Pmp
Project Management process groups
"Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing"
Backlog Refinement??
(formerly known as backlog grooming) is when the product owner and some, or all, of the rest of the team review items on the backlog to ensure the backlog contains the appropriate items, that they are prioritized, and that the items at the top of the backlog are ready for delivery.
Tuckman Ladder
-Forming: Meet and learn about the project and their roles and responsibilities (independent and not as open) -Storming: Begin to address project work, technical decisions, and the project management approach -Norming: Begin to work together and adjust their work habits to support the team -Performing: Reach the performing stage function as a well-organized unit (interdepending and work through issues smoothly) -Adjourning: Team complete the work and moves on (staff is released)
Project Integration Management Processes
1. Develop Project Charter 2. Develop Project Management Plan 3. Direct and Manage Project Work 4. Monitor and Control Project Work 5. Perform Integrated Change Control 6. Close Project or Phase
Project Scope Management Processes
1. Plan Scope Management 2. Collect Requirements 3. Define Scope 4. Create WBS 5. Validate Scope 6. Control Scope
minimum viable product
A bare-bones offering that allows entrepreneurs and product developers to collect customer feedback and to validate concepts and assumptions that underlie a business idea.
Resource Calendar
A calendar that identifies the working days and shifts on which each specific resource is available.
grade
A category or rank used to distinguish items that have the same functional use (e.g., "hammer") but do not share the same requirements for quality (e.g., different hammers may need to withstand different amounts of force).
Project Phase
A collection of logically related project activities that culminates in the completion of one or more deliverables.
Project phase
A collection of logically related project activities that culminates in the completion of one or more deliverables.
Configuration Management System
A collection of procedures used to track project artifacts and monitor and control changes to these artifacts.
Hybrid Life Cycle
A combination of predictive and an adaptive life cycle. Those elements of the project that are well known or have fixed requirements follow a predictive development life cycle, and those elements that are still evolving follow an adaptive development life cycle.
communication competence
A combination of tailored communication skills that considers factors such as clarity of purpose in key messages, effective relationships and information sharing, and leadership behaviors.
Risk Management Plan
A component of the project management plan that describes how risk management activities will be structured and performed.
Requirements Management Plan
A component of the project or program management plan that describes how requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed.
Brain writing
A data gathering technique that's similar to brainstorming, but provides brainstorming meeting participants with the questions and topics for brainstorming before the stakeholder identification meeting.
Successor Activity
A dependent activity that logically comes after another activity in a schedule.
Communication Model
A description, analogy or schematic used to represent how the communication process will be performed for the project. ex: encode, transit message, decode
standard
A document established by an authority, custom, or general consent as a model or example.
project charter
A document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.
Project benefits management plan
A document that describes how and when the benefits of the project will be delivered, and describes the mechanisms that should be in place to measure those benefits.
WBS Dictionary
A document that provides detailed deliverable, activity, and scheduling information about each component in the work breakdown structure.
Team Charter
A document that records the team values, agreements, and operating guidelines, as well as establishing clear expectations regarding acceptable behavior by project team members.
Issue Log
A document where information about issues is recorded and monitored.
Fixed-price with economic price adjustments
A fixed-price contract with a special allowance for price increases based on economic reasons such as inflation or the cost of raw materials.
Fixed-price incentive fee
A fixed-price contract with opportunities for bonuses for meeting goals on costs, schedule, and other objectives. These contracts usually have a price ceiling for costs and associated bonuses.
Change Control Board (CCB)
A formally chartered group responsible for reviewing, evaluating, approving, delaying, or rejecting changes to the project, and for recording and communicating such decisions.
Project Schedule Network Diagram
A graphical representation of the logical relationships, also referred to as dependencies, among the project schedule activities.
Requirements Traceability Matrix
A grid that links product requirements from their origin to the deliverables that satisfy them.
Affinity Diagram
A group creativity technique that allows large numbers of ideas to be classified into groups for review and analysis.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
A hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables.
servant leader
A leader who serves others by working to fulfill project teams needs and goals, as well as to achieve the organization's larger mission.
Milestone List
A list identifying all project milestones and normally indicates whether the milestone is mandatory(contract) or optional (based on historical info.).
Stakeholder Register
A list of individuals or organizations who are actively involved in the project, whose interests may be negatively or positively affected by the performance or completion of the project and whose needs or expectations need to be considered.
project management process groups
A logical grouping of project management processes to achieve specific project objectives. process groups are not the same as project phases.
activity dependency
A logical relationship that exists between two project activities. The relationship indicates whether the start of an activity is contingent upon an event or input from outside the activity.
fish bowl windows
A long-lived video conferencing link between the various locations in which the team is dispersed. People can see and engage with each other through video link.
Net Promoter Score
A management tool designed to collect data indicating the relative loyalty of customers and their willingness to recommend a company's products or services. -100 to 100
Schedule Performance Index (SPI)
A measure of schedule efficiency expressed as the ratio of earned value to planned value. Less than 1.0= project behind schedule.
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).
Critical Path Method (CPM)
A method used to estimate the minimum project duration and determine the amount of scheduling flexibility on the logical network paths within the schedule model.
Schedule Model
A model which includes activity durations and dependencies, used to produce the project schedule
Statement of Work (SOW)
A narrative description of products, services, or results to be delivered by the project.
Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory
A need theory that distinguishes between motivator needs (related to the nature of the work itself) and hygiene needs Ex: stable job, etc. (related to the physical and psychological context in which the work is performed) Ex: the feeling of achievement, recognition, etc. and proposes that motivator needs must be met for motivation and job satisfaction to be high.
Code of Accounts
A numbering system used to uniquely identify each component of the work breakdown structure (WBS).
Assumption log
A project document used to record all assumptions and constraints throughout the project life cycle.
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.
Monte Carlo Analysis
A project simulation approach named after the world-famous gambling district in Monaco. This predicts how scenarios may work out, given any number of variables. The process doesn't actually churn out a specific answer, but a range of possible answers. When Monte Carlo analysis is applied to a schedule, it can examine, outcomes of the total project.
ISO 9000 series
A quality system standard that is applicable to any product, service, or process in the world.
Path Convergence
A relationship in which a schedule activity has more than one predecessor.
Path Divergence
A relationship in which a schedule activity has more than one successor.
Secondary Risk
A risk that arises as a direct result of implementing a risk response.
Fast Tracking
A schedule compression technique in which activities or phases normally done in sequence are performed in parallel for at least a portion of their duration.
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.
project team
A set of individuals who support the project manager in performing the work of the project to achieve its objectives.
Change Control System
A set of procedures that describes how modifications to the project deliverables and documentation are managed and controlled.
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.
lessons learned repository
A store of historical information about lessons learned in projects.
Product Roadmap
A strategic document and plan which guides why product will be delivered and how product will meet objectives and the product vision.
Dot Voting
A system of voting where people receive a certain number of dots to vote on the options provided.
Version Control
A system that records changes to a file or set of files over time so that you can recall specific versions later.
project management process
A systematic series of activities directed toward causing an end result where one or more inputs will be acted upon to create one or more outputs.
Analogous Estimating
A technique for estimating the duration or cost of an activity or a project using historical data from a similar activity or project. Uses an analogy
Resource Leveling
A technique in which start and finish dates are adjusted based on resource constraints with the goal of balancing demand for resources with the available supply.balance the demand and supply of resources.may change the critical path of the project
Resource Smoothing
A technique that adjusts the activities of a schedule model such that the requirements for resources on the project do not exceed certain predefined resource limits. Time constraint takes priority
Negative Float Analysis
A technique that helps to find possible accelerated ways of bringing a delayed schedule back on track.
Scrum of Scrums (SoS) or meta scrum
A technique to scale Scrum up to large groups (over a dozen people), consisting of dividing the groups into Agile teams of 3-9 instead of one large team. Each daily scrum within a sub-team ends by designating one member as "ambassador" to participate in a daily meeting with ambassadors from other teams.
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.
Decomposition
A technique used for dividing and subdividing the project scope and project deliverables into smaller, more manageable parts.
Document Analysis
A technique used to gain project requirements from current documentation evaluation.
Crashing
A technique used to shorten the schedule duration for the least incremental cost by adding resources.
project
A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. Has to have a start and end. Can be either within or outside of a program. Still part of a portfolio.
McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y
A theory of motivation based on *management perceptions of worker attitudes* in the workplace. *Theory X* managers are authoritarian and assume that employees need to be supervised. *Theory Y* managers assume that employees seek recognition and praise for their contributions and achievements. Theory X - the assumption that employees dislike work, are lazy, avoid responsibility, and must be coerced to perform. Theory Y - the assumption that employees are creative, enjoy work, seek responsibility, and can exercise self-direction.
sprint
A timeboxed iteration in Scrum.
product analysis
A tool used to define scope that involves asking questions about a product and forming answers that describe the product's use, characteristics, and other relevant aspects.
Cost-Reimbursable Contract
A type of contract involving payment to the seller for the seller's actual costs, plus a fee typically representing seller's profit. Cost-reimbursable contracts often include incentive clauses where, if the seller meets or exceeds selected project objectives, such as schedule targets or total cost, then the seller receives from the buyer an incentive or bonus payment.
Planning Package
A work breakdown structure component below the control account and above the work package with known work content but without detailed schedule activities.
Risk Acceptance
Acknowledges the existence of a threat but no proactive action is taken. Appropriate for low-priority threats.
Risk Mitigation
Action taken to reduce the probability of the risk occurrence and/or impact of a threat.
dynamic system development method
Agile product delivery framework initially designed to add more rigor to existing iterative methods popular in the 90's . known for emphasis on constraint -driven delivery. Developed agile project suitability questionnaire.
Procurement Documentation
All documents use din signing, executing, and closing an agreement. May include documents pre-dating the project.
Bid Documents
All documents used to solicit information, quotations, or proposals from prospective sellers.
Master Service Agreement (MSA)
Allow changes to occur on the adaptive scope without impacting the overall contract.
Predecessor Activity
An activity that logically comes before a dependent activity in a schedule.
Management Reserve
An amount of the project budget withheld for management control purposes. These are budgets reserved for unforeseen work that is within scope of the project. The management reserve is not included in the performance measurement baseline (PMB).
Parametric Estimating
An estimating technique in which an algorithm is used to calculate cost or duration based on historical data and project parameters. More specific than analogous
Context Diagram
An example of a scope model. Visually depict the product scope by showing a business system and how people and other systems interact with it
component
An identifiable element within the project or organization. Usually, a component provides a particular function or group of related functions.
project management knowledge area
An identified area of project management defined by its knowledge requirements and described in terms of its component processes, practices, inputs, outputs, tools, and techniques.
Corrective Action
An intentional activity that realigns the performance of the project work with the project management plan.
Request for Quotation (RFQ)
An invitation to offer a price for a particular product or service. RFI= request for information RFP= request for proposal SOW= Statement of work
Rolling Wave Planning
An iterative planning technique in which the work to be accomplished in the near term is planned in detail, while the work in the future is planned at a higher level.
Agile Unified Process
An offshoot of the unified process for software projects. more accelerated cycles and less heavy weight processes than its UP predecessors. Incorporate associated feedback before formal delivery.
project management office
An organizational structure that standardizes the project-related governance processes and facilitates the sharing of resources, methodologies, tools, and techniques.
testing
An organized and constructed investigation conducted to provide objective info about the quality of the product or service under test in accordance with the project requirements.
Project Schedule
An output of a schedule model that presents linked activities with planned dates, durations, milestones, and resources.
Critical Path Activity
Any activity on the critical path in a project schedule.
Deliverable
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.
kick-off meeting
Associated with the end of planning and the start of Executing. Communicate objectives of the project and get commitment from the team. Explain the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders identified at that point. May occur at the beginning of each phase.
Caves and Common
Balance common and social areas with quiet areas or private spaces where individuals can work without being interrupted.
Contingency Reserve
Budget within the cost baseline or performance measurement baseline that is allocated for identified risks that are accepted.
Sole source
Buyer asks a specific seller for a proposal with no competition from other vendors.
Work packages
Can be used to group the activities where work is scheduled and estimated, monitored, and controlled. Lowest level of the wbs
Risk Register
Captures details of identified individual project risks.
risk classification approaches (Source-based)
Classify risk based on their sources.
risk classification approaches (effect-based)
Classifying risks according to their effects on schedule, cost, quality, and scope.
Three processes repeated for each iteration
Collect requirements, define scope, create WBS
Technical Performance Analysis
Compares technical accomplishments during project execution to the schedule of technical achievement, ie transaction times, # of delivered defects, storage capacity
Control Quality process
Concerned with the correctness of the deliverables and meeting the quality requirements specified for the deliverables
Operations Management
Concerned with the ongoing production of goods/services
risk probability assessment
Considers the likelihood that a specific risk will occur.
Risk Impact Assessment
Considers the potential effect on one or more project objectives such as schedule, cost, quality, or performance.
5 C's of written communication
Correct grammar and spelling Concise expression and elimination of excess words Clear purpose and expression directed to the needs of the reader Coherent logical flow of ideas Controlling flow of words and ideas
The Four Absolutes of Quality
Created by philip crosby as a way to promote the idea increased quality did not mean increased cost. 1. Quality is defined as conformance to requirements 2. The system for causing quality is prevention, not appraisal 3. The performance standard must be Zero Defects 4. The measurement of quality is the Price of Nonconformance
Plurality
Decisions made by the largest block in a group, even if a majority is not achieved.
I- shaped people
Deep specialization in one domain, but rarely contribute outside of that domain.
Agile Mindset
Defined by the agile manifesto values, guided by the agile manifesto principles, and manifested through many different practices
Solution Requirements
Describe features, functions and characteristics of the product, service or result that will meet the business and stakeholder requirements (functional and nonfunctional requirements).
Functional Requirements
Describe what the system should do
Nonfunctional Requirements
Describes the environmental conditions or qualities required for the product to be effective
Procurement Statement of Work
Describes the procurement item in sufficient detail to allow prospective sellers to determine if they are capable of providing the products, services, or results.
Salience Model
Describing classes of stakeholders based on their power (ability to impose their will), urgency (need for immediate attention), and legitimacy (their involvement is appropriate)
Criticality analysis
Determines which elements of the risk model have the greatest effect on the project critical path.
Benefits Management Plan
Document that describes how and when benefits of project will be delivered and how they'll be measured.
business documents
Documents generally originated outside of project and used as inputs to project
(EVM) earned value measurement
ES= earned schedule AT= Actual time (es-at) if amount of earned schedule is greater than 0 project is considered ahead of schedule. Project earned more than planned at a given point in time.
dispersed teams
Each team member working in completely different location.Morespreadout
Iteration Based Agile
Each time box is the same size each time box results in working tested feature.
nominal group technique
Enhances brainstorming with a voting process used to rank the most useful ideas for further brainstorming or for prioritization
project team member requirements
Ensure relevant skill sets to perform work, leverage core competencies and skills of general specialists to support other areas of the project, adequate physical resources.
Preventive Action
Ensures the future performance of the project work is aligned with the project management plan
features and epics
Epics contain features that span multiple releases and help deliver on the initiatives. And features are specific capabilities or functionality that you deliver to end-users — problems you solve that add value for customers and for the business.
Discretionary dependencies
Established based on knowledge of best practices within a particular application area or some unusual aspect of the project where a specific sequence is desired even though there may be other acceptable sequences.
subsequent retrospectives
Evaluate any trial processes to determine if they're working and should be continued or new adjusting or should be dropped from use.
Risk Data Quality Assessment
Evaluates the degree to which the data about individual risks are accurate and reliable as a basis for qualitative risk analysis
Blockers
Events or conditions that cause stoppages in the work or any further advancement.
unanimity
Everyone agrees on a single course of action.
inspection
Examination of a work product to determine whether it conforms to documented standards.
transition readiness
Examine readiness of all parties after a project and prepare them for delivery.
ground rules
Expectations regarding acceptable behavior by project team members.
Fist of Five
Fist of Five is a simple and fast mechanism that can be used as an estimation practice, as well as a general group consensus building technique. After initial discussion on a given item for estimation, the Scrum Team members are each asked to vote on a scale of 1 to 5 using their fingers.
Change Control
Focused on identifying, documenting, approving or rejecting changes to project documents, deliverables or baselines.
configuration control
Focused on the specification of both the deliverables and the processes
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
Focuses on detailing practices, roles, and activities at portfolio, program, and team levels with an emphasis on organizing the enterprise around value streams that focus on providing continuous value to customer.
Iterative scheduling with a backlog
Form of rolling wave planning based on adaptive life cycles, such as the agile approach for product development
Large Scale Scrum (LeSS)
Framework for organizing several development teams toward a common goal extending the scrum method
Kanban Method
In lean manufacturing is a system for scheduling inventory control and replenishment . "just in time" inventory replenishment . Original "start where you are" method. Less prescriptive than some agile approaches and thus less disruptive to begin implementing.
Project Integration Management
Includes the processes and activities to identify, define, combine, unify, and coordinate the various processes and project management activities within the Project Management Process Groups.
Project Quality Management
Includes the processes for incorporating the organization's quality policy regarding planning, managing, and controlling project and product quality requirements, in order to meet stakeholder's expectations.
Project Cost Management
Includes the processes involved in planning, estimating, budgeting, financing, funding, managing, and controlling costs so that the project can be completed within the approved budget.
Project Scope Management
Includes the processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully.
Project Stakeholder Management
Includes the processes required to identify the people, groups, or organizations that could impact or be impacted by the project, to analyze stakeholder expectations and their impact on the project, and to develop appropriate management strategies for effectively engaging stakeholders in project decisions and execution.
Project schedule management
Includes the processes required to manage the timely completion of the project.
Values of the Agile Manifesto
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan
Known unknown
Information that's understood to exist, but isn't in possession of person seeking it.
Configuration Management Plan
It describes the configurable items of the project and identifies the items that will be recorded and updated so that the product of the project remains consistent and operable.
iteration backlog
Items from the product backlog that can conceivably be completed within the time period based on the team's capacity.
Kaizen
Japanese term for continuous improvement by making small changes
Value Stream Map
Lean enterprise technique used to document, analyze, and improve flow of info. or materials required to produce a product or service for a customer.
Bidder Conference
Meetings between the buyer and all prospective sellers prior to submittal of a bid or proposal. Used to ensure that all prospective sellers have a clear and common understanding of the procurement requirements, and that no bidders receive preferential treatment
a/b testing
Method for determining user preferences. Experiment in which one group of participants is randomly assigned to see one version of a message and another group is randomly assigned to see a second version. Results are then compared to test the effectiveness of message variations
simulation
Models the combined effects of individual project risks and other sources of uncertainty to evaluate their potential impact on achieving project objectives.
Defect Repair
Modifies a nonconforming product or product component
3 point estimating
Most likely (M): based on duration of activity given the resources likely to be assigned, their productivity, realistic expectations of availability for activity, dependencies, interruptions Optimistic (O): based on analysis of best-case scenario Pessimistic (P): based on analysis of worst-case scenario
Non-event risks
Most projects focus only on risks that are uncertain future events that may or may not occur.
moscow
Must have Should have Could have Won't have (prioritization technique)
Facilitated Workshops
Organized working sessions led by qualified facilitators to determine what a project's requirements are and to get all stakeholders together to agree on the project's outcomes.
Business case
Outline the project objectives, required investments, and financial and qualitative criteria for project success. Business case and business management plan developed prior to project being initiated.
Colocation
Placing many or all of the most active project team members in the same physical location to enhance their ability to perform as a team.
deming cycle
Plan, Do, Check, Act
Subsidiary Management Plan
Plans associated with a specific aspect or knowledge area of the project
Organizational process assets (OPA's)
Plans, processes, policies, procedures, and knowledge bases that are specific to and used by the performing organization. Good or bad impact
pestle
Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental
Prompt List
Predetermined list of risk categories that might give rise to individual project risks.
Waterfall lifecycle
Predictive life cycle
Four Types of life cycles
Predictive, iterative, incremental, and agile life cycle.
Risk report
Presents information on sources of overall project risk, together with summary information on identified individual project risks.
centralized purchasing
Procurement and catering functions will be carried out by a separate dept. with specific role to purchase, negotiate, and sign contracts.
portfolio
Projects, programs, subsidiary portfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives. Group of non related programs
Story boarding
Prototyping technique showing sequence or navigation through a series of images or illustrations.
Supportive PMO
Provide a consultative role to projects by supplying templates, best practices, training access to information, and lessons learned from other projects.
Controlling PMO
Provide support and require compliance through various means. Compliance may involve adopting project management frameworks or methodologies, using specific templates, forms and tools or conformance to governance
Agile Release Planning
Provides a high-level summary timeline for the release schedule (typically 3 - 6 months) based on the product roadmap and the product vision.
Organizational project management
Provides framework that enables org's to consistently and predictably deliver an org. Strategy, producing better performance, better results, and a sustainable competitive advantage.
Project Governance Framework
Provides the stakeholders with structure, processes, roles, responsibilities, accountabilities, and decision-making models, for managing the project.
Risk Threshold
Reflect the risk appetite of the org. and project stakeholders
de jure regulations
Regulations that are mandated by law or have been approved by a recognized body of experts.
de facto regulations
Regulations that are widely accepted and adopted through use.
program
Related projects, subsidiary programs, and program activities that are managed in a coordinated manner to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually.
RACI
Responsible, Accountable, Consult, Inform
Emergent Risk
Risks that can only be recognized only after they have occurred
project management information systems
Scheduling software that expedites the process of building a schedule model.
Control Point/ control account
Scope, budget, actual cost, and schedule are integrated and compared to to earned value for performance measurement.
Product Backlog
Set of requirements and work to be performed
Risk Transfer
Shifting ownership of a threat to a third party to manage the risk and to bear the impact if the threat occurs
responsibility assignment matrix (RAM)
Shows the project resources assigned to each work package. Used to illustrate the connections between work packages, activities, and project team members.
Story Points
Story point is a arbitrary measure used by Scrum teams. This is used to measure the effort required to implement a story. In simple terms its a number that tells the team how hard the story is. Hard could be related to complexity, Unknowns and effort. - no specific measure of time - relative size - leverage fibonacci series - highlights larger differences - prevents premature commitments
Directive PMO
Take control of the projects by directly managing the projects.
cross-functional team member
Team members with all the skills necessary to produce a working product.
on demand scheduling
Team pulls work from a backlog or intermediate queue of work to be done immediately as resources become available (e.g., Kanban).
measure of capacity
Teams estimate what they can complete.
tecop
Technical, Environmental Commercial, Operational and Political
User Stories
Textual descriptions of required functionality. Short descriptions written by customers of what they need a system to do for them
Project management knowledge areas
The 10 project management groupings, or Knowledge Areas, that bring together common or related processes. They are Integration, Scope, Schedule, Cost, Quality, Resource, Communications, Risk, and Procurement, and stakeholder management.
Emotional Intelligence (EI)
The ability to identify, assess , and manage the personal emotions of oneself and other people , as well as the collective emotions of groups of people.
project reporting
The act of collecting and distributing project information
Risk Response
The actions taken to manage risk.
Project requirements
The actions, processes, or other conditions the project needs to meet
Soft logic
The activities don't necessarily have to happen in a specific order. For example, you could install the light fixtures first, then the carpet, and then paint the room. The project manager could use soft logic to change the order of the activities if so desired.
product requirements
The agreed-upon conditions or capabilities of a product, service, or outcome that the project is designed to satisfy.
Project Governance
The alignment of project objectives with the strategy of the larger organization by the project sponsor and project team. A project's governance is defined by and is required to fit within the larger context of the program or organization sponsoring it, but is separate from organizational governance.
float
The amount of time a project activity may be delayed without delaying a succeeding activity or the project finish date; also called slack
Free Float
The amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed without delaying the early start date of any successor or violating a schedule constraint.
Lead
The amount of time whereby a successor activity can be advanced with respect to a predecessor activity.
Lag
The amount of time whereby a successor activity will be delayed with respect to a predecessor activity.
Program Management
The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to a program to meet the program requirements and to obtain benefits and control not available by managing projects individually.
Project Management
The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements
Procurement Strategy
The approach by the buyer to determine the project delivery method and the type of legally binding agreement(s) that should be used to deliver the desired results.
Scope baseline
The approved version of a scope statement, work breakdown structure (WBS), and its associated WBS dictionary, that can be changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison.
Baseline
The approved version of the project management plan.
Planned Value (PV)
The authorized budget assigned to scheduled work.
Closed Procurements
The buyer, usually through its authorized procurement administrator, provides the seller with formal written notice that the contract has been completed.
Portfolio Management
The centralized management of one or more portfolios to achieve strategic objectives. Focuses on ensuring portfolio is performing consistent with org. objectives and evaluating portfolio components to optimize resource allocation.
Schedule Data
The collection of information for describing and controlling the schedule.
Management Elements
The components that comprise the key functions or principles of general management in the organization.
present value
The current value for a future sum of money or stream of cash flows given a specific rate of return.
Project Scope Statement
The description of the project scope, major deliverables, assumptions, and constraints.
Project Management Plan
The document that describes how the project will be executed monitored, and controlled.
Estimate to Complete (ETC)
The expected cost to finish all the remaining project work.
Product Scope
The features and functions that characterize a product, service, or result.
Information Radiator
The generic term for visual displays placed in a visible location so everyone can quickly see the latest information. In agile practice, also known as Big Visible Chart.
Progressive Elaboration
The iterative process of increasing the level of detail in a project management plan as greater amounts of information become available.
Earned Value (EV)
The measure of work performed expressed in terms of the budget authorized for that work.
Business Value
The net quantifiable benefit derived from a business endeavor. The benefit may be tangible, intangible, or both.
Schedule Network Analysis
The overarching technique used to generate the project schedule model.
Work Performance Information
The performance data collected from various controlling processes, analyzed in context and integrated based on relationships across areas.
project manager
The person assigned by the performing organization to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives.
Work Performance Reports
The physical or electronic representation of work performance information compiled in project documents, intended to generate decisions, actions, or awareness.
hierarchical focus
The position of the stakeholder or group with respect to the project team will affect the format and content of the message. Upward, downward, horizontal
Start-to-finish
The predecessor task cannot end until the successor task has started.
Determine Budget
The process of aggregating the estimated costs of individual activities or work packages to establish an authorized cost baseline.
Develop Schedule
The process of analyzing activity sequences, durations, resource requirements, and schedule constraints to create the project schedule model.
Manage Stakeholder Engagement
The process of communicating and working with stakeholders to meet their needs.
Funding Limit Reconciliation
The process of comparing the planned expenditure of project funds against any limits on the commitment of funds for the project to identify any variances between the funding limits and the planned expenditures.
Plan Scope Management
The process of creating a scope management plan that documents how the project and product scope will be defined.
Plan Scope Management
The process of creating a scope management plan that documents how the project scope will be defined, validated, and controlled.
Plan Cost Management
The process of defining how the project costs will be estimated, budgeted, managed, monitored, and controlled.
Plan Risk Management
The process of defining how to conduct risk management activities for a project.
Plan Resource Management
The process of defining how to estimate, acquire, manage, and utilize physical and team resources.
Develop Project Management Plan
The process of defining, preparing, and coordinating all component plans and integrating them into a comprehensive project management plan.
Collect Requirements
The process of determining, documenting, and managing stakeholder needs and requirements to meet project objectives.
Define Scope
The process of developing a detailed description of the project and product. Builds upon the high level product description that's documented during project initiation
Develop Project Charter
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.
Plan Communications Management
The process of developing an appropriate approach and plan for project communications based on stakeholder's information needs and requirements and available organizational assets.
Estimate Costs
The process of developing an approximation of the monetary resources needed to complete project activities.
Plan Stakeholder Engagement
The process of developing approaches to involve project stakeholders, based on their needs, expectations, interests, and potential impact on the project.
Plan Risk Responses
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.
Plan Procurement Management
The process of documenting project procurement decisions, specifying the approach, and identifying potential sellers. Whether to acquire goods and services from outside the project.
Monitor Communications
The process of ensuring that the information needs of the project and its stakeholders are met.
Control Resources
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.
Manage Communications
The process of ensuring timely and appropriate collection, creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, management, monitoring, and the ultimate disposition of project information.
Plan Schedule Management
The process of establishing the policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, developing, managing, executing, and controlling the project schedule.
Estimate Activity Durations
The process of estimating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with estimated resources.
Estimate Activity Resources
The process of estimating the type and quantities of material, human resources, equipment, or supplies required to perform each activity.
Close Project or Phase
The process of finalizing all activities for the project, phase, or contract.
Validate Scope
The process of formalizing acceptance of the completed project deliverables.
Sequence Activities
The process of identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities.
Define Activities
The process of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables.
Identify Risk
The process of identifying individual risks as well as sources of overall risk and documenting their characteristics.
Identify Stakeholders
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.
Plan Quality Management
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.
Implement Risk Responses
The process of implementing agreed-upon risk response plans.
Develop Team
The process of improving competencies, team member interaction, and overall team environment to enhance project performance.
Direct and Manage Project Work
The process of leading and performing the work defined in the project management plan and implementing approved changes to achieve the project's objectives.
Control Procurements
The process of managing procurement relationships, monitoring contract performance, and making changes and corrections as appropriate.
Control Quality
The process of monitoring and recording results of executing the quality activities to assess performance and recommend necessary changes.
Monitor Stakeholder Engagement
The process of monitoring project stakeholder relationships, and tailoring strategies for engaging stakeholders through the modification of engagement strategies and plans.
Monitor Risks
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.
Control Schedule
The process of monitoring the status of project activities to update project progress and manage changes to the schedule baseline to achieve the plan.
Control Scope
The process of monitoring the status of the project and product scope and managing changes to the scope baseline.
Control Costs
The process of monitoring the status of the project to update the project costs and managing changes to the cost baseline.
Perform quantitative risk analysis
The process of numerically analyzing the combined effect of identified individual project risks and other sources of uncertainty on overall project objectives.
Conduct Procurements
The process of obtaining seller responses, selecting a seller, and awarding a contract.
Acquire Resources
The process of obtaining team members, facilities, equipment, materials, supplies, and other resources necessary to complete project work.
Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis
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.
Perform Integrated Change Control
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.
Perform Integrated Change Control
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 their disposition.
Create Work Breakdown Structure
The process of subdividing project deliverables and project work into smaller, more manageable components.
manage team
The process of tracking team member performance, providing feedback, resolving issues, and managing team changes to optimize project performance.
Monitor and control project work
The process of tracking, reviewing, and reporting overall progress to meet the performance objectives defined in the project management plan.
Manage Quality
The process of translating the quality management plan into executable quality activities that incorporate the organization's quality policies into the project.
Manage Project Knowledge
The process of using existing knowledge and creating new knowledge to achieve the project's objectives and contribute to organizational learning.
Project Communications Management
The processes necessary to ensure that the information needs of the project and its stakeholders are met through development of artifacts and implementation of activities designed to achieve effective information exchange.
Project Procurement Management
The processes necessary to purchase or acquire products, services, or results needed from outside the project team.
Project Risk Management
The processes of conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis, response planning, and controlling risk on a project.
Resource Management Plan
The project document that identifies resources and how to acquire, allocate, monitor, and control them.
Project-Oriented Organization structure
The project manager and core project team operate as a completely seperate org. unit within the parent org.
Work Performance Data
The raw observations and measurements identified during activities being performed to carry out the project work.
Actual Cost (AC)
The realized cost incurred for the work performed on an activity during a specific time period.
Cost Plus Fixed Fee
The seller is reimbursed for allowable costs plus a fixed fee calculated as a percentage of the allowable costs.
Cost plus incentive fee
The seller is reimbursed for the costs incurred in doing the work and receives a predetermined fee plus an incentive bonus for meeting certain objectives
Project Life Cycle
The series of phases that a project passes through from its initiation to its closure.
Technical Project Management
The skills to effectively apply project management knowledge to deliver the desired outcomes for programs or projects.
Minimum Business Increment (MBI)
The smallest amount of value that can be added to a product or service that benefits the business.
Flow-Based Agile
The time it takes to complete a feature is not the same for each feature. The team pulls features from the backlog based on its capacity to start work rather than on an iteration based schedule.
Scope Creep
The uncontrolled expansion to product or project scope without adjustments to time, cost, and resources.
Project Scope
The work performed to deliver a product, service, or result with the specified features and functions.
On- demand scheduling
This approach, typically used in a Kanban system, is based on the theory-of constraints and pull-based scheduling concepts from lean manufacturing to limit a team's work in progress in order to balance demand against the team's delivery throughput.
Multicriteria Decision Analysis
This technique 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.
Initiating Process Group
Those processes performed to define a new project or a new phase of an existing project by obtaining authorization to start the project or phase.
Closing Process Group
Those processes performed to formally complete or close the project, phase, or contract.
Monitoring and Controlling Process Group
Those processes required to track, review, and regulate the progress and performance of the project; identify any areas in which changes to the plan are required; and initiate the corresponding changes.
Mandatory dependencies
Those that are legally or contractually required or inherent in the nature of the work. Must be carried out at a particular time.
response time
Time an item waits until work starts.
Resource Optimization
Used to adjust the start and finish dates of activities to adjust planned resource use to be equal to or less than resource availability.
agreements
Used to define initial intentions for a project
Daily Stand Up
Used to micro commit to each other, uncover problems, and ensure work flows smoothly through the team. Shouldn't be a status meeting but instead be used as a time to self-organize and make commitments to each other.
Decision Tree Analysis
Used to support selection of the best of several alternative courses of action
Joint Application Design (JAD)
Using highly organized and intensive workshops to bring together project stakeholders—the sponsor, users, business analysts, programmers, and so on—to jointly define and design information systems
VUCA
Volatility Uncertainty Complexity Ambiguity
Risk Avoidance
When the project team acts to eliminate the threat or protect the project from its impact.
Parkinson's law
Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
Workshops that are commonly used in manufacturing field to determine new product development requirements.
system
a collection of various components that together can produce results not obtainable by the individual components alone.
Planning Poker
a consensus-based technique for estimating, mostly used to estimate effort or relative size of tasks in software development. use cards and Fibonacci numbers.
Project Activity
a distinct, scheduled portion of work performed during a project.
Waiver
a document that shows a person voluntarily gives up a right, claim or privilege
Probability and Impact Matrix
a grid for mapping the probability of each risk occurrence and its impact on project objectives if that risk occurs.
benchmarking
a process by which a company compares its performance with that of high-performing organizations
Quality Metrics
a project or product attribute and how the control quality process will measure it
Organizational governance
a structured way to provide direction and control through policies, and processes, to meet strategic and operational goals. Typically conducted by board of directors.
Finish-to-finish
a successor activity cannot finish until a predecessor activity has finished
Start-to-start
a successor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has started
Time and Material Contract (T&M)
a type of contract that is a hybrid arrangement containing aspects of both cost-reimbursable and fixed-price contracts. resemble cost-reimbursable type arrangements in that they have no definitive end, because the full value of the arrangement is not defined at the time of the award. thus these contracts can grow in contract value as if they were cost-reimbursable type arrangements. conversely, these arrangements can also resemble fixed-price arrangements. for example, the unit rates are preset by the buyer and seller, when both parties agree on the rates for the category of senior engineers
post-training assessment
after training, use an assessment to demonstrate newly acquired levels of competence.
qualifications only
applies when the time and cost of a full selection process would not make sense because the value of the procurement is relatively small
least cost
appropriate for procurements of a standard or routine nature where well-established practices and standards exist and from which a specific and well-defined outcome is expected, which can be executed at different costs.
Compliance Requirements
aspects of projects solutions that are subject to legal or regulatory constraints.
Prototyping
assists in process of obtaining early feedback on requirements by providing a working model of the expected product before building.
Gantt Chart
bar graph
obstacles
barriers; things that get in the way or hinder but can be avoided with some effort
team facilitator
can be a PM, servant leader, scrum master, project team lead, etc.
Negative Total Float
caused when a constraint on the late dates is violated by duration and logic.
Positive Total Float
caused when the backward pass is calculated from a schedule constraint that is later than the early finish date that has been calculated during forward pass calculation.
Project Organization Chart
chart that provides a snapshot of who is working on the project, and also shows the reporting structure.
Recurring Retrospectives
check on the effectiveness of the quality processes
composite
combination of matrix and project oriented, and functional.
Advertising
communicating with users or potential users of a product, service, or result.
Reserve Analysis
compare amount of the contingency reserves remaining to the amount of risk remaining to determine if remaining reserve is adequate
Earned Value Analysis (EVA)
compares the performance measurement baseline to the actual schedule and cost performance
Net Present Value
compares value of a currency unit today to value of came current unit in future after taking inflation and discount rate into account.
activity
component of a decomposed work package. not same as work packages or tasks.
mind mapping
consolidates ideas created through individual brainstorming sessions into a single map to reflect commonality and differences in understanding and to generate new ideas.
appraisal costs
costs related to measuring, evaluating, and auditing materials, parts, products, and services to assess conformance with quality standards
scalable
covering multiple dimensions of program complexity
Artifacts
created by project teams during project work. Facilitate management of project. Ex: spreadsheets, emails, meeting minutes, etc.
distributed team
cross-functional teams in different locations.
Estimate at Completion (EAC)
current projected final cost of the project.
Crystal Methods
designed to scale and provide a selection of methodology rigor based on project size and the criticality of the project.
Communication Requirements Analysis
determines the information needs of the stakeholders.
Feature Driven Development
developed to meet specific needs of a large software development project.
fixed budget
disclosing available budget to invited sellers in rfp and selecting highest-ranking technical proposal within budget.
focus group
elicitation technique that brings together prequalified stakeholders and subject matter experts to learn about their expectations and attitudes about a product, service, or result.
Test at all levels
employ system-level testing for end-to end info. and unit testing for building blocks.
roll out plan
enable pm to define knowledge transfer, training, and readiness activities required to implement the change.
sprint review
end of each iteration, product owner and other customer stakeholders review progress and receive feedback for that iteration
Acceptance Test Driven Development
entire team gets together and discusses acceptance criteria for a work product
Assembling the Project Team
estimate, acquire, and manage teams of people, create an effective team environment, track team performance, execute improvement, resolve issues, and manage team personal changes.
Risk triggers (trigger condition)
events or conditions that indicate that a risk is about to occur.
Attributes
ex; phase 1, phase 2, 1 month, 1 week, etc.
Activity Attributes
extend the description of the activity by identifying multiple components associated with each activity
Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEF)
external environmental factors and/or internal not under control or project team.
contingency plan
fall back plan, or contingency response strategy
return on investment
financial metric of probability that measures the gain or loss from an investment relative to amount of money invested.
risk
focused on future, can be positive or negative, response is called risk responses.
issues
focuses on present, always negative, response is called a workaround
Enterprise Scrum
framework designed to apply scrum method on a more holistic org. level than a single product development effort.
Influence Diagram
graphical aids to decision making under uncertainty
T-shaped people
has a defined , recognized specialization, but has the skills, versatility and aptitude for collaboration to help other people when and where necessary.
Phase Gate
held at the end of a phase. Project's performance and progress are compared to project and business documents.
Sensitivity Analysis
helps to determine which risks have the most potential impact on the project.
Cost of Quality
includes all costs incurred over the life of the product by investment in preventing nonconformance to requirements, appraising the product or service for conformance to requirements, and failing to meet requirements
Decentralized Purchasing
individual departments or separate locations handle their own purchasing requirements (usually small companies).
channel
individual line of communication between 2 people: sender and receiver.
matrix
individuals report upward and horizontally to one or more pm's.
unknown knowns
information that an individual or org. has in its possession but whose existence, relevance or value hasn't been realized.
Disciplined Agile (DA)
integrates several agile best practices into a comprehensive model.
Internal dependencies
involve a precedence relationship between project activities and are generally inside the project teams control.
External dependencies
involve relationships between project and non-project activities
agile
iterative repetition with incremental deliveries.
Explicit knowledge
knowledge that can be readily codified using words, pictures, and numbers
tacit knowledge
knowledge that cannot be codified; concerns knowing how to do a certain task and can be acquired only through active participation in that task
autocratic decision making
leaders make the decision alone without necessarily involving employees in the decision-making process
spikes (timeboxed research of expirements)
may be used in circumstances such as: estimation, acceptance criteria definition, and understanding flow of a user's action through the product. Helpful when team needs to learn some critical technical or functional element.
Throughput Metric
measurement of team's work that's moved from one stage over a certain time.
Key performance indicators (KPIs)
measurements that define and measure the progress of an organization toward achieving its objectives
encode
message is coded into symbols such as text, sound , etc.
XP Metaphor
metaphors enable team to understand overarching approach that's being taken to provide a capability or solve a problem.
update
modifies a document or plan
communication channels formula
n(n-1)/2
McClelland's Achievement Theory
need for achievement, need for power, need for affiliation (to belong to a team)
disruptive technologies
new technologies that change existing forms of communication channels
go live
occurs at end of project timeline
Continuous Integration
perform frequent incorporation of work into the whole, no matter the product, and then retest to determine entire product still works as intended.
co-creation
places greater emphasis on including affected stakeholders in the team as partners.
business needs document
prerequisite or formal business case, describes requirements, what needs creating/ performing.
Executing Process Group
processes performed to complete the work defined in the project management plan to satisfy the project requirements.
Planning Process Group
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.
Project Communications
products of the planning process, addressed by the communications management plan that defines the collection , creation, dissemination, storage, retrieval, management, tracking, and disposition of these communications artifacts.
Follow-the-sun development
project team members living in one country can pass their work to team members in another country in which the work day is just beginning to speed up product development
Organizational theory
provides info regarding way in which ppl, teams, units behave.
Change management plan
provides the direction for managing the change control process and documents the roles and responsibilities of the change control board (CCB)
Duration estimates
quantitative assessments of the likely number of time periods that are required to complete an activity, a phase, or a project
w. edwards deming's philosphy
reduce expenses, increase productivity, and thus create market shares, better design of products, higher level of uniform, product quality, improvement of product testing, and greater sales.
six sigma
respond to customer's needs and improving processes by systematically removing defects.
Product Owner
responsible for guiding direction of the product, provide feedback and set direction on next piece of functionality to be developed/ delivered. Create backlog for and with the team.
Cost Plus Award Fee Contracts (CPAF)
seller is reimbursed for all costs, but the majority of the fee is earned only based on the satisfaction of broad subjective criteria
Push Communication
sent or distributed directly to specific recipients who need to receive the information
Shu Ha Ri
shu - "protect", "obey" - follow the rule ha - "detach", "digress" - breaking the rule ri - "leave", "separate" - be the rule (find an individual path)
Scrum
single-team process framework used to manage product development
impediments
situations, conditions, and actions that slow down or hinder progress.
Extreme Programming
software development method based on frequent cycles
Product box
stakeholders try to describe aspects of a solution in same way a marketer might describe features and benefits on a box.
audit
structured , independent process used to determine if project activities comply with org. and project policies, processes and procedures.
value engineering
structured technique to optimize value in a project
Finish-to-start
successor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has finished
Velocity
sum of the story point sizes for the features actually completed in the iteration. measurement of total outputs from an iteration to attempt to predict future iteration outputs.
Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix
supports comparison between the current engagement levels of stakeholders and the desired engagement levels required for successful project delivery.
Triangular Distribution
tE = (tO + tM + tP)/3
Sprint Planning Meeting
team collaborates to plan work for current sprint.
team skills appraisal
team holistically identify strengths and weaknesses, assess opportunities for improvement, build trust, and establish effective communication.
pm 3 key skill sets
technical pm, leadership, and strategic and business management
baselining
technique for measuring efficacy of training
Observation
technique used to gain knowledge of a specific job, role, task, or function in order to understand and determine project requirements.
quality
the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements.
Internal Rate of Return
the discount rate at which the net present value of an investment project is zero.
scope definition
the extent of the area or subject matter that something deals with or to which it is relevant.
Backlog preparation
the ordered list of all the work, presented in story form, for a team.
work performance
the physical or electronic representation of work performance information intended to generate decisions , actions, or awareness.
Attribute Sampling
the result either conforms or does not conform
Variable Sampling
the result is rated on a continuous scale that measures the degree of conformity
critical path
the sequence of activities that determine the earliest date by which the project can be completed
retrospective
time for the team to learn from previous work and make small improvements.
cycle time
time required to process an item
Configuration Management
tools used to manage changes to a product or service being produced as well as changes to any project documents. Applied to a product not the project.
lead time
total time it takes to deliver an item, measured from the time it's added to the board to the moment it's completed.
Iteration burndown chart
tracks the work that remains to be completed in the iteration backlog
Remote Pairing
use virtual conference tools to share screens, including voice and video links.
pull communication
used for very large volumes of information, for very large audiences, and requires the recipients to access the communication content at their own discretion.
Control Charts
used to determine whether or not a process is stable or has predictable performance
Change Log
used to document changes that occur during a project.
autonomy
using light management touch. Not interfering in team work too much.
Types of non-event risks
variability risk= uncertainty exists about some key characteristics of a planned event or activity or decision. Ambiguity risk= Uncertainty exists about what might happen in the future
black out
when deliverables are handed over for implementation.
law of diminishing returns
when one or more factors are fixed, there will come a point beyond which the extra output from additional units of the variable factor will diminish
pre-assigned
when physical or or team resources for a project are determined in advance.
Mini-waterfalls
when the team address all requirements in a given period . Then attempts to do all of the designs, then moves on to do all the building instead of producing a small number of features across the board.
Start Float (SF)
without delaying project finish date or violating a schedule constraint
Scrumban
work is organized into small sprints and leverages use of kanban boards to visualize and monitor the work
Test-driven development (TDD) and behavior driven development
writing automated tests before writing/ creating the product actually helps people design and mistake-proof the product.
Claims Administration
• Contested changes and potential constructive changes are those requested changes where the buyer and seller cannot reach an agreement on compensation for the change, or cannot agree that a change has occurred. • These contested changes are variously called claims, disputes, or appeals. • Settlement of all claims and disputes through negotiation is the preferred method
