A document that outlines the goals, budget, timeline, and responsibilities of a project before it starts.
Project plan
The person who has overall responsibility for the successful planning, execution, and closing of a project.
Project manager
A strict date or time by which a project task or the entire project must be completed.
Deadline
A regular update or document that shows whether a project is on track, delayed, or over budget.
Progress report
A modern, flexible approach to project management where tasks are broken down into small, adaptable steps.
Agile
The specific target or result that a project team wants to achieve within a given timeframe.
Objective
Anyone who has an interest in or is affected by the outcome of a project, such as clients, investors, or users.
Stakeholder
A potential problem or unexpected event that could hurt the project's timeline, budget, or quality if it happens.
Risk
An important checkpoint or key event along the project timeline that marks the completion of a major stage.
Milestone
A traditional project methodology where each phase must be completely finished before the next phase can begin, like a waterfall flowing down.
Waterfall model
The very first meeting where the project team, stakeholders, and clients come together to discuss the project's launch.
Kick-off meeting
Working together effectively with other team members to achieve a common project goal.
Teamwork
A backup plan or alternative strategy designed to be used if the primary project plan fails.
Contingency plan
Information or opinions given by clients or team members about how well a project task was performed, used for improvement.
Feedback
A set period of time (usually 2-4 weeks) during which a specific, small set of project tasks must be completed in Agile systems.
Sprint
A visual chart or timeline that shows the project steps, schedules, and deadlines from start to finish.
Gantt chart
Assigning specific tasks, authority, or responsibilities to other team members instead of doing everything yourself.
Delegation
When a project continuously expands and takes on new, unplanned requirements, causing it to go over budget and past deadlines.
Scope creep
Quantifiable measurements used to evaluate the success and performance of a project (often abbreviated as KPIs).
Key Performance Indicators
A visual management tool or board used to track tasks across columns like "To Do", "In Progress", and "Done".
Kanban board
The maximum amount of money allocated and approved for completing all project activities.
Budget
A short, daily meeting where team members quickly share what they did yesterday, what they will do today, and any problems they face.
Stand-up meeting
A situation where a project stops or gets delayed because one specific stage or task is taking too long to finish.
Bottleneck
The process of checking the final product or service to ensure it meets all required standards before delivery.
Quality control
A meeting held at the very end of a project to discuss what went well, what went wrong, and what lessons were learned.
Retrospective