Project Management - Final

Portfolio management

A collection of projects or programs and other work that are grouped together to facilitate effective management of that work.

Project close report

A general report that provides an overview of the project is created to provide stakeholders with a summary of the project.

SMART goal

A goal that helps you identify exactly what it is you want to achieve and know for sure when you've achieved it; made up of specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goals

Program management

A group of related projects managed in a way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually.

Platform projects

A major departure from existing projects. They create something entirely new.

Prototypes

A method of obtaining early feedback on requirements by providing a working model of the expected product before actually building it.

Team Concept

A modern business model that is based on the belief that people who work effectively in teams can accomplish more than individuals can accomplish working alone

Contract

A mutually binding agreement that obligates the seller to provide a specific product or service and they obligates the buyer to pay for it

Statement of Work

A narrative description of products or services to be delivered by a project

Delphi technique

A selected group of experts answers questionnaires and provides feedback regarding the responses from each round of requirements gathering. The responses are only available to the facilitator to maintain anonymity.

Tuckman's theory

A social theory proposed by Bruce Tuckman in the 1960s states that groups move through predictable stages as they begin and carry out their work.

Brainstorming

A technique used to generate and collect multiple ideas related to project and product requirements.

Alternatives Identification

A technique used to generate different approaches to execute and perform the work of the project.

Project

A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.

Responsibility

A thing that one is required to do as part of a job, role, or legal obligation; activity, duty, action, or task

Risk

A threat of a damage, liability, loss, or other negative occurrence that is caused by external or internal vulnerabilities, and that may be minimized or neutralized through preemptive action.

Communication

A two-way process of reaching mutual understanding in which participants not only exchange information, but also create and share meaning.

Executing

Activities performed to carry out and complete the work as defined in the project management plan.

Closing

Activities performed to finalize the project - to bring it to a conclusion and to meet contractual obligations.

Monitoring & Controlling

Activities performed to track, review, and regulate the execution of the project.

Enterprise environmental factors

All external and internal factors that surround or influence a project's success.

Organizational process assets

All process related assets from any of the organizations involved in the project that can be used to influence the project's success.

Projectized organization

An organizational structure in which the project manager has full authority to assign priorities, apply resources, and direct the work of persons assigned to the project.

Composite organization

An organizational structure that blends the functional, matrix, and projectized types of organizations.

Matrix organization

An organizational structure that facilitates the horizontal flow of skills and information

Functional organization

An organizational structure that uses the principle of specialization based on function or role.

Deliverable

Any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that must be produced to complete a process, phase, or project.

Scope baseline

Approved version of the detailed scope statement, work breakdown structure, and its associated WBS dictionary.

Qualitative

Associated with the subjective quality of a thing or phenomenon; Cannot be measured.

Focus groups

Bring together prequalified stakeholders and subject matter experts to learn about their expectations and attitudes about a proposed product, service, or result. A trained moderator guides the group through an interactive discussion.

Project/Phase closure documents

Consists of formal documentation that indicates completion of the project or phase and the transfer of the complete project or phase deliverables to others.

Initiating

Defines a new project or a new phase of an existing project

Work breakdown structure (WBS)

Defines each deliverable and further breaks down deliverables into smaller tasks

Product acceptance criteria

Defines the process and criteria for accepting completed products, services, or results.

Requirements documentation

Describes the collection of requirements from various stakeholders.

Project Scope Statement

Describes, in detail, the project's deliverables and the work required to create those deliverables.

WBS dictionary

Detailed description of the work required; very detailed and technical description of each task.

Project charter

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

Business Case

Document that provides the necessary information from a business standoint to determine whether the project is worth the required investment

Project files

Documentation resulting from the project's activities. Examples would be: project management plan, scope cost, schedule, change management documentation.

Corrective Action

Documented direction for executing the project work to bring expected future performance of the project work in line with the project management plan.

Preventative Action

Documented direction to perform an activity that can reduce the probability of negative consequences associated with project risks.

Requirements Management Plan

Documents how requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed throughout the project.

Product scope description

Elaborates the characteristic of the product, service, or result described in the project charter and requirements documentation.

Derivative projects

Enhance, add to, or extend existing projects.

Planning

Establishes the total scope and order of the project.

Unanimity

Everyone agrees on a single course of action.

Expert judgement

Expertise provided by any group or individual with specialized knowledge or training on a subject.

Expert Judgement

Expertise sought form groups or individuals with specialized training or knowledge.

Facilitated Workshop

Focused sessions that bring key cross-functional stakeholders together to define product requirements.

Facilitated workshops

Focused sessions that bring key cross-functional stakeholders together to define product requirements.

Project management plan

Formal approved document that defines how the project is executed, monitored and controlled.

Interviews

Formal or informal approach to discover information from stakeholders by talking to them directly.

Change Control Board

Formally constituted group of stakeholders responsible for reviewing, evaluating, approving, delaying, or rejecting changes to a project.

Project exclusions

Generally identifies what is excluded from the project.

Historical information documents

Historical and lessons learned documents that are transferred to a knowledge base for use by future projects or phases.

Idea/mind mapping

Ideas created through individual brainstorming are consolidated into a single map to reflect commonality and differences in understanding, and generate new ideas.

Project deliverables

Include both the outputs that comprise the product or service of the project, as well as ancillary results.

Gold plating

Intentionally adding extra features or functions to the products which were not included in the scope statement.

Enterprise Environmental Factors

Internal and external environmental factors that surround or influence a project's success.

Time

Involves establishing a timeline for completion of the project, including deadlines, benchmarks, and milestones.

Requirements Traceability Matrix

Is a table the links requirements to their origin and traces them throughout the project life cycle.

Project assumptions

Lists and describes the specific project assumptions associated with the project scope and the potential impact of those assumptions if they prove to be false.

Project constraints

Lists and describes the specific project constraints associated with the project scope that limits the team's options.

Short-term goal

Objectives that take less than a year to achieve

Long-term goal

Objectives that will take a year or more to reach

Dictatorship

One individual makes the decision for the group.

Program management office

Organizational body or entity that is assigned various responsibilities related to the centralized & coordinated management of projects.

Operations management

Organizational function of performing the ongoing execution of activities that produce the same product or repetitive service.

Stakeholder

Persons or organizations who are actively involved or whose interest may affect a project.

Observations

Provide a direct way of viewing individuals in their environment and how they perform their jobs or task and carry out processes. Great for understanding how end users interact with a product or situation.

Quantitative

Relating to, measuring, or measured by the quantity; data driven information

Change Request

Requests to expand or reduce the project scope, modify policies, processes, plans, or procedures, modify costs or budgets, or revise schedules.

Schedule baseline

Specific version of the schedule model used to compare actual results to the plan to determine if preventive or corrective action is needed to meet project objectives.

Cost performance baseline

Specific version of the time-phased budget used to compare actual expenditures to planned expenditures to determine if preventative or corrective action is needed to meet the project objectives

Majority

Support from more than 50% of the members of the group.

Quality

The ability of a process or product to satisfy both stated and implied needs, with those needs being defined by the stakeholders.

Goal setting

The ability to visualize, set, and focus on achieving objectives

Cost

The amount of money that will be required to complete the project successfully.

Scope

The detailed set of deliverables or features of a project. These deliverables are derived from a project's requirements. Defines the boundaries of the project and what is outside those boundaries.

Project Management

The discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of a project, namely, achieving its goals and objectives

Defect Repair

The formally documented identification of a defect in a project component with a recommendation to either repair the defect or completely replace the component.

Role

The function assumed or part played by a person or thing in a particular situation; descriptive title or label

Human Resources

The knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes of those working on the project.

Plurality

The largest block in a group decides even if a majority is not achieved.

Project manager

The person assigned by the performing organization to achieve project activities.

Project Manager

The person assigned by the performing organization to achieve the project activities.

Project Sponsor

The person who commissions others to deliver the project and champions the cause throughout the project

Define scope

The process of developing a detailed description of the project and product.

Group Dynamics

The processes involved when people in a group interact with each other

R & D projects

The research and development of new knowledge, new technologies, and new processes.

Project Team Member

The staff who actively work on the project, at some stage, during the lifetime of the project

PMBOK

The standard for managing most projects most of the time across many types of industries.

Organizational structure

The typically hierarchical arrangement of lines of authority, communications, rights and duties of an organization.

Scope creep

The uncontrolled expansion to product or project scope without adjustments to time, cost, and resources.

Procurement

The way that businesses and organizations purchase or obtain goods or services. Procurement may involve specifications development, price negotiation, purchase orders, purchasing, inventory control, and invoices.

Affinity diagram

This technique allows large numbers of ideas to be sorted into groups for review and analysis.

Nominal group technique

This technique enhances brainstorming with a voting process used to rank the most useful ideas for further brainstorming or for prioritization.

Breakthrough projects

Use entirely new technology.

Questionnaires and Surveys

Written sets of questions designed to quickly accumulate information from a wide number of respondents.