PROJECT MANAGEMENT TERMINOLOGY
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D E F G H
I J K L M N O
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R S T
U V W X Y Z
50-50 Rule
At beginning, charge 50% of its BCWS to the
account. Charge remaining at completion.
Change Request is
the most effective way of handling the disconnect between what users
actually want and what management thinks they want. The project
manager’s role related to project change is to influence the factors
that affect change. He should ask for a change order and look for
impacts to the triple constraint. Scope Changes on project can be
minimized by spending more time developing the scope baseline.
Acceptance
Accept or retain consequences. 2 types:
Active Acceptance (develop a contingency plan) or Passive
Acceptance (no action).
Activity
– consumes time (eg testing)
Activity-on-Arc
(AOA) is also known as Activity-on-Arrow
(because an arc is sometimes called an arrow). When you use AOA, you use
arcs or arrows, called activities, to connect events.
Consequently, AOA is event-oriented. This means that all arcs or arrows
leading to (pointing to) a node must be completed before the event
(represented by a node) is considered complete
Activity-on-Node (AON) is the most popular project management
network scheduling technique for complex, large projects. Instead of
circles and labels on arcs, AON uses a user-friendly flowcharting
approach. AON is preferred because of its clarity and similarity to
other tools .
When you use AON, there are no restrictions regarding the two lines that
connect two boxes.
There is no need for dummy activities. An activity exists inside a
construct (a node/box), so nodes are more important and arcs
(lines/arrows) are less important
Activity
Definition – defines activities that must take
place to produce project deliverables
ACWP (AC)
How much did the “is done” work cost?
AD
Work Quantity (scope of the activity) / Production rate
Analogous
Estimating Top down; based on similar
projects. Represents a form of expert judgment. Gives project team an
understanding of management’s expectations (part of cost budgeting and
cost estimating)
Arrow Diagramming Method is a
method of constructing a project network diagram using arrows to
represent the activities and connected at nodes to show the dependencies
Assumptions
– factors that, for planning purposes, are considered to be true, real
or certain
Attribute
Sampling Measures whether or not the
results conforms to specifications
variables sampling determines the
degree of conformity
Avoidance
(elimination/abatement) Eliminating cause
eliminates risk. Can be done by changing the Project Plan or protecting
project objectives from its impact.
BAC
Budget at Completion – How much is budgeted for the total
job? BAC would change every time there is a funded scope change approved
for activity to be performed in the future.
BCWP (EV)
How much work is done? (Progress) Budgeted
cost of work performed. Value of the work completed in terms of what you
budgeted (your baseline)
BCWS (PV)
How much should be done? This is the
performance measurement baseline.
Behaviorism
– people behavior can be modified through manipulation of rewards and
punishments
Benchmarking
Compares practices of other projects. Provides
a standard to measure performance (time consuming). (e.g. investigating
quality standards that other companies are using)
Beneficial
Efficiency – when the work is being used for
the intended purpose and has been certified
Benefit Cost
Ratio Expected Revenues / Expected Costs.
Measure benefits (payback) to costs; not just profits. The higher the
better (if rating over 1, the benefits are greater than the costs)
better quality provides
Improved Cost Effectiveness, Better Customer Satisfaction, Increase in
Productivity
Bidder Conferences (which is a
Tool/Technique for Solicitation) are meetings with prospective sellers
prior to preparation of the proposal. They are used to ensure that all
the prospective sellers have a clear, common understanding of the
procurement (technical requirements, contract requirements etc.)
Blake and Mouton
– ref to managerial grid (Concern for People
Vs Concern for Production), whereas 1,1 is laissez faire mgmnt, 1,9 is
Country Club mgmnt, 9,1 is Task oriented mgmnt, 5,5 is Compromise mgmnt
and 9,9 is team mgmnt.
Bottom-up
Estimating Detailed cost estimates of work
packages are aggregated, provides best overall quality of the estimate.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a way to spontaneously produce many ideas in a short
period of time. While you can brainstorm alone, a group generates more
ideas.
Brain writing
Brain writing is a means of increasing group participation. It is
especially useful when one or more members tend to monopolize idea
generation or when people are reluctant to participate. Also,
brainwriting is suitable for topics that are just too "hot" (volatile)
for discussion using traditional brainstorming.
Budget tampering
- presenting anything besides your original estimate to allocate more to
the
Budget updates
Should be the next steps after an approved
cost baseline has changed because of a major change on a project.
Benefit/cost Analysis
involves estimating tangible and intangible costs(outlays) and benefits
(returns) of various project and product alternatives, and then using
financial measures such as return on investment or payback period to
assess relative desirability of the identified alternatives
Cause and Effect Diagrams, also
called Ishikawa diagrams or fishbone diagrams illustrate
how various factors might be linked to potential problems or effects
cause of variances, reasoning
behind the corrective actions taken and other type of lessons learned
from scope change control should be documented, so that this information
becomes part of the historical database for both this project and other
projects of the performing organization
Change Requests may occur in many
forms - oral or written, direct or indirect, externally or internally
initiated, and legally mandated or optional. Please note that change
requests are always "formal"
Change Control
System – must also include procedures to
handle changes that may be approved without prior review
Changes
- if the functional manager wants to make a change to time associated to
a task (change in goals and objectives of the Charter) and there is not
enough reserve, senior management (not the Project Manager) should
authorize the change. The best method to control changes on the
project is to look for sources of change. The best method to deal
with changes is to direct the changes to the Change Control Board. Change
Control System :.includes the paperwork, tracking systems,
processes and approval levels necessary for authorizing changes
Checklists
Used to verify that a set of required steps
has been performed in quality control process
checklist is a structured tool, usually item-specific, used to
verify that a set of required steps has been performed
Check sheets.
Check sheets are a very easy and understandable method to collect data.
Many of you may have used this method at one time or another (even if
you did not know it by name).Check sheets reflect occurrence of
conditions, events, problems, and defects.
They also help determine patterns for a small volume of events.
Code of Accounts
- any numbering system used to uniquely identify each element of the WBS.
Company and
Customer’s Interest - professional
responsibility requires the investigation of any instances where the
legitimate interests of the customer may be compromised. If such
compromise is found, action must be taken. Protect your company’s
interests
Company Policies
- It is the project manager’s professional responsibility to ensure that
company policies are followed during the project.
Configuration
Management - a means of monitoring and
controlling emerging project scope against the scope baseline; its
purpose is to control change throughout the project. It is any
documented procedures used to apply technical and administrative
direction and surveillance to audit the items and system to verify
conformance requirements. . It documents the physical characteristics of
formal project documents and steps required to control changes to them
Constrained
optimization – includes analytic hierarchy
process, logical framework analysis and multi-objective programming.
Contingency
Reserve Separate quantity of time/money for
known unknowns. Designed to cover specific risk events previously
identified and measured in the Risk Management Process.
Contract Control
System vs Project Control System – they both
include procedures. The contract control system requires more
documentation and more signoff.
Control Chart
helps newly assigned project manager
determine whether the project is out of control (in order to verify
quality level)., Can be used to monitor project management
Copyright laws
– do not violate
Core Process Some
planning processes have clear dependencies that require them to be
performed in essentially the same order on most projects.
Corrective action
- in project time management primarily concerns expediting to
ensure that activities remain on schedule. Is anything done to bring
expected future schedule performance in line with the project plan.
Cost Account
– one level above the Work Package.
Cost accounts
Represent the basic level at which project
performance is measured and reported. The purpose of cost accounts is to
monitor and report on project performance.
Cost Change
Control Systems Includes the
documentation, tracking systems, and approval levels needed to authorize
a change.
Cost Management
Plan – The action taken by the project manager
for all variances are described in the Cost Management Plan
Cost Performance
Index EV/AC [BCWP / ACWP]
I am getting ____ out of each dollar. (>1 good; <1 bad)
Cost Plus Fixed
Fee (CPFF) Used for research and
development contracts (which generally have low level of detail in the
scope); fixed fee can change if there is a change to the contract
(usually through change orders). The risk rests with the buyer.
Cost Plus
Incentive Fee CPIF) Buyer and seller share
in savings based on predetermined %s; long performance periods and
substantial development and test requirements (incentive to the vendor
to perform on or ahead of time)
Cost Plus
Percentage of Cost (CPPC) No valid
for federal contracts
Cost Variance in
% CV/EV
Cost
Variance EV –
AC [BCWP – ACWP] Variance = planned – actual
Cost/Benefit
analysis – technique used to validate that the
project can meet the technical/business objectives set forth by Sr.
Management
CPI
Cumulative CPI does not change by more than 10% once a
project is approximately 20% complete. The CPI provides a quick
statistical forecast of final project costs.
Crashing –
when you are worried about time, not so much about
costs.
Critical Path
– longest path (almost always have no float)
Cost Value CV analysis (also known as
break-even analysis
helps you evaluate different options. The name break-even analysis
comes from the fact that this technique calculates the precise point
where total revenues equal total costs and profits are zero. CV analysis
focuses on relationships between cost, revenue, and different volume of
outputs. Its purpose is estimate profits or losses that occur under
different conditions and pick the best choice.
Use
CV analysis to generate both a mathematical and graphical solution
Total cost equals fixed cost plus the units multiplied by the variable
cost, TC = FC + (U × VC)
Total revenue equals the selling price multiplied by the number of
units, TR = SP × U
break-even point occurs where total revenue equals total cost,
therefore, for the break-even point TR = TC.
Substituting equations one and two into equation three gives us a
break-even point of:FC + (U × VC) = SP × U
Subtract (U × VC) from both sides of the equation:FC = (SP × U) - (U ×
VC)
Simplify by factoring out U from the right side of the equation:FC = U
(SP − VC)
Divide both sides of the equation by SP − VC:FC ÷ (SP − VC) = U
Reverse the equation: U = FC ÷ (SP − VC)
Control charts are a graphic
display over time of a process. They are used to determine if the
process is "in control" (e.g. are differences in results created by
random variations, or are unusual events occurring whose causes must be
identified and corrected)?
Correspondence: Contract Terms and conditions often require
written documentation of certain aspects of the buyer/seller
communications, such as warnings of unsatisfactory performance and
contract changes or clarifications
Cost of quality refers to the total
cost of all efforts to achieve product/service quality, and includes all
work to ensure conformance to requirements. There are three types of
costs that are incurred :prevention costs, appraisal costs and failure
costs
Collocation is widely used in
larger projects and can also be used on smaller projects (e.g. with a
war room, where the team congregates and posts schedules, updates etc.
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