Key Terms Flashcards
(187 cards)
1
Q
Return on Investment(ROI)
A
The profitability of a project as a percentage: (Net Profit / Cost) x 100. Or ((Revenue - Cost) / Cost) x 100.
2
Q
Business Case
A
A business case, also known as a business justification or a business objective, summarizes information about the project and serves as the first project proposal.
3
Q
Financial Overview
A
Covers the relevant economic impacts of the project.
4
Q
Problem Analysis
A
Problem analysis explains why the project should be a priority. It can include historical performance data, an environmental assessment, or other evidence to support the business case.
5
Q
Option Section
A
The options section describes several approaches to solving the problem, containing at least three and no more than five options.
6
Q
Internal Customer
A
Work inside the project organization. They do not purchase the project’s outcome.
7
Q
External End-user
A
The external end-user is the person who will interact with the final product upon being released to the public.
8
Q
Sponsor
A
The sponsor is accountable for a project. The sponsor approves deliverables and decides when a project starts and ends.
9
Q
Senior Management
A
Senior management refers to the highest level of leadership in an organization.
10
Q
Executive summary
A
The executive summary is a brief synopsis of the rest of the business case and usually includes a short problem statement, solution, and expected result.
11
Q
The Problem Statement
A
The problem statement shares more details about the problem but should be concise and shorter than a paragraph.
12
Q
Weak Matrix
A
In a weak matrix structure, a manager is responsible for assigning work but does not have official authority over the people doing the work. The PM has little control over the budget and staff in a weak matrix.
13
Q
Projectized
A
A projectized organizational structure pools resources around projects. It will have PMs instead of specialized managers leading each team and fewer layers and branches.
14
Q
Functional
A
A functional organizational structure divides the organization by areas of specialization. The PM coordinates the project but has little authority over people or cost.
15
Q
Strong Matrix
A
In a strong matrix structure, a manager assigns the work and has authority for the peope. The PM has control over budget and staff.
16
Q
ESG
A
Environmental, Social, Governance
17
Q
Program Manager
A
Program managers lead programs, which are related groups of projects. They keep the program aligned to organizational strategy and ensure it is within budget and on time.
18
Q
Kanban Methodology
A
Methodology controls work in progress (WIP) levels and manages workflows in software and other business processes.
19
Q
Kanban Part 1
A
Prioritize and order the backlog.
20
Q
Kanban Part 2
A
The Kanban team selects the top backlog items and moves the items into progress, carefully limiting items that are in progress.
21
Q
Kanban Part 3
A
The Kanban team moves items through the workflow, keeping work within the work in progress (WIP) limits.
22
Q
Kanban Part 4
A
The Kanban team does not select the next item in the backlog until the team is ready to start new work.
23
Q
Requirements Management Plan
A
The requirements management plan is a document that describes how project requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed throughout the project’s lifecycle.
24
Q
Project Schedule
A
the team’s plan for starting and finishing activities on specific dates and in a certain sequence. The schedule also specifies planned dates for meeting project milestones.
25
Communication Requirements
The project stakeholders' documented communication needs.
26
Change Request
Change requests modify a project's activities or resources, leading to a change in the project's scope, budget, or timeline.
27
Product Owner
In an agile framework, the team member with this role takes "ownership" of the project hoping to create the best possible product.
28
Iterative and Incremental Devolopment(IID)
If the team used iterative and incremental development (IID), they would build one feature at a time.
29
Incremental Development
The team would build all of one of the features and release it.
30
Iterative development
The team would build small parts of features and improve them often.
31
Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS)
An expensive, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software, and implementation often requires disrupting many legacy systems.
32
Scrum
a lightweight, customer-centric framework. Arguably the most common agile framework, it delivers iterative and adaptive value while intentionally covering only the barest requirements.
33
Projects IN Controlled Environments (PRINCE2)
PRINCE2 aims to control project management processes by creating clear project phases, clearly defining roles and responsibilities, and predefining tasks to manage the project life cycle.
34
Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
Planning comes first, then gathering the software requirements before design and prototyping. Finally, after prototyping, the team can develop the software.
35
Business analyst
Business analysts deeply understand business direction and company priorities and are familiar with the software environment. Therefore, a business analyst's responsibilities include helping to define the project.
36
Project Charter
Every charter will include sections covering these categories: general project information, project vision, organization (people), and implementation overview. The project name is part of the general project information.
37
Communication plan
Identify and make a plan for contacting key stakeholders.
38
Project Roadmaps
High-level documents that share major progress points. A roadmap is highly visual and resembles the format and level of detail present in a press release.
39
Milestone charts
More detail than a roadmap but are not exhaustive enough to form a plan. Milestone charts describe milestone events, which serve as checkpoints.
40
Kanban Board
Visualizes all work, work in progress (WIP) limits, and work policies. Work moves through three basic phases: To Do, In Progress, and Done.
41
Project Charter
A brief, formal document that outlines the project parameters. It helps the team, stakeholders, sponsor, and project manager (PM) agree on why the project matters and what needs to happen.
42
Decision Tree
represents a single decision that could have many outcomes. Use a decision tree when a single decision requires consideration of many factors.
43
Data flow diagram(DFD)
shows how information flows through a process or system. This diagram type works particularly well for audiences that include people with technical and nontechnical expertise.
44
Mind Map
visualizes categories of information around a single theme. Mind maps are excellent for facilitating brainstorming activities, thinking through problems, or consolidating information.
45
Quadrant Diagram
A quadrant diagram type includes many implementations that use the same concept. This diagram creates a four-quadrant grid.
46
Gantt Chart
highly detailed project plans. Gantt charts show tasks and time in a grid to create a visual schedule view. It is a unique bar chart that shows time across the x-axis and a list of tasks or activities on the y-axis.
47
Milestone Charts
have more detail than a roadmap, but are not exhaustive enough to form a plan. Milestone charts describe the milestone events, which are project checkpoints.
48
Single-Tier architecture
not separated; this is a typical structure for test and small production environments.
49
High-level design(HLD
document is created at the analysis phase of the SDLC process and assesses technical feasibility.
50
Pareto Chart
visualizes the Pareto principle using lines and columns. It shows relative importance of problems. (Law of diminishing returns)
51
Burnup Chart
assesses the work completed compared against a goal.
52
Burndown Chart
focuses on the end goal. It works well with a fixed timeline, like in agile teams.
53
Utilization Rate
Allocated time/Total available time. For the second engineer, the allocated time is 50 hours (as they've been assigned 50 hours of work for the project), and they have a total available time of 100 hours. Utilization Rate = 50/100 = 0.5 or 50%.
54
Fishbone Diagram
also known as a cause and effect diagram, is a tool that helps to visualize various factors that impact a single outcome.
55
Resource leveling
an optimization technique that reduces variation and allows the project timeline to extend, but it would not help in finding the cause of the problem.
56
Probability Cost Estimate
a quantitative risk analysis tool to estimate the risk of the project.
57
Utilization Gap
helps assess the difference between the current and future state. It is an excellent tool to find the difference in states, but it is not as helpful as the fishbone diagram.
58
Time Allocated time
Time allocated for 1st printer + Time allocated for 2nd printer = 70 hours/week + 90 hours/week = 160 hours/week. The Total Available Time=Time available for 1st printer + Time available for 2nd printer = 120 hours/week + 120 hours/week = 240 hours/week. Therefore, the Total Utilization Gap = Total allocated time/Total time available = 160/240 = 0.666 or 66.67%
59
Needs assessment
identifies what a project will need to provide to solve a business problem. It defines which resources the project needs, including skills, software, equipment, and other tangible and intangible resources.
60
Succession Planning
a proactive practice where companies create a plan for who would replace critical roles in a company if those employees were to suddenly vacate their position.
61
Allocation method
describes how a resource's time or capacity is spent during a project. All resources are either dedicated or shared.
62
Trigger
A trigger for a risk is an indication that a risk event is likely to occur.
63
Risk mitigation plan
details proactive steps taken to reduce the impact or likelihood of a risk event
64
Residual Risk
the risks that remain even after mitigation strategies have been applied.
65
Contingency Plan
outlines the steps to take if a risk event occurs.
66
Probability impact
Quantitatively, the PM can measure the chances of a risk occurring using a probability impact assessment.
67
Scenario analysis
a situational or what-if analysis where the PM generates potential events and evaluates the impacts. Hence, it helps in identifying the likelihood of a project risk occurring in the project.
68
Failure mode and effect analysis(FMEA)
a structured risk analysis tool that helps to analyze a single process with multiple risks.
69
Finish-to-Start
A task needs to finish before another task can start.
70
Finish-to-Finish
A task cannot finish until another task finishes.
71
Start-to-Start
Can start when another task can start.
72
Start-to-Finish
A task needs to start before another task can finish.
73
Project Backlog
a dynamic, prioritized list of tasks or features that need to be completed for a project
74
Work Breakdown Structure(WBS)
a visual, hierarchical tool used in project management to break down a project's scope into smaller, more manageable components. When a team can estimate the time, cost, and resources, an element no longer needs to be broken down.
75
WBS dictionary
The WBS dictionary contains information about tasks each team member needs to complete, responsibilities, prerequisites, due dates, etc.
76
Activity List
describes the items the PM should include in the project schedule related to user stories, tasks, and milestones.
77
Project Scope Statement
A project scope statement expands on the scope provided in the project charter but will be a high-level overview of the work project members must complete
78
Scope Management Plan
involves identifying and defining the actions needed to deliver the project's requirements.
79
Optimistic, Most Likely, Pessimistic(OPM) Estimates
the optimistic (O) estimate = $5,000, the pessimistic (P) estimate = $21,000, and the most likely (M) estimate = $10,000. Using the three-point estimate (E), E = (O + M + P)/3 = ($5,000+$10,000+$21,000)/3 = $12,000. Therefore, the most probable cost estimate for this project will be $12,000.
80
RAM chart
details all the necessary stakeholders and clarifies responsibilities amongst cross-functional teams and their involvement level in a project.
81
Accountable
The accountable person will be held accountable for completing the work. Having more than one person accountable for the same activity increases ambiguity and could also lead to misdirection of the project:
82
Development
multiple people need to complete the software development process. So there is nothing wrong with having four junior developers responsible for the development activity.
83
Consult
The team usually consults with an expert in this field for the consultation process. Here, the software architect is the expert in the software development process.
84
Inform
The junior project manager needs to inform the project director about the project's progress.
85
Slack
The amount of time an activity can wait to start without impacting the project timeline.
86
Early Finish(EF)
87
Early Start
88
Total Float
The total float (TF) The amount of time an activity can wait to start without impacting the project timeline. calculation is LF-EF. Since LF = 18 days and EF = 3 days, the TF for Activity G is 18-3 = 15 days.
89
Program Evaluation and REview Technique
The formula for a PERT estimate is (O +4M + P)/6. Here, the PERT estimate = [2+(4*4) +12]/6 = 30/6 = 5 days.
90
Contingency Reserves
Contingency reserves are a calculated cost buffer that covers documented or forecasted risks
91
Management Reserves
management reserves are an additional sum of time or money that covers setbacks that are not forecasted.
92
Lessons learned document
Becomes a reference point for future projects. Whenever a project manager (PM) starts a new project, part of the initiation process is reviewing existing lessons learned to help improve the next project's plan.
93
Release testing
Developers conduct release testing to determine if the software is ready for production.
94
Validation
Validation is a project activity that occurs outside the team and looks only at finished deliverables with the customer. Validation is subjective as it measures desirability. It presents outputs to the customer to see if the project meets their expectations.
95
Verification
confirms the deliverable against quality standards and is a measure of internal quality.
96
Quality Control
Quality control is a portion of quality assurance that involves inspecting finished work after completion and before it reaches the customers.
97
Project planning phase
The approval of the project management plan marks the end of the project planning phase and the beginning of the execution phase.
98
Execution phase
Once the project sponsor, project manager, and functional managers approve the project plan, this is the signal that the team can begin delivering work.
99
Smoke Testing
The smoke test runs after the code compiles into a build and before it deploys to confirm that the main features are working before detailed tests are run. A smoke test will ensure the core features work. No other tests can run until the core functions can perform.
100
Stress testing
a performance test that measures performance under conditions such as multiple simultaneous users. The test engineer would perform this type of test after testing each of the core functions
101
Regression Testing
reruns existing tests to determine if changes in code affect performance or functionality.
102
Performance Testing
a measure of performance to determine if the system is stable and fast enough to work under various loads.
103
Minimum Viable Product(MVP)
an early version of the product. However, it has enough functionality to demonstrate how the product will operate so stakeholders can use it and provide feedback.
104
Free Float(FF)
The calculation of the FF of Activity G = ES of Activity E - EF of Activity G = 6-3 = 3 days. Or LS-ES
105
Detailed Scope Statement
The detailed scope statement finalizes the project scope for the planning process. The PM can validate the project plan against the preliminary scope by creating a detailed scope statement.
106
Scope Baseline
The scope baseline is the original scope and related documents, such as the WBS and project statement.
107
Work Breakdown Structure(WBS)
The WBS is part of the scope baseline documents.
108
Project Plan
The project plan contains a series of project-related documents, including all project baselines, the budget, and the schedule.
109
Service Level Agreement(SLA)
predictive measures. There is an assumption that if these measures perform well, the truly desired outcomes will improve.
110
Market Research
provides procurement specialists with information to learn about products or services.
111
Competitive Analysis
identifies a list of vendors and compares them against each other. It would not include information about a product or industry trends.
112
Request for information(RFI)
an educational tool used to research product options.
113
Purchase Requisitions
formal requests from the procurement team to acquire resources. Requisitions do not include industry trends or potential suppliers.
114
Operating Expenses(OpEx)
can include an organization's regular expenses, such as salaries, taxes, and recurring expenses (i.e., subscriptions, rentals, and utilities).
115
Procurement Contract
establishes an agreement to purchase something at some point and gets fulfilled through one or more purchase orders
116
Purchase Order(PO)
a customer's request for specific goods or services.
117
Vendor Qualifications
compares the buying organization's requirements against the vendor's ability to provide them. It does not provide information relevant to billing on other contracts.
118
Cost Benefit Analysis
compares the cost of a project against the expected financial benefits it will deliver and does not provide information relevant to billing history on other contracts.
119
Reference Checks
Reference checks inquire about the vendor's history with former clients. Reference checks reveal information from the sources that the PM might not receive elsewhere, such as how they interact with the client, their responsiveness, and their cost management.
120
Financial Capacity
measures the firm's financial stability and does not provide information relevant to billing on other contracts.
121
Performance Appraisals
predictive measures. There is an assumption that if these measures perform well, the truly desired outcomes will improve.
122
Scrum Board
A Scrum board tracks work in sprints, adding visibility to progress. It is a high-level view of the sprint instead of a time tracking tool.
123
Requirement Traceability MAtrix(RTM)
Essentially, an RTM ensures that all requirements are implemented, tested, and verified.
124
Phase Gate Review Meeting
occurs at every phase gate and at the end of the project. It determines if the project can move to the next phase. A phase gate meeting takes place when the project moves from one phase to the next.
125
Change Control Meeting
meeting reviews change requests and does not determine if the project is ready to move to the next phase.
126
Throughput Chart
A throughput chart measures the number of items completed per iteration. The chart contains several previous iterations and usually plots an average for the iterations shown.
127
Special Cause Variation
unique events indicating that something changed about a process and created an unusual outcome.
128
Common Cause Variation
are variations expected in a process. However, they do not indicate a change in a process.
129
Neutral Variation
Variation itself is neutral. It represents a deviation from past expected performance. Special cause and common cause variations are the types of variations monitored through control charts.
130
Control Chart Variation
Control charts are statistical charts that track variation in a process.
131
Technical Change
changes involving a specialized skill or product. This change will eventually involve a technical subject matter expert (SME) once the PM analyzes the requirements for the technical change.
132
A Strategic Change
decisions with effects beyond the boundaries of the project. This change involves a system outside the current project scope and will require additional project resources in the form of additional team members.
133
Operational Change
relates to the day-to-day business of running a project. This change falls outside of the current project scope.
134
Software Change
Software changes require their own change controls and may occur later in the process once the decision to incorporate this additional system in the project has occurred.
135
Standard Change
recurring changes to set policies and procedures. Customers do not need notification of these types of changes.
136
Emergency Change
unplanned recovery events. There is rarely time to give customers advance notice, but the organization can notify them during and after the event.
137
Normal Change
modifications that do not have a set process and do not happen often. These changes are planned in advance and require customer notifications to varying degrees.
138
Scatter Diagram
graphically demonstrates the relationship between two root cause variables. Scatter plots work well with large data and create an easy-to-read diagram. However, they are not a simple form of root cause analysis.
139
Five-Why Analysis
a simple root cause analysis tool that looks beyond the surface issue to uncover hidden root causes.
140
Cost Performance Index
uses the cost performance index to measure whether the project costs fall under, within, or over budget at any point in the project life cycle.
141
Budget Burndown Chart
Not used for performance and completion forecasting, the PM uses the budget burndown chart to plot how much of the project's budget has been used and how much remains.
142
Schedule Performance Index
Through the schedule performance index, the project manager (PM) can estimate whether the project is ahead of schedule, progressing as scheduled, or behind schedule.
143
Schedule Variance
compares the actual project progress against the expected project progress. With this metric, the PM can use a formula to calculate whether the project timeline is on track.
144
Cost Variance(CV)
value of $0 tells the project manager (PM) that the project spending matches expectations. Therefore, the project will end on budget based on current data.
145
Schedule Performance Index(SPI)
greater than 1 tells the PM that the project will complete ahead of schedule. However, it does NOT indicate anything about the project cost.
146
Variance At Completion(VAC)
rate of less than 0 tells the PM that the project will overrun the budget if no improvements occur.
147
Estimate To Complete(ETC)
value of more than 0 tells the PM the cost needed to finish the remaining work, and not if the project will complete on, under or over budget.
148
Backward pass
Backward pass starts at the projects end date and works through each activity backward subtracting the activity durations. Helps to identify the activities with zero float. Or LS and LF.
149
DevOps(dev method)
integrates development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) It emphasizes continuous integration, continuous delivery (CI/CD), and automation, resulting in faster deployment cycles and improved software quality.
150
Extreme Programming(XP)(Dev method)
embraces change and customization. XP operates on five values: communication, simplicity, feedback, respect, and courage. It is an iterative framework that features paired programming as an approach.
151
Earned Value
The actual value at the current moment.
152
Actual Cost
The actual cost at the current moment.
153
Planned Value(PV)
The expected cost at each moment. %10 of the work done should use %10 of the budget.
154
Quality Assurance
includes all processes and procedures and aims to prevent quality issues. It encompasses quality control.
155
Quality Objectives
are within a quality assurance plan by creating a list of measurable quality targets.
156
Quality Standards
within a quality assurance plan. These identify industry or regulatory standards that apply to the project, such as health codes.
157
Project completion
Change requests are not allowed. No new work is performed. The project manager can begin to close the project.
158
Qualitative Risk Analasys
subjective; it is based on how people perceive and interpret the risk.
159
Quantitative Risk
objective; it uses verifiable data to assign scores to project risks.
160
Interconnectivity
describes how risk will affect more than a single event.
161
Detectability
evaluates how quickly a risk would be identified if it were to occur.
162
On-Time Performance
This assessment reduces the number of unknowns that appear later in the project and reduces delays.
163
Resource Smoothing
an optimization technique that attempts to reduce the variation of resource usage from one time period to the next.
164
Gap Analysis
compares the current state and future state and describes the differences.
165
Request for bid(RFB)
solicits proposals while vendors compete for a contract on a new project by submitting proposed solutions.
166
Request for quote(RFQ)
a formal document requesting pricing information for specific requirements, such as supplies or labor.
167
Request for proposal(RFP)
solicits multiple vendor proposals for a solution. An RFP is incredibly detailed, formal, and structured.
168
Critical path
analyzes a project schedule to identify the dependent activity sequence with the longest duration. This sequence represents the shortest total project duration.
169
Directive PMO
A directive PMO is the most controlling type, and it sets the rules for the company. This PMO has full authority over projects, standards, and procedures.
170
Supportive PMO
provides support when it is requested. In this model, the PMO is essentially a library of project information.
171
Controlling PMO
more involved than a supportive PMO. It actively monitors project performance. However, this PMO does not have full authority.
172
Top-Down estimating
an estimate of the entire project or key deliverables. Then estimates are cascaded down to the activities. Top-down estimating is less accurate than other techniques.
173
Bottom-Up Estimating
creates estimates at the lowest-level activities, work packages, and user stories.
174
Three-point estimating
in combination with any other estimating technique. It factors in multiple scenarios and creates an average estimate.
175
Parametric estimating augments
augments either bottom-up or top-down estimates with historical data. It uses known variables, such as cost per hour and the number of hours, to create a custom estimate for a project.
176
Velocity chart
measures how many story points are completed per iteration.
177
Task Board
Activity owners move cards across a tracking board, from a "to do" state to a "finished" state as they finish work. A task board is also easy to update; Work item cards are organized into lanes by their work states.
178
Physical capacity
refers to the volume of work a vendor can produce for the contract but would not support in assessing the equation for this scenario.
179
Cost aggregation
The process of combining individual cost estimates for different project elements to arrive at a total project cost or budget.
180
Level
the layer of the WBS where an element resides. Usually, there is only one element on each level.
181
Leg
group of elements with a shared ancestor. The lowest elements in a leg will roll up to equal everything in the highest level of the leg.
182
Team improvement
the project team inspects and improves systems at every retrospective, phase gate, and lessons learned event.
183
Requirement traceability matrix(RTM)
a document that links requirements to other artifacts in a project, like design documents, test cases, and code. It helps ensure that all requirements are met, tracked, and verified throughout the project lifecycle.
184
Lagging indicators
reflective measures, which describe the actual success of a project or process.
185
Leading Indicators
predictive measures. There is an assumption that if these measures perform well, the truly desired outcomes will improve.
186
Work Package
The final element in a branch or "leg" of a WBS.
187
Product change
A change that effects the final deliverable of the project.
