Project management definitions

project team

A group of individuals assembled to perform activities that contribute toward achieving a common task related goal. Many business operators will put together a project team consisting of skilled workers from the same or different function areas to work on an important project.

commodity

A reasonably interchangeable good or material, bought and sold freely as an article of commerce. Commodities include agricultural products, fuels, and metals and are traded in bulk on a commodity exchange or spot market.

business process model

A sequential representation of all functions associated with a specific business activity.

business process

A series of logically related activities or tasks (such as planning, production, or sales) performed together to produce a defined set of results.

resources

A stock or supply of money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be drawn on by a person or organization in order to function effectively.

business model

A term used to represent core aspects of a business, including purpose, target customers (e.g., consumers or other businesses), product/service offerings, strategies, organizational structures, trading practices, distribution model (e.g., direct sales, wholesale, retail) and operational processes and policies. In an SC environment, special attention must be given to how the resources from different members of the chain will be combined to deliver unparalleled value.

ISO 10006

Guidelines to quality in project management, is an international standard developed by ISO. It is not as popular or widely accepted as the PMBOK.

communications protocol

In telecommunications, a communication protocol is a system of rules that allow two or more entities of a communications system to transmit information via any kind of variation of a physical quantity.

business analysis

Investigation into the operations of a business to expose the causes behind the results achieved, and the effects of those results on the business.

program management

Process of managing multiple related projects working toward the same goal or result.at once.

project management (PM)

Project management is the discipline of using established principles, procedures and policies to manage a project from conception through completion, i.e. in planning, control, monitoring, and review of projects.

project review

Project reviews take place during the lifecycle of a project in order to check the likely or actual achievements of the objectives specified in the Project Management Plan (PMP) and the benefits detailed in the Business Case. They should be planned through the project and aligned to the business cycles, and with portfolio or programme reviews.

project management

The body of knowledge concerned with principles, techniques, and tools used in planning, control, monitoring, and review of projects.

operations management

The design, execution, and control of operations that convert resources into desired goods and services, and implement a company's business strategy

risk management

The identification, analysis, assessment, control, and avoidance, minimization, or elimination of unacceptable risks. An organization may use risk assumption, risk avoidance, risk retention, risk transfer, or any other strategy (or combination of strategies) in proper management of future events.

budget constraint

The limit that the size of a consumer's income (and the prices that must be paid for goods and services) imposes on the ability of that consumer to obtain goods and services.

value engineering

The modification of designs and systems according to value analysis.Manufacturing: Systematic analysis that identifies and selects the best value alternatives for designs, materials, processes, and systems. It proceeds by repeatedly asking "can the cost of this item or step be reduced or eliminated, without diminishing the effectiveness, required quality, or customer satisfaction?" . Its objectives are (1) to distinguish between the incurred costs (actual use of resources) and the costs inherent (locked in) in a particular design (and which determine the incurring costs), and (2) to minimize the locked-in costs.

goal

The object of a person's ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.

scalability

The potential for a business or an aspect of a business to continue to function effectively as its size increases.

worstcase scenario

Worst possible environment or outcome out of the several possibilities in planning or simulation. Imagining a worst case scenario helps in planning expenditure cuts, in formulating contingency plans, and in setting aside enough reserves to cushion the impact if the event or situation actually occurs.

Post Project Review = post mortem = project retrospective = Post-Implementation Review (PIR)

a project review generally conducted at the end of the entire project , and analysing how the project performed against the Business Case and Project Management Plan (PMP) and helping to identify lessons learnt that will enable continuous improvements.

event chain methodology

a project scheduling technique that focuses on identifying and managing the events and event chains that affect projects. It maps out uncertainty and risk in a project, and statistically estimates the impact that events will have—even external ones. It is based on existing analysis methodologies including: Monte Carlo simulation, Bayesian approach, and others.

nonlinear management (NLM)

a superset of management techniques and strategies that allows order to emerge by giving organizations the space to self-organize, evolve and adapt, encompassing Agile, "evolutionary" and "lean" approaches, flextime, time banking, as well as many others. Key aspects of NLM, including holism, evolutionary design or delivery, and self-organization are diametrically opposite to linear management thinking.

operations management

an area of business that is concerned with the production of good quality goods and services, and involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient and effective

intergrated master plan (IMP)

an event-based, top level plan consisting of a hierarchy of program events, with each event being supported by specific accomplishments, and each accomplishment associated with specific criteria which must be satisfied for its completion. So, the three elements of the IMP are: (1) event - a program assessment point that occurs at the culmination of significant program activities; (2) accomplishment - is the desired result(s) prior to or at completion of an event that indicates a level of the program's progress; (3) criteria - provides a definitive evidence that a specific accomplishment has been completed.

communications log

an on-going documentation of events between any identified project stakeholders, managed and collected by the project manager

COTS

commercial off the shelf = Item that is commercially available, leased, licensed, or sold to the general public and which requires no special modification or maintenance over its life cycle.

Event Chain Diagram

depicts the relationships between external events and tasks and how the two affect each other. These chains are represented by arrows that are associated with a particular activity or time interval on a Gantt chart.

extreme project management (XPM)

differs from traditional project management mainly in its open, elastic and undeterministic approach. Its main focus is on the human side of project management (e.g. managing project stakeholders), rather than on intricate scheduling techniques and heavy formalism.

effort management

in project management: the effective and efficient allocation of time and resources to perform activities in line with a company strategy and/or a project.

expenditure

is a payment or disbursement, and may be for the purchase of an asset, a reduction of a liability, a distribution to the owners, or it could be an expense. For instance, an expenditure to eliminate a liability is not an expense, while expenditures for advertising, salaries, etc. will likely be recorded immediately as expenses. the total amount of money that a government, organization, or person spends during a particular period of time:

system(s) integrator

is a person or company that specializes in bringing together component subsystems into a whole and ensuring that those subsystems function together,

certified associate in project management (CAPM)

is an entry-level certification for project practitioners offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI). It is intended to demonstrate candidates' understanding of the fundamental knowledge, terminology and processes of effective project management.

Project manager

the person responsible for leading a project from its inception to execution.

project accounting

the practice of creating financial reports specifically designed to track the financial progress of projects, which can then be used by managers to aid project management.

work breakdown structure (WBS)

project management and systems engineering: a deliverable-oriented decomposition of a project into smaller components that organizes the team's work into manageable sections.

business process modelling (BPM)

the activity of representing processes of an enterprise, so that the current ('as is') process maybe analysed and improved in future ('to be'0

linear management

the application of reductionism to management problems, often relying on the ability to predict, engineer and control outcomes by manipulating the component parts of a business (organization, operation, policy, process and so on). Business process reengineering (BPR) is a popular example of linear management at work. The key defining characteristic of linear management is that order is imposed - usually from above.

process management

the ensemble of administrative activities of planning and monitoring the performance of a business process. It usually includes (1) defining a process, (2) establishing responsibilities, (3) evaluating process performance, and (4) identifying opportunities for improvement.

project

An individual or collaborative enterprise that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim.

state-of-the-art

Consisting of, or incorporating the latest technology in its field.

critical chain of events = critical events

Critical events or critical chains of events are those with the potential to impinge on a project the most. By identifying such events at the very beginning, it is possible to lessen the negative effect they have on projects

cost management

Management of cost related activities achieved by collecting, analyzing, evaluating, and reporting cost information used for budgeting, estimating, forecasting, and monitoring costs.

project lifecycle

Seven stage process through which practically every major project goes through: (1) Identification: stage where one project-idea out of several alternatives is chosen and defined. (2) Preparation: defined idea is carefully developed to the appraisal stage. (3) Appraisal: every aspect of the project idea is subjected to systematic and comprehensive evaluation, and a project plan is prepared. (4) Presentation: detailed plan is submitted for approval and financing to the appropriate entities. (5) Implementation: with necessary approvals and financing in place, the project plan is implemented. (6) Monitoring: at every stage the progress of the project is assessed against the plan.(7) Evaluation: upon completion the project is reassessed in terms of its efficiency and performance.

Scope of a project

Sum of all individual jobs comprising a project. Its documentation explains the boundaries of the project, establishes responsibilities for each team member and sets up procedures for how completed work will be verified and approved.

reengineering

Systematic starting over and reinventing the way a firm, or a business process, gets its work done

enterprise model

Top level representation of an organization's mission, functions, processes and the information flows. It is used as reference for constructing all other models.

interoperability

a characteristic of a product or system, whose interfaces are completely understood, to work with other products or systems, present or future, in either implementation or access, without any restrictions

project plan

a formal, approved document used to guide both project execution and project control. The primary uses of the project plan are to document planning assumptions and decisions, facilitate communication among project stakeholders, and document approved scope, cost, and schedule baselines.

Gantt Chart

a graphical depiction of a project schedule, a type of bar chart that shows the start and finish dates of several elements of a project that include resources, milestones, tasks and dependencies.

project schedule

a listing of a project milestone activities, and deliverables, usually including intended start and finish dates.

vendor

a person who sells something, especially a property

earned value management (EVM) = Earned Value Project/Performance Management (EVPM)

a project management technique for measuring project performance and progress in an objective manner. It links resource planning to cost and schedule requirements. All work is budgeted and scheduled in time-phased increments incorporating a baseline for cost and schedule measurement.

expense

is reported on the income statement. It is a cost that has expired, was used up, or was necessary in order to earn the revenues during the time period indicated in the heading of the income statement.

enterprise modeling

is the process of understanding an enterprise business and improving its performance through creation of enterprise models.