Project Management (C722)

Project Manager's Book of Knowledge

The PMBOK® Guide—Fifth Edition is the preeminent global standard for project management. It provides project managers with the fundamental practices needed to achieve organizational results and excellence in the practice of project management.

Payback Period

The amount of time required for an investment to generate cash flows sufficient to recover its initial cost. Calculates the amount of time required to earn back the cost of doing the project. In order to calculate the ______ ______, you need to know the cost of the project and the amount of revenue the project will generate in future periods.

Float Time

The amount of time the early start of a task may be delayed without delaying the finish date of the project. Also known as slack time.

Project Management

The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements.

Budget at Completion (BAC)

The approved total baseline budget approved for the completed project.

Project Defining Phase

When an idea is developed into a project proposal. The idea for the project is formalized into a project proposal and the decision on whether the project will be selected for implementation is made. It begins when an idea for a project is identified by a company.

Project Planning Phase

When detailed planning occurs. The level of detail can be tailored to align with the complexity of the project, but the planning must be sufficient so that the stakeholders are satisfied that the project outcomes will be achieved and the project team understands the work that needs to be completed. This is often detailed by using a Work Breakdown Structure. The approval of the scope, budget, and schedule mark the end of the ______ phase of the project life cycle.

Lead/Lag Time

When linking tasks you can add a _____ or ______ time to extend a link backward or forward so that the successor task starts earlier or later than it otherwise would. For a default "Finish-to-Start (FS)" link, this either introduces an overlap (______ time), so that the successor task starts before its predecessor ends, or it introduces a delay (_____ time) that makes the successor task start some time after its predecessor ends.

Project Executing Phase

When the bulk of the work to complete the project outcomes occurs. Based on the plans created during the project planning phase, the project team completes the required work activities.

Vendor-Closing Checklist

1. Commodity items 2. Products designed and built for the project 3. Procurements of personnel

Project Life Cycle Phases

1. Defining 2. Planning 3. Executing 4. Closing

Stages of Team Development

1. Forming 2. Storming 3. Norming 4. Performing 5. Adjourning

5 Steps of Project Life Cycle

1. Initiating 2. Planning 3. Executing 4. Monitoring & Controlling 5. Closing

Internal Rate of Return (IRR)

Evaluates potential projects as if they were financial investments. Think of each project like investing in a stock or bond fund. Investors would probably want to place their investment in the fund that provides the highest rate of return.

Risk Threshold

Measure of the level of uncertainty or the level of impact at which a stakeholder may have a specific interest. Below that risk threshold, the organization will accept the risk. Above that risk threshold, the organization will not tolerate the risk.

Schedule Compression

Techniques used to shorten the schedule duration without reducing the project scope.

Risk: Technical

Technology availability and cost, complexity of the technical requirements, performance and reliability, quality, project requirements, costs, etc.

Early Project Termination

Terminating a project because its outcomes are no longer needed or the resources aren't available.

Critical Chain

This builds on the critical path method by going a step further adding time buffers to account for limited resources. All projects have limited resources and a project manager must insure resources are well managed.

Ratio Method

Experience from prior projects to estimate the overall cost of the current project. In residential construction, contractors are often able to provide reasonably accurate estimates of cost based on the square footage of the project and the type of materials to be used.

Deterministic Duration Estimation Techniques

are appropriate when the activity durations are very predictable. Using the deterministic approach requires that the team expert provide a reliable estimate of the time necessary to complete the activity.

Direct Overhead Costs

(Also known as indirect cost) are costs from the project that are shared across the work activities. If workspace, supervision, project administration, equipment, or other resources are not related to a specific work activity, they are included as overhead and will be allocated to all work activities.

Advantages to project management practices

- Controlling costs - Improving productivity - Achieving business results

Foundations of Agile Project Management

- Focus on the customer. Project success is based on responding to the customer's evolving understanding of their needs and priorities. - The project team works closely with the customer to understand requirements and deliver functionality that meets their requirements throughout each iteration. - Incremental but constant delivery of functionality. The project team will deliver usable functionality every few weeks to obtain customer feedback and determine the next deliverable functionality. - The project team members stay together for the duration of the project and work together during each iteration. The teams organize themselves to determine what needs to be done to complete the iteration. - Communication with the customer and within the team is critical. Daily stand-up team meetings are held to understand what has been completed, what needs to be completed that day, what barriers need to be overcome, and who will work on each part. One of the challenges of agile projects is the availability and decisiveness of the customer.

SMART Goals

- Specific (what do you want to achieve?) - Measurable (Can you assign a number?) - Attainable (is this possible with current resources/technology?) - Realistic/Relevant (does it make sense/inline with strategic goals?) - Timely (is there a date when it needs to be complete?)

Model Selection Criteria

1. Realistic 2. Capable 3. Flexible 4. Easy to use 5. Low cost 6. Comparable

Parametric Estimating

A cost-estimating technique that uses project characteristics (parameters) in a mathematical model to estimate project costs.

Traditional Project Management Methods

A defining characteristic of ______ ______ is that the path from project beginning to project end is linear and sequential steps are followed—define, plan, execute, close. The steps are followed chronologically and there is virtually no overlap. These ______ approaches are logical and work well in situations where the project outcomes can be clearly defined in advance and the project environment is stable. Most project organizations make use of ______ ______. Some of the characteristics of a project environment well-suited for ______ project management methods include: - A well-defined project outcome - A low-complexity project outcome - A project scope that is unlikely to change - Risks that are low and identifiable - Projects that use known/stable technologies - Projects that are not resource constrained

Project Proposal

A document that describes the project team the purpose of a project and its requirements. At a minimum, the ______ ______will need to include the following information: - Major project outcomes and deliverables - How the project will be completed - A high-level estimate of the cost - A high-level estimate of the completion time - The reason that the project should be undertaken - The benefits that the company will gain by completing the project - What resources will be needed - Any risks that could derail the project - Major stakeholders and their roles in the project - Where the decisions are made by the deciding customer or stakeholder

Resource Responsibility Matrix

A document that shows the needed resources which are identified and roles and responsibilities are detailed. Pg 83

Charter

A document that, like a contract, is agreed upon by the sponsor and key stake holders. It defines the project and authorized the resources, roles, responsibilities, authorities, and scope for the project.

Net Present Value (NPV)

A financial measure of the total future benefits of a project minus the costs of the project. If the future benefits (revenue, income, savings) are greater than the costs of the project, NPV is positive. If the costs of the project outweigh the future benefits, NPV will be negative. So overall, negative NPV is bad, positive NPV is good, and projects with higher NPV have greater benefits to companies. Uses concept of Future Net Cash Flows

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.

Histogram

A graph of vertical bars representing the frequency distribution of a set of data.

Portfolio

A group of related programs that support a long-term company goal or objective. The projects in a ______ may individually address separate initiatives within the organization but collectively move the organization toward meeting a long-term goal or objective.

Program

A group of related projects.

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. What is to be expected and how to hold accountable.

PRojects IN Controlled Environments (PRINCE2)

A highly structured project management method which focuses on the specification of the outputs rather than the coordination of activities (PMBOK). _______ includes very specific processes and terminology to ensure that all project participants understand the work. ________ has received wide acceptance in the European Union and other regions of the world.

AXELOS Ltd.

A joint venture between the government of the United Kingdom and Captia PLC. It was formed to manage and grow a number of standards and associated certifications developed by the Cabinet office, including ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library), PRINCE2, and Managing Successful Programs (MSP). Pg 22

Business Strategy

A leadership plan that achieves a specific set of goals or objectives. - > market share or profitability through new entry. - Customer retention through customer service. - Government compliance - <cost using the best tools and systems.

Finish-to-Finish Relationships (FF)

A logical relationship where the successor task cannot be completed until the first task is completed. You cannot, for instance, finish the design until the owner gives you approval of the decor after reviewing the design proposal.

Start-to-Start Relationships (SS)

A logical, but less common, relationship where the successor activity cannot start until the predecessor activity has started. An example from gas pipeline construction would be that as soon as the crew begins placing the pipe into the trench, the process of filling in the trench can occur.

Percent Complete Index

A measure of how much of the total project work has been completed. While it is officially called an index, it is actually an estimate of project completeness and is included as an estimate rather than with the previous efficiency indexes.

Status Meeting

A meeting that provides current information about something that is ongoing.

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).

Node

A method of unique representation of each item in the precedence diagram. Every activity receives a ______ label as its unique identifier. You need this unique identifier to make certain you understand every task and activity, you can refer to them clearly, and can use this as part of all diagrams and discussions.

8/80 Rule

A planning heuristic for creating the WBS. This rule states that the work package in a WBS must take no more than 80 hours of labor to create and no fewer than 8 hours of labor to create.

Weighted Factor Scoring Model

A popular enhancement to the score model approach. require that senior management assigns a weight to each criterion, which places some emphasis on selected criteria when calculating the total project score.

Activity

A portion of work that will be executed as part of the project to create the specified deliverables.

Projects IN Controlled Environments (PRINCE2)

A project management methodology developed in the U.K. that defines 45 separate sub-processes and organizes these into eight process groups. The standards offer the practitioner a "standard" that they can compare their companies processes against and identify areas for current and future improvement.

Competitive Necessity

A project that is required in order to maintain the company's position in the marketplace. Ex: If your market is being dominated by gas stations that include convenience stores, and your company's chain of gas-only facilities is losing market share, then a project may be needed to upgrade facilities to include convenience stores to remain competitive in the market.

Risk Transfer

A pure risk is transferred from the insured to the insurer, who typically is in a stronger financial position.

Precedence Relationship

A relationship that determines a sequence for undertaking activities; it specifies that one activity cannot start until a preceding activity has been completed.

Phase Gate

A review at the end of a phase in which a decision is made to continue to the next phase, to continue with modification, or to end a project or program.

Risk Avoidance

A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to eliminate the threat or protect the project from its impact.

Risk Acceptance

A risk response strategy whereby the project team decides to acknowledge the risk and not take any action unless the risk occurs.

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.

Earned Value Analysis (EVA)

A standard procedure for measuring a project's progress, forecasting its completion time and cost, and measuring schedule and budget variation process of assessing the work completed

Project Justification

A statement explaining the business need for the project. This is sometimes referred to as the business case. The ______ ______ helps tie the project back to the strategic and operational goals of the company and its mission. If a company wants to increase its revenue by 15% next year, a project proposal may be justified by its potential contribution to that revenue goal.

Standard Deviation

A statistical measure of how much the actual activity duration is likely to vary.

Crashing

A technique for making cost and schedule trade-offs to obtain the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost.

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.

Gantt Chart

A time and activity bar chart that is used for planning, managing, and controlling major programs that have a distinct beginning and end.

Earned Value Management (EVM)

A widely accepted method of measuring project performance and progress of actual cost against the budgeted/planned cost. Uses measures of the value of work completed to make comparisons to the baseline budget and schedule. The results of this analysis guide the project manager in determining whether changes to the project plan or project resources will be needed in order to meet the budget and schedule baselines.

Project Scope

A written statement summarizing the work that will be completed to provide a project outcome that will meet the customer or sponsor's requirements.

Mitigating Risk

Action taken to either reduce the likelihood that a risk will occur and/or the impact the risk will have on the project. Absorbing the impact of the risk and not allowing it to impact efforts and cost.

Project Cost

All cost for a specific project, including those for land, professionals, construction, finishing, fixtures, equipment, financing and any other project related expenses.

Triple Constraint

All projects are constrained by cost (budget), schedule (time), and scope (deliverable).

Lessons Learned

Also known as After Action Review (AAR). This review teaches current or future project managers, project teams, and others what can work well and what may not work well. This can help avoid unnecessary expenditure of resources on future projects.

Triangular Distribution

Also known as Simple Average and is a probabilistic approach. The simple average gives equal weight to all three estimates. In this case, the optimistic (O) and pessimistic (P) are treated equally with the most likely estimate (M). This represents a slight improvement over the single-point estimate because the best-case and worst-case estimates are included in the calculation of the activity duration estimate.

Beta Distribution

Also known as Weighted Average and is a probabilistic method. still uses the three estimates (optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic) but places emphasis on the most likely estimate. The ______ ______ method was developed as the project evaluation and review technique (PERT).

Precedence Diagram

Also known as a network diagram. Shows your understanding in a graphic representation for how the project will proceed.

Contingency Plans

Alternative courses of action that could help you overcome potential obstacles.

Project

An activity or group of activities that generate a new, unique product, service, or result to support a program. Not all ______ will be part of a larger program. Ex: battery for all vehicles that lasts through colder weather.

Management Reserve

An amount added to the overall project budget to cover unknown risks. A percentage of the overall cost of the project is often included in the project budget to cover unforeseen situations.

Top-Down Estimating

An estimating technique that uses actual durations from similar activities on a previous project. This is also referred to as analogous estimating.

Make/Buy Decisions

An evaluation of whether components and assemblies will be purchased from outside suppliers or built by the company itself.

Subject Matter Expert (SME)

An individual who has detailed knowledge about a particular job.

Corrective Action

An intentional activity that realigns the performance of the project work with the project management plan.

Agile Project Management

An iterative approach to project management where the project team works closely with the customer to deliver projects in usable chunks. Not all projects have outcomes that can be delivered as separate working pieces, but many can.

Opportunity Acceptance

An opportunity that we will welcome and use the benefits to our advantage Pg 95

Matrix Organization

An organization in which specialists from different parts of the organization are brought together to work on specific projects but still remain part of a line-and-staff structure.

Project Management Office (PMO)

An organizational group responsible for coordinating the project management functions throughout an organization.

Project Deliverables

Any measurable, tangible, verifiable outcome, result, or item that is produced to complete a project or part of a project. The features and functions of the project outcome that form the product scope. A specific product or functionality that the project will provide. ______ can be the final outcome of a project or intermediate outcomes that are integrated into the final project outcome.

Projectized Organization

Any 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 and there are clear lines of authority. Subject matter experts (SMEs) from different functional areas are assigned to directly report to the project manager (PM) for a specific project. The SMEs report to the PM for the duration of the project. At project conclusion, the SMEs report back to their respective functional areas where they receive work assignments from the functional manager until such time as they are reassigned to another project.

Extreme Project Management (XPM)

Approaches to address issues of extraordinary uncertainty or complexity. Detailed planning is not as important since the team faces such uncertainty or complexity that they could not reasonably plan for every possible situation. The project team needs to complete the project without having a comprehensive plan in place at the beginning of the project. The focus is on the human resources rather than planning. In order for these project teams to apply rapidly evolving technologies and quickly produce results, the team members must be able to collaboratively problem solve and apply expertise from their own respective fields.

Probabilistic Duration Estimation Techniques

Are used when there is uncertainty in how long an activity will take. Use basic statistics to account for uncertainty in activity duration estimates.

Hierarchical Format

Arranging things one above the other by rank

Uncertainty In Project Management

As a project manager, you must be willing to expand the scope of a project during project execution. However, the customer needs to pay for the additional work and allow sufficient time to re-plan and execute the new plan. That is where the problem occurs. The planning has already been done and going back to re-plan in order to accommodate additional functionality will create additional planning costs, extend project completion, and make the original planning efforts obsolete. The reality is that you plan based on what you know today, but you will know more tomorrow.

0-100 Rule

Assigns 0% to activities that have not been started and those that are in progress. Completed activities are assigned 100%. Every activity in the project is assigned a value of either 0% or 100%.

50-50 Rule

Assigns 50% complete as soon as an activity is started and the activity is considered 100% upon completion. There are no percentages assigned in between so every activity can quickly be assigned a value of 0%, 50%, or 100%.

Stakeholder Analysis

At the beginning of the project, the PM conducts the analysis to define the relevant stakeholders, their interests, and their communication needs.

Apportion Method

Based on the ratio method but takes into consideration specific functionality or types of work that will be required. The ______ method requires that an overall project cost be provided based on the customer's budget or similar projects. The overall budget is then allocated to the major work areas required in the project (design, programming, testing, documentation, user training).

Schedule Variance (SV)

Compares differences between the EV and the PV to determine if the project is meeting its schedule expectations or if there is a variance. ______ = EV-PV A negative value for SV or CV indicates that the project is behind in that measure of variance. A positive value indicates that the project is ahead in that measure of variance.

Cost Variance (CV)

Compares the difference between the EV and the AC to determine if the project is meeting its budget expectations. ______ = EV-AC A negative value for SV or CV indicates that the project is behind in that measure of variance. A positive value indicates that the project is ahead in that measure of variance.

Complexity In Project Management

Consider a project to design a new hybrid passenger vehicle. Not only will the project team include many interrelated organizations and people, but the resulting vehicle will likely include more than 50,000 individual parts!

Simple Budget

Cost of the major deliverables but does not indicate when the expenses will occur. Pg 101

Opportunity Cost

Cost of the next best alternative use of money, time, or resources when one choice is made rather than another.

Calendarized Budget

Costs are distributed across the time periods of the project. Knowing when expenses will occur allows the organization to ensure that sufficient money is available to pay the bills when due

Contingency Reserves

Costs included in the budget to cover situations that may occur. If the project requires the use of lumber, and lumber prices are known to fluctuate, then some portion of the lumber costs may be included in a _______ ______.

Direct Costs

Costs that are directly attributable to completing the project work. The ______ ______ can be attributed to specific work activities identified in the WBS. They often include labor, materials, supplies, and equipment.

Cost of Business (COB)

Day-to-day expenses that are not typically considered part of the project and should not be charged to the project.

Project Quality

Defined within the project charter - ensuring that the constraints of the project are addressed - expressed in terms of stated schedule, cost, scope objectives.

Communication Plan

Defines the how, what, when, and who regarding the flow of project information to stakeholders and is key for managing expectations.

Phases of the Project Life Cycle

Defining (initializing), Planning, executing and closing.

Initiating

Defining the project and determining which projects the organization will undertake. These activities often occur prior to the selection of the project team or the project manager. The processes completed during ______ include: - Documenting the business need for the project and what problem the project will solve - Defining the project - Evaluating project proposals - Completing project selection - Identifying major stakeholders - Creating the project charter

Risk

Degree of uncertainty of return on an asset; in business, the likelihood of loss or reduced profit.

Intermediate Outcomes

Deliverables Goals that lead to ultimate outcomes Ex: learning to dress, ride the bus. Often involves the use of a behavioral objective The process of obtaining a location for the restaurant you want to open.

Project Baseline

Determines what is included in the scope, functional requirements, business needs, and stakeholders. It is important to have the scope ______ well defined. Any requests for changes to the project scope will be compared with the ______. Once a project is completed, any variances from the initial cost estimates, schedule, or project deliverables will be compared with the ______ requirements and approved changes.

Preliminary Project Scope

Developed as an outcome of the defining phase, which will serve as a guide to the project team as they plan the project activities.

Monitoring & Controlling

During the monitoring process, if the project manager detects that the project is not being executed as planned, they may need to intercede in order to correct the situation. It is central to the project manager's role to know the status of the project work (______) and take action as needed to ensure the project plan is completed as planned (______).

Operating Necessity

Evaluates a project based on whether it will ensure ongoing operations with the understanding that not executing the project will result in operations being interrupted. Ex: When equipment fails or disasters threaten company operations, projects may need to be undertaken regardless of their financial viability.

Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM)

Focuses on managing the uncertainties of a project and builds buffers into the schedule to prevent key activities from failing. Applies the theory of constraints logic to project management by recognizing that the project can only be completed if the resource (person, machine, capital, etc.) capacity is available.

International Project Management Association (IPMA)

Founded in 1965 Is the leading authority on competent project, program, and portfolio management (PPPM).

Project Management Institute

Founded in 1969 Publishes two types of standards: 1. Foundational 2. Practice The foundational standards provide frameworks and processes in the areas of project, program, and portfolio management and the Organizational Project Management Maturity (OPM3). The practice standards focus on specific knowledge areas or topics such as risk management, scheduling, and estimating.

Baseline Budget

Freezing the planned budget so that actual costs can be compared to it throughout the remainder of the project. The ______ ______ is the approved budget and will be used as the standard for comparison of actual costs throughout the life of the project and identifying variances.

Working Project Manager

Functional Manager A product design manager who is also responsible for the operational delivery of the product.

Free Float

If activities that are not on the critical path have a difference between their early start date and their late start date, those activities can be delayed without affecting the project completion date.

Sharing Opportunity

If you know that the possible positive outcomes will benefit both the project and the partners, you will share the costs and benefits by sharing your information and knowledge with the partner. For instance, you know that a particular menu item is popular in the summer. You do an advertising campaign with your supplier to attract customers. This benefits you both.

Critical Path

In a PERT network, the sequence of tasks that takes the longest time to complete.

Future Net Cash Flows

In order to evaluate a project, you need to know the costs (cash outflows) and benefits (cash inflows) for the entire working life of the project outcome. So if a company is evaluating a project to replace a current packaging machine, it will need to estimate the cost of installing the machine (the project cost), the cost of maintaining the machine, and the benefits (operational savings derived) for its operating life.

Weekly Internal Status Meeting

In this meeting, each leader speaks to the status of their work and project risks and explain the status of any mitigation activities.

Waterfall Method

In this method, the project work flows downward like water falling over a ledge. The initial programs are designed by software developers and then handed over to programmers to create the computer code. The programmers then hand the completed code to the quality control analysts who then test the code and turn it over to the customer for acceptance testing. This process flows logically and in a linear fashion, but if any problems are found, returning the work back to the previous step is very expensive—much like the difficulty of swimming back up a waterfall.

Scoring Criteria (Model)

Incorporates flexibility by including several selection criteria. Criteria can be quantitative or qualitative in form but must be answered using a scale. The format of the scale can vary, but for simplicity, you can use a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being weakest and 10 being strongest.

Co-Located Teams

Involves team members physically working at the same location or holding project meetings together in a common setup. This tends to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of working relationships and improves communication and productivity. More traditional.

To Complete Performance Index (TCPI)

Is essentially what the CPI will need to be for the remainder of the project if the team intends to finish on budget. The difficulty of this estimate is that the measure of remaining budget changes depending on whether you are currently over budget or currently under budget. ______ = (BAC - EV) / (BAC - AC)

Functional (Departmentalized) Org

Is the oldest and most basic form of organization. It is the type of organization most often represented in corporation shareholder reports.

A Project is Successful if:

It meets the triple constraints of Scope, Schedule, and Budget.

KSA

Knowledge, skills, or abilities needed to effectively perform a job.

Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3)

Level 1 (Ad Hoc) Level 2 (Planned) Level 3 (Managed) Level 4 (Integrated) Level 5 (Sustained)

PMO Maturity Model

Level 1 (lowest) - There may be an acknowledgement of the need for procedures, but there are few, if any , formalized written procedures in existence. Level 2-5 - Progressive elaboration of teh quantity and quality of procedures.

Risk Register

Lists all risks (external, technical, or organizational) and assigns scores for probability and severity. The combined Probability Severity (P*S) score helps you prioritize the risks appropriately.

Negative Float

Means the calculated completion date of the last activity is later than the targeted completion date established at the beginning of the project.

Payback Period Formula

Months: Estimated Project Cost / Monthly Return Annual: Cost / Savings

Task

Often used to describe specific actions taken to complete an activity.

Duration

Often used to describe the number of time periods required to complete some portion of the work. To keep the estimation process manageable, you should often focus on the specific work activities required to complete the project deliverables.

General and Administrative Costs (G&A)

Overhead costs from the project organization. These are outside of the project team but often include expenses from corporate services such as legal, human resources, and payroll. These support functions are provided by the project hosting organization but cannot be related to a specific project work activity so they will be allocated to all projects and project work activities. These are also called "corporate overheads."

Risk: External Influences

Partners or contractors, regulation or government, competitive market influences, customer expectations and availability, environmental factors such as weather, etc.

Living Documents

Planning documents that are not written in stone. Perodical review helps ensure that the plans are still valid. Pg 80

PERT Chart

Production schedule specifying the sequence and critical path for performing the steps in a project.

Estimate to Completion (ETC)

Provides an estimate of how much money will be needed to complete the project. It is based on the CPI measure of cost efficiency and how much of the baseline total budget has already been expended. ______ = (BAC - EV)/CPI

Padding

Regardless of whether top-down or bottom-up estimating methods are used, people tend to add in extra time or money "just in case." This is particularly a problem in bottom-up budgeting where potentially every person estimating a work activity could pad in an extra 10% to provide a buffer if costs are higher than anticipated.

Project Reports

Reports are formal communications on project activities, their status, and conditions.

Team Status Reports

Reports are often updated in an online collaboration tool and published weekly.

Business Scenario

Represents an important business need or issue and provides an opportunity for others to create an appropriate, valuable solution. - Past RELEVANT events - Current key inoformation - Expected or desired outcomes.

Change Request (CR)

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

Risk: Organization

Resources, funding, priorities, competition with other projects, and reliance or dependencies on other actions in the organization.

Dedicated Project Manager

Role in life is to be a project manager regardless of the operational needs of the business.

Scrum

Self-Organizing Project Teams Uses small teams to produce small pieces of deliverable software using sprints, or 30-day intervals, to achieve an appointed goal. - A ______ master leads the team, but rather than directing project team members, the scrum master acts as a facilitator who ensures that obstacles are removed and the team has the resources needed to complete the iteration. - The short iterations are called sprints where the focus is to work together in delivering functionality to the customer in a relatively short period of time (often less than three weeks but can be up to 30 days). - Customer functionality requirements are written (often on cards) in the backlog. The customer prioritizes the backlog so that the team knows what to work on first. - The daily scrum is a 15 minute stand-up meeting where the team discusses their work status and plans the work for the day. Team members stand as a physical reminder to keep the discussion concise. - The retrospective is a discussion after the completion of each sprint to determine what went well and what changes should occur in the next sprint.

Project Charter

Signals the end of the Defining Phase. 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. Contains: - Project name - Sponsor name - Project manager name - Simple, yet precise, statement of the project - Objective - Scope - Performance measures - Major milestones - Major deliverables - Assumptions - Constraints - Business need met - Signatures of authorized representatives to acknowledge approval of the project charter

Milestone Dates

Significant dates involving the establishment of starting and finishing time frames for activities.

Float

Sometimes called slack, is the amount of time an activity, network path, or project can be delayed from the early start without changing the completion date of the project.

Learning Curves

Suggests that as a person repeats a task, the time required to complete the task decreases. More simply, the more often you do something, the better and faster you become. This concept, developed by Boeing during World War II, noted that the rate of improvement in aircraft assembly was so regular that it could be calculated in a mathematical formula, even though learning curve rates differed by industry.

Time Value of Money

Suggests that money is worth more to an organization now than in the future. It makes sense if you consider that if someone gave you $1,000 today and you could invest the money such that the investment would return additional value to you in the future. In project management, you look at it in the reverse, saying that if completing a project will bring in revenue next year of $1,000, then the future $1,000 is worth less than $1,000 to you today. Money in your possession today is worth more than money in the future.

Virtual Teams

Teams whose members interact primarily through electronic communications. Members of a ______ team may be within the same building or across continents.

Project Controls

The data gathering, management, and analytical processes used to predict, understand, and constructively influence the time and cost outcomes of a project or program. These controls are exercised through the communication of information in formats that assist effective management and decision-making.

Risk Appetite

The degree of uncertainty an entity is willing to take on, in anticipation of a reward.

Risk Tolerance

The degree, amount, or volume of risk that an organization or individual will withstand.

Project Scope Statement

The description of the project scope, major deliverables, assumptions, and constraints.

Planned Value (PV)

The dollar value of all work scheduled to have been completed to date. This is based on the baseline schedule and the calendarized baseline budget.

One-Point Estimating

The expert provides a single estimate for an activity based on either his or her own knowledge or historical information. If the expert has extensive experience and nothing in this particular project introduces uncertainty to the activity, the deterministic approach can provide a reliable estimate.

Product Scope

The features and functions that characterize a product, service, or result.

Forming

The first stage of team development, in which team members meet each other, form initial impressions, and begin to establish team norms. In this stage, team members may be meeting for the first time. Often, no one really knows much about anyone else on the team. It may be premature to refer to this group of individuals as a team. It is a time of introduction and forming relationships and understanding from the exchange of information.

Performing

The fourth stage of team development, Team members are fully comfortable working together. Trust has been developed. Working relationships have jelled. Work is being conducted and project progress is occurring.

Work Breakdown Structure

The hierarchy of project tasks, sub-tasks, and work packages.

Estimate at Completion (EAC)

The new forecast of how much more in total the project is expected to cost once completed. ______ = AC + ETC

Project Sponsor

The person in the project organization who has authority to expend resources for projects.

Collecting Customer Requirements

The process of gathering information from the customer and stakeholders in order to define the high level project outcomes.

Opportunity Management

The process of identifying prospective customers or sales opportunities and shepherding those potential customers through the sales process.

Cost Management

The process of measuring how close actual costs are to the budget and then making changes in project execution as needed.

Discounted Cash Flow

The process of using time value of money skills and forecasting to value assets. Shows that the savings have less value to the company in later years.

Planning

The project manager will begin assembling the team to create the project plan. Additional team members may be required to gather information from stakeholders, identify the project activities, estimate costs and time, and document the planning areas. The processes completed during ______ include: - Documenting all customer requirements and deliverables - Estimating resource needs - Finalizing the project scope - Finalizing the project budget - Finalizing the project schedule - Creating the Work Breakdown Structure - Creating the Network Diagram - Creating the activity list - Writing the plan for specific areas (quality, communications, human resources, procurement, change management, scope management, cost management, schedule management, risk management, etc.)

Work Performance Data

The raw observations and measurements identified during activities being performed to carry out the project work.

Storming

The second stage of development, characterized by conflict and disagreement, in which team members disagree over what the team should do and how it should do it. Team members are beginning to learn about each other, but they do not yet understand how to work together. Members may "jockey for position" within the team. The dynamics of working together beyond any written statement of "roles and responsibilities" are being established. Personalities surface, showing the strengths, weaknesses, and personal needs of each individual on the team. Integration into a team may come with some struggle and conflict.

Change Management Process

The sequence of steps that a manager would follow for the successful implementation and adoption of change. -Identify Change - Evaluate Change - Decision - Communicate Change

Norming

The third stage of team development, in which team members have "figured out" how they will interact with each other. Working relationships are beginning to form. Trust and understanding is beginning to form among team members. They are beginning to feel comfortable working together and openly and willingly sharing information.

Earned Value (EV)

The total dollar budget of the work that has been completed. This is based on the baseline budgeted cost of each activity.

Actual Cost

The total dollar value of costs incurred to date. This includes work and invoices already paid as well as any expenses that have been incurred but not yet invoiced or paid.

Scope Creep

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

Closing

These activities wrap-up all the project work so that the team can move on to other projects. Processes occurring during project ______ include: - Paying all outstanding vendor invoices - Reconciling all vendor accounts - Returning excess materials and supplies - Returning all project assets to the sponsoring organization - Writing the lessons learned - Completing all project documentation - Delivering the completed project to the customer - Receiving sign-off from the customer - Archiving all project documents

Project Requirements

These are the demands set by the customer, regulations, or the performing organization that must exist for the project deliverables to be acceptable. _______ are often prioritized in a number of ways, from "must have" to "should have" to "would like to have."

Numeric Selection Criteria

These models use financial and other quantitative measures to drive decision-making. Although many companies focus on profitability measures, ______ models are not limited to a sole measure. Two categories: • Profit/Profitability based • Scoring models Profit/Profitability based models include: • Payback period • Net present value • Internal rate of return Scoring models allow the company to integrate multiple criteria in analyzing project proposals. These types span from basic scored criteria to including weights on each criteria so that some criteria are emphasized over others.

Sacred Cow

These projects are suggested by senior leadership or a powerful constituent of the company. These projects are often created to satisfy the expectations of the leader with little regard for the project's viability or contribution to strategic or operational needs. The "______" nature of the project is that its existence will not be questioned but will be pushed toward completion until the sponsor realizes the futility of the effort.

Statement of Work

This fully describes the work to be completed, the product to be supplied, or both. The SOW becomes part of the contract between the buyer and the seller. The SOW is typically created as part of the procurement planning process and is used by the seller to determine whether it can meet the project's requirements.

Forward Pass

This is when you start assigning dates based on the earliest start date, adding dates based on your estimates for each task in the diagram. When you get to the last task, you add its work estimate and assign a date to find the earliest end date of the project.

Monthly Management Project Review

This meeting includes three highlights, three lowlights, three issues, milestones that show the project schedule performance compared to baseline, and a standard financial performance trend chart.

Project Traceability Matrix

This not only includes the requirement, but it also identifies the business need that will be satisfied and the specific stakeholder who provided the requirement. The ______can be expanded to include the name of a project team member who will be responsible for meeting the requirement, how the required outcome will be verified, and other pertinent information.

Project Planning Checklist

This only ensures that the actions on the list are addressed. The ______ is only as good as the completeness of the items listed and the team's attention to the work being done.

Adjourning

This only occurs when all the team's work has been completed and the team is no longer required. This may occur at any time in the project life cycle.

Backward Pass

This will show the latest date you can start the project and finish on time.

Risk Management

To minimize the negative impact of risk and maximize the positive outcomes. Requires: - Careful analysis - Prioritization and monitoring of the risks identified at every step for emergencies - Understanding the impact of the risk through assessment

Project Scope Creep

Uncontrolled changes This is when you add functionality without caring about the impact on the rest of the project.

Critical Path Method (CPM)

Used for estimating project activity durations, but ______ assumes that the estimates do not vary and time can be reliably estimated.

Checklist Model

Uses a list of questions to review potential projects and to determine their acceptance or rejection. Sample Questions: How much will the project cost? How long will the project take to complete? What outcomes will be achieved? How does the project align with the strategic objectives of the company? What resources will the project require? How innovative is the project? What business issues does this project address? How does the project fit with the company culture and personnel? How will the results of the project be measured? Does the company have the necessary internal resources? What is the likelihood that the project will be completed as planned? What are the risks? Does the company or team have experience with similar projects? Fails to answer the relative importance or value of a potential project and doesn't to allow for comparison with other potential projects.

Cost Performance Index (CPI)

Uses the same inputs as the CV measure but combines them using a ratio that creates a measure of cost efficiency. ______ = EV/AC

Schedule Performance Index

Uses the same inputs as the SV measure but combines them using a ratio that creates a measure of time efficiency. ______ = EV/PV

Monthly Customer Status Meeting

Using the team's prior weekly report and the customer meeting information from last month, the PM covers project performance to schedule and financial performance for the project.

Weak Matrix Structure Vs. Strong Matrix Structure

Weak: - Similar to functional org. - PMs are designated to coordinate project activities and essentially act as a coordinator b/t different function and departments. - The functional managers remain responsible for their own portions of the project. Strong: - There are attempts to provide the appearance of project teams. - PMs have >control (scope[trade-offs], schedule, budget, assignment of functional personnel). - The functional manager maintains the "title" to functional personnel.

Executing

What the project team does to create the project outcomes. The project manager and project team are ______the project plan. During ______, the project manager will be adding team members when needed and some team members will complete their work activities so that they can move to other projects. The project management processes completed during ______ include: - Acquiring project team members - Training and coaching team members - Communicating with stakeholders - Managing stakeholders - Implementing the project plan - Documenting change requests - Assessing team member performance - Recognizing and rewarding performance

Project Closing Phase

When the project outcomes are delivered to the customer and/or sponsor and the customer and/or sponsor evaluates them to determine if they are acceptable - deliverables are ready, the budget and time requirements are met and quality is achieved, and lessons learned are documented. When the customer and/or sponsor accepts the project outcome(s), the PM must ensure that all the loose ends are tied up. The project manager will need to: - Reassign any project resources back to the company - Document the project results and lessons learned - Close out any procurement activities - Verify that the completed project is transitioned over to the customer

Iterative Process

Where new information may come to light that requires that the initial scope be modified. Any process that is repeated more than once. The 3 phases are repeated throughout the project's life because of change requests, responses to change, corrective action, and so on. Deliverable occur at each phase. Phase 1: Document business processes and existing systems. Phase 2: Identify software providers and bid the contract. Phase 3: Implement the software solution.

Start-to-Finish Relationships (SF)

Where you cannot end the first task until the second task has started. This is often where there is task dependency. In the case of your restaurant, a cooking shift cannot leave until the second shift has arrived and started.

Enhancing Opportunity

Would be worthy of an investment if you think you can take action to make certain the opportunity happens. You can invest in the opportunity if you think the benefit will more probably happen and will exceed the investment.

Weighted Project Score Formula

______ ______ ______ = Score * Weight

Monitoring and Controlling

______ involves assessing whether the project plan is being implemented as it was designed and whether the resulting outcomes and deliverables are as expected. ______ is the action taken to either get the project team back on the plan or making adjustments to the plan in order to achieve the desired outcomes and deliverables. Project management processes that occur during ______ and ______: - Keeping the project activities in sync (integration control) - Verifying that the deliverables meet the required scope - Documenting any requested changes to scope - Monitoring the schedule - Monitoring the budget - Assessing project quality - Resolving issues about scope or activities or interpersonal issues - Reporting project performance - Monitoring project risks - Monitoring vendor/provider performance - Determining when replanning is needed

Finish-to-Start Relationships (FS)

a logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot start until a predecessor has finished. The purchase of materials—including paint, flooring, furniture, and decorations—cannot be done until the design is approved by the owner.

Collaboration Tools

software (online and offline) that allows people to work together on the same documents and projects over local and remote networks. Include: - The ability to perform status reporting - Task assignment - Issue management - Threaded team discussions

Total Float

the difference between the finish date of the last activity on the critical path and the project completion date. Any delay in an activity on the critical path would reduce the amount of ______ ______ available on the project.

Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

was developed in the 1950s to support the U.S. Navy's Polaris missile project. It uses a statistical approach to estimate the time that will be required to complete project work activities.

Realistic Model Selection

• Accurately reflects the way the organization does business. • Appropriate for the level or resources, capabilities, and external environment of the organization. Ex: using profitability model when the organization is focused on market share growth would not appropriate.

Non-Numeric (Non-Financial) Selection Criteria

• Competitive necessity • Operative Necessity • Sacred cow

Easy to Use Model Selection

• Provide results in a reasonable amount of time. • Results should be easily understood by the decision makers. Ex: Use models that provide measures that the decision maker can easily apply, such as dollars, months, or percentage change.

Low Cost Model Selection

• The costs of gathering data and running the model should be low relative to the scale of the project. Ex: A model that requires hiring a consultant to run and interpret may not be cost effective for smaller projects.

Comparable Model Selection

• The model should be usable across a range of projects such that the outcomes of the model can be used to compare projects. Ex: Using a profitability model for one project and a qualitative scoring model for another would not allow the decision maker to analyze the projects relative to each other.

Flexible Model Selection

• The model should provide accurate measures across a reasonable range of conditions. Ex: the model would allow for changing conditions where the cost of a new government regulation must be factored into the analysis.

Capable Model Selection

• Uses factors that are relevant to the organization. • you would not expect one model to cover all dimensions of a project; you would want to use models that cover their dimension comprehensively. Ex: For organizations with a long-term value perspective, the net present value model provides a rigorous evaluation of a project's future cash flows.