1.10. Key Terms

Agile project management: A broad term for project management techniques that are iterative (repetitive) in nature (divided into specific periods of time). 1.4

Closure Phase or Completion Phase: the emphasis is on releasing the final deliverables to the customer, handing over project documentation to the business, terminating supplier contracts, releasing project resources, and communicating the closure of the project to all stakeholders. 1.7

Compliance Projects: Must be done in order to comply with industry or governmental regulations or standards. 1.4

Cost: The budget approved for the project includes all necessary expenses needed to deliver the project. 1.6

Function Point Analysis: A set of rules to measure functionality to users. 1.4

Gantt Charts: is sometimes used in project management to show activities and their dependencies, as well as events and tasks in relation to time. 1.7

Implementation Phase: the project plan is put into motion and the work of the project is performed. 1.7

Initiation Phase: the project objective or need is identified; this can be a business problem or opportunity. 1.7

Life Cycle: The project manager and project team have one shared goal: to carry out the work of the project for the purpose of meeting the project’s objectives. 1.7

Operation: Involve work that is continuous without an ending date and with the same processes repeated to produce the same results. 1.2

Operational Projects: Improve current operations. These projects may not produce radical improvements, but they will reduce costs, get work done more efficiently, or produce a higher quality product. 1.4

Planning Phase: is where the project solution is further developed in as much detail as possible and the steps necessary to meet the project’s objective are planned. 1.7

Program: A group of projects are arranged towards achieving a certain goal. A cluster of interconnected projects. 1.2

Projects: Temporary initiatives that companies put into place alongside their ongoing operations to achieve specific goals. They are clearly defined packages of work, bound by deadlines and endowed with resources including budgets, people, and facilities. 1.2

Quality: A combination of the standards and criteria to which the project’s products must be delivered for them to perform effectively. 1.6

Quality Assurance (QA): is the process of evaluating overall project performance on a regular basis to provide confidence that the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards. 1.6

Resources: are required to carry out the project tasks. They can be people, equipment, facilities, funding, or anything else capable of definition (usually other than labour) required for the completion of a project activity. 1.6

Risk: is defined by potential external events that will have a negative impact on your project if they occur. 1.6

Risk Management: “high-threat” potential problems are identified along with the action that is to be taken on each high-threat potential problem, either to reduce the probability that the problem will occur or to reduce the impact on the project if it does occur. 1.7

Scope: This is what the project is trying to achieve. It entails all the work involved in delivering the project outcomes and the processes used to produce them. 1.6

Scope Management: a project plan is created outlining the deliverables, milestones, constraints, activities, tasks, lesson plans (if a training plan), dependencies, and timeframes. 1.7

Strategic Projects: Involve creating something new and innovative. A new product, a new service, a new retail location, a new branch or division, or even a new factory might be a strategic project because it will allow an organization to gain a strategic advantage over its competitors. 1.4

Time: is defined as the time to complete the project. Time is often the most frequent project oversight in developing projects. 1.6

Triple Constraint: traditionally consisted of only time, cost, and scope. These are the primary competing project constraints that you have to be most aware of. 1.6

Waterfall: Where phases of projects are sequential. 1.4