Foundational Terminology
This is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.
What is a project?
This defines the features and functions of the product, service, or result.
What is product scope?
This technique identifies the longest path of activities through a project, with zero float.
What is the Critical Path method?
This is the approved version of the project budget used to measure performance.
What is the cost baseline?
This means the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements.
What is quality?
This refers to ongoing, repetitive work that sustains the organization.
What are operations?
This defines the work that must be performed to deliver the product, service or result?
What is the project scope?
This is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the project finish date.
What is total float?
This cost estimating technique uses historical data from similar projects.
What is analogous estimating?
The investment made to ensure a product or service meets quality standards, effectively preventing defects and failures. Comprising prevention costs (training, planning, quality processes) and appraisal costs (testing, inspections, audits), it focuses on doing things right the first time to avoid costly rework.
What is cost of conformance?
A concise formal document that officially authorizes a project and gives the project manager authority to apply resources
What is a project charter?
This hierarchical decomposition of project deliverables organizes and defines total scope.
What is a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)?
This schedule compression technique adds resources to critical path activities to shorten the duration.
What is crashing?
An estimating technique in which an algorithm is used to calculate cost or duration based on historical data and project parameters (example: cost per sq ft)
What is parametric estimation?
This diagram helps identify potential causes of a problem and is shaped like a fish skeleton?
What is a fishbone diagram? (aka Ishikawa diagram)
This person or group provides resources and support and is accountable for project success.
This document describes how scope will be defined, validated, and controlled.
What is the Scope Management Plan?
This is a visual, schematic representation of a project's schedule, displaying the logical sequence, interdependencies, and flow of activities from start to finish.
What is a network diagram?
This is an estimation technique that totals up the estimated cost of individual work packages.
What is bottom-up estimation?
a statistical quality control tool used in project management to determine if a process is stable, predictable, and operating within acceptable limits. It plots data points—typically representing cost or schedule variance—over time, using a centerline (mean) and Upper/Lower Control Limits (UCL/LCL) to distinguish between common and special cause variations.
What is a control chart?
Internal or external conditions, not under the direct control of the project team, that influence, constrain, or direct projects. These uncontrollable, yet impactful, factors include company culture, market conditions, legal restrictions, and infrastructure. They require careful management to mitigate risks and capitalize on opportunities.
What are enterprise environmental factors? (EEFs)
This process formalizes acceptance of completed deliverables by the customer or sponsor.
What is Validate Scope?
This is a horizontal bar chart used to visually map out a project schedule, displaying tasks against a timeline. It illustrates the start and end dates of project elements, dependencies between tasks, and milestones. It helps teams manage, coordinate, and track project progress effectively.
What is a gantt chart?
This is a technique used to improve the accuracy of cost or duration estimates by calculating a weighted average of three scenarios—optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely—rather than relying on a single figure.
optimistic + 4x most likely + pessimistic
6
What is three-point estimate formula?
Expenses incurred due to failures to meet quality standards, often described as "failure costs." It includes internal costs like rework, scrap, and downtime, as well as external costs such as warranty claims, product recalls, liability, and reputation damage.
What is cost of nonconformance?