A Glossary of Basic Project Management Terms

The crossroads section is designed to provide definitions for new terminology, concepts, and theories. This section will also include any additional tools or examples that are relevant to the most recent blog posts. This is also a great time to ask questions by typing in the comment section!

1. A Project is a temporary endeavor with a start and a finish when all project objectives have been met. It creates a unique product, service or result transition and follows organizational procedures. A project can create a Product, Service, Improvement in an existing product or service, or a Result, such as an outcome or document. A Project has a specific scope and may have a program with portfolio objectives.
2. The five Project Management Process Groups are Initiating, Planning, Directing and Executing, Monitoring and controlling, and Closing.
3. The Triple Constraint is the scope, schedule; cost (quality risk) all together.
4. Organizational Project Management (OPM) is the project, program, and portfolio management.
5. A Program is a group of related projects, subprograms and program activities managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually. A program manages project interdependencies and harmonizes collective project capabilities.
6. A Portfolio refers to projects, programs, sub-portfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives. This is how all of the programs and project supporting the organizational strategies are prioritized and organized.
7. A Project Management Organizations is a management structure that standardizes the project-related governance processes and facilitates the share of resources, methodologies, tools, and techniques.
8. A Project Life Cycle is the series of phases that a project passes through from its initiation to its closure.
9. Project Phases are a collection of logically related project activities that culminate in the completion of one or more deliverables.
10. Progressive Elaboration is a project management technique where the project plan is being continuously and constantly modified, detailed, and improved as newer and more improved (as well as more highly detailed), sets of information becomes available. In this way, the project unfolds with a series of successive iterations. Progressive elaboration is a fundamentally important step to the project management planning process as it can take a sketchy preliminary plan and refine it.
11. Organizational Process Assets (OPAs) are process and procedures that you have on hand to use on your project and defined as any artifact, practice or knowledge that can be used to the success of the project.
12. Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEFs) are conditions, not under the control of the project team, that influence, constrain or direct the project.
13. A Project Stakeholder is an individual, group, or organization who may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity or outcome of a project. Project Stakeholders include all project team members, all internal and external interested parties, active and passive people, all members of the project team, all interested entities, sponsors, customers and users, sellers, business partners, organizational groups, functional managers, and other stakeholders.
14. Project Governance is an oversight function that is aligned with the organization’s governance model that encompasses the project life cycle.
15. A Project Governance Framework is separate from organizational governance and can include: project success criteria, project organizational chart, communication guidelines, decision-making processes, project life-cycle approach, process for phase gate reviews, process to augment authority, and process to align with internal stakeholders.
16. The Project Charter document will concisely explain the project purpose or justification, requirements, objectives, constraints, budget and stakeholders. The Project Charter document will be the starting point of your project and will form the foundation for the rest of your project.
17. The three Types of Meetings are information exchange, brainstorming, and decision-making.