Project Management Processes (PMBOK Focus)

Vocabulary flashcards covering core project management concepts, contract types, ITTO tools, schedule and cost estimation formulas, risk characteristics, team leadership models, and monitoring techniques based on lecture notes.

Initiate Project or Phase

The process of developing a document that formally authorizes a project or a phase, outlines project objectives, and defines the authority of the project manager.

Business Case

Necessary information that determines whether or not a project is worth the required investment based on business needs, market demand, or legal requirements.

Project Benefits Management Plan

A document describing the main benefits a project will produce once completed and detailing how those benefits will be measured.

RACI Chart

A common Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) that defines roles as Responsible (doing work), Accountable (ensuring work is done), Consulted (providing input), and Informed (receiving updates).

Project Canvas

A visual tool used to outline and plan key project components, providing a quick, high-level overview for project managers and stakeholders.

Project Charter

An approved document signed by senior management that formally authorizes the existence of a project and gives the project manager authority to commit organizational resources.

Assumption Log

A project document used to record all assumptions (things perceived to be true) and potential constraints throughout the project life cycle.

Salience Model

A stakeholder categorization methodology that evaluates stakeholders based on their Power (authority level), Urgency (need for immediate attention), and Legitimacy (appropriateness of involvement).

Stakeholder Register

A project document that records identification details, assessment info, and classifications for project stakeholders.

Project Management Plan

The integrated, approved master document that defines how the project will be executed, monitored, controlled, and closed.

Fixed-Price Contract

A contract type where the price is agreed upon upfront for a clearly defined scope, placing cost risk primarily on the seller.

Cost-Reimbursable Contract

A contract type where the buyer pays the seller's actual costs plus a fee or profit, carrying higher cost risk for the buyer.

Time and Materials Contract

A hybrid contract type where the buyer pays for labor hours and materials used, offering flexibility for consulting or service work.

Target-Cost Contract

A contract type where buyer and seller agree on a target cost and share any cost savings or overruns based on a predetermined ratio.

Make-or-Buy Analysis

A technique used to evaluate whether specific work should be completed internally by the project team or purchased from external sellers.

Requirements Traceability Matrix

A grid that links product requirements to deliverables and project objectives, ensuring each requirement is fulfilled by project completion.

Project Scope Statement

A detailed document describing the project scope, product scope, major deliverables, acceptance criteria, assumptions, constraints, and explicit project exclusions.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

A hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team to accomplish project objectives.

Work Packages

The lowest-level components of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) where cost and duration can be estimated and managed.

Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)

A schedule construction technique where activities are represented by nodes and graphically linked by logical relationships.

Mandatory Dependencies

Schedule dependencies required by the nature of the work itself, also referred to as hard logic.

Discretionary Dependencies

Schedule dependencies established based on preference, best practices, or experience, also referred to as soft logic.

Analogous Estimating

An estimating technique that uses actual values or historical data from similar previous projects; fast and inexpensive but less accurate.

Parametric Estimating

An estimating technique that uses statistical relationships between historical data and variables (such as unit rates or square footage) to calculate effort or cost.

Bottom-Up Estimating

An estimating method that calculates cost or duration for individual work components and aggregates them upward; provides high accuracy but requires significant time.

PERT Beta Distribution

A weighted average formula used in three-point estimating that gives more weight to the most likely value: $\text{Beta} = \frac{O + 4M + P}{6}$.

PERT Standard Deviation

A formula that measures variability or uncertainty in a three-point estimate: $\text{SD} = \frac{P - O}{6}$.

Crashing

A schedule compression technique that adds resources to activities on the critical path to shorten duration, usually increasing overall cost.

Fast Tracking

A schedule compression technique where activities normally performed in sequence are performed in parallel, usually increasing project risk.

Cost Baseline

The approved version of the time-phased budget, excluding management reserves, used as a reference to compare actual expenditure against.

Contingency Reserve

Budget or time allocated within the schedule or cost baseline to address identified risks with active response plans.

Management Reserve

Budget set aside outside the cost baseline to cover unforeseen, unknown-unknown risks, controlled directly by senior management.

Communication Channels Formula

A mathematical formula used to determine potential interaction channels among stakeholders: $\frac{N(N - 1)}{2}$, where $N$ represents the number of stakeholders.

Interactive Communication

Real-time, multidirectional exchange of information between two or more parties, such as meetings, phone calls, or video conferences.

Push Communication

Information sent directly to specific recipients without real-time interaction, such as emails, memos, status reports, and press releases.

Pull Communication

Information stored in a central repository for recipients to access at their own discretion, such as intranet sites or web portals.

Team Charter

A document that establishes clear team values, communication guidelines, decision-making rules, and operating agreements for behavior.

COCOMO

Constructive Cost Model; an algorithmic model used to estimate software development effort, duration, and resource requirements based on project size.

Individual Project Risk

An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on one or more project objectives.

Overall Project Risk

The combined effect of all individual project risks and systemic uncertainty on the project as a whole.

Risk Dormancy

A risk characteristic measuring the length of time between a risk occurrence and the discovery of its impact.

Risk Proximity

A risk characteristic measuring how soon a risk may impact project objectives.

Explicit Knowledge

Knowledge that can be easily documented, codified, stored, and shared in formats like manuals, databases, and templates.

Tacit Knowledge

Personal knowledge, experience, insights, and skills that are difficult to articulate or codify, usually transferred through collaboration and conversations.

Six Thinking Hats

A parallel problem-solving and decision-making technique that categorizes thinking into six perspectives: Blue (Process), White (Facts), Red (Emotions), Black (Risks), Yellow (Benefits), and Green (Creativity).

Tuckman Ladder

A model describing team development stages: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning.

Student Syndrome

A common schedule behavior where individuals delay starting a task until the last possible moment before a deadline.

Parkinson's Law

A schedule concept stating that work expands to fill the total time allocated for its completion.

To-Complete Performance Index (TCPI)

A calculated measure of cost efficiency required on remaining work to meet a specified budget goal: $\text{TCPI} = \frac{\text{BAC} - \text{EV}}{\text{BAC} - \text{AC}}$.

Rule of Seven

A quality rule stating that if seven consecutive data points in a control chart fall on one side of the mean, the process should be investigated as non-random.

Validate Scope

The process of obtaining formal sign-off and acceptance from the customer or sponsor for completed project deliverables.