Glossary of terms related to Project Management-Alphabet Q to S
Giving below a comprehensive repository of terms/definitions and concepts as per the latest PMI PMBOK 6th Edition and presented in an alphabetically sorted order.
1) This robust database explains various terms/definitions are designed to help you prepare for the PMP exam as well as for use in your daily Software Development/Testing related Project Management activities.
2) This encyclopedia is an excellent self-study tool for all IT professionals involved in the Project Management activities.
Alphabetical Encyclopedia
Alphabet – Q
Quality:
Quality refers to the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements.
Quality Management Plan:
The quality management plan describes how the project management team will implement the performing organization’s quality policy. The quality management plan is a component or a subsidiary plan of the project management plan.
Qualitative Risk Analysis:
Qualitative Risk Analysis refers to the process of prioritizing risks for further analysis or action by assessing and combining their probability of occurrence and impact.
Alphabet – R
Regulation:
Regulation refers to the requirements imposed by a governmental body. These requirements can establish product, process, or service characteristics, including applicable administrative provisions that have government-mandated compliance.
Report Performance:
Report Performance refers to the process of collecting and distributing performance information, including status reports, progress measurements, and forecasts.
Request for Information (RFI):
Request for Information is a type of procurement document whereby the buyer requests a potential seller to provide various pieces of information related to a product or service or seller capability.
Request for Proposal (RFP):
Request for Proposal is a type of procurement document used to request proposals from prospective sellers of products or services. In some application areas, it may have a narrower or more specific meaning.
Request for Quotation (RFQ):
Request for Quotation is a type of procurement document used to request price quotations from prospective sellers of common or standard products or services. Sometimes used in place of request for proposal and in some application areas, it may have a narrower or more specific meaning.
Requested Change:
Requested Change refers to a formally documented change request that is submitted for approval to the integrated change control process.
Requirement:
Requirement refers to a condition or capability that must be met or possessed by a system, product, service, result, or component to satisfy a contract, standard, specification, or other formally imposed document. Requirements include the quantified and documented needs, wants, and expectations of the sponsor, customer, and other stakeholders.
Requirements Traceability Matrix:
Requirements Traceability Matrix is a table that links requirements to their origin and traces them throughout the project life cycle.
Reserve:
Reserve refers to a provision in the project management plan to mitigate cost and/or schedule risk. Often used with a modifier (e.g., management reserve, contingency reserve) to provide further detail on what types of risk are meant to mitigated.
Reserve Analysis:
Reserve Analysis refers to an analytical technique to determine the essential features and relationships of components in the project management plan to establish a reserve for the schedule duration, budget, estimated cost, or funds for a project.
Residual Risk:
Residual Risk refers to a risk that remains after risk responses have been implemented.
Resource:
Resource refer to skilled human resources (specific disciplines either individually or in crews or teams), equipment, services, supplies, commodities, material, budgets, or funds.
Resource Breakdown Structure:
Resource Breakdown Structure refers to a hierarchical structure of resources by resource category and resource type used in resource leveling schedules and to develop resource-limited schedules, and which may be used to identify and analyze project human resource assignments.
Resource Calendar:
Resource Calendar is a calendar of working days and nonworking days that determines those dates on which each specific resource is idle or can be active. Typically defines resource specific holidays and resource availability periods. See also project calendar.
Resource Histogram:
Resource Histogram is a bar chart showing the amount of time that a resource is scheduled to work over a series of time periods. Resource availability may be depicted as a line for comparison purposes. Contrasting bars may show actual amounts of resources used as the project progresses.
Resource Leveling:
Resource Leveling refers to any form of schedule network analysis in which scheduling decisions (start and finish dates) are driven by resource constraints (e.g., limited resource availability or difficult-to-manage changes in resource availability levels).
Responsibilities Assignment Matrix (RAM):
Responsibilities Assignment Matrix is a structure that relates the project organizational breakdown structure to the work breakdown structure to help ensure that each component of the project’s scope of work is assigned to a person or team.
Result:
Result refers to an output from performing project management processes and activities. Results include outcomes (e.g., integrated systems, revised process, restructured organization, tests, trained personnel, etc.) and documents (e.g., policies, plans, studies, procedures, specifications, reports, etc.). It is a contrast with product. See also deliverable.
Rework:
Rework refers to an action taken to bring a defective or nonconforming component into compliance with requirements or specifications.
Risk:
Risk is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on a project’s objectives.
Risk Acceptance:
A risk response planning technique that indicates that the project team has decided not to change the project management plan to deal with a risk, or is unable to identify any other suitable response strategy.
Risk Avoidance:
Risk Avoidance is a risk response planning technique for a threat that creates changes to the project management plan that are meant to either eliminate the risk or to protect the project objectives from its impact.
Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS):
Risk Breakdown Structure refers to a hierarchically organized depiction of the identified project risks arranged by risk category and subcategory that identifies the various areas and causes of potential risks. The risk breakdown structure is often tailored to specific project types.
Risk Category:
Risk Category is a group of potential causes of risk. Risk causes may be grouped into categories such as technical, external, organizational, environmental, or project management. A category may include subcategories such as technical maturity, weather, or aggressive estimating.
Risk Management Plan:
Risk Management Plan is a document describing how project risk management will be structured and performed on the project. It is contained in or is a subsidiary plan of the project management plan. Information in the risk management plan varies by application area and project size. The risk management plan is different from the risk register that contains the list of project risks, the results of risk analysis, and the risk responses.
Risk Mitigation:
Risk Mitigation is a risk response planning technique associated with threats that seeks to reduce the probability of occurrence or impact of a risk to below acceptable threshold.
Risk Register:
Risk Register is a document containing the results of the qualitative risk analysis, quantitative risk analysis, and risk response planning. The risk register details all identified risks, including description, category, cause, probability of occurring, impact(s) on objectives, proposed responses, owners, and current status.
Risk Tolerance:
Risk Tolerance refers to the degree, amount, or volume of risk that an organization or individual will withstand.
Risk Transference:
Risk Transference is a risk response planning technique that shifts the impact of a threat to a third party, together with ownership of the response.
Role:
Role is a defined function to be performed by a project team member, such as testing, filing, inspecting, coding.
Rolling Wave Planning:
Rolling Wave Planning refers to a form of progressive elaboration planning where the work to be accomplished in the near term is planned in detail at a low level of the work breakdown structure, while the work far in the future is planned at a relatively high level of the work breakdown structure, but the detailed planning of the work to be performed within another one or two periods in the near future is done as work is being completed during the current period.
Root Cause Analysis:
Root Cause Analysis is an analytical technique used to determine the basic underlying reason that causes a variance or a defect or a risk. A root cause may underlie more than one variance or defect or risk.
Alphabet – S
S-Curve:
S-Curve is a graphic display of cumulative costs, labor hours, percentage or work, or other quantities, plotted against time. It is used to depict planned value, earned value, and actual cost of project work. The name comes from the S-like shape of the curve (flatter at the beginning and end, steeper in the middle) produced on a project that starts slowly, accelerates, and then tails off. It is also a term used to express the cumulative likelihood distribution that is a result of a simulation, a tool of quantitative risk analysis.
Schedule:
See project schedule and see also schedule model.
Schedule Baseline:
Schedule Baseline is a specific version of the schedule model used to compare actual results to the plan to determine if preventive or corrective action is needed to meet the project objectives.
Schedule Compression:
Schedule Compression refers to shortening the project schedule duration without reducing the project scope. See also crashing and fast tracking.
Schedule Management Plan:
Schedule Management Plan refers to the document that establishes criteria and the activities for developing and controlling the project schedule. It is contained in or is a subsidiary plan of, the project management plan.
Schedule Model:
Schedule Model is a model used in conjunction with manual methods or project management software to perform schedule network analysis to generate the project schedule for use in managing the execution of a project. See also project schedule.
Schedule Network Analysis:
Schedule Network Analysis is a technique of identifying early and late start dates, as well as early and late finish dates, for the uncompleted portions of project schedule activities. See also critical path method, critical chain method, and resource leveling.
Schedule Performance Index (SPI):
Schedule Performance Index is a measure of schedule efficiency on a project. It is the ratio of earned value (EV) to planned value (PV). The SPI = EV divided by PV.
Schedule Variance (SV):
Schedule Variance is a measure of schedule performance on a project. It is the difference between the earned value (EV) and the planned value (PV). SV = EV minus PV.
Scheduled Finish Date (SF):
Scheduled Finish Date refers to the point in time that work was scheduled to finish on a schedule activity. The scheduled finish date is normally within the range of dates delimited by the early finish date and the late finish date. It may reflect resource leveling of scarce resources. Sometimes called planned finish date.
Scheduled Start Date (SS):
Scheduled Start Date refers to the point in time that work was scheduled to start on a schedule activity. The scheduled start date is normally within the range of dates delimited by the early start date and the late start date. It may reflect resource leveling of scarce resources. Sometimes called planned start date.
Scope:
Scope refers to the sum of the products, services, and results to be provided as a project. See also project scope and product scope.
Scope Baseline:
Scope Baseline is an approved specific version of the detailed scope statement, work breakdown structure (WBS), and its associated WBS dictionary.
Scope Change:
Scope Change means any change made in the project scope. A scope change almost always requires an adjustment to the project cost or schedule.
Scope Creep:
Scope Creep refers to the process of adding features and functionality (project scope) without addressing the effects on time, costs, and resources, or without customer approval.
Scope Management Plan:
Scope Management Plan refers to the document that describes how the project scope will be defined, developed, and verified and how the work breakdown structure will be created and defined, and that provides guidance on how the project scope will be managed and controlled by the project management team. It is contained in or is a subsidiary plan of the project management plan.
Secondary Risk:
Secondary Risk is a risk that arises as a direct result of implementing a risk response.
Seller:
Seller is a provider or supplier of products, services, or results to an organization.
Sensitivity Analysis:
Sensitivity Analysis refers to a quantitative risk analysis and modeling technique used to help determine which risks have the most potential impact on the project. It examines the extent to which the uncertainty of each project element affects the objective being examined when all other uncertain elements are held at their baseline values. The typical display of results is in the form of a tornado diagram.
Sequence Activities:
Sequence Activities refers to the process of identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities.
Simulation:
A simulation uses a project model that translates the uncertainties specified at a detailed level into their potential impact on objectives that are expressed at the level of the total project. Project simulations use computer models and estimates of risk, usually expressed as a probability distribution of possible costs or durations at a detailed work level, and are typically performed using Monte Carlo analysis.
Slack:
Slack is also known as float. Refer Total Float and Free Float.
Special Cause:
Special Cause is a source of variation that is not inherent in the system, is not predictable, and is intermittent. It can be assigned to a defect in the system. On a control chart, points beyond the control limits, or non-random patterns within the control limits, indicate it. It is also known as assignable cause. It is contrast with common cause.
Specification:
Specification refers to a document that specifies, in a complete, precise, verifiable manner, the requirements, design, behavior, or other characteristics of a system, component, product, result, or service and, often, the procedures for determining whether these provisions have been satisfied. Examples are: requirement specification, design specification, product specification, and test specification.
Specification Limits:
Specification Limits refer to the area, on either side of the centerline, or mean, of data plotted on a control chart that meets the customer’s requirements for a product or service. This are may be greater than or less than the area defined by the control limits. See also control limits.
Sponsor:
Sponsor is the person or group that provides the financial resources, in cash or in kind, for the project.
Staffing Management Plan:
Staffing Management Plan refers to a document that describes when and how human resource requirements will be met. It is contained in or is a subsidiary plan of, the human resource plan.
Stakeholder:
Stakeholder is a person or organization (e.g., customer, sponsor, performing organization, or the public) that is actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by execution or completion of the project. A stakeholder may also exert influence over the project and its deliverables.
Standard:
Standard refers to a document that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines, or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context.
Start Date:
Start Date is a point in time associated with a schedule activity’s start, usually qualified by one of the following: actual, planned, estimated, scheduled, early, late, target, baseline, or current.
Start-to-Finish (SF):
Start-to-Finish refers to a logical relationship where completion of the successor schedule activity is dependent upon the initiation of the predecessor schedule activity. See also logical relationship.
Start-to-Start (SS):
Start-to-Start refers to a logical relationship where initiation of the work of the successor schedule activity depends upon the initiation of the work of the predecessor schedule activity. See also logical relationship.
Statement of Work (SOW):
Statement of Work refers to a narrative description of products, services, or results to be supplied. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats: This information gathering technique examines the project from the perspective of each project’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to increase the breadth of the risks considered by risk management.
Subnetwork:
Subnetwork refers to a subdivision (fragment) of a project schedule network diagram, usually representing a sub project or a work package. Often used to illustrate or study some potential or proposed schedule condition such as changes in preferential schedule logic or project scope.
Subphase:
A subdivision of a phase.
Subproject:
Subproject is a smaller portion of the overall project created when a project is subdivided into more manageable components or pieces.
Successor Activity:
Successor Activity refers to a schedule activity that follows a predecessor activity, as determined by their logical relationship.
Summary Activity:
Summary Activity refers to a group of related schedule activities aggregated at some summary level, and displayed/ reported as a single activity at that summary level. See also subproject and subnetwork.
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