Ultimate Glossary of Project Management Terms
"Fake it 'til you make it" is a piece of advice that doesn't have an expiration date. If you've been in this crazy field for any length of time, you know that committing yourself to continuous learning is the key to career longevity. Sometimes that means nodding knowingly in a meeting and then looking something up later.
So here, folks, is a resource that you can return to again and again. As terms and technology evolve, so does this handy little (or not-so-little) project management glossary. Bookmark it so you can be in the know, or at least look like you are, any time a new bit of jargon shows up.
Project Management Glossary: Terms from A to Z
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W
A
Acceptance Criteria
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Acceptance criteria are the conditions a user story must meet before it's considered complete. Many agile teams write them using given-when-then acceptance criteria: given a starting context, when an action happens, then a specific outcome should follow. This keeps requirements testable and easy for developers, testers, and stakeholders to agree on.
Activity
Activity is a component of work, or work package, performed during the course of a project. An activity is the smallest unit of project work, and is often associated as part of a task that forms the basis of a project. Breaking down work into small tasks is useful for identifying the component parts for accurate estimating, timeline development, and statements of work.
Activity Sequencing
Activity sequencing refers to the process of identifying and documenting dependencies among schedule activities within a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).
Agile Board
This is usually actually a Kanban board reference. It can be a physical board or function within a project management tool used to keep track of team progress.
Agile Contract
An agile contract is an agreement structured to support iterative delivery instead of locking in fixed scope upfront. It typically defines how the client and team will collaborate, prioritize, and handle change, using models like time and materials, capped budgets, or pay-per-sprint.
Agile Manifesto
The Agile Manifesto is a set of values and principles that guides an agile development team to create better quality software faster.
Agile Project Management
Agile project management methods follow agile principles that encourage development iterations, teamwork, stakeholder involvement, objective metrics, and effective controls.
Analogous Estimating
A form of expert judgment that relies on referencing historical similar projects to predict estimates for current projects.
Assumptions
Project assumptions are any factors, usually listed in a statement of work (SoW) or estimate, that you assume to be held in place—either by the client or yourself—to ensure the ongoing validity of your document, and the outcome of the project.
Assumptions Analysis
Assumptions analysis is a technique that explores the accuracy of assumptions and identifies risks to the project from their inaccuracy, inconsistency, or incompleteness.
B
Backlog
A backlog, in simplest terms, is a list of everything that needs to be done in order to complete a project. In software, and especially when working in Scrum or Kanban, the backlog is often called a "product backlog" and is made visible to the project team as a list or task board. In the sprint planning process, any backlog stories will be moved into the sprint where responsible software developers or other team members work on them.
Backlog Grooming or Refinement
Backlog grooming is a regular event in which the product owner and members of the project team review the backlog to prioritize pending items based on customer and business needs.
Backward Pass
Backward pass is the calculation of late finish dates and late start dates for the uncompleted portions of all scheduled activities. It's determined by working backwards through the schedule network logic from the project’s end date.
Balanced Scorecard
A balanced scorecard is a performance management tool which began as a concept for measuring whether the smaller-scale operational activities of a company are aligned with its larger-scale objectives in terms of vision and strategy.
Baseline
A baseline is the original schedule, cost, or scope; a point of reference against which all future progress or changes are compared. Whenever changes to the project take place, a new revision of the baseline is created so that you can track changes to the project.
Balanced Scorecard
A balanced scorecard is a performance management tool which began as a concept for measuring whether the smaller-scale operational activities of a company are aligned with its larger-scale objectives in terms of vision and strategy.
BOSCARD
BOSCARD is acronym for background, objectives, scope, constraints, assumptions, risks, and deliverables. It refers to a strategic planning tool used to provide the terms-of-reference for new projects.
Bottom-up Cost Estimating
Bottom-up estimating is the process of creating a detailed estimate for each work component (labour and materials) and accounting for each varying cost burden. These estimates are based on the WBS and the WBS dictionary, as these documents define each element of the project deliverables.
Brainstorming
A data gathering and creativity technique that can be used to identify risks, ideas, or solutions to issues by using a group of team members or subject-matter experts. Typically, a brainstorming session is structured so that each participant's ideas are recorded for later analysis. In silent brainstorming, participants generate ideas individually and in writing before discussing them as a group, which keeps the loudest voices from dominating.
Budget
A budget is an approved document that presents the total financial resources needed to complete a project, any work breakdown structure component, or any schedule activity project.
Burn Charts
Burnup and burndown charts show the number of tasks needed to complete the project or phase of the project. A burnup chart shows the accumulation of tasks toward the project completion. The burndown chart shows the diminishing number of tasks left to complete the project work. Burn charts are often used in Agile project management.
Burn Rate
Burn rate is the rate of consumption of project resources and budget against tasks. A high burn rate would be found on a large project with lots of resources so the daily cost, or burn rate, is high.
Business Case
A document recording the justification for starting a project. It describes the benefits, anticipated ROI, costs, and impact, plus a calculation of the financial case.
C
Capacity Planning
The goal of capacity planning is to predict whether your existing supply of resources will be sufficient to achieve project objectives. Workforce capacity planning applies the same thinking across the whole organization, matching headcount and skills to upcoming demand.
CAPM
The Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) is a certification in project management managed by the Project Management Institute in accordance with their published ANSI standard 'A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge.'
Change Control
Change control (or change management) is the practice of identifying, documenting, approving, and carrying out changes within a project.
Change Log
The change log is a document that records changes in a project. It documents the potential impact, the change request status, and relevant information about each change request.
Closing Processes
Processes performed to formally terminate all activities of a project or phase and transfer the completed product to others, or close out a canceled project.
Co-location
Co-location means being in the same place; project team members are physically located close to one another in order to improve communication, working relationships, and productivity.
Communication Management Plan
This is a formal or informal plan that describes the communications needs and expectations for the project; how, when and where information is to be communicated and who is responsible for providing each type of communication. The communication management plan forms part of the project management plan.
Constraints
Constraints are factors that you cannot change, but which should be considered during the life of the project. These may include deadlines, regulatory requirements, and dependencies on other projects to deliver. A time constraint, such as a fixed launch date, is one of the most common.
Contingency Plan
Contingency plan is a plan B, which is often a second best option. It is put in place when plan A fails.
Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD)
As code changes throughout an agile development process, CI/CD helps ensure that developer changes don't break existing functionality. CI/CD allows developers to push to production frequently while mitigating risk.
Cost Estimating
Cost estimating is the process of calculating costs, by phase, of the resources required to complete tasks, or project work.
Cost Variance
Cost variance is the difference in the sum of budgeted expense vs actual expense. A negative variance means that more money was spent than was budgeted for it.
Crashing
This is a project schedule compression technique performed by taking action to decrease the total project schedule duration after analyzing a number of alternatives to determine how to get the maximum schedule duration compression for the least additional cost. Typical approaches for crashing a schedule include reducing scheduled activity durations and increasing the assignment of resources on scheduled activities.
Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM)
Critical chain project management is a method of planning and managing projects that puts more emphasis on the resources needed to carry out project tasks.
Critical Path
The critical path is the sequence of activities that must be completed on time for the entire project to be completed on schedule. If an activity on the critical path is delayed by one day, the entire project will be delayed by one day unless another activity on the critical path can be finished a day earlier than planned. Basic project management tools typically have critical path functionality built in.
Critical Success Factor
A critical success factor is a factor identified as essential to achieving a successful project.
D
DACI
The DACI framework is a decision-making model that assigns four roles: the Driver who moves the decision forward, the Approver who makes the final call, Contributors who provide input, and the Informed who are told the outcome. It speeds up group decisions by making it clear who decides.
Daily Scrum
A daily Scrum (or daily stand-up) is a meeting that occurs every day to get everyone on the same page, celebrate incremental progress, and help identify any potential roadblocks. It usually lasts around 10-15 minutes, and everyone in the project or Scrum team participates.
Decision Log
A decision log is a running record of the key decisions made during a project, including what was decided, who decided it, when, and why. It prevents teams from relitigating settled questions and gives new team members context.
Definition of Done (DOD)
The definition of done is a set criteria established by the development team which must be met when completing any task or user story in order for it to move onto further stages in an agile process; items such as user acceptance tests are included in DOD criteria checks.
Deliverable
A tangible or intangible object produced through project execution. A deliverable can be created from multiple smaller deliverables.
Delphi Technique
A method used to estimate the likelihood and outcome of future events. A group of experts exchange views, and each individually gives estimates and assumptions to a facilitator who reviews the data and issues a report. This process continues until consensus is reached.
Dependencies
Any events or work that are either dependent on the outcome of the project or the project will depend on.
Digital Asset Management (DAM)
Digital asset management is the process of storing, organizing, and distributing digital files such as images, videos, and brand assets from one central library. A DAM workflow controls how assets move through review and approval, while digital asset lifecycle management covers each asset from creation to archiving.
Digital Project Management
Digital project management is the practice of 'making stuff happen' in a digital world. Digital project management describes the leading of teams and stakeholders to plan and execute projects, by organizing and motivating multi-disciplinary teams in the delivery of web-enabled projects delivered through screens or connected devices—often by digital agencies, studios, or internal web teams.
Digital Project Manager
Digital project manager is a job title often used interchangeably with web project managers, web producers, and digital producers. A digital project manager role is to bring teams together to make things happen—it's all about leading, empowering, facilitating, and communicating.
Document Management Lifecycle
The document management lifecycle covers every stage a document goes through: creation, review, approval, storage, use, retention, and disposal. Managing it well keeps project documentation accurate, secure, and compliant.
Dummy Activity
A schedule activity of zero duration is used to show a logical relationship in the arrow diagramming method. Dummy activities are used when logical relationships cannot be completely or correctly described with schedule activity arrows. Dummy activities are generally shown graphically as a dashed line headed by an arrow.
E
Earned Value Management (EVM)
Earned value management is a methodology for integrating scope, schedule, and resources, and for objectively measuring project performance and progress. The project plan, actual work, and work completed value are monitored in order to see if a project is on track. Earned value shows how much of the budget and time should have been spent for work done.
Effort Estimation
Effort estimation predicts how many hours or days of work a task, deliverable, or project will take. It differs from duration: a task might need 20 hours of effort but take two weeks on the calendar. Effort estimates feed directly into resource planning, budgets, and schedules.
Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEF)
Enterprise environmental factors are conditions outside the project team's control that influence the project, such as company culture, market conditions, regulations, and available infrastructure. They're the counterpart to organizational process assets, which are the internal plans, policies, and knowledge a team can draw on.
Enterprise Project Management
Enterprise project management involves managing both multiple projects and complex projects within your organization. It also often requires coordination among different departments and project teams. Organizations usually formalize this with an enterprise project management framework and a shared enterprise project management methodology that set common processes, tools, and governance.
Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO)
The EPMO operates directly beneath C-suite executives and the board of directors. It's composed of an executive leadership team that makes major decisions on which projects the enterprise should take on and who should oversee each one.
Epic
A large user story that is too big to fit into a single sprint or release cycle and needs to be broken down into smaller stories before it can be completed.
Estimate At Completion (EAC)
Estimate at completion is a hypothesis of what the total cost of the project will be before the project begins which changes as the project progresses, as the planning horizon becomes closer.
Estimating
Estimating uses a number of tools and techniques to produce an approximation of a project timescale and cost. The estimate has a single total value and may have identifiable component values.
Event Project Management
Event project management is the process of planning, organizing, and executing events using project management principles. It ensures all aspects—logistics, vendors, staffing, and communication—are delivered on time and within scope.
F
Fast tracking is a project schedule compression technique that changes network logic to overlap phases which would normally be done sequentially or to perform schedule activities in parallel.
Finish-to-Finish (FF) Tasks
Finish-to-finish tasks are used in project planning to define that successor tasks cannot finish until the predecessor task finishes.
Finish-to-Start (FS) Tasks
Finish-to-start tasks are successors and cannot begin until the predecessor task is completed.
Float
The time a task can be delayed without delaying the project. Tasks on the critical path have no float.
Forward Pass
The calculation of the early start and early finish dates for the uncompleted portions of all network activities. See also schedule network analysis and backward pass.
Free Float
The amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed without delaying the early start of any immediately following schedule activities.
Functional Requirements
Functional requirements relate to a product's functionality: capabilities, usability, features, and operations as they relate to the purpose of the product.
G
Gantt Chart
A popular project management project planning tool that can be used to illustrate a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) with tasks, task duration, resources, dependencies ,and interdependencies between tasks, as well as other project data. It can be used to track progress.
Gold Plating
The addition of unnecessary features or refinements, beyond the agreed scope, into a product or service in an attempt to improve customer satisfaction.
H
Gantt Chart
A Gantt chart is a popular project management project planning tool that can be used to illustrate a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) with tasks, task duration, resources, dependencies, and interdependencies between tasks, as well as other project data. It can be used to track progress.
[Keep existing image: illustration of a gantt chart with a definition]
Gantt charts are useful during the planning stage of your project.
Gold Plating
The addition of unnecessary features or refinements, beyond the agreed scope, into a product or service in an attempt to improve customer satisfaction.
H
Human Resource Planning
The process of identifying and documenting project roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships, as well as creating the resource management plan.
Hybrid Project Management Methodology
A hybrid project management methodology is a combination or two or more other methodologies or approaches to delivering projects. It involves taking elements of a few project methodologies (often waterfall or one of the agile methodologies) and making it your own to fit the needs of your project. One common example is water-agile-fall, which uses waterfall-style planning upfront, agile sprints for the build, and a waterfall-style release.
I
Indirect Costs
Indirect costs are those attributed to the cost of doing business. Examples include utilities, office space, and other overhead costs.
Influencer
Persons or groups that are not directly related to the acquisition or use of the project's product, but, due to their position in the client organization, can influence, positively or negatively, the course of the project.
Initiation
The first phase of the project life cycle, where the project is kicked off both with your team and with any clients and stakeholders. During the initiation phase, the project manager gathers information to set and define the project's scope, timeline, and cost, as well as identify the stakeholders, the team, project purpose, goals and objectives, and deliverables.
Input
Any item, whether internal or external to the project that is required by a process before that process proceeds. May be an output from a predecessor process.
K
Kanban
Kanban is a popular methodology under the agile umbrella that uses cards, boards, and visual signals to help teams organize their processes and track progress. At Kanban's core is the Kanban board, a visualization of the team's progress. It shows what specific tasks are getting done or need to be done in different columns, called story cards.
Kickoff Meeting
The kickoff meeting is the first meeting between the project customer and the project team.
L
Lean Project Management
Lean project management applies lean manufacturing principles to projects, with the goal of delivering maximum value while eliminating waste. Teams focus on what the customer actually values, streamline the flow of work, and continuously improve the process. Lean principles are often paired with agile methods, and the two share many similarities.
Logic Network
A diagram showing the sequence of activities in a project across time. It shows which activity logically precedes or follows another activity. It can be used to identify the milestones and critical path of a project.
Logical Relationship
A dependency between two project schedule activities, or between a project schedule activity and a schedule milestone. The four possible types of logical relationships are: Finish-to-Start, Finish-to-Finish, Start-to-Start, and Start-to-Finish.
M
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.
Milestone
A milestone is a key event during the life of a project, usually completing project deliverables or other noteworthy achievements that are often used to track whether or not a project is on schedule, or not.
Mind Mapping
Mind mapping is a visual technique for organizing ideas around a central topic, with related ideas branching outward. Project teams use it for brainstorming, scoping, and breaking complex problems into parts.
Monte Carlo Simulation
A Monte Carlo simulation is a technique used to estimate the likely range of outcomes from a complex process by simulating the process under randomly selected conditions a large number of times.
N
Node
One of the defining points of a schedule network; a junction point joined to some or all of the other dependency lines.
Non-functional Requirements
Non-functional requirements encompass anything not related to a product's functionality, such as performance, stability, security, and technical specifications.
NPV
Net Present Value (NPV) is an estimate that helps organizations determine the financial benefits of long-term projects. NPV compares the value of a dollar today to the value of that same dollar in the future, taking inflation and returns into account.
O
Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS)
A hierarchically organized depiction of the project organization arranged so as to relate the work packages to the performing organizational units.
Organizational Process Assets
Any or all process related assets, from any or all of the organizations involved in the project that are or can be used to influence the project's success. These process assets include formal and informal plans, policies, procedures, and guidelines. The process assets also include the organizations' knowledge bases such as lessons learned and historical information.
P
P3M3
Also known as the Portfolio, Program and Project Management Maturity Model, P3M3 is a reference guide for structured best practice. It breaks down the broad disciplines of portfolio, program, and project management into a hierarchy of Key Process Areas (KPAs).
Path Convergence
This refers to the merging of parallel schedule network paths into the same node in a project schedule network diagram. Path convergence is characterized by a schedule activity with more than one predecessor activity.
Path Divergence
Characterized by a schedule activity with more than one successor activity, path divergence refers to generating parallel schedule network paths from the same node in a project schedule network diagram.
PERT Chart
PERT is an acronym for Program Evaluation Review Technique and refers to a tool used to schedule, organize, and coordinate tasks within a project. It is also known as a precedence diagram, a network chart, and logic diagram. PERT charts are different from Gantt charts (although the two are closely related).
PERT Estimate
PERT estimating is an accurate estimating technique often used for time and cost estimates. PERT uses a weighted average to predict how long a task may take. PERT uses the formula of "pessimistic plus the optimistic, plus four times the most likely, divided by six." It's divided by six because of one count for pessimistic, one count for optimistic, and four count for most likely.
PEST Analysis
This is a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the impact that political, economic, social, and technological factors might have on a project. It involves an organization considering the external environment before starting a project.
Planning Poker
Planning poker is a consensus-based estimating technique used in agile teams. Each team member privately picks a card with their estimate for a user story, everyone reveals at once, and the team discusses big differences until they agree. It reduces anchoring and gets quieter voices into the conversation.
PMBOK
PMBOK stands for Project Management Body of Knowledge and it refers to the Project Management Institute's collection of processes and knowledge areas accepted as best practice within the project management discipline. The PMBOK is currently in its 7th edition.
Portfolio
A collection of projects or programs and other work that are grouped together to facilitate effective management in order to meet strategic business objectives. The projects or programs of the portfolio may not necessarily be interdependent or directly related.
Postmortem
Postmortem is also referred to as post-project review or audit. The purpose of this review is to analyze the completed project; what went well, what didn't, and what you'd do differently next time. It should also look objectively at the effectiveness of the project team, the success of the project, the value of the deliverables, and the overall approval from the clients.
Predecessor
A predecessor in project management is a task that must start or finish before another task, its successor, can start or finish. Predecessor relationships define the dependencies in a project schedule and determine the critical path.
PRINCE2
PRINCE2 is an approach to project management that provides a full-stack methodology for managing projects within a clearly defined framework. PRINCE2 describes procedures to coordinate people and activities in a project, how to design and supervise the project, and what to do if the project has to be adjusted if it doesn't develop as planned.
PRiSM
PRiSM project management (Projects integrating Sustainable Methods) is a methodology from GPM Global that builds environmental, social, and economic sustainability into how projects are planned and delivered. It extends traditional project management by measuring a project's impact beyond its immediate deliverables.
Probability and Impact Matrix
A common way to determine whether a risk is considered low, moderate, or high by combining the two dimensions of a risk: its probability of occurrence, and its impact on objectives if it occurs.
Process
Process is a term project managers use to describe the project life cycle, or how projects get done; it's a set of interrelated actions and activities performed to achieve a specified set of products, results, or services.
Process Documentation
Process documentation is a written record of how a task or workflow is done, step by step. It helps teams work consistently, onboard new people faster, and improve processes over time.
Process Groups
The five process groups—initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing—make up the project life cycle and project phases. These five process groups have sets of actions that move the project forward toward completion.
Procurement Management
Procurement management is the process of acquiring the goods and services a project needs from outside vendors. It covers planning purchases, selecting suppliers, managing contracts, and closing them out.
Program Management
Program management is the practice of managing a "program" or number of multiple, related projects that work together to create impact for a strategic initiative.
Project
A project is a temporary endeavor that has a set timeline, specific goals and objectives, and results in a unique product or service. Projects are not regular ongoing processes or operations, administrative functions, or repetitive activities.
Project Brief
A project brief is a short document that summarizes a project's goals, scope, audience, deliverables, timeline, and budget. It's lighter than a project charter and is often used to align a team or agency with a client before detailed planning begins.
Project Change Request Form
Formalizes requests from anyone to the project manager. It requires the requestor not only to describe the change, but also to supply a reason why this change is appropriate and needed. Once the requestor has completed the form, the project manager can determine whether the change is indeed necessary, should be rejected, or should be delayed until the completion of the current project.
Project Charter
A project charter is a formal document that outlines the shared understanding of a project's scope, development, and project objectives, while also defining the roles and responsibilities of each party involved.
Project Completion Rate
Project completion rate is the percentage of projects, or tasks within a project, finished successfully within a given period. It's a simple health metric for teams and PMOs, showing how reliably work gets delivered.
Project Controls
Project controls are the actions project managers take and the documentation used to keep projects on track. They can help anticipate problems and opportunities. In practice, project controls focus on monitoring relevant project KPIs such as cost and schedule, which ultimately tie in with scope and delivery.
Project Cost Management
Project cost management covers estimating, budgeting, and controlling costs so a project finishes within its approved budget. It includes tracking actual spend against the baseline and taking action when variances appear.
Project Governance
Project governance is the framework of roles, responsibilities, decision rights, and processes that guides how a project is directed and controlled. It defines who can approve what, how issues get escalated, and how progress is reported.
Project Initiation Document (PID)
A project initiation document defines the project scope, management, and overall success criteria that the team can go back to during the project. It contains the basic information of the project such as context, scope, team, and collaboration. It is equally important as an internal guide and for external stakeholders. Project initiation document is often used interchangeably with project charter.
Project Integration Management
Project integration management is the work of coordinating all the parts of a project, including scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, and risk, so they function as one whole. It's one of the PMBOK knowledge areas and is owned by the project manager.
Project Kickoff
The project kickoff is a meeting or an event to introduce the project, the management backing the project, the project manager, and the team members. It should be casual but organized and used as a mechanism to assign ownership of the project to the team.
Project Life Cycle
The project life cycle is composed of five process groups: initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing (also know as project ramp down).
Project Management
The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines project management as the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations.
Project Management Information System (PMIS)
A project management information system is the set of tools and processes used to collect, store, and share project information. It typically includes scheduling, resource management, reporting, and document storage, and is often delivered through project management software.
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.
Project Management Methodology
Project management methodologies are systems of rules and procedures that apply different principles, themes, frameworks, and standards to structure the way we deliver projects.
Project Management Office (PMO)
An organizational body or entity that oversees and mentors groups of projects. The responsibilities of a PMO could include setting up policies and standards for projects, reviewing and consolidating project reports for external stakeholders, and being responsible for the direct management of a project.
Project Management Professional (PMP)
A Project Management Professional or PMP is a globally recognized certification in project management. It is managed by the Project Management Institute and is based on the PMP Examination Specification published by PMI in 2005.
Project Management Software
Project management software is type of software or computer application that provides information about the progress of a project or task. Project management software is designed for organizations and project teams that need transparency and oversight of their projects.
Project Manager
The person who has the overall responsibility for the successful planning, execution and closure of a project. Project managers work in the construction industry, architecture, information technology and many different occupations that produce a product or service.
Project Objective
A project objective is a statement that describes the tangible and measurable "what" of your project. It must be achievable, realistic, and able to be completed within the time allowed.
Project Phase
A collection of logically related project activities (usually sequential, but can also overlap) which result in the completion of a major deliverable. A project phase is a component of a project life cycle.
Project Plan
A project plan outlines the scope, objectives, and schedules of a specific project. It provides a roadmap for all project stakeholders involved, and includes clear direction and expectations.
Project Portfolio Management (PPM)
Project portfolio management organizes a series of projects into a single portfolio of reports that capture project objectives and other critical factors.
Project Proposal
A project proposal is a written document that is submitted to an internal sponsor, client, or prospective client that builds a case to have the team deliver a scope of work.
Project Roadmap
A project roadmap is a summary of the context, impetus, and logic of your project, and focuses on the "why" more than the "how" or the "what".
Project Schedule
A project schedule is a sequenced list of activities and deliverables required to complete a project successfully. A detailed schedule includes the duration of project activities, key deadlines or milestones, and the person responsible for each task.
Proof of Concept (POC)
A proof of concept is a small-scale test to confirm that an idea, product, or approach is feasible before committing to full development. It answers "can this work?" rather than "is this ready?"
Q
Quality
The degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils the pre-defined requirements.
Quality Management Plan
The quality management plan is a plan that describes how the project management team will implement the organization's quality policy.
R
RACI Chart
A RACI chart is a matrix of the key activities in a project set against all the people or roles. At each intersection of activity and role it is possible to assign somebody responsible, accountable, consulted, or informed for that activity or decision.
RAID Log
RAID is an acronym for risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies, and a RAID log is a project management tool, often in the form of a spreadsheet, that is used to track them.
Rapid Prototyping
Rapid prototyping is the practice of quickly building rough, testable versions of a product or feature to gather feedback early. Teams iterate on the prototype based on what they learn, reducing the risk of building the wrong thing.
RASCI Chart
A RASCI chart is a variation of the RACI chart that adds a fifth role, Supportive, for people who provide resources or help to whoever is Responsible. The other roles are Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed.
Resource Allocation
Resource allocation is the process of assigning available people, equipment, and budget to specific tasks and projects. Good allocation matches skills and availability to the work, so nobody is overloaded and nothing sits waiting for an owner. The method an organization uses to make those assignments, whether by priority, skill, or capacity, is its resource allocation model.
Resource Availability
Resource availability is the number of resources needed to complete a project and how much time each resource has to dedicate to project work.
Resource Breakdown Structure
A resource breakdown structure is a hierarchical list of all the resources a project needs, grouped by category such as labor, equipment, and materials. It helps project managers estimate costs and spot gaps. Not to be confused with a risk breakdown structure, which shares the RBS acronym.
Resource Calendar
A resource calendar is a calendar of working days and nonworking days that determines those dates on which each specific resource is idle or can be active. Typically defines resource specific holidays and resource availability periods.
Resource Conflict
A resource conflict happens when the same person or resource is needed for two or more tasks at the same time. Project managers resolve conflicts by reprioritizing, rescheduling, or bringing in additional resources.
Resource Constraint
Resource constraint describes a situation where a project may need additional resources but doesn't have access to the resources—for example, a particular type of equipment, a particular project team member, or a facility such as a training room.
Resource Leveling
Resource leveling is the process of matching availability to resource allocation. When availability does not match resource demand, a project manager reschedules the task until resource supply matches demand.
Resource Loading
A resource loaded schedule considers the time it takes to complete project tasks based on resource availability, or the amount of work your project team is programmed to take on.
Resource Management
Project resource management involves forecasting, assembling, and managing the team members, equipment, and other materials needed to execute a project.
Resource Management Plan
A project resource management plan outlines a strategy for how resources will be allocated, scheduled, and used during a project.
Resource Optimization
Resource optimization is the practice of getting the most value from available resources while staying within project constraints. It includes techniques like resource leveling and resource smoothing to balance workloads without delaying the project.
Resource Planning
Resource planning is the process of determining how a business will allocate resources in a project, including assigning tasks to individuals based on their skills and availability.
Resource Risk
Resource risk is the chance that a project won't have the people, skills, or materials it needs when it needs them. Common causes include staff turnover, competing priorities, and supplier delays.
Resource Tracking
Resource tracking is the ongoing monitoring of how resources are actually being used compared to what was planned. It helps project managers catch overallocation, underuse, and budget overruns early.
Resource Utilization
Resource utilization measures how much of a resource's available time is spent on productive work. It's usually expressed as a percentage: billable or project hours divided by total available hours. Consistently high utilization can signal burnout risk; consistently low utilization can signal wasted capacity.
Resources
Resources are everything needed to complete a project, but in particular people and money.
Retrospective
A meeting where the Scrum team or project team reflects on how they worked together, what can improved in the future, and get feedback from each other. The retrospective is one of the Scrum ceremonies, and team members might attend sprint retrospectives or project retrospectives, depending on the process being followed.
Risk
Risks are potential external events that could have negative impact on a project if they occur. Risk also refers to the combined likelihood the event will occur and the impact on the project if the event does occur.
Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS)
A hierarchically organized depiction of the identified project risks arranged by risk category and subcategory that identifies the various areas and causes of potential risks. The risk breakdown structure is often tailored to specific project types. Not to be confused with a resource breakdown structure, which shares the RBS acronym.
Risk Management Plan
A risk management plan describes how a project will identify, assess, respond to, and monitor risks. It sets out the process, roles, and tools, while the risk register records the specific risks themselves.
Risk Register
A risk register is a document that defines risk to a project; its characteristics, its likelihood, signs that the risk may be occurring, a mitigation plan, and the risk's eventual outcome in the project.
Rolling Wave Planning
Rolling wave planning is an approach where near-term work is planned in detail and later work is planned at a high level. As the project progresses and more is known, the next phase is planned in detail.
Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
Root cause analysis is a method for finding the underlying reason a problem occurred, rather than treating its symptoms. Common techniques include the 5 Whys and fishbone diagrams.
Rough-Cut Capacity Planning
Rough-cut capacity planning is a high-level check of whether an organization has enough key resources to meet a planned schedule or demand forecast. It focuses on critical or bottleneck resources rather than every detail, so gaps can be spotted early.
S
Scaled Agile (SAFe) Methodology
According to Scaled Agile, "The Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe) is a system for implementing Agile, Lean, and DevOps practices at scale". As it implies, it is a framework that can be used to help organizations adapt their agile processes and workflows as an organization grows.
Scope
The overall definition of what the project should achieve and a specific description of what the result should be. A major ingredient of scope is the quality of the final product.
Scope Creep
Scope creep is the uncontrolled growth of the project scope resulting from constant changes to requirements without consideration to the impact on resources or timescale.
Scrum
Scrum is an agile methodology that uses iterative and incremental practices to manage complex software and product development.
Scrum Ceremonies (a.k.a. Scrum events or rituals)
Scrum ceremonies are elements of the Scrum methodology. There are five specifically-defined Scrum events: the sprint, sprint planning, daily Scrum, sprint review, and sprint retrospective.
Scrumban
Scrumban is a hybrid of Scrum and Kanban. Teams keep some Scrum structure, like regular planning and retrospectives, but manage day-to-day work on a Kanban board with work-in-progress limits instead of fixed sprint commitments. It suits teams with a steady stream of incoming work, such as support or maintenance.
Six Sigma
Six Sigma is a management philosophy developed by Motorola that emphasizes quality, setting extremely high objectives, and by collecting data and analyzing the results, finding ways to reduce defects in products and services.
Sponsor
The project sponsor is the person who has authority over the project, provides funding, approves scope changes, provides high-level direction, and champions the project within an organization.
Sprint
An iterative unit of time, typically a one, two, or four week period during which a set amount of work is completed and made ready for review by the development team. This gives the project team the opportunity to reflect, make adjustments and plan based on events and conditions. The term and concept comes from agile project management techniques in the software industry.
Sprint Planning
The process of prioritizing and organizing the backlog to decide which deliverables, items, and tasks will be included in an upcoming sprint. This includes holding a sprint planning meeting, in which tasks are identified and estimated (often using the planning poker estimation method) based on the amount of resources available and the scope defined. The team then commits to a section of the product backlog as the sprint backlog.
Sprint Review
The sprint review occurs at the end of each sprint, and involves checking in on whether the sprint goal has been achieved. Team members might demo the product or deliverable at the sprint review.
Stakeholder
A stakeholder is anyone, internal or external to an organization, that has an interest in a project or will be affected by its deliverables.
Stakeholder Management
Stakeholder management is the process of identifying stakeholders, understanding their interests and influence, and engaging them throughout the project. It keeps expectations aligned and builds the support a project needs to succeed.
Statement of Work (SoW)
The statement of work defines the approach and work a project must produce. The SoW is a key governance tool whether it is being used to direct work for a vendor or contractor, or used to direct the work internally, the SoW must contain a description of all the work that is expected to be delivered.
Status Reports
Status reports provide current information on the project cost, budget, scope, and other relevant information including what has been completed and next steps. It often will also include a risk register and project timeline.
SWOT Analysis
A strategic planning tool used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to a project. It involves specifying the objective of the project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving that objective.
T
Theory of Constraints (ToC)
A management philosophy that views any manageable system as being limited in achieving more of its goals by a very small number of constraints.
Three-Point Estimating
Three point estimating is an estimating technique where you ask people to give you a best-case, worst-case, and most likely case, to create an accurate estimate range and price point usually using the average of the three cases given.
Time and Material (T&M) Billing Method
Time and materials billing is an alternative billing method to fixed price, or margin based pricing where time and materials are accrued and then billed as utilized. Often, time and materials contracts are capped with a Not-to-Exceed clause (NTE) to contain costs.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Total Cost of Ownership is an estimate of all direct and indirect costs associated with an asset or acquisition over its entire life.
Total Float / Total Stack
The total amount of time that a schedule activity may be delayed from its early start date without delaying the project finish date, or violating a schedule constraint. Calculated using the critical path method technique and determining the difference between the early finish dates and late finish dates.
Triple Constraint
Also known as the "iron triangle" or the "project management triangle", the triple constraints of project management refer to the relationships between a project's scope, time, and cost.
U
Use Case
The specification of software tests that are conducted from the perspective of a hypothetical end user. Use cases focus on operating the software as an end user would during their day-to-day activities.
User Story
A tool used in agile development to capture a description of a software feature from a user's perspective.
V
Variance
Variance is a quantifiable deviation, departure, or divergence away from the expected value or known baseline.
Variance At Completion (VAC)
Variance at completion is the difference between the budget at completion (BAC) and the estimate at completion (EAC); its formula is VAC = BAC - EAC.
Velocity
The average number of units or points achieved by a team per iteration, measured over multiple iterations to create a sort of baseline.
Vendor Management
Vendor management is the practice of selecting, contracting, and overseeing the suppliers a project or organization relies on. It includes negotiating terms, monitoring performance, and maintaining good working relationships.
Vertical Slice
Vertical slice refers to a type of milestone, benchmark, or deadline, with emphasis on demonstrating progress across all components of a project.
Virtual Team
A virtual team is the opposite of a co-located team. It's where a team is geographically dispersed.
W
War Room
A war room is often used on agile projects where the project manager and project team collaborate in close proximity to complete a project.
Waterfall Model
Waterfall is a traditional project management methodology that follows a sequential development process, in which development flows steadily downwards (like a waterfall) through the phases of initiation, analysis, design, build, test, and maintenance. To follow the waterfall model, you move from one phase to the next sequentially, with no overlapping or iterative steps.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
The work breakdown structure is a hierarchical decomposition of the deliverables needed to complete a project. It breaks the deliverables down into manageable work packages that can be scheduled, costed, and have resources assigned to them.
Work Management
Work management is the coordination of all the work a team does, including projects, recurring tasks, and ad hoc requests, in one system. It's broader than project management, which focuses on work with a defined start, end, and goal.
Workaround
A workaround is an alternative plan, an unplanned response when there is no other contingency plan in place.
Workflow
A workflow is a series of activities that are necessary to complete a task.
Workflow Automation
Workflow automation is the process of identifying what elements of your workflows can be automated or made to run without human intervention.
Workflow Diagram
A workflow diagram is a graphical representation of the steps that are necessary to complete a project.
Workload Distribution
Workload distribution is how tasks are spread across team members. Balanced distribution considers each person's capacity, skills, and existing commitments, so work moves forward without overloading anyone.
Final Thoughts
That's a lot of jargon, but you don't need to memorize all of it. Most of these terms only matter when they come up in your next kickoff, status meeting, or statement of work, and that's exactly when this page comes in handy. Keep it bookmarked, share it with new team members, and use it to get everyone speaking the same language.
We update this project management glossary as new terms emerge, so bookmark this page and check back often.
