Project Management Glossary

PM Glossary / Project Management Glossary

#	Term	Short Definition
1	Acceptance Test-Driven Development ATDD	A method of collaboratively creating acceptance test criteria that are used to create acceptance tests before delivery begins.
2	Accepted Deliverables	Products, results, or capabilities produced by a project and validated by the project customer or sponsors as meeting their specified acceptance criteria.
3	Accuracy	Within the quality management system, accuracy is an assessment of correctness.
4	Acquire Resources	The process of obtaining team members, facilities, equipment, materials, supplies, and other resources necessary to complete project work.
5	Acquisition	Obtaining human and material resources necessary to perform project activities. Acquisition implies a cost of resources, and is not necessarily financial.
6	Activity	A distinct, scheduled portion of work performed during the course of a project.
7	Activity Attributes	Multiple attributes associated with each schedule activity that can be included within the activity list. Activity attributes include activity codes, predecessor activities, successor activities, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, imposed dates, constraints, and assumptions.
8	Activity Duration	The time in calendar units between the start and finish of a schedule activity. See also duration.
9	Activity Duration Estimates	The quantitative assessments of the likely number of time periods that are required to complete an activity.
10	Activity List	A documented tabulation of schedule activities that shows the activity description, activity identifier, and a sufficiently detailed scope of work description so project team members understand what work is to be performed.
11	Activity-on-Node	See precedence diagramming method PDM.
12	Actual Cost	The realized cost incurred for the work performed on an activity during a specific time period. See also budget at completion BAC, earned value EV, estimate at completion EAC, estimate to complete ETC, and planned value PV.
13	Actual Duration	The time in calendar units between the actual start date of the schedule activity and either the data date of the project schedule if the schedule activity is in progress or the actual finish date if the schedule activity is complete.
14	Adaptive Life Cycle	A project life cycle that is iterative or incremental.
15	Agile	A term used to describe a mindset of values and principles as set forth in the Agile Manifesto.
16	Agile Coach	An individual with knowledge and experience in agile who can train, mentor, and guide organizations and teams through their transformation.
17	Agile Life Cycle	An approach that is both iterative and incremental to refine work items and deliver frequently.
18	Agile Manifesto	The original and official definition of agile values and principles.
19	Agile Mindset	A way of thinking and behaving underpinned by the four values and twelve principles of the Agile Manifesto.
20	Agile Practitioner	A person embracing the agile mindset who collaborates with like-minded colleagues in cross-functional teams. Also referred to as agilist.
21	Agile Principles	The twelve principles of agile project delivery as embodied in the Agile Manifesto.
22	Agile Unified Process	A simplistic and understandable approach to developing business application software using agile techniques and concepts. It is a simplified version of the Rational Unified Process aka RUP.
23	Agilist	See Agile Practitioner.
24	Agreements	Any document or communication that defines the initial intentions of a project. This can take the form of a contract, memorandum of understanding MOU, letters of agreement, verbal agreements, email, etc.
25	Alternative Analysis	A technique used to evaluate identified options in order to select the options or approaches to use to execute and perform the work of the project.
26	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. See also bottom-up estimating, parametric estimating, program evaluation and review technique PERT, and three-point estimating.
27	Analytical Techniques	Various techniques used to evaluate, analyze, or forecast potential outcomes based on possible variations of project or environmental variables and their relationships with other variables.
28	Anti-Pattern	A known, flawed pattern of work that is not advisable.
29	Assumption	A factor in the planning process that is considered to be true, real, or certain, without proof or demonstration.
30	Assumption Log	A project document used to record all assumptions and constraints throughout the project life cycle.
31	Attribute Sampling	Method of measuring quality that consists of noting the presence or absence of some characteristic attribute in each of the units under consideration.
32	Authority	The right to apply project resources, expend funds, make decisions, or give approvals.
33	Automated Code Quality Analysis	The scripted testing of code base for bugs and vulnerabilities.
34	Backlog	See {Product Backlog}.
35	Backlog Refinement	The progressive elaboration of project requirements and/or the ongoing activity in which the team collaboratively reviews, updates, and writes requirements to satisfy the need of the customer request.
36	Backward Pass	A critical path method technique for calculating the late start and late finish dates by working backward through the schedule model from the project end date. See also forward pass.
37	Baseline	The approved version of a work product that can be changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results.
38	Basis of Estimates	Supporting documentation outlining the details used in establishing project estimates such as assumptions, constraints, level of detail, ranges, and confidence levels.
39	Behavior-Driven Development	A system design and validation practice that uses test-first principles and English-like scripts.
40	Benchmarking	Benchmarking is the comparison of actual or planned products, processes, and practices to those of comparable organizations to identify best practices, generate ideas for improvement, and provide a basis for measuring performance.
41	Benefits Management Plan	The documented explanation defining the processes for creating, maximizing, and sustaining the benefits provided by a project or program.
42	Bid Documents	All documents used to solicit information, quotations, or proposals from prospective sellers.
43	Bidder Conference	The meetings with prospective sellers prior to the preparation of a bid or proposal to ensure all prospective vendors have a clear and common understanding of the procurement. Also known as contractor conferences, vendor conferences, or pre-bid conferences.
44	Blended Agile	Two or more agile frameworks, methods, elements, or practices used together such as Scrum practiced in combination with XP and Kanban Method.
45	Blocker	See Impediment.
46	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.
47	Broken Comb	Refers to a person with various depths of specialization in multiple skills required by the team. Also known as Paint Drip. See also T-shaped and I-shaped.
48	Budget	The approved estimate for the project or any work breakdown structure component or any schedule activity.
49	Budget at Completion	The sum of all budgets established for the work to be performed. See also actual cost AC, earned value EV, estimate at completion EAC, estimate to complete ETC, and planned value PV.
50	Buffer	See reserve.
51	Burndown Chart	A graphical representation of the work remaining versus the time left in a timebox.
52	Burnup Chart	A graphical representation of the work completed toward the release of a product.
53	Business Case	A documented economic feasibility study used to establish validity of the benefits of a selected component lacking sufficient definition and that is used as a basis for the authorization of further project management activities.
54	Business Requirement Documents	Listing of all requirements for a specific project.
55	Business Value	The net quantifiable benefit derived from a business endeavor. The benefit may be tangible, intangible, or both.
56	Cadence	A rhythm of execution. See also {Timebox}.
57	Cause and Effect Diagram	A decomposition technique that helps trace an undesirable effect back to its root cause.
58	Change	A modification to any formally controlled deliverable, project management plan component, or project document.
59	Change Control	A process whereby modifications to documents, deliverables, or baselines associated with the project are identified, documented, approved, or rejected. See also change control board and change control system.
60	Change Control Board	A formally chartered group responsible for reviewing, evaluating, approving, delaying, or rejecting changes to the project, and for recording and communicating such decisions. See also change control and change control system.
61	Change Control System	A set of procedures that describes how modifications to the project deliverables and documentation are managed and controlled. See also change control and change control board.
62	Change Control Tools	Manual or automated tools to assist with change and/or configuration management. At a minimum, the tools should support the activities of the CCB.
63	Change Log	A comprehensive list of changes submitted during the project and their current status.
64	Change Management Plan	A component of the project management plan that establishes the change control board, documents the extent of its authority, and describes how the change control system will be implemented.
65	Change Request	A formal proposal to modify a document, deliverable, or baseline.
66	Checklist Analysis	A technique for systematically reviewing materials using a list for accuracy and completeness.
67	Checksheets	A tally sheet that can be used as a checklist when gathering data.
68	Claim	A request, demand, or assertion of rights by a seller against a buyer, or vice versa, for consideration, compensation, or payment under the terms of a legally binding contract, such as for a disputed change.
69	Claims Administration	The process of processing, adjudicating, and communicating contract claims.
70	Close Project or Phase	The process of finalizing all activities for the project, phase, or contract.
71	Closing Process Group	The processes performed to formally complete or close a project, phase, or contract.
72	Collect Requirements	The process of determining, documenting, and managing stakeholder needs and requirements to meet project objectives.
73	Collective Code Ownership	A project acceleration and collaboration technique whereby any team member is authorized to modify any project work product or deliverable, thus emphasizing team-wide ownership and accountability.
74	Colocation	An organizational placement strategy where the project team members are physically located close to one another in order to improve communication, working relationships, and productivity.
75	Communication Methods	A systematic procedure, technique, or process used to transfer information among project stakeholders.
76	Communication Models	A description, analogy, or schematic used to represent how the communication process will be performed for the project.
77	Communication Requirements Analysis	An analytical technique to determine the information needs of the project stakeholders through interviews, workshops, study of lessons learned from previous projects, etc.
78	Communication Styles Assessment	A technique to identify the preferred communication method, format, and content for stakeholders for planned communication activities.
79	Communication Technology	Specific tools, systems, computer programs, etc., used to transfer information among project stakeholders.
80	Communications Management Plan	A component of the project, program, or portfolio management plan that describes how, when, and by whom information about the project will be administered and disseminated.
81	Conduct Procurements	The process of obtaining seller responses, selecting a seller, and awarding a contract.
82	Configuration Management Plan	A component of the project management plan that describes how to identify and account for project artifacts under configuration control, and how to record and report changes to them.
83	Configuration Management System	A collection of procedures used to track project artifacts and monitor and control changes to these artifacts.
84	Conformance	Within the quality management system, conformance is a general concept of delivering results that fall within the limits that define acceptable variation for a quality requirement.
85	Contingency	An event or occurrence that could affect the execution of the project that may be accounted for with a reserve.
86	Contingency Reserve	Time or money allocated in the schedule or cost baseline for known risks with active response strategies. See also management reserve and project budget.
87	Contingent Response Strategies	Responses provided which may be used in the event that a specific trigger occurs.
88	Continuous Delivery	The practice of delivering feature increments immediately to customers, often through the use of small batches of work and automation technology.
89	Continuous Integration	A practice in which each team member’s work products are frequently integrated and validated with one another.
90	Contract	A contract is a mutually binding agreement that obligates the seller to provide the specified product or service or result and obligates the buyer to pay for it.
91	Contract Change Control System	The system used to collect, track, adjudicate, and communicate changes to a contract.
92	Control	Comparing actual performance with planned performance, analyzing variances, assessing trends to effect process improvements, evaluating possible alternatives, and recommending appropriate corrective action as needed.
93	Control Account	A management control point where scope, budget, actual cost, and schedule are integrated and compared to earned value for performance measurement.
94	Control Chart	A graphic display of process data over time and against established control limits, which has a centerline that assists in detecting a trend of plotted values toward either control limit.
95	Control Costs	The process of monitoring the status of the project to update the project costs and manage changes to the cost baseline.
96	Control Limits	The area composed of three standard deviations on either side of the centerline or mean of a normal distribution of data plotted on a control chart, which reflects the expected variation in the data. See also specification limits.
97	Control Procurements	The process of managing procurement relationships, monitoring contract performance, making changes and corrections as appropriate, and closing out contracts.
98	Control Quality	The process of monitoring and recording results of executing the quality management activities to assess performance and ensure the project outputs are complete, correct, and meet customer expectations.
99	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.
100	Control Schedule	The process of monitoring the status of the project to update the project schedule and manage changes to the schedule baseline.
101	Control Scope	The process of monitoring the status of the project and product scope and managing changes to the scope baseline.
102	Corrective Action	An intentional activity that realigns the performance of the project work with the project management plan. See also preventive action.
103	Cost Aggregation	Summing the lower-level cost estimates associated with the various work packages for a given level within the project’s WBS or for a given cost control account.
104	Cost Baseline	The approved version of the time-phased project budget, excluding any management reserves, which can be changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results.
105	Cost Management Plan	A component of a project or program management plan that describes how costs will be planned, structured, and controlled. See also project management plan.
106	Cost of Quality	All costs incurred over the life of the product by investment in preventing nonconformance to requirements, appraisal of the product or service for conformance to requirements, and failure to meet requirements.
107	Cost Performance Index	A measure of the cost efficiency of budgeted resources expressed as the ratio of earned value to actual cost. See also schedule performance index SPI.
108	Cost Plus Award Fee Contract	A category of contract that involves payments to the seller for all legitimate actual costs incurred for completed work, plus an award fee representing seller profit.
109	Cost Plus Fixed Fee Contract	A type of cost-reimbursable contract where the buyer reimburses the seller for the seller’s allowable costs allowable costs are defined by the contract plus a fixed amount of profit fee.
110	Cost Plus Incentive Fee Contract	A type of cost-reimbursable contract where the buyer reimburses the seller for the seller’s allowable costs allowable costs are defined by the contract, and the seller earns its profit if it meets defined performance criteria.
111	Cost Variance	The amount of budget deficit or surplus at a given point in time, expressed as the difference between the earned value and the actual cost. See also schedule variance SV.
112	Cost-Benefit Analysis	A financial analysis tool used to determine the benefits provided by a project against its costs.
113	Cost-Reimbursable Contract	A type of contract involving payment to the seller for the seller’s actual costs, plus a fee typically representing the seller’s profit.
114	Crashing	A technique used to shorten the schedule duration for the least incremental cost by adding resources.
115	Create WBS	The process of subdividing project deliverables and project work into smaller, more manageable components.
116	Criteria	Standards, rules, or tests on which a judgment or decision can be based or by which a product, service, result, or process can be evaluated.
117	Critical Path	The sequence of activities that represents the longest path through a project, which determines the shortest possible duration. See also critical path activity and critical path method.
118	Critical Path Activity	Any activity on the critical path in a project schedule. See also critical path and critical path method.
119	Critical Path Method	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. See also critical path and critical path activity.
120	Cross-Functional Team	A team that includes practitioners with all the skills necessary to deliver valuable product increments.
121	Crystal Family of Methodologies	A collection of lightweight agile software development methods focused on adaptability to a particular circumstance.
122	Daily Scrum	A brief, daily collaboration meeting in which the team reviews progress from the previous day, declares intentions for the current day, and highlights any obstacles encountered or anticipated. Also known as daily standup.
123	Data	Discrete, unorganized, unprocessed measurements or raw observations.
124	Data Analysis Techniques	Techniques used to organize, assess, and evaluate data and information.
125	Data Date	A point in time when the status of the project is recorded.
126	Data Gathering Techniques	Techniques used to collect data and information from a variety of sources.
127	Data Representation Techniques	Graphic representations or other methods used to convey data and information.
128	Decision Tree Analysis	A diagramming and calculation technique for evaluating the implications of a chain of multiple options in the presence of uncertainty.
129	Decision-Making Techniques	Techniques used to select a course of action from different alternatives.
130	Decomposition	A technique used for dividing and subdividing the project scope and project deliverables into smaller, more manageable parts.
131	Defect	An imperfection or deficiency in a project component where that component does not meet its requirements or specifications and needs to be either repaired or replaced.
132	Defect Repair	An intentional activity to modify a nonconforming product or product component.
133	Define Activities	The process of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables.
134	Define Scope	The process of developing a detailed description of the project and product.
135	Definition of Done	A team’s checklist of all the criteria required to be met so that a deliverable can be considered ready for customer use.
136	Definition of Ready	A team’s checklist for a user-centric requirement that has all the information the team needs to be able to begin working on it.
137	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.
138	Dependency	See logical relationship.
139	Determine Budget	The process of aggregating the estimated costs of individual activities or work packages to establish an authorized cost baseline.
140	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.
141	Develop Project Management Plan	The process of defining, preparing, and coordinating all plan components and consolidating them into an integrated project management plan.
142	Develop Schedule	The process of analyzing activity sequences, durations, resource requirements, and schedule constraints to create the project schedule model for project execution and monitoring and controlling.
143	Develop Team	The process of improving competences, team member interaction, and overall team environment to enhance project performance.
144	Development Approach	The method used to create and evolve the product, service, or result during the project life cycle, such as predictive, iterative, incremental, agile, or a hybrid method.
145	DevOps	A collection of practices for creating a smooth flow of delivery by improving collaboration between development and operations staff.
146	Diagramming Techniques	Approaches to presenting information with logical linkages that aid in understanding.
147	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.
148	Disciplined Agile	A process decision framework that enables simplified process decisions around incremental and iterative solution delivery.
149	Discrete Effort	An activity that can be planned and measured and that yields a specific output. [Note: Discrete effort is one of three earned value management EVM types of activities used to measure work performance.] See also apportioned effort and level of effort.
150	Discretionary Dependency	A relationship that is established based on knowledge of best practices within a particular application area or an aspect of the project where a specific sequence is desired.
151	Documentation Reviews	The process of gathering a corpus of information and reviewing it to determine accuracy and completeness.
152	Double Loop Learning	A process that challenges underlying values and assumptions in order to better elaborate root causes and devise improved countermeasures rather than focusing only on symptoms.
153	Duration	The total number of work periods required to complete an activity or work breakdown structure component, expressed in hours, days, or weeks.
154	Dynamic Systems Development Method	An agile project delivery framework.
155	Early Finish Date	In the critical path method, the earliest possible point in time when the uncompleted portions of a schedule activity can finish based on the schedule network logic, the data date, and any schedule constraints. See also early start date, late start date, late finish date, and schedule network analysis.
156	Early Start Date	In the critical path method, the earliest possible point in time when the uncompleted portions of a schedule activity can start based on the schedule network logic, the data date, and any schedule constraints.
157	Earned Value	The measure of work performed expressed in terms of the budget authorized for that work. See also actual cost AC, budget at completion, estimate at completion EAC, estimate to complete ETC, and planned value PV.
158	Effort	The number of labor units required to complete a schedule activity or work breakdown structure component, often expressed in hours, days, or weeks. Contrast with duration.
159	Emotional Intelligence	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.
160	Estimate	A quantitative assessment of the likely amount or outcome of a variable, such as project costs, resources, effort, or durations.
161	Estimate Activity Resources	The process of estimating team resources and the type and quantities of material, equipment, and supplies necessary to perform project work.
162	Estimate at Completion	The expected total cost of completing all work expressed as the sum of the actual cost to date and the estimate to complete. See also actual cost AC, budget at completion BAC, earned value EV, estimate to complete ETC and planned value PV.
163	Estimate Costs	The process of developing an approximation of the monetary resources needed to complete project work.
164	Estimate to Complete	The expected cost to finish all the remaining project work. See also actual cost AC, budget at completion BAC, earned value EV, estimate at completion EAC, and planned value PV.
165	Evolutionary Value Delivery	Openly credited as the first agile method that contains a specific component no other methods have: the focus on delivering multiple measurable value requirements to stakeholders.
166	Execute	Directing, managing, performing, and accomplishing the project work; providing the deliverables; and providing work performance information.
167	Executing Process Group	Those processes performed to complete the work defined in the project management plan to satisfy the project requirements.
168	Expert Judgment	Judgment provided based upon expertise in an application area, knowledge area, discipline, industry, etc., as appropriate for the activity being performed. Such expertise may be provided by any group or person with specialized education, knowledge, skill, experience, or training.
169	Explicit Knowledge	Knowledge that can be codified using symbols such as words, numbers, and pictures.
170	External Dependency	A relationship between project activities and non-project activities.
171	eXtreme Programming	An agile software development method that leads to higher quality software, a greater responsiveness to changing customer requirements, and more frequent releases in shorter cycles.
172	Fallback Plan	Fallback plans include an alternative set of actions and tasks available in the event that the primary plan needs to be abandoned because of issues, risks, or other causes.
173	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. See also crashing and schedule compression.
174	Feature-Driven Development	A lightweight agile software development method driven from the perspective of features valued by clients.
175	Fee	Represents profit as a component of compensation to a seller.
176	Finish Date	A point in time associated with a schedule activity’s completion. Usually qualified by one of the following: actual, planned, estimated, scheduled, early, late, baseline, target, or current.
177	Finish-to-Finish	A logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot finish until a predecessor activity has finished.
178	Firm Fixed Price Contract	A type of fixed price contract where the buyer pays the seller a set amount as defined by the contract, regardless of the seller’s costs.
179	Fishbone diagram	See Cause and Effect Diagram.
180	Fit for Purpose	A product that is suitable for its intended purpose.
181	Fit for Use	A product that is usable in its current form to achieve its intended purpose.
182	Fixed Price Incentive Fee Contract	A type of contract where the buyer pays the seller a set amount as defined by the contract, and the seller can earn an additional amount if the seller meets defined performance criteria.
183	Fixed Price with Economic Price Adjustment Contract	A fixed-price contract, but with a special provision allowing for predefined final adjustments to the contract price due to changed conditions, such as inflation changes, or cost increases or decreases for specific commodities.
184	Fixed-Price Contract	An agreement that sets the fee that will be paid for a defined scope of work regardless of the cost or effort to deliver it.
185	Flow Master	The coach for a team and service request manager working in a continuous flow or Kanban context. Equivalent to {Scrum Master}.
186	Flowchart	The depiction in a diagram format of the inputs, process actions, and outputs of one or more processes within a system.
187	Forecast	An estimate or prediction of conditions and events in the project’s future based on information and knowledge available at the time of the forecast.
188	Forward Pass	A critical path method technique for calculating the early start and early finish dates by working forward through the schedule model from the project start date or a given point in time. See also backward pass.
189	Framework	A basic system or structure of ideas or facts that support an approach.
190	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. See also total float, critical path, near-critical activity, and near-critical path.
191	Functional Organization	An organizational structure in which staff is grouped by areas of specialization and the project manager has limited authority to assign work and apply resources. See also matrix organization and projectized organization.
192	Functional Requirement	A specific behavior that a product or service should perform.
193	Functional Specification	A specific function that a system or application is required to perform. Typically represented in a functional specifications document.
194	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.
195	Gantt Chart	A bar chart of schedule information where activities are listed on the vertical axis, dates are shown on the horizontal axis, and activity durations are shown as horizontal bars placed according to start and finish dates.
196	Grade	A category or rank used to distinguish items that have the same functional use but do not share the same requirements for quality.
197	Ground Rules	Expectations regarding acceptable behavior by project team members.
198	Histogram	A bar chart that shows the graphical representation of numerical data.
199	Historical Information	Documents and data on prior projects including project files, records, correspondence, closed contracts, and closed projects.
200	Hoshin Kanri	A strategy or policy deployment method.
201	Hybrid Approach	A combination of two or more agile and non-agile elements, having a non-agile end result.
202	I-shaped	Refers to a person with a single deep area of specialization and no interest or skill in the rest of the skills required by the team. See also {T-Shaped} and {Broken Comb}.
203	IDEAL	An organizational improvement model that is named for the five phases it describes: initiating, diagnosing, establishing, acting, and learning.
204	Identify Risks	The process of identifying individual risks as well as sources of overall risk and documenting their characteristics.
205	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.
206	Impact Mapping	A strategic planning technique that acts as a roadmap to the organization while building new products.
207	Impediment	An obstacle that prevents the team from achieving its objectives. Also known as a blocker.
208	Implement Risk Responses	The process of implementing agreed-upon risk response plans.
209	Imposed Date	A fixed date imposed on a schedule activity or schedule milestone, usually in the form of a “start no earlier than” and “finish no later than” date.
210	Incentive Fee	A set of financial incentives related to cost, schedule, or technical performance of the seller.
211	Increment	A functional, tested, and accepted deliverable that is a subset of the overall project outcome.
212	Incremental Life Cycle	An approach that provides finished deliverables that the customer may be able to use immediately. An adaptive project life cycle in which the deliverable is produced through a series of iterations that successively add functionality within a predetermined time frame. The deliverable contains the necessary and sufficient capability to be considered complete only after the final iteration.
213	Independent Estimates	A process of using a third party to obtain and analyze information to support prediction of cost, schedule, or other items.
214	Influence Diagram	A graphical representation of situations showing causal influences, time ordering of events, and other relationships among variables and outcomes.
215	Information	Organized or structured data, processed for a specific purpose to make it meaningful, valuable, and useful in specific contexts.
216	Information Management Systems	Facilities, processes, and procedures used to collect, store, and distribute information between producers and consumers of information in physical or electronic format.
217	Information Radiator	A visible, physical display that provides information to the rest of the organization enabling up-to-the-minute knowledge sharing without having to disturb the team.
218	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.
219	Input	Any item, whether internal or external to the project, which is required by a process before that process proceeds. May be an output from a predecessor process.
220	Inspection	Examination of a work product to determine whether it conforms to documented standards.
221	Interpersonal and Team Skills	Skills used to effectively lead and interact with team members and other stakeholders.
222	Interpersonal Skills	Skills used to establish and maintain relationships with other people.
223	Interviews	A formal or informal approach to elicit information from stakeholders by talking to them directly.
224	Invitation for Bid	Generally, this term is equivalent to request for proposal. However, in some application areas, it may have a narrower or more specific meaning.
225	Issue	A current condition or situation that may have an impact on the project objectives.
226	Issue Log	A project document where information about issues is recorded and monitored.
227	Iteration	A timeboxed cycle of development on a product or deliverable in which all of the work that is needed to deliver value is performed.
228	Iterative Life Cycle	An approach that allows feedback for unfinished work to improve and modify that work. A project life cycle where the project scope is generally determined early in the project life cycle, but time and cost estimates are routinely modified as the project team’s understanding of the product increases. Iterations develop the product through a series of repeated cycles, while increments successively add to the functionality of the product.
229	Kaizen Events	Events aimed at improvement of the system.
230	Kanban Board	A visualization tool that enables improvements to the flow of work by making bottlenecks and work quantities visible.
231	Kanban Method	An agile method inspired by the original Kanban inventory control system and used specifically for knowledge work.
232	Knowledge	A mixture of experience, values and beliefs, contextual information, intuition, and insight that people use to make sense of new experiences and information.
233	Lag	The amount of time whereby a successor activity will be delayed with respect to a predecessor activity. See also lead.
234	Large Scale Scrum	Large-Scale Scrum is a product development framework that extends Scrum with scaling guidelines while preserving the original purposes of Scrum.
235	Late Finish Date	In the critical path method, the latest possible point in time when the uncompleted portions of a schedule activity can finish based on the schedule network logic, the project completion date, and any schedule constraints.
236	Late Start Date	In the critical path method, the latest possible point in time when the uncompleted portions of a schedule activity can start based on the schedule network logic, the project completion date, and any schedule constraints. See also early finish date, late finish date, early start date, and schedule network analysis.
237	Lead	The amount of time whereby a successor activity can be advanced with respect to a predecessor activity. See also lag.
238	Lean Software Development	Lean software development is an adaptation of lean manufacturing principles and practices to the software development domain and is based on a set of principles and practices for achieving quality, speed, and customer alignment.
239	Lessons Learned	The knowledge gained during a project which shows how project events were addressed or should be addressed in the future for the purpose of improving future performance.
240	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.
241	Lessons Learned Repository	A store of historical information about lessons learned in projects.
242	Level of Effort	An activity that does not produce definitive end products and is measured by the passage of time. [Note: Level of effort is one of three earned value management EVM types of activities used to measure work performance.] See also apportioned effort and discrete effort.
243	Life Cycle	The process through which a product is imagined, created, and put into use.
244	Log	A document used to record and describe or denote selected items identified during execution of a process or activity. Usually used with a modifier, such as issue, change, issue, or assumption.
245	Make-or-Buy Analysis	The process of gathering and organizing data about product requirements and analyzing them against available alternatives including the purchase or internal manufacture of the product.
246	Make-or-Buy Decisions	Decisions made regarding the external purchase or internal manufacture of a product.
247	Manage Communications	Manage Communications is the process of ensuring timely and appropriate collection, creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, management, monitoring, and the ultimate disposition of project information.
248	Manage Project Knowledge	The process of using existing knowledge and creating new knowledge to achieve the project’s objectives and contribute to organizational learning.
249	Manage Quality	The process of translating the quality management plan into executable quality activities that incorporate the organization’s quality policies into the project.
250	Manage Stakeholder Engagement	The process of communicating and working with stakeholders to meet their needs and expectations, address issues, and foster appropriate stakeholder involvement.
251	Manage Team	The process of tracking team member performance, providing feedback, resolving issues, and managing team changes to optimize project performance.
252	Management Reserve	An amount of the project budget or project schedule held outside of the performance measurement baseline PMB for management control purposes, that is reserved for unforeseen work that is within scope of the project.
253	Management Skills	The ability to plan, organize, direct, and control individuals or groups of people to achieve specific goals.
254	Mandatory Dependency	A relationship that is contractually required or inherent in the nature of the work.
255	Master Schedule	A summary-level project schedule that identifies the major deliverables and work breakdown structure components and key schedule milestones. See also milestone schedule.
256	Matrix Diagrams	A quality management and control tool used to perform data analysis within the organizational structure created in the matrix. The matrix diagram seeks to show the strength of relationships between factors, causes, and objectives that exist between the rows and columns that form the matrix.
257	Matrix Organization	Any organizational structure in which the project manager shares responsibility with the functional managers for assigning priorities and for directing the work of persons assigned to the project.
258	Methodology	A system of practices, techniques, procedures, and rules used by those who work in a discipline.
259	Milestone	A significant point or event in a project, program, or portfolio.
260	Milestone Schedule	A type of schedule that presents milestones with planned dates. See also master schedule.
261	Mind-Mapping	A technique used to consolidate ideas created through individual brainstorming sessions into a single map to reflect commonality and differences in understanding and to generate new ideas.
262	Mobbing	A technique in which multiple team members focus simultaneously and coordinate their contributions on a particular work item.
263	Monitor	Collect project performance data, produce performance measures, and report and disseminate performance information.
264	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.
265	Monitor Communications	The process of ensuring that the information needs of the project and its stakeholders are met.
266	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.
267	Monitor Stakeholder Engagement	The process of monitoring project stakeholder relationships, and tailoring strategies for engaging stakeholders through the modification of engagement strategies and plans.
268	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.
269	Monte Carlo Simulation	An analysis technique where a computer model is iterated many times, with the input values chosen at random for each iteration driven by the input data, including probability distributions and probabilistic branches. Outputs are generated to represent the range of possible outcomes for the project.
270	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.
271	Network	See project schedule network diagram.
272	Network Logic	All activity dependencies in a project schedule network diagram. See also early finish date, early start date, late finish date, late start date, and network path.
273	Network Path	A sequence of activities connected by logical relationships in a project schedule network diagram. See also early finish date, early start date, late finish date, late start date, and network logic.
274	Networking	Establishing connections and relationships with other people from the same or other organizations.
275	Node	A point at which dependency lines connect on a schedule network diagram. See also precedence diagramming method PDM and project schedule network diagram.
276	Nominal Group Technique	A technique that enhances brainstorming with a voting process used to rank the most useful ideas for further brainstorming or for prioritization.
277	Objective	Something toward which work is to be directed, a strategic position to be attained, a purpose to be achieved, a result to be obtained, a product to be produced, or a service to be performed.
278	Opportunity	A risk that would have a positive effect on one or more project objectives. See also issue, risk, and threat.
279	Organizational Bias	The preferences of an organization on a set of scales characterized by the following core values: exploration versus execution, speed versus stability, quantity versus quality, and flexibility versus predictability.
280	Organizational Breakdown Structure	A hierarchical representation of the project organization, which illustrates the relationship between project activities and the organizational units that will perform those activities. See also resource breakdown structure, risk breakdown structure, and work breakdown structure WBS.
281	Organizational Change Management	A comprehensive, cyclic, and structured approach for transitioning individuals, groups, and organizations from the current state to a future state with intended business benefits.
282	Organizational Learning	A discipline concerned with the way individuals, groups, and organizations develop knowledge.
283	Overall Project Risk	The effect of uncertainty on the project as a whole, arising from all sources of uncertainty including individual risks, representing the exposure of stakeholders to the implications of variations in project outcome, both positive and negative.
284	Paint-Drip	See Broken Comb.
285	Pair Programming	Pair work that is focused on programming.
286	Pair Work	A technique of pairing two team members to work simultaneously on the same work item.
287	Pairing	See Pair Work.
288	Parametric Estimating	An estimating technique in which an algorithm is used to calculate cost or duration based on historical data and project parameters. See also analogous estimating, bottom-up estimating, program evaluation and review technique PERT, and three-point estimating.
289	Path Convergence	A relationship in which a schedule activity has more than one predecessor. See also path divergence, predecessor activity, and successor activity.
290	Path Divergence	A relationship in which a schedule activity has more than one successor. See also path convergence, predecessor activity, and successor activity.
291	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.
292	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.
293	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.
294	Performance Measurement Baseline	Integrated scope, schedule, and cost baselines used for comparison to manage, measure, and control project execution. See also baseline, cost baseline, schedule baseline, and scope baseline.
295	Performance Reviews	A technique that is used to measure, compare, and analyze actual performance of work in progress on the project against the baseline.
296	Personas	An archetype user representing a set of similar end users described with their goals, motivations, and representative personal characteristics.
297	Pivot	A planned course correction designed to test a new hypothesis about the product or strategy.
298	Plan Communications Management	The process of developing an appropriate approach and plan for project communication activities based on the information needs of each stakeholder or group, available organizational assets, and the needs of the project.
299	Plan Cost Management	The process of defining how the project costs will be estimated, budgeted, managed, monitored, and controlled.
300	Plan Procurement Management	The process of documenting project procurement decisions, specifying the approach, and identifying potential sellers.
301	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.
302	Plan Resource Management	The process of defining how to estimate, acquire, manage, and utilize physical and team resources.
303	Plan Risk Management	The process of defining how to conduct risk management activities for a project.
304	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.
305	Plan Schedule Management	The process of establishing the policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, developing, managing, executing, and controlling the project schedule.
306	Plan Scope Management	The process of creating a scope management plan that documents how the project and product scope will be defined, validated, and controlled.
307	Plan Stakeholder Engagement	The process of developing approaches to involve project stakeholders, based on their needs, expectations, interests, and potential impact on the project.
308	Plan-Do-Check-Act	An iterative management method used in organizations to facilitate the control and continual improvement of processes and products.
309	Plan-Driven Approach	See Predictive Approach.
310	Planned Value	The authorized budget assigned to scheduled work. See also actual cost AC, budget at completion BAC, earned value EV, estimate at completion EAC, and estimate to complete ETC.
311	Planning Package	A work breakdown structure component below the control account with known work content but without detailed schedule activities. See also control account.
312	Planning Process Group	Those 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.
313	Plurality	Decisions made by the largest block in a group, even if a majority is not achieved.
314	Practice	A specific type of professional or management activity that contributes to the execution of a process and that may employ one or more techniques and tools.
315	Precedence Diagramming Method	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. See also node and project schedule network diagram.
316	Precedence Relationship	A logical dependency used in the precedence diagramming method.
317	Predecessor Activity	An activity that logically comes before a dependent activity in a schedule. See also successor activity and summary activity.
318	Predictive Approach	An approach to work management that utilizes a work plan and management of that work plan throughout the life cycle of a project.
319	Predictive Life Cycle	A more traditional approach, with the bulk of planning occurring up-front, then executing in a single pass; a sequential process.
320	Preventive Action	An intentional activity that ensures the future performance of the project work is aligned with the project management plan. See also corrective action.
321	Probability and Impact Matrix	A grid for mapping the probability of occurrence of each risk and its impact on project objectives if that risk occurs. See also risk.
322	Procurement Audits	The review of contracts and contracting processes for completeness, accuracy, and effectiveness.
323	Procurement Documentation	All documents used in signing, executing, and closing an agreement. Procurement documentation may include documents predating the project.
324	Procurement Documents	The documents utilized in bid and proposal activities, which include the buyer’s Invitation for bid, invitation for negotiations, request for information, request for quotation, request for proposal, and seller’s responses.
325	Procurement Management Plan	A component of the project or program management plan that describes how a project team will acquire goods and services from outside of the performing organization.
326	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.
327	Procurement Strategy	The approach by the buyer to determine the project delivery method and the type of legally binding agreements that should be used to deliver the desired results.
328	Product Analysis	For projects that have a product as a deliverable, it is a tool to define scope that generally means asking questions about a product and forming answers to describe the use, characteristics, and other relevant aspects of what is going to be manufactured.
329	Product Backlog	An ordered list of user-centric requirements that a team maintains for a product.
330	Product Life Cycle	The series of phases that represent the evolution of a product, from concept through delivery, growth, maturity, and to retirement. See also project life cycle.
331	Product Owner	A person responsible for maximizing the value of the product and who is ultimately responsible and accountable for the end product that is built. See also Service Request Manager.
332	Product Scope Description	The documented narrative description of the product scope.
333	Program	Related projects, subsidiary programs, and program activities that are managed in a coordinated manner to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually.
334	Program Management	The application of knowledge, skills, and principles to a program to achieve the program objectives and obtain benefits and control not available by managing program components individually.
335	Progressive Elaboration	The iterative process of increasing the level of detail in a project management plan as greater amounts of information and more accurate estimates become available.
336	Project Calendar	A calendar that identifies working days and shifts that are available for scheduled activities.
337	Project Communications Management	Project Communications Management includes the processes required to ensure timely and appropriate planning, collection, creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, management, control, monitoring, and ultimate disposition of project information.
338	Project Cost Management	Project Cost Management includes the processes involved in planning, estimating, budgeting, financing, funding, managing, and controlling costs so the project can be completed within the approved budget.
339	Project Funding Requirements	Forecast project costs to be paid that are derived from the cost baseline for total or periodic requirements, including projected expenditures plus anticipated liabilities.
340	Project Initiation	Launching a process that can result in the authorization of a new project.
341	Project Integration Management	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.
342	Project Management Body of Knowledge	A term that describes the knowledge within the profession of project management. The project management body of knowledge includes proven traditional practices that are widely applied as well as innovative practices that are emerging in the profession.
343	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.
344	Project Management Office	A management structure that standardizes the project-related governance processes and facilitates the sharing of resources, methodologies, tools, and techniques. See also {program management office}.
345	Project Management Process Group	A logical grouping of project management inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs. The Project Management Process Groups include initiating processes, planning processes, executing processes, monitoring and controlling processes, and closing processes. Project Management Process Groups are not project phases.
346	Project Management System	The aggregation of the processes, tools, techniques, methodologies, resources, and procedures to manage a project.
347	Project Management Team	The members of the project team who are directly involved in project management activities. See also Project Team.
348	Project Organization Chart	A document that graphically depicts the project team members and their interrelationships for a specific project.
349	Project Procurement Management	Project Procurement Management includes the processes necessary to purchase or acquire products, services, or results needed from outside the project team.
350	Project Quality Management	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 stakeholders’ expectations.
351	Project Resource Management	Project Resource Management includes the processes to identify, acquire, and manage the resources needed for the successful completion of the project.
352	Project Risk Management	Project Risk Management includes the processes of conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis, response planning, response implementation, and monitoring risk on a project.
353	Project Schedule Management	Project Schedule Management includes the processes required to manage the timely completion of the project.
354	Project Schedule Network Diagram	A graphical representation of the logical relationships among the project schedule activities. See also node and precedence diagramming method PDM.
355	Project Scope Management	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.
356	Project Scope Statement	The description of the project scope, major deliverables, assumptions, and constraints.
357	Project Stakeholder Management	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.
358	Project Team Directory	A documented list of project team members, their project roles, and communication information.
359	Proposal Evaluation Techniques	The process of reviewing proposals provided by suppliers to support contract award decisions.
360	Quality	The degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements.
361	Quality Audits	A quality audit is a structured, independent process to determine if project activities comply with organizational and project policies, processes, and procedures.
362	Quality Checklists	A structured tool used to verify that a set of required steps has been performed.
363	Quality Control Measurements	The documented results of control quality activities.
364	Quality Management Plan	A component of the project or program management plan that describes how applicable policies, procedures, and guidelines will be implemented to achieve the quality objectives.
365	Quality Management System	The organizational framework whose structure provides the policies, processes, procedures, and resources required to implement the quality management plan. The typical project quality management plan should be compatible to the organization’s quality management system.
366	Quality Metrics	A description of a project or product attribute and how to measure it.
367	Quality Policy	A policy specific to the Project Quality Management Knowledge Area, it establishes the basic principles that should govern the organization’s actions as it implements its system for quality management.
368	Quality Report	A project document that includes quality management issues, recommendations for corrective actions, and a summary of findings from quality control activities and may include recommendations for process, project, and product improvements.
369	Quality Requirement	A condition or capability that will be used to assess conformance by validating the acceptability of an attribute for the quality of a result.
370	Questionnaires	Written sets of questions designed to quickly accumulate information from a large number of respondents.
371	Refactoring	A product quality technique whereby the design of a product is improved by enhancing its maintainability and other desired attributes without altering its expected behavior.
372	Regression Analysis	An analytical technique where a series of input variables are examined in relation to their corresponding output results in order to develop a mathematical or statistical relationship.
373	Regulations	Requirements imposed by a governmental body. These requirements can establish product, process, or service characteristics, including applicable administrative provisions that have government-mandated compliance.
374	Request for Information	A type of procurement document whereby the buyer requests a potential seller to provide various pieces of information related to a product or service or seller capability.
375	Request for Proposal	A type of procurement document used to request proposals from prospective sellers of products or services. In some application areas, it may have a narrower or more specific meaning.
376	Request for Quotation	A type of procurement document used to request price quotations from prospective sellers of common or standard products or services. Sometimes used in place of request for proposal and, in some application areas, it may have a narrower or more specific meaning.
377	Requirement	A condition or capability that is necessary to be present in a product, service, or result to satisfy a business need.
378	Requirements Documentation	A description of how individual requirements meet the business need for the project.
379	Requirements Management Plan	A component of the project or program management plan that describes how requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed.
380	Requirements Traceability Matrix	A grid that links product requirements from their origin to the deliverables that satisfy them.
381	Reserve	A provision in the project management plan to mitigate cost and/or schedule risk. Often used with a modifier e.g., management reserve, contingency reserve to provide further detail on what types of risk are meant to be mitigated.
382	Reserve Analysis	An analytical technique to determine the essential features and relationships of components in the project management plan to establish a reserve for the schedule duration, budget, estimated cost, or funds for a project.
383	Residual Risk	The risk that remains after risk responses have been implemented.
384	Resource	A team member or any physical item needed to complete the project.
385	Resource Calendar	A calendar that identifies the working days and shifts upon which each specific resource is available.
386	Resource Histogram	A bar chart showing the amount of time that a resource is scheduled to work over a series of time periods.
387	Resource Leveling	A resource optimization technique in which adjustments are made to the project schedule to optimize the allocation of resources and which may affect critical path. See also resource optimization technique and resource smoothing.
388	Resource Manager	An individual with management authority over one or more resources.
389	Resource Optimization Technique	A technique in which activity start and finish dates are adjusted to balance demand for resources with the available supply. See also resource leveling and resource smoothing.
390	Resource Requirements	The types and quantities of resources required for each activity in a work package.
391	Resource Smoothing	A resource optimization technique in which free and total float are used without affecting the critical path. See also resource leveling and resource optimization technique.
392	Responsibility	An assignment that can be delegated within a project management plan such that the assigned resource incurs a duty to perform the requirements of the assignment.
393	Responsibility Assignment Matrix	A grid that shows the project resources assigned to each work package.
394	Result	An output from performing project management processes and activities. Results include outcomes e.g., integrated systems, revised process, restructured organization, tests, trained personnel, etc. and documents e.g., policies, plans, studies, procedures, specifications, reports, etc.. See also deliverable.
395	Retrospective	A regularly occurring workshop in which participants explore their work and results in order to improve both process and product.
396	Rework	Action taken to bring a defective or nonconforming component into compliance with requirements or specifications.
397	Risk	An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on one or more project objectives.
398	Risk Audit	A type of audit used to consider the effectiveness of the risk management process.
399	Risk Categorization	Organization by sources of risk e.g., using the RBS, the area of the project affected e.g., using the WBS, or other useful category e.g., project phase to determine the areas of the project most exposed to the effects of uncertainty.
400	Risk Category	A group of potential causes of risk.
401	Risk Data Quality Assessment	Technique to evaluate the degree to which the data about risks is useful for risk management.
402	Risk Escalation	A risk response strategy whereby the team acknowledges that a risk is outside of its sphere of influence and shifts the ownership of the risk to a higher level of the organization where it is more effectively managed.
403	Risk Exposure	An aggregate measure of the potential impact of all risks at any given point in time in a project, program, or portfolio.
404	Risk Management Plan	A component of the project, program, or portfolio management plan that describes how risk management activities will be structured and performed.
405	Risk Mitigation	A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to decrease the probability of occurrence or impact of a threat.
406	Risk Register	A repository in which outputs of risk management processes are recorded.
407	Risk Report	A project document developed progressively throughout the Project Risk Management processes, which summarizes information on individual project risks and the level of overall project risk.
408	Risk Review	A meeting to examine and document the effectiveness of risk responses in dealing with overall project risk and with identified individual project risks.
409	Risk Sharing	A risk response strategy whereby the project team allocates ownership of an opportunity to a third party who is best able to capture the benefit of that opportunity.
410	Risk Threshold	The level of risk exposure above which risks are addressed and below which risks may be accepted.
411	Risk Transference	A risk response strategy whereby the project team shifts the impact of a threat to a third party, together with ownership of the response.
412	Role	A defined function to be performed by a project team member, such as testing, filing, inspecting, or coding.
413	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.
414	Scaled Agile Framework	A knowledge base of integrated patterns for enterprise-scale lean–agile development.
415	Schedule	See project schedule and schedule model.
416	Schedule Baseline	The approved version of a schedule model that can be changed using formal change control procedures and is used as the basis for comparison to actual results.
417	Schedule Compression	A technique used to shorten the schedule duration without reducing the project scope.
418	Schedule Data	The collection of information for describing and controlling the schedule.
419	Schedule Forecasts	Estimates or predictions of conditions and events in the project’s future based on information and knowledge available at the time the schedule is calculated.
420	Schedule Management Plan	A component of the project or program management plan that establishes the criteria and the activities for developing, monitoring, and controlling the schedule.
421	Schedule Model	A representation of the plan for executing the project’s activities including durations, dependencies, and other planning information, used to produce a project schedule along with other scheduling artifacts.
422	Schedule Network Analysis	A technique to identify early and late start dates, as well as early and late finish dates, for the uncompleted portions of project activities.
423	Schedule Performance Index	A measure of schedule efficiency expressed as the ratio of earned value to planned value.
424	Schedule Variance	A measure of schedule performance expressed as the difference between the earned value and the planned value.
425	Scheduling Tool	A tool that provides schedule component names, definitions, structural relationships, and formats that support the application of a scheduling method.
426	Scope	The sum of the products, services, and results to be provided as a project. See also project scope and product scope.
427	Scope Baseline	The approved version of a scope statement, work breakdown structure WBS, and its associated WBS dictionary, that can be changed using formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results.
428	Scope Management Plan	A component of the project or program management plan that describes how the scope will be defined, developed, monitored, controlled, and validated.
429	Scrum	An agile framework for developing and sustaining complex products, with specific roles, events, and artifacts.
430	Scrum Board	An information radiator that is utilized to manage the product and sprint backlogs and show the flow of work and its bottlenecks.
431	Scrum Master	The coach of the development team and process owner in the Scrum framework. Removes obstacles, facilitates productive events and defends the team from disruptions. See also {Flow Master}.
432	Scrum of Scrums	A technique to operate Scrum at scale for multiple teams working on the same product, coordinating discussions of progress on their interdependencies, and focusing on how to integrate the delivery of software, especially in areas of overlap.
433	Scrum Team	Describes the combination of development team, scrum master, and process owner used in Scrum.
434	Scrumban	A management framework that emerges when teams employ Scrum as the chosen way of working and use the Kanban Method as a lens through which to view, understand, and continuously improve how they work.
435	Secondary Risk	A risk that arises as a direct result of implementing a risk response.
436	Self-Organizing Team	A cross-functional team in which people fluidly assume leadership as needed to achieve the team’s objectives.
437	Self-Organizing Teams	A team formation where the team functions with an absence of centralized control.
438	Seller	A provider or supplier of products, services, or results to an organization.
439	Seller Proposals	Formal responses from sellers to a request for proposal or other procurement document specifying the price, commercial terms of sale, and technical specifications or capabilities the seller will do for the requesting organization that, if accepted, would bind the seller to perform the resulting agreement.
440	Sensitivity Analysis	An analysis technique to determine which individual project risks or other sources of uncertainty have the most potential impact on project outcomes, by correlating variations in project outcomes with variations in elements of a quantitative risk analysis model.
441	Sequence Activities	The process of identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities.
442	Servant Leadership	The practice of leading through service to the team, by focusing on understanding and addressing the needs and development of team members in order to enable the highest possible team performance.
443	Service Level Agreement	A contract between a service provider either internal or external and the end user that defines the level of service expected from the service provider.
444	Service Request Manager	The person responsible for ordering service requests to maximize value in a continuous flow or Kanban environment. Equivalent to product owner.
445	Siloed Organization	An organization structured in such a way that it only manages to contribute a subset of the aspects required for delivering value to customers. For contrast, see Value Stream.
446	Simulation	An analytical technique that models the combined effect of uncertainties to evaluate their potential impact on objectives.
447	Single Loop Learning	The practice of attempting to solve problems by just using specific predefined methods, without challenging the methods in light of experience.
448	Smoke Testing	The practice of using a lightweight set of tests to ensure that the most important functions of the system under development work as intended.
449	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.
450	Specification	A precise statement of the needs to be satisfied and the essential characteristics that are required.
451	Specification by Example	A collaborative approach to defining requirements and business-oriented functional tests for software products based on capturing and illustrating requirements using realistic examples instead of abstract statements.
452	Specification Limits	The area, on either side of the centerline, or mean, of data plotted on a control chart that meets the customer’s requirements for a product or service. This area may be greater than or less than the area defined by the control limits. See also control limits.
453	Spike	A short time interval within a project, usually of fixed length, during which a team conducts research or prototypes an aspect of a solution to prove its viability.
454	Sponsor	A person or group who provides resources and support for the project, program, or portfolio and is accountable for enabling success.
455	Sponsoring Organization	The entity responsible for providing the project’s sponsor and a conduit for project funding or other project resources.
456	Sprint	Describes a timeboxed iteration in Scrum.
457	Sprint Backlog	A list of work items identified by the Scrum team to be completed during the Scrum sprint.
458	Sprint Planning	A collaborative event in Scrum in which the Scrum team plans the work for the current sprint.
459	Stakeholder	An individual, group, or organization that may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project, program, or portfolio.
460	Stakeholder Analysis	A technique of systematically gathering and analyzing quantitative and qualitative information to determine whose interests should be taken into account throughout the project.
461	Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix	A matrix that compares current and desired stakeholder engagement levels.
462	Stakeholder Engagement Plan	A component of the project management plan that identifies the strategies and actions required to promote productive involvement of stakeholders in project or program decision making and execution.
463	Stakeholder Register	A project document including the identification, assessment, and classification of project stakeholders.
464	Standard	A document established by an authority, custom, or general consent as a model or example.
465	Start Date	A point in time associated with a schedule activity’s start, usually qualified by one of the following: actual, planned, estimated, scheduled, early, late, target, baseline, or current.
466	Start-to-Finish	A logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot finish until a predecessor activity has started.
467	Start-to-Start	A logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has started.
468	Statement of Work	A narrative description of products, services, or results to be delivered by the project.
469	Statistical Sampling	Choosing part of a population of interest for inspection.
470	Story Point	A unit-less measure used in relative user story estimation techniques.
471	Successor Activity	A dependent activity that logically comes after another activity in a schedule.
472	Summary Activity	A group of related schedule activities aggregated and displayed as a single activity.
473	Swarming	A technique in which multiple team members focus collectively on resolving a specific impediment.
474	T-shaped	Refers to a person with one deep area of specialization and broad ability in the rest of the skills required by the team. See also I-Shaped and Broken Comb.
475	Tacit Knowledge	Personal knowledge that can be difficult to articulate and share such as beliefs, experience, and insights.
476	Tailoring	Determining the appropriate combination of processes, inputs, tools, techniques, outputs, and life cycle phases to manage a project.
477	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.
478	Team Management Plan	A component of the resource management plan that describes when and how team members will be acquired and how long they will be needed.
479	Technical Debt	The deferred cost of work not done at an earlier point in the product life cycle.
480	Technique	A defined systematic procedure employed by a human resource to perform an activity to produce a product or result or deliver a service, and that may employ one or more tools.
481	Test and Evaluation Documents	Project documents that describe the activities used to determine if the product meets the quality objectives stated in the quality management plan.
482	Test-Driven Development	A technique where tests are defined before work is begun, so that work in progress is validated continuously, enabling work with a zero defect mindset.
483	Three-Point Estimating	A technique used to estimate cost or duration by applying an average or weighted average of optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely estimates when there is uncertainty with the individual activity estimates.
484	Threshold	A predetermined value of a measurable project variable that represents a limit that requires action to be taken if it is reached.
485	Time and Material Contract	A type of contract that is a hybrid contractual arrangement containing aspects of both cost-reimbursable and fixed-price contracts.
486	Timebox	A fixed period of time, for example, 1 week, 1 fortnight, 3 weeks, or 1 month. See also Iteration.
487	To-Complete Performance Index	A measure of the cost performance that is required to be achieved with the remaining resources in order to meet a specified management goal, expressed as the ratio of the cost to finish the outstanding work to the remaining budget.
488	Tolerance	The quantified description of acceptable variation for a quality requirement.
489	Tool	Something tangible, such as a template or software program, used in performing an activity to produce a product or result.
490	Tornado Diagram	A special type of bar chart used in sensitivity analysis for comparing the relative importance of the variables.
491	Total Float	The amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed or extended from its early start date without delaying the project finish date or violating a schedule constraint.
492	Trend Analysis	An analytical technique that uses mathematical models to forecast future outcomes based on historical results.
493	Trigger Condition	An event or situation that indicates that a risk is about to occur.
494	Unanimity	Agreement by everyone in the group on a single course of action.
495	Update	A modification to any deliverable, project management plan component, or project document that is not under formal change control.
496	User Story	A brief description of deliverable value for a specific user. It is a promise for a conversation to clarify details.
497	User Story Mapping	A visual practice for organizing work into a useful model to help understand the sets of high-value features to be created over time, identify omissions in the backlog, and effectively plan releases that deliver value to users.
498	UX Design	The process of enhancing the user experience by focusing on improving the usability and accessibility to be found in the interaction between the user and the product.
499	Validate Scope	The process of formalizing acceptance of the completed project deliverables.
500	Validation	The assurance that a product, service, or result meets the needs of the customer and other identified stakeholders. Contrast with verification.
501	Value Stream	An organizational construct that focuses on the flow of value to customers through the delivery of specific products or services.
502	Value Stream Mapping	A lean enterprise technique used to document, analyze, and improve the flow of information or materials required to produce a product or service for a customer.
503	Variance	A quantifiable deviation, departure, or divergence away from a known baseline or expected value.
504	Variance Analysis	A technique for determining the cause and degree of difference between the baseline and actual performance.
505	Variance At Completion	A projection of the amount of budget deficit or surplus, expressed as the difference between the budget at completion and the estimate at completion.
506	Variation	An actual condition that is different from the expected condition that is contained in the baseline plan.
507	Verification	The evaluation of whether or not a product, service, or result complies with a regulation, requirement, specification, or imposed condition. Contrast with validation.
508	Verified Deliverables	Completed project deliverables that have been checked and confirmed for correctness through the Control Quality process.
509	Virtual Teams	Groups of people with a shared goal who fulfill their roles with little or no time spent meeting face to face.
510	Voice of the Customer	A planning technique used to provide products, services, and results that truly reflect customer requirements by translating those customer requirements into the appropriate technical requirements for each phase of project product development.
511	WBS Dictionary	A document that provides detailed deliverable, activity, and scheduling information about each component in the work breakdown structure.
512	What-If Scenario Analysis	The process of evaluating scenarios in order to predict their effect on project objectives.
513	Work Breakdown Structure	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.
514	Work Breakdown Structure Component	An entry in the work breakdown structure that can be at any level.
515	Work Package	The work defined at the lowest level of the work breakdown structure for which cost and duration are estimated and managed.
516	Work Performance Data	The raw observations and measurements identified during activities being performed to carry out the project work.
517	Work Performance Information	The performance data collected from controlling processes, analyzed in comparison with project management plan components, project documents, and other work performance information.
518	Work Performance Reports	The physical or electronic representation of work performance information compiled in project documents, intended to generate decisions, actions, or awareness.