Glossary

Actual Effort (Raw Effort)

The actual effort usually in hours spent by a team member on undertaking a task.

Assumptions

The assumptions made by the project manager and team when planning their project. Assumptions such as availability of team members time, accommodation for the team, availability of support and technology are common during planning and it is essential that these assumptions are documented during the planning session/s.

Benefits

The returns or payback expected to be obtained from the successful completion of the project. Returns or benefits would most commonly include Reduced or Avoided Costs for existing procedures, Improved Service to clients or internal areas such as easier access to information and Increased Revenue from new or improved products.

Business Case

A set of key project management information developed and refined during the project planning sessions. It includes scope, objectives, benefits, costs, estimates and so on. The Business Case summarises the management and financial issues associated with the project. It is the basis of change control and is a "contract" between the project manager and project sponsor.

Critical path

The group of tasks that aggregate to the longest duration (in time) through the project. These tasks have a set of inter-dependencies that result in the delay in one task on the critical path immediately delaying all the other tasks on the critical path.

Critical path method (CPM)

A technique for calculating the critical path for a project by examining the inter-dependencies (or relationships) between tasks and by deriving the longest or critical path by examining the length of the tasks and which tasks are dependent on other tasks - see Network.

Critical task

A project task on the project's critical path. It is important to note that critical in this context does not mean critical in terms of technical or organisational perspective, but rather, critical in terms of duration and relationships. For example, gaining approval from Human Resources for people to work on the project may be critical to the project but it may not be on the critical path.

Concurrent strategy (concurrent release strategy)

The breaking up of a product into sub-products or components and the development of those sub-product as individual sub-projects which are underway at the same time. This strategy enables different team members to work on specific components of the product as quasi-independent projects.

Constraints

Specific management or technical limits that are part of the environment in which the project must be developed. Typical constraints include fixed deadlines, fixed resources, fixed costs, organisational standards (ed Audit, EEO, Occupational Health and Safety, etc) or fixed technology.

Costs

The estimated and actual costs incurred by the project. Typical costs include people (salary, overtime, accommodation and other on-costs), equipment such as computers and office equipment, travel costs and organisational support costs (secretarial, preparation of documents, management and so on).

Deadline

The expected date upon which the project must have completed the development and implementation of the required outcomes.

Deliverable (or output)

The output from tasks in projects. The nature of deliverables depends completely from the nature of the task. Some tasks have written or intellectual deliverables such as reports or revised policy and others produce physical deliverables such as computer programs, new physical environments and new equipment.

Delphi estimate

A team-based estimation technique that uses structured team discussions of estimates (best, likely and worst), risk and other assumptions to develop a set of estimates that can be averaged.

Duration ( elapsed effort, calendar days)

The number of calendar days required to undertake and complete a task. The duration reflects the effort required adjusted for non-project activities or other project tasks required to be undertaken by the person scheduled to complete the project task.

Elapsed Effort

The actual calendar days required to undertake the Actual or Raw Effort to complete the task. For example, if you are only working on the project 2 hours a day, a Raw Effort of 8 hours would take 4 Elapsed days to complete.

Fast-track strategy

An approach to undertaking projects which involves the team undertaking the minimum activities required to develop the product with the aim of implementing the product as quickly as possible. This strategy is generally associated with high risk projects such as projects with fixed deadlines and innovative requirements.

Float (or slack)

The time that a non-critical path task can slip (take longer than estimated) before the task impacts the critical path by delaying the start of a dependent task on the critical path of the project.

Float task (non-critical path task)

A task that is not on the critical path or alternatively, a task that has float.

GANTT chart

A technique developed by Henry Gantt that shows the duration of tasks against a calendar or time-frame. These charts generally do not show dependencies as shown in a network diagram. However, tasks on the critical path are shown using different graphics than those not on the critical path.

Lag (delay)

The time delay between tasks that have a relationship other than finish-to-start.

Methodology (see project development life cycle)

A pre-defined set of tasks that are designed to provide a guide or check list for developing and implementing projects. The formal term "methodology" means the study of method however it has been distorted over time to generally mean a work breakdown structure or list of tasks.

Monolithic strategy

A traditional approach to developing and implementing products that involves a structured and sequential development of the product as an integrated whole through a number of phases (Requirements Analysis, Design, Build and Implement).

Network (PERT)

A technique for showing tasks, their inter-dependencies and the relationships between the tasks. There are two major types of relationships - deliverable (one task requires the output from another before it can commence) and resource (one task needs the people undertaking another task to finish so they can start the dependent task). There are two common types of relationships - finish-to-start (one task must finish before the next can start) and start-to-start (one task can commence after another starts with the elapsing of a specific time delay or lag).

Non-critical task (see Float )

Objectives

The corporate, business or project objectives that the project is expected to support and implement as changes in the organisation. Project objectives should reflect the corporate mission statements and objectives and should be stated in a specific, measurable and precise manner. The project's objectives are the prime determinant of the project's success and are the mission statement for the project team. Scope and objectives are inter-related as scope defines the boundaries in which the objectives must be achieved.

On-costs

Non-salary expenses incurred by people working for an organisation. These would include superannuation, overtime, allowances, hospital and insurance fund payments.

Process work

The work undertaken by people working in the existing organisation structures and procedures. This work generally repeats over short time-frames, is documented, easily measured and operates within the status-quo of the organisation. It is the exact opposite of project work.

Project development strategy

The overall approach to the development of the product. Various strategies provide alternative approaches which have different dynamics and organisational impact (see monolithic, sequential, concurrent and fast-track strategies).

Project development life-cycle ( see Work Breakdown Structure, Methodology)

Project

A group of tasks that are inter-related and are designed to change existing organisation structure, procedures, policy and systems. Projects are dynamic and involve flexible and pro-active management. Projects impact on organisations and as such have many external people who need to be involved in the process.

Project work

Project work involves management and technical tasks that are fundamentally different to process work tasks. Typical project tasks are unique, difficult to measure and standardise and can often require long timeframes to complete.

Project Manager (Project Leader)

The person responsible for the success of the project in conjunction with the project sponsor and team. The project manager must ensure that the processes of project planning, tracking and reporting are undertaken in a rigorous manner. The project manager is also responsible for managing the relationships with other related groups (see Stakeholders) and related projects.

Related Projects

Related projects are projects that are inter-dependent with the project. These projects may be related in terms of staffing, technology, products and procedures. For example, one project may need to revise Human Resource policies before another project can implement new work processes.

Risk (Project Risk)

The probability that a project will succeed or fail. The higher the risk of the project, the higher the probability will fail. Risk is analysed as part of the project planning process.

Risk Assessment

A structured process involved the examination of factors which are operating on and in the project that can affect the risk of the project. There are three categories of risk factors in projects - the risk of the product, the risk of the team and the risk of the target or client area.

Risk management (containment strategy)

A process for negotiating, before the project starts, to reduce or eliminate high risk factors in a project. Typical risk management strategies involve identifying high risk factors e.g. inexperienced team members, unstable or uncertain requirements and negotiating with the project sponsor and stakeholders actions to manage the risk and the impact of the risk.

Schedule (project plan, timeline)

A graphic representation of tasks, dependencies between tasks and task duration against a calendar (see also Network, Critical Path). The schedule is used to determine deadlines and key review points.

Scheduling tools (project management software, project scheduling software)

Computer software generally marketed by vendors that provide automated support for developing network diagrams, critical paths, schedules, resource costs, duration, project tracking and various reports to enable the project manager and team to evaluate resource loading, costs and progress.

Scope

The boundary of the project manager's responsibilities and project impact. Scope and objectives are inter-related in the sense that scope states the area of responsibility of the project manager while objectives state what has to be achieved within the scope.

Sensitivity Analysis

The use of ranged estimates of project effort, benefits and costs. These are stated as Best case, Likely case and Worst case (see Wide-band Delphi estimate).

Sequential strategy (sequential release strategy)

An approach to undertaking the project where the product under development is partitioned into sub-products or components. One component is developed first and while it is being used by clients, the development of the next component is then commenced.

Sponsor (Project Sponsor)

A senior manager who is the initiator of the project and the key executive support for the project manager and team. The sponsor has a number of responsibilities including approval of the Business Case, review of project progress, assistance to the project manager in areas of difficulty and evaluation of the project's success on completion.

Stakeholders

People who either have to provide advice, expertise, resources or technology to the project team or who are expecting similar services from the project and who are outside the direct administrative responsibility of the project manager.

Steering Committee

A representative group of senior managers who have similar responsibilities to the Project Sponsor (who would be on the Steering Committee). Steering Committees would normally be required for larger projects only.

Work breakdown structure ( project development life cycle)

The partitioning of a task into sub-tasks to enable the team to better understand what activities are required to undertake the project.

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