Project Management Midterm Discussions

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering project definitions, classifications, cost categories, and project management tools based on midterm lecture discussions.

Project

A temporary and unique endeavor with a defined beginning and end, designed to create a specific product, service, or result, and distinct from ongoing business operations.

Business Operations

Ongoing, repetitive, and continuous work activities intended to sustain the business rather than achieve a specific, one-time goal.

Product Development Project

A project classified by purpose that focuses on creating a new product or service, such as designing a new smartphone model or developing software.

Process Improvement Project

A project classified by purpose that aims to enhance an existing process for better efficiency, quality, or cost-effectiveness, such as optimizing an assembly line.

Low Complexity & Risk Project

A straightforward project characterized by a clear scope, low budget, and small team, such as updating a company's website with new content.

Medium Complexity & Risk Project

A project with a more significant budget and timeline, a larger team, and some dependencies, such as renovating an office floor.

High Complexity & Risk Project

A large-scale project featuring a high budget, long duration, and many interdependent tasks and stakeholders, often involving new technology or organizational changes.

Short-term Project

A project classified by duration that is completed within a few weeks to a few months.

Medium-term Project

A project classified by duration that spans several months to a year.

Long-term Project

A project classified by duration that lasts for several years or more.

Direct Costs

Expenses that are directly and exclusively tied to a specific project and are easily traceable, such as project team salaries, project-specific materials, and travel.

Indirect Costs

Expenses necessary for overall business operations that support multiple projects or the organization as a whole, such as office rent, utilities, and general overhead.

Fixed Costs

Expenses that remain constant throughout a project regardless of the project's scope or duration, such as equipment rental for the entire duration or insurance premiums.

Variable Costs

Costs that fluctuate in direct proportion to the amount of work performed or resources used, such as raw materials, equipment fuel, and hourly wages.

Sunk Cost

Money, time, or resources that have already been spent and cannot be recovered, which should not influence future decision-making.

Sunk Cost Fallacy

The irrational tendency to continue a project or effort because of past investments, even when doing so is no longer a sound decision.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

A hierarchical, top-down decomposition of the total scope of work to be accomplished by the project team, organized into deliverables, sub-deliverables, and work packages.

Work Package

The lowest level of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), representing the point at which work can be reliably estimated for cost, duration, and resources.

RACI Matrix

A responsibility assignment matrix formatted as a table to clarify roles and responsibilities (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) for specific project tasks.

Responsible (RACI)

The person or people assigned to do the actual work to complete a task; a task may have multiple responsible individuals.

Accountable (RACI)

The single individual who is ultimately answerable for task completion, responsible for approving the work, and signing off on the deliverable.

Consulted (RACI)

A subject matter expert who provides two-way input and advice before the task work is completed.

Informed (RACI)

Stakeholders or team members who receive one-way communication to stay updated on the progress or completion of a task.

PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique)

A scheduling technique for projects with uncertain task durations that uses three time estimates (optimistic, pessimistic, most likely) to calculate an expected duration.

CPM (Critical Path Method)

A scheduling method for projects with predictable tasks that uses a single deterministic time estimate per activity to determine the critical path.

Critical Path

The longest sequence of dependent tasks that must be completed on time for the entire project to finish on schedule, where any delay will postpone the project end date.

Gantt Chart

A project scheduling tool structured as a horizontal bar chart that maps tasks against a timeline, displaying durations, dependencies, milestones, and resource assignments.