Project Management Glossary
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Parametric modeling: a cost-estimating technique that uses project characteristics (parameters) in a mathematical model to estimate project costs

Pareto analysis: identifying the vital few contributors that account for most quality problems in a system

Pareto diagrams: histograms that help identify and prioritize problem areas

Parkinson’s Law: work expands to fill the time allowed

Payback period: the amount of time it will take to recoup, in the form of net cash inflows, the net dollars invested in a project.

Performance: how well a product or ser vice performs the customer’s intended use

Performance reporting: collecting and disseminating performance information, which includes status reports, progress measurement, and forecasting

PERT weighted average = [(optimistic time + 4 x most likely time + pessimistic time)] / 6

Phase exit or kill point: management review that should occur after each project phase to determine if projects should be continued, redirected, or terminated

Planned value (PV): that portion of the approved total cost estimate planned to be spent on an activity during a given period, formerly called the budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS)

Planning processes: devising and maintaining a workable scheme to accomplish the business need that the project was undertaken to address

Political frame: addresses organizational and personal politics

Politics: competition between groups or individuals for power and leadership

Power: the potential ability to influence behavior to get people to do things they would not otherwise do

Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM): a network diagramming technique in which boxes represent activities

Prevention cost: the cost of planning and executing a project so that it is error-free or within an acceptable error range

Probabilistic time estimates: duration estimates based on using optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimates of activity durations instead of using one specific or discrete estimate

Problems: undesirable situations that prevent the organization from achieving its goals

Process adjustments: adjustments made to correct or prevent further quality problems based on quality control measurements

Process: a series of actions directed toward a particular result

Procurement: acquiring goods and/or services from an outside source

Procurement planning: determining what to procure and when

Profit margin: the ratio between revenues and profits

Profits: revenues minus expenses

Program: a group of projects managed in a coordinated way

Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT): a project network analysis technique used to estimate project duration when there is a high degree of uncertainty with the individual activity duration estimates

Progress reports: reports that describe what the project team has accomplished during a certain period of time

Project: a temporary endeavor undertaken to accomplish a unique purpose

Project acquisition: a common reference to the last two project phases—implementation and close-out

Project archives: a complete set of organized project records that provide an accurate history of the project

Project buffer: additional time added before the project’s due date

Project charter: a document that formally recognizes the existence of a project and provides direction on the project’s objectives and management

Project communications management: the processes required to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, dissemination, storage, and disposition of project information

Project cost management: the processes required to ensure that the project is completed within the approved budget

Project feasibility: a common reference to the first two project phases—concept and development

Project forecasting: predicting future project status and progress based on past information and trends

Project human resource management: the processes required to make the most effective use of the people involved with a project

Project integration management: includes the processes involved in coordinating all of the other project management knowledge areas throughout a project’s life cycle

Project life cycle: the collection of project phases—concept, development, implementation, and close-out

Project management: the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet project requirements

Project Management Institute (PMI): international professional society for project managers

Project management knowledge areas: project integration management, scope, time, cost, quality, human resource, communications, risk, and procurement management

Project management office or center of excellence: an organizational entity created to assist project managers in achieving project goals

Project management process groups: the progression of project activities from initiation to planning, executing, control ling, and closing

Project Management Professional (PMP): certification provided by PMI that requires documenting project experience, agreeing to follow the PMI code of ethics, and passing a comprehensive examination

Project management software: software specifically designed for project management

Project management tools and techniques: methods available to assist project managers and their teams

Project network diagram: a schematic display of the logical relationships or sequencing of project activities

Project organizational structure: an organizational structure that groups people by major projects, such as specific aircraft programs

Project plan: a document used to coordinate all project planning documents and guide project execution and control

Project plan development: taking the results of other planning processes and putting them into a consistent, coherent document—the project plan

Project plan execution: carrying out the project plan by performing the activities it includes

Project procurement management: the processes required to acquire goods and services for a project from outside the performing organization

Project quality management: the processes required to ensure that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken

Project risk management: the art and science of identifying, analyzing, and respond ing to risk throughout the life of a project and in the best interests of meeting project objectives

Project scope management: the processes involved in defining and controlling what is or is not included in a project

Project time management: the process required to ensure timely completion of a project

Prototyping: developing a working replica of the system or some aspect of the system to help define user requirements.

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