Chapter 3 Key Terms CMSC 243

Activity - "Any work that has a beginning and an end and requires the use of company resources including people, time, and/or money. Examples include conducting a series of interviews, designing a report, selecting software, waiting for the delivery of equipment, and training users."

Best-case estimate - "The most optimistic outcome."

Bottom-up technique - "A method for analyzing a large, complex project as a series of individual tasks, called project tasks."

Brooks' Law - "Frederick Brooks, an IBM engineer, observed that adding more manpower to a late software project only makes it later."

Code review - "See structured walk-through."

Concurrent task - "A task that can be completed at the same time as (in parallel with) another task."

Critical path - "A series of events and activities with no slack time. If any activity along the critical path falls behind schedule, the entire project schedule is similarly delayed. As the name implies, a critical path includes all activities that are vital to the project schedule."

Critical Path Method (CPM) - "Shows a project as a network diagram. The activities are shown as vectors, and the events are displayed graphically as nodes. Although CPM developed separately from the Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT), the two methods are essentially identical. See also PERT/CPM."

Dependent task - "A task is said to be dependent when it has to be completed in a serial sequence."

Design review - "See structured walk-through."

Duration - "The amount of time it will take to complete a task."

Event - "A reference point that marks a major occurrence. Used to monitor progress and manage a project. See also milestone."

Finish day/date - "The day or date when a task is scheduled to be finished."

Gantt chart - "A horizontal bar chart that illustrates a schedule. Developed many years ago by Henry L. Gantt as a production control technique. Still are in common use today."

Milestone - "A reference point that marks a major occurrence. Used to monitor progress and manage a project. See also event."

Network diagram - "A PERT chart also is referred to as a network diagram."

Open source - "Software that is supported by a large group of users and developers. The source code is made freely available."

Person-day - "The amount of work that one person can complete in one day."

PERT/CPM - "The Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) was developed by the U.S. Navy to manage very complex projects, such as the construction of nuclear submarines. At approximately the same time, the Critical Path Method (CPM) was developed by private industry to meet similar project management needs. The important distinctions between the two methods have disappeared over time, and today the technique is called either PERT, CPM, or PERT/CPM."

Predecessor task - "A single prior task upon which two or more concurrent tasks depend."

Probable-case estimate - "The most likely outcome is called a probable-case estimate."

Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) - "See PERT/CPM."

Project coordinator - "The person who handles administrative responsibilities for the development team and negotiates with users who might have conflicting requirements or want changes that would require additional time or expense."

Project leader - "The person charged with leading a project from a technical perspective."

Project management - "The process of planning, scheduling, monitoring, controlling, and reporting upon the development of an information system."

Project manager - "The person charged with managing a project from an administrative perspective."

Project monitoring - "Guiding, supervising, and coordinating the project team's workload."

Project planning - "Identifying project tasks and estimating completion time and costs."

Project reporting - "Providing regular progress reports to management, users, and the project team itself."

Project scheduling - "The creation of a specific timetable to facilitate completion of a project. Also involves selecting and staffing the project team and assigning specific tasks to team members."

Project triangle - "The three major components of a project: cost, scope, and time. A project manager tries to find the optimal balance among these factors."

Qualitative risk analysis - "Evaluating risk by estimating the probability that it will occur and the degree of impact."

Quantitative risk analysis - "Evaluating risk in terms of the actual impact in terms of dollars, time, project scope, or quality."

Risk - "An event that could affect the project negatively."

Risk identification - "Listing each risk and assessing the likelihood that it could affect a project."

Risk management - "The process of identifying, evaluating, tracking, and controlling risk to minimize their impact."

Risk management plan - "Includes a review of the project's scope, stakeholders, budget, schedule, and any other internal or external factors that might affect the project. The plan should define project roles and responsibilities, risk management methods and procedures, categories of risk, and contingency plans."

Risk response plan - "A proactive effort to anticipate a risk and describe an action plan to deal with it. An effective risk response plan can reduce the overall impact by triggering a timely and appropriate action."

Slack time - "The amount of time by which an event can be late without delaying the project. The difference between latest completion time (LCT) and earliest completion time (ECT)."

Start day/date - "The day or date when a task is scheduled to begin."

Structured walk-through - "A review of a project team member's work by other members of the team. Generally, systems analysts review the work of other systems analysts, and programmers review the work of other programmers as a form of peer review. Should take place throughout the SDLC and are called requirements reviews, design reviews, code reviews, or testing reviews, depending on the phase in which they occur."

Successor task - "Each of the concurrent tasks of a predecessor task."

Task - "Any work that has a beginning and an end and requires the use of company resources including people, time, and/or money. Examples include conducting a series of interviews, designing a report, selecting software, waiting for the delivery of equipment, and training users. See also activity."

Task box - "A component of a PERT/CPM chart that contains important scheduling and duration information about a task. Each task in a project is represented by its own task box in the PERT/CPM chart."

Task group - "A task that represents several activities."

Task ID - "A number or code that uniquely identifies a task."

Task name - "A brief descriptive name for a task, which does not have to be unique in the project. For example, a task named Conduct Interviews might appear in several phases of the project."

Task pattern - "A logical sequence of tasks in a WBS. Can involve sequential tasks, multiple successor tasks, and multiple predecessor tasks."

Testing review - "See structured walk-through."

Weight - "An important multiplier that managers factor into estimates so they can be analyzed."

Work breakdown structure (WBS) - "A project broken down into a series of smaller tasks. See also Gantt chart, PERT/CPM chart."

Worst-case estimate - "The most pessimistic outcome."