Intro to Project Management Chapter 4
planning
Often the most difficult and unappreciated process in project management
bottom-up estimate
Type of estimate that can be very accurate but also very expensive to create
parametric
Type of estimate that uses project characteristics in a mathematical model, such as number of square feet of a house
analogous or top-down
Type of estimate that uses the actual costs of a similar project as its basis
requirement
a condition or capability that must be met or possessed by a system, product, service, result, or component to satisfy a contract, standard, specification, or other formal document
requirements management plan
a plan that describes how project requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed.
project buffer
The additional time added before a project's due date to account for unexpected factors.
slack / float
The amount of time an activity may be delayed without delaying a succeeding activity or the project finish date.
scope baseline
The approved project scope statement and its associated WBS and WBA dictionary
discretionary dependencies
The dependencies that are defined by the project team.
mandatory dependencies
The dependencies that are inherent in the nature of the work being performed on a project.
external dependencies
The dependencies that involve relationships between project and non-project activities.
analogous estimates / top-down estimates
The estimates that use the actual cost of a previous, similar project as the basis for estimating the cost of the current project.
Critical path
The series of activities that determine the earliest by which the project can be completed; it is the longest path through the network diagram and has the least amount of slack or float
node
The starting and ending of an activity-on-arrow network diagram.
Scope Creep
The tendency for project scope to continually increase
work breakdown structure (WBS)
A deliverable-oriented grouping of the work involved in a project that defines the total scope of the project.
team contract
A document created to help promote team work and clarify team communications.
work breakdown structure (WBS) dictionary
A document that describes detailed information about WBS tasks.
feeding buffers
Additional time added before tasks on the critical path that are preceded by non-critical path tasks.
buffer
Additional time to complete a task, added to an estimate to account for various factors.
cost budgeting
Allocating the overall cost estimate to individual tasks over time
three-point estimate
An estimate that includes an optimistic, most likely and pessimistic estimate.
burst
An occurrence when two or more activities follow a single node on a network diagram.
dynamic or flexible
As opposed to static, project management plans should be this
bottom-up estimates
Cost estimates created by estimating individual activities and summing them to get a project total.
duration
The actual amount of time spent working on an activity plus elapsed time.
team contract
Document created to help promote teamwork and clarify team communications (a ________ contract)
85-90%
EI accounts for ______ of the difference between outstanding leaders and their more average peers.
"you plan to fail?"
End of the saying, "If you fail to plan..."
gets managed
End of the saying, "What gets measured..."
project management plan
Plan that coordinates all other project plans
Organizational process assets
Policies and procedures related to project management, past project files, and lessons-learned reports from previous, similar projects
activities
Process in project time management that seems more like a scope task - defining ________
critical
Shows the shortest time in which a project can be completed; also the longest path through a network diagram - the ______ path
multitasking
When a resource works on more than one tasks at a time.
emotion
When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of ______
Parkinson's Law
Work expands to fill time allowed.
scope management plan
A document that includes descriptions of how the team will prepare the project scope statement , create the WBS, verify completion if the project deliverables, and control requests for changes to the project scope.
project management plan
A document which is a deliverable for the project integration management knowledge area, used to coordinate all project planning documents and to help guide a project's execution and control.
Theory of Constraints (TOC)
A management philosophy that states that any complex system at any point in time often has only one aspect or constraint that is limiting its ability to achieve more of its goal.
chain
A method of scheduling that considers limited resources when creating a project schedule - critical ____ scheduling
critical chain scheduling
A method of scheduling that takes limited resources into account when creating a project schedule and includes buffers to protect the project completion date.
Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
A network analysis technique used to estimate project duration when there is a high degree of uncertainty about the individual activity duration estimates
activity-on-arrow (AOA)
A network diagramming technique in which activities are represented by arrows and connected at points called nodes to illustrate the sequence of activities.
arrow diagramming method (ADM)
A network diagramming technique in which activities are represented by arrows and connected at points called nodes to illustrate the sequence of activities.
precedence diagramming method (PDM)
A network diagramming technique in which boxes represent activities.
critical path method (CPM) / analysis
A networking diagramming techniques used to predict total project duration.
fast tracking
A scheduling compression technique where you do activities in parallel that you would normally do in sequence.
network diagram
A schematic display of the logical relationships among or sequencing of project activities.
milestone
A significant event on a project
milestone
A significant event on a project.
merge
A situation when two or more nodes precede a single node on a network diagram.
Gantt charts
A standard format for displaying project schedule information by listing project activities and their corresponding start and finish dates in a calendar format.
baseline
A starting point or measurement that can be used for future comparison
baseline
A starting point, a measurement, or and observation that is documented so that it can be used for future comparison; also defined as the original project plans plus approved changes.
requirements tractability matrix (RTM)
A table that lists requirements, various attributes of each requirement, and the status of the requirements to ensure that all of them are addressed.
activity list
A tabulation of activities to be included on a project schedule.
work package
A task at the lowest level of the WBS.
crashing
A technique for making cost and schedule trade-offs to obtain the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost.
parametric modeling
A technique that uses project characteristics (parameters) in a mathematical model to estimate project cost.
baseline
A time-phased budget that project managers use to measure and monitor cost performance - a cost ______
cost baseline
A time-phased budget that project managers use to measure and monitor cost performance.
SMART
Acronym for creating milestones that are specific, measureable, assignable, realistic, and time-framed
Self-awareness Self-management Social-Awareness Relationship Management
Four Dimensions to Emotional Intelligence
Murphy's Law
If something can go wrong, it will.
activity attributes
Information that provides schedule-related information about each activity, such as predecessors. successors, logical relationships. leads and lags, resource requirements, constraints, imposed dates, and assumptions related to the activity.
work package
Lowest level of the WBS
work breakdown structure
Meaning of the acronym WBS
all of them
Number of knowledge areas that include planning processes
subsidiary plans
Other plans that the project management plan refers to, such as the scope management plan, risk management plan, etc. are called ________ plans
scope
The _____ management plan involves defining and controlling what work is or is not included in the project
meeting
The ______ guidelines section of a team contract describes items like arranging telephone or video-conferencing, developing and following agendas, etc.
variable
The length of a project management plan is ______.
guide project execution
The main purpose of project planning is to
Execution
The main purpose of project planning is to guide ______.
effort
The number of workdays or work hours required to complete a task.
statement
The project scope ______ defines the scope of a project
dependency / relationship
The sequence of project activities or tasks.
mind mapping
approach for creating a WBS that that uses branches radiating out from a core idea to structure thoughts and ideas
Mindfulness
being aware of our own inner experience (attuned to self), and paying attention to what is happening around us (attuned to others and the world around us).