float.
209
What is a Special Cause?
A source of variation that is not inherent in the system, and is unpredictable and intermittent. It can be assigned to a defect in the system. On a control chart, it appears as data points outside the control limits or non-random points within the control limits. It is also referred to as Assignable Cause.
210
What is a Summary Activity?
A group of related activities, which are displayed and reported as a single activity, between two milestones or in a given time period. Mainly used for management communication and better control. It is also known as Hammock Activity.
211
What is Value Engineering?
A product analysis technique to perform the same work at lesser cost. It is also known as Value Analysis or Value Management.
212
What is a Cause and Effect Diagram?
A decomposition technique that helps trace an undesirable effect back to its root cause. It is also known as Fishbone Diagram or Ishikawa Diagram.
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What is Preferential Logic also known as?
Discretionary Dependency.
214
What is Preferred Logic also known as?
Discretionary Dependency.
215
What is the Deming Cycle?
The checklist of the four stages which you must go through to get from "problem-faced" to "problem solved". The four stages are Plan-Do-Check-Act. It is also known as Shewhart Cycle. It is used for continuous improvement.
216
What is a Collective Bargaining Agreement?
A written, legally enforceable contract for a specified period (usually 1 year), between organization and its employees represented by an independent trade union. It sets down and defines conditions of employment (wages, working hours, conditions, etc.) and procedures for dispute resolution. It is also called labor agreement, union agreement, or union contract.
217
What is a Pure Risk?
A risk that only provides a chance for a loss. It is also known as an Insurable risk.
218
What is a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA)?
A legal agreement between parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with each other for certain purposes, but wish to restrict access to by third parties. It is also known as Confidentiality Agreement.
219
What is Analogous Estimating?
An estimating technique that uses duration or cost information from a previous, similar activity as the basis for estimating a future activity.
220
What is Bottom-up Estimating?
A method of estimating project duration or cost by aggregating the estimates of the lower-level components of the work breakdown structure (WBS) into an overall estimate for the entire activity or work package.
221
What is Brainstorming?
A group creativity technique by which a group tries to find a solution for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its members. It is particularly useful for identifying risks.
222
What is a Change Control System?
A set of procedures for managing and controlling changes to the project documents and deliverables. It's a subset of the Configuration Management System.
223
What is Code of Accounts?
Any numbering system used to uniquely identify each component of the WBS.
224
What is Colocation?
An organizational placement strategy where the project team members are physically located close to one another in order to improve communication, working relationships, and productivity.
225
What is a Configuration Management System?
A collection of procedures used to track project artifacts and monitor and control changes to these artifacts. It is a subsystem of the overall project management system.
226
What is a Control Chart?
A graphical display of the results of a process over time and against established control limits. Control Charts are used to determine whether a process is "in control" or in need of adjustment.
227
What is Cost of Quality (CoQ)?
The total cost of all quality related efforts throughout the product life cycle. It includes prevention and appraisal costs (cost of conformance), and failure costs (cost of non-conformance).
228
What is Crashing?
A schedule compression technique that involves determining an approach that brings maximum reduction in project duration with least incremental cost and risk, and without changing the scope.
229
What is Decision Tree Analysis?
A technique that employs decision trees to compare the outcomes of different scenarios in terms of their expected monetary values, in order to support decisions. It incorporates the probability and the cost or reward of each scenario to calculate the expected monetary value of the scenario.
230
What is Decomposition?
A technique for breaking down major project scope and deliverables into smaller, more manageable components.
231
What is Expert Judgment?
Judgment provided based upon expertise in an application area, knowledge area, discipline, industry, etc. as appropriate for the activity being performed. Such expertise may be provided by any group or person with specialized education, knowledge, skill, experience, or training.
232
What is Fast Tracking?
A schedule compression technique that reduces the project duration by performing critical path activities in parallel that were originally planned to be performed in sequence.
233
What is a Flowchart?
A diagrammatic representation of the inputs, process actions, and outputs of one or more processes within a system.
234
What is an Influence Diagram?
A graphical representation of a decision problem that shows decisions, uncertainties, and objectives, and how they influence each other.
235
Define Inspection.
Examination of a work product to determine whether it conforms to documented standards.
236
What is a Lag?
A time delay between the start or finish of an activity and the start and finish of its successors in a schedule network.
237
What is a Lead?
The time period by which a successor activity is accelerated (or can start earlier) with respect to the predecessor on a schedule network.
238
What is a Milestone Schedule?
A project schedule in summary form that identifies major milestones.
239
What is Monte Carlo Simulation?
A process to generate a probability distribution for the overall project duration or cost by running multiple trial runs, called simulations, using input values selected at random from probability distributions of individual activity durations or costs.
240
What is an Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS)?
A hierarchical structure of the organization that relates each project activity to the organizational unit responsible for it.
241
What is Parametric Estimating?
An estimating technique that uses a statistical relationship established based on historical data, to calculate an estimate for activity parameters, such as scope, cost, budget, and duration.
242
What is Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)?
A technique used for constructing 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. It is also known as Activity-On-Node (AON) method.
243
What is a Probability and Impact Matrix?
A common way to categorize risks as low, moderate, or high by combining the two dimensions of a risk: its probability of occurrence and its impact on objectives, if it occurs.
244
What is a Project Management System?
The aggregation of the processes, tools, techniques, methodologies, resources, and procedures to manage a project.
245
What is Reserve Analysis?
An analytical technique to establish a contingency (or buffer) for project duration or budget to mitigate schedule or cost risks.
246
What is Resource Leveling?
A resource optimization technique to produce a resource-limited schedule. It alters the project schedule to reduce the extreme variations in resource usage, and achieve a more stable usage over the course of a project.
247
What is a Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)?
A grid that shows the project resources assigned to each work package.
248
What is Risk Acceptance?
A risk response strategy whereby the project team decides to acknowledge the risk and not take any action unless the risk occurs.
249
What is Risk Avoidance?
A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to eliminate the threat or protect the project from its impact.
250
What is a Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS)?
A hierarchical organization of project risks by risk categories or sources of risks.
251
What is Risk Mitigation?
A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to reduce the probability of occurrence or impact of a threat.
252
What is 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.
253
What is Rolling Wave Planning?
A form of progressive elaboration planning where the work to be accomplished in the near term is planned in detail, while the work far in the future is planned at a relatively higher level.
254
What is Root Cause Analysis?
An analytical technique used to determine the basic underlying reason for a variance, defect or risk.
255
What is Schedule Compression?
A technique used to shorten the schedule duration without reducing the project scope. Examples include Crashing and Fast Tracking.
256
What is a Schedule Model?
A representation of the plan for executing the project's activities including durations, dependencies, and other planning information, used to produce a project schedule along with other scheduling artifacts.
257
What is Schedule Network Analysis?
A technique to identify early and late start dates, as well as early and late finish dates, for the uncompleted portions of project activities. Examples include Critical Path Method, Critical Chain Method, What-If Analysis, and Resource Leveling.
258
What is a Technical Performance Analysis?
Technical performance analysis compares technical accomplishments against the targets during project execution. Technical performance measures such as system response time, data retrieval time, height, weight, number of errors per thousand transactions, etc. are used for the comparison.
259
What is a Technique?
A procedure employed by a human to perform an activity to produce a deliverable. Technique may employ one or more tools.
260
What is Three-Point Estimating?
An estimating technique that uses three cost or duration estimates (optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic) to account for risk or uncertainty in an activity.
261
What is a Time-Scaled Schedule Network Diagram?
A project schedule network diagram in the form of a bar chart where bars represent activities, and the length of the bars represent activity durations.
262
What is a Tool?
Something tangible (e.g. scheduling software, simulation program, template, etc.) that is used to perform an activity to produce a deliverable.
263
What is Trend Analysis?
A technique used for identifying patterns (or trends) in historical information, in order to predict future events.
264
What is Variance Analysis?
A project management technique to assess the magnitude of variance (in scope, time, cost, quality, etc.) from the baseline and determine whether corrective or preventive action is required.
265
What is a Work Authorization System?
A system used by project managers to authorize the start of work packages or activities. It is subsystem of the project management system.
266
What is Networking?
Establishing connections and relationships with other people from the same or other organizations.
267
What is Adjusting Leads and Lags?
A technique used to find ways to bring project activities that are behind into alignment with plan during project execution.
268
What are Analytical Techniques?
Various techniques used to evaluate, analyze, or forecast potential outcomes based on possible variations of project or environmental variables and their relationships with other variables. Examples includes Root Cause Analysis, Regression Analysis, and Reserve Analysis.
269
What is Approved Change Requests Review?
A review of the change requests to verify that these were implemented as approved.
270
What is a Bar Chart?
A graphic display of schedule-related information. Schedule activities or work breakdown structure components are listed down the left side of the chart, dates are shown across the top, and activity durations are shown as date-placed horizontal bars.
271
What are Change Control Tools?
Manual or automated tools to assist with change and/or configuration management. At a minimum, the tools should support the activities of the Change Control Board (CCB).
272
What is Checklist Analysis?
A technique for systematically reviewing materials using a list for accuracy and completeness.
273
What are Checksheets?
Tally sheets that can be used as checklists when gathering data.
274
What is Claims Administration?
The process of processing, adjudicating, and communicating contract claims.
275
What are Communication Methods?
Systematic procedures, techniques, or processes used to transfer information among project stakeholders.
276
What are Communication Models?
Descriptions, analogies or schematics used to represent how the communication process will be performed for the project.
277
What is Communication Requirements Analysis?
An analytical technique to determine the information needs of the project stakeholders through interviews, workshops, study of lessons learned from previous projects, etc.
278
What is meant by Communication Technology?
Specific tools, systems, computer programs, etc., used to transfer information among project stakeholders.
279
What is Conflict Management?
Handling, controlling, and guiding a conflictual situation to achieve a resolution.
280
What is a Context Diagram?
A visual depiction of the product scope showing a business system (process, equipment, computer system, etc.), and how people and other systems (actors) interact with it.
281
What are Contingent Response Strategies?
Response plans which may be used in the event that a specific trigger occurs.
282
What is a Contract Change Control System?
A system used to collect, track, adjudicate, and communicate changes to a contract.
283
What is Cost-Benefit Analysis?
A financial analysis tool used to determine the benefits provided by a project against its costs.
284
What are Data Gathering Techniques?
Techniques used to collect data and information from a variety of sources.
285
What is Dependency Determination?
A technique used to identify the type of dependency that is used to create the logical relationships between predecessor and successor activities.
286
What is Design of Experiments (DOE)?
A statistical method for identifying which factors may influence specific variables of a product or process under development or in production.
287
What are Diagramming Techniques?
Approaches to presenting information with logical linkages that aid in understanding.
288
What are Data Analysis Techniques?
Techniques used to organize, assess, and evaluate data and information.
289
What are Documentation Reviews?
The process of gathering a corpus of information and reviewing it to determine accuracy and completeness.
290
What are Facilitated Workshops?
An elicitation technique using focused sessions that bring key cross-functional stakeholders together to define product requirements.
291
What are Facilitation?
The ability to effectively guide a group event to a successful decision, solution, or conclusion.
292
What is Mind Mapping?
Technique used to consolidate ideas created through individual brainstorming sessions into a single map to reflect commonality and differences in understanding and to generate new ideas.
293
What are Independent Estimates?
A process of using a third party to obtain and analyze information to support prediction of cost, schedule, or other items.
294
What are Information Management Systems?
Facilities, processes, and procedures used to collect, store, and distribute information between producers and consumers of information in physical or electronic format.
295
What are Management Skills?
The ability to plan, organize, direct, and control individuals or groups of people to achieve specific goals.
296
What is Market Research?
The process of gathering information at conferences, online reviews, and a variety of sources to identify market capabilities.
297
What is a Matrix Diagram?
A quality management and control tool used to perform data analysis within the organizational structure created in the matrix. The matrix diagram seeks to show the strength of relationships between factors, causes, and objectives that exist between the rows and columns that form the matrix.
298
What is Multicriteria 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.
299
What is 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.
300
What is Observation/Conversation?
A technique that provides a direct way of viewing individuals in their environment performing their jobs or tasks and carrying out processes. It is also known as "job shadowing".
301
What are Proposal Evaluation Techniques?
The process of reviewing proposals provided by suppliers to support contract award decisions.
302
What is a Quality Audit?
A structured, independent process to determine if project activities comply with organizational and project policies, processes, and procedures.
303
What are Questionnaires?
Written sets of questions designed to quickly accumulate information from a large number of respondents.
304
What is a RACI Chart?
A common type of responsibility assignment matrix that uses responsible, accountable, consult, and inform (RACI) statuses to define the involvement of stakeholders in project activities.
305
What is Regression Analysis?
An analytic technique where a series of input variables are examined in relation to their corresponding output results in order to develop a mathematical or statistical relationship.
306
What is a Resource Optimization Technique?
A technique that is used to adjust the start and finish dates of activities by adjusting planned resource use to be equal to or less than resource availability.
307
What is a Risk Audit?
A type of audit used to consider the effectiveness of the risk management process.
308
What is 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.
309
What is Risk Data Quality Assessment?
Technique to evaluate the degree to which the data about risks is useful for risk management.
310
What is a Scheduling Tool?
A tool that provides schedule component names, definitions, structural relationships, and formats that support the application of a scheduling method.
311
What is a Tornado Diagram?
A special type of bar chart used in sensitivity analysis for comparing the relative importance of the variables.
312
What are Affinity Diagrams?
A business tool used for organizing a large number of ideas into logical groups for review and analysis.
313
What is Alternatives Analysis?
A technique used to evaluate identified options in order to select the options or approaches to use to execute and perform the work of the project.
314
What is Benchmarking?
Comparing the current project's processes to those of other comparable projects (within or outside the organization) in order to identify best practices, generate ideas for improvement, and provide a basis for measuring performance.
315
What is Communication Styles Assessment?
A technique to identify the preferred communication method, format, and content for stakeholders for planned communication activities.
316
What are Data Representation Techniques?
Graphic representations or other methods used to convey data and information.
317
What is Risk Enhancement?
A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to increase the probability of occurrence or impact of an opportunity.
318
What is Risk Escalation?
A risk response strategy whereby the team acknowledges that a risk is outside of its sphere of influence and shifts the ownership of the risk to a higher level of the organization where it is more effectively managed.
319
What is Risk Exploiting?
A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to ensure that an opportunity occurs.
320
What is 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 of that opportunity.
321
What is an Interview?
A formal or an informal approach to elicit information from the stakeholders by talking to them directly.
322
What is a Focus Group?
A meeting that brings together key stakeholders and subject matter experts to learn about their expectations and attitudes about a proposed product, service, or result. It is conducted by a trained moderator.
323
What are Prototypes?
A method of obtaining early feedback on requirements by providing a working model (usually on a smaller scale) of the expected product before actually building it. They help customers visualize their end product and provide early feedback, and reduce the risks on the project.
324
What is Cost Aggregation?
Rolling up the cost estimates of individual work packages in the WBS into cost estimates for Control Accounts, and then further rolling up the estimates for Control Accounts into the cost estimates for the entire project.
325
What is Funding Limit Reconciliation?
A technique that compares the funding available in each time period (say a month) to the planned expenditure in that time period to ensure that the planned expenditure is within the available funding. It is used in the Determine Budget process.
326
What is Pareto's Law?
A relatively small number of causes will typically produce a majority of the problems or defects. It is commonly known as the 80/20 principle.
327
What is Process Analysis?
A technique to analyze a process in order to identify bottlenecks or problems, root causes of problems, non-value adding activities in the process and areas for improvement. It includes root cause analysis.
328
What is a Scatter Diagram?
A tool used to determine the correlation between 2 variables. The independent variable is plotted on the x-axis, and the dependent variable on the y-axis. The closer the points are to the diagonal line, the more closely the variables are related.
329
What is Statistical Sampling?
A quality control technique that involves choosing a random sample from a population of interest, for inspection. It is used when not many defects are expected, testing entire population would take too long, testing is destructive or testing is costly. The sample frequency and size are established in the Plan Quality Management process.
330
What are Quality Checklists?
Lists of components to inspect, or steps to perform. They are used to "check" whether deliverables conform to quality standards. Quality Checklists are defined during the Plan Quality Management process, and used in the Control Quality process.
331
What is Design for X?
A set of technical guidelines that may be applied during the design of a product for the optimization of a specific aspect of the design.
332
What is a Logical Data Model?
A visual representation of an organization's data, described in business language and independent of any specific technology.
333
What is Pre-Assignment?
Team members selected in advance are considered pre-assigned. Sometimes, pre-assigned resources are listed in the project charter itself.
334
What is Stakeholder Analysis?
A technique used to identify the stakeholders, and their interest, experience and influence on the project.
335
What is Make-or-Buy Analysis?
A technique to determine whether to accomplish a particular work in-house (make) or procure it from an external organization (buy). Both direct and indirect costs should be considered while making such decisions.
336
What are Bidder Conferences?
The meetings with prospective sellers prior to the preparation of a bid or proposal to ensure all prospective vendors have a clear and common understanding of the procurement. Also known as contractor conferences, vendor conferences, or pre-bid conferences.
337
What is a Stakeholders Engagement Assessment Matrix?
A tool used to document the gap between the current and desired levels of stakeholder engagement.
338
What is Brain Writing?
A refinement of brainstorming that allows individual participants time to consider the question(s) individually before the group creativity session is held.
339
What is Critical Path Method (CPM)?
A schedule network analysis technique used to determine the minimum project duration by analyzing the amount of schedule flexibility (or float) on various paths in the project schedule network.
340
What are Interpersonal Skills?
Skills used to establish and maintain relationships with other people.
341
What are Interpersonal and Team Skills?
Skills used to effectively lead and interact with team members and other stakeholders. They are also known as Soft Skills.
342
What is Portfolio Management?
The centralized management of one or more portfolios to achieve strategic objectives.
343
What are Ground Rules?
A set of rules that establish clear expectations regarding acceptable behavior by project team members. Ground rules are very important in any professional setup.
344
What is a Project Management Information System (PMIS)?
An information system consisting of the tools and techniques used to gather, integrate, and disseminate the outputs of project management processes. It is used to support all aspects of the project from initiating through closing, and can include both manual and automated systems.
345
What is a Gantt Chart?
A time-phased graphic display of activity durations. It is also referred to as a Bar Chart. Activities are plotted on the vertical axis, dates are plotted on the horizontal axis, and activity durations are shown as horizontal bars.
346
What is a Master Schedule?
A project schedule in summary form that identifies major deliverables and milestones. It is also referred to as Milestone Schedule.
347
What is a Virtual Team?
A group of people with a shared goal who fulfill their roles with little or no time spent meeting face to face.
