There may be external circumstances or events that must occur for the project to be successful (or that should happen to increase your chances of success). If you believe that the probability of the event occurring is acceptable, you could list it as an assumption. An assumption has a probability between 0 and 100%. That is, it is not impossible that the event will occur (0%) and it is not a fact (100%). It is somewhere in between. Assumptions are important because they set the context in which the entire remainder of the project is defined. If an assumption doesn't come through, the estimate and the rest of the project definition may no longer be valid.

Budget at completion (BAC) is the sum of all budgets allocated to a project.

Calculation of the latest finish times by working from finish-to-start for the uncompleted portion of a network of activities.

An organizational matrix where functions and projects have the same priority.

A view of the project schedule that uses horizontal bars on a time scale to depict activity information; frequently called a Gantt chart.

The value or condition against which all future measurements will be compared.

The amount of money an activity was intended to cost when the baseline plan was established.

Original planned start and finished dates for an activity. Used to compare with current planned dates to determine any delays. Also used to calculate budgeted cost of work scheduled in earned value analysis.

The original plan (for a project, a work package, or an activity), plus or minus approved changes. Usually used with a modifier, e.g., cost baseline, schedule baseline, performance measurement baseline, etc.

Techniques that agencies may use to help detect problems in the acquisition, management, and administration of service contracts. Best practices are practical techniques gained from experience that have been shown to produce best results.

Pre-release testing in which a sampling of the intended customer base tries out the product.

The approach to making a cost estimate or plan in which detailed estimates are made for every task shown in the work breakdown structure and then summed to provide a total cost estimate or plan for the project.

The unstructured and dynamic generation of ideas by a group of people where anything and everything is acceptable, particularly useful in generating a list of potential project risks.

Generally refers to a list of all planned expenses and revenues.

Measures the budgeted cost of work that has actually been performed, rather than the cost of work scheduled.

The approved budget that has been allocated to complete a scheduled task, or work breakdown structure (WBS) component, during a specific time period.

Is the set of tasks, knowledge, and techniques required to identify business needs and determine solutions to business problems. Solutions often include a systems development component, but may also consist of process improvement or organizational change.

The part of the organization containing the business operations affected by a program or project.

A document developed towards the end of the concept phase, to establish the merits and desirability of the project and justification for further project definition.

The requirements of an enterprise to meet its goals and objectives.

The ongoing recurring activities involved in the running of a business for the purpose of producing value for the stakeholders. They are contrasted with project management, and consist of business processes.

A collection of related, structured activities or tasks that produce a specific service or product (serve a particular goal) for a particular customer or customers. There are three types of business processes: management processes, operational processes, and supporting processes.

A research method which involves an in-depth, longitudinal examination of a single instance or event: a case. They provide a systematic way of looking at events, collecting data, analyzing information, and reporting the results.

An end user representative, often seconded into a project team. Someone who acts as an advocate for a proposal or project.

A general term describing the procedures used to ensure that changes (normally, but not necessarily, to IT systems) are introduced in a controlled and coordinated manner. Change control is a major aspect of the broader discipline of change management.

The formal process through which changes to the project plan are approved and introduced.

A document that authorizes a change in some aspect of the project.

A request needed to obtain formal approval for changes to the scope, design, methods, costs, or planned aspects of a project. Change requests may arise through changes in the business or issues in the project. Change requests should be logged, assessed and agreed on before a change to the project can be made.

Subordinate task belonging to a parent task existing at a higher level in the work breakdown structure.

The person or group that is the direct beneficiary of a project or service is the client/customer. These are the people for whom the project is being undertaken (indirect beneficiaries are stakeholders). In many organizations, internal beneficiaries are called clients and external beneficiaries are called customers, but this is not a hard and fast rule.

Constraints are limitations that are outside the control of the project team and need to be managed around. They are not necessarily problems. However, the project manager should be aware of constraints because they represent limitations that the project must execute within. Date constraints, for instance, imply that certain events (perhaps the end of the project) must occur by certain dates. Resources are almost always a constraint, since they are not available in an unlimited supply.

The critical path is the sequence of activities that must be completed on schedule for the entire project to be completed on schedule. It is the longest duration path through the workplan. If an activity on the critical path is delayed by one day, the entire project will be delayed by one day (unless another activity on the critical path can be accelerated by one day).

The completion of all work on a project.

A statement of project’s stakeholders’ communication and information needs.

The first phase of a project in the generic project lifecycle, in which the need is examined, alternatives are assessed, the goals and objectives of the project are established and a sponsor is identified.

A level of confidence, stated as a percentage, for a budget or schedule estimate. The higher the confidence level, the lower the risk.

Handling of conflicts between project participants or groups in order to create optimal project results.

To seek a solution to a problem, five methods in particular have been proven through confrontations, compromise, smoothing, forcing and withdrawal.

Constraints are limitations that are outside the control of the project team and need to be managed around. They are not necessarily problems. However, the project manager should be aware of constraints because they represent limitations that the project must execute within. Date constraints, for instance, imply that certain events (perhaps the end of the project) must occur by certain dates. Resources are almost always a constraint, since they are not available in an unlimited supply.

A Contingency is the planned allotment of time and cost for unforeseeable elements with a project. Including contingencies will increase the confidence of the overall project.

The process of comparing actual performance with planned performance, analyzing the differences, and taking the appropriate corrective action.

The cost value of project activity.

The allocation of cost estimates to individual project components.

The amount by which actual costs exceed the baseline or approved costs.

The process of reducing the time it takes to complete an activity by adding resources.

An activity or event that, if delayed, will delay some other important event, commonly the completion of a project or a major milestone in a project.

A mathematically based modeling technique for scheduling a set of project activities, used in project management.

A method of planning and managing projects that puts more emphasis on the resources required to execute project tasks.

The key factors that are deemed critical to the success of the project. The nature of these factors will govern the response to conflicts, risks and the setting of priorities.

A person's attitudes arising out of their professional, religious, class, educational, gender, age and other backgrounds.

See client.

A deliverable is any tangible outcome that is produced by the project. All projects create deliverables. These can be documents, plans, computer systems, buildings, aircraft, etc. Internal deliverables are produced as a consequence of executing the project and are usually needed only by the project team. External deliverables are those that are created for clients and stakeholders. Your project may create one or many deliverables.

Dependencies on a project are the relationships between activities whereby one activity must do something (finish-to-start) before another activity can do something (start-to-finish).

The duration of a project's terminal element is the number of calendar periods it takes from the time the execution of element starts to the moment it is completed.

A project management technique for measuring project progress in an objective manner, with a combination of measuring scope, schedule, and cost in a single integrated system.

An extension to earned value management (EVM), which renames two traditional measures, to indicate clearly they are in units of currency or quantity, not time.

In project management it is the processes of making accurate estimates using the appropriate techniques.

A diagram that show the relationships between events and tasks and how the events affect each other.

An uncertainty modeling and schedule network analysis technique that is focused on identifying and managing events and event chains that affect project schedules.

In a project network is the amount of time that a task in a project network can be delayed without causing a delay to subsequent tasks and or the project completion date.

The functional manager is the person you report to within your functional organization. Typically, this is the person who does your performance review. The project manager may also be a functional manager, but he or she does not have to be. If your project manager is different from your functional manager, your organization is probably utilizing matrix management.

An American mechanical engineer and management consultant, who developed the Gantt chart in the 1910s.

A Gantt chart is a bar chart that depicts activities as blocks over time. The beginning and end of the block correspond to the beginning and end-date of the activity.

An objective that consists of a projected state of affairs which a person or a system plans or intends to achieve or bring about a personal or organizational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. Many people endeavor to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.

Involves establishing specific, measurable and time targeted objectives.

A network analysis technique that allows probabilistic treatment of both network logic and activity duration estimated.

A schedule (project management) or project planning term for a grouping of subtasks that hangs between two end dates it is tied to. or the two end events it is fixed to.

A guideline for quality management in projects, is an international standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization.

An issue is a major problem that will impede the progress of the project and that can't be resolved by the project manager and project team without outside help. Project managers should proactively deal with issues through a defined issues management process.

The first meeting with the project team and the client of the project.

Is qualified as a support type activity which doesn't lend itself to measurement of a discrete accomplishment. Examples of such an activity may be project budget accounting, customer liaison, etc.

Life cycle refers to the process used to build the deliverables produced by the project. Every project has an inception, a period during which activities move the project