Project Management Vocabulary

Flashcards for key terms and definitions in project management

Triple Bottom Line

A framework for considering the full cost of doing business by evaluating a company's bottom line from the perspective of profit, people, and the planet.

Uncertainty

A lack of understanding and awareness of issues, events, path to follow, or solutions to pursue.

Uncertainty Performance Domain

The performance domain that addresses activities and functions associated with risk and uncertainty.

Use Case

An artifact for describing and exploring how a user interacts with a system to achieve a specific goal.

User Story

A brief description of an outcome for a specific user, which is a promise for a conversation to clarify details.

Validation

The assurance that a product, service, or result meets the needs of the customer and other identified stakeholders.

Value

The worth, importance, or usefulness of something.

Value Delivery Office (VDO)

A project delivery support structure that focuses on coaching teams; building agile skills and capabilities throughout the organization; and mentoring sponsors and product owners to be more effective in those roles.

Value Delivery System

A collection of strategic business activities aimed at building, sustaining, and/or advancing an organization.

Value Proposition

The value of a product or service that an organization communicates to its customers.

Value Stream Map

A display of the critical steps in a process and the time taken in each step used to identify waste.

Value Stream Mapping

A lean enterprise method used to document, analyze, and improve the flow of information or materials required to produce a product or service for a customer.

Vanity Metric

A measure that appears to show some result but does not provide useful information for making decisions.

Variance

A quantifiable deviation, departure, or divergence away from a known baseline or expected value.

Variance Analysis

A method for determining the cause and degree of difference between the baseline and actual performance.

Variance at Completion (VAC)

A projection of the amount of budget deficit or surplus, expressed as the difference between the budget at completion and the estimate at completion.

Velocity

A measure of a team's productivity rate at which the deliverables are produced, validated, and accepted within a predefined interval.

Velocity Chart

A chart that tracks the rate at which the deliverables are produced, validated, and accepted within a predefined interval.

Verification

The evaluation of whether or not a product, service, or result complies with a regulation, requirement, specification, or imposed condition.