Ch.1-6 Project Management – Flashcards
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Program
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A group of related projects designed to accomplish a common goal over an extended period of time.
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Project
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A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result
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Project Life Cycle
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The stages found in all projects-definition, planning, execution, and delivery
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Project Management Professional(PMP)
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An individual who has met specific education and experience requirements set forth by the Project Management Institute, has agreed to adhere to a code of professional conduct, and has passed an examination designed to objectively assess and measure project management knowledge; a PMP must satisfy continuing certification requirements or lose the certification
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Implementation Gap
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The lack of consensus between the goals set by top management and those independently set by lower levels of management. This lack of consensus leads to confusion and poor allocation of organization resources
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Net Present Value
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A minimum desired rate of return discount(e.g., 15%) is used to compute present value of all future cash inflows and outflows
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Organizational Politics
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Actions by individuals or groups of individuals to acquire, develop, and use power and other resources to obtain preferred outcomes when there is uncertainty or disagreement over choices
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Payback Method
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The time it takes to pay back the project investment(investment/net annual savings). The method does not consider the time value of money or the life of the investment
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Priority System
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The process used to select projects. The system uses selected criteria for evaluating and selecting projects that are strongly linked to higher-level strategies and objectives
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Priority Team
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The group(sometimes the project office) responsible for selecting, overseeing, and updating project priority selection criteria
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Project Portfolio
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Group of projects that have been selected for implementation balanced by project type, risk, and ranking by selected criteria
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Project Screening Matrix
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A matrix used to assess and compare the relative value of projects being considered for implementation
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Project Sponsor
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Typically a high-ranking manager who champions and supports a project
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Sacred Cow
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A project that is a favorite of a powerful management figure who is usually the champion for the project
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Strategic Management Process:
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Strategic Management Requires every project to be clearly linked to strategy. Provides theme and focus of firm's future direction. Responding to changes in the external environment—environmental scanning Allocating scarce resources of the firm to improve its competitive position—internal responses to new programs Requires strong links among mission, goals, objectives, strategy, and implementation
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Four Activities of the Strategic Management Process:
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Review and define the organizational mission. Set long-range goals and objectives. Analyze and formulate strategies to reach objectives. Implement strategies through projects
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- Balanced Matrix
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A matrix structure in which the project manager and functional managers share roughly equal authority over the project. The project manager decides what needs to be done; functional managers are concerned with how it will be accomplished
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Dedicated Project Team
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An organizational structure in which all of the resources needed to accomplish a project are assigned full time to the project
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Matrix
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Any organizational structure in which the project manager shares responsibility with the functional managers for assigning priorities and for directing the work of individuals assigned to the project
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Organizational Culture
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A system of shared norms, beliefs, values and assumptions held by an organization's members
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Projectized Organization
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A multi-project organization in which project managers have full authority to assign priorities and direct the work of persons assigned to their project
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Project Office(PO)
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A centralized unit within an organization or department that oversees and improves the management of projects
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Strong Matrix
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A matrix structure in which the project manager has primary control over project activities and functional managers support project work
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Weak Matrix
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A matrix structure in which functional managers have primary control over project activities and the project manager coordinates project work
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Cost Account
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A control point of one or more work packages used to plan, schedule, and control the project. The sum of all the project cost accounts represents the total cost of the project
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Milestone
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An event that represents significant, identifiable accomplishment toward the project's completion
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Organization Breakdown Structure(OBS)
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A structure used to assign responsibility for work packages
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Priority Matrix
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A matrix that is set up before the project begins that establishes which criterion among cost, time, and scope will be enhanced, constrained, or accepted
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Process Breakdown Structure(PBS)
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A phase-oriented grouping of project activities that defines the total scope of the project. Each descending level represents an increasingly detailed description of project work
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Project Charter
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A document that authorizes the project manager to initiate and lead a project
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Responsibility Matrix
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A matrix whose intersection point shows the relationship between an activity (work package) and the person/group responsible for its completion
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Scope Creep
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The tendency for the scope of a project to expand once it has started
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Scope Statement
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A definition of the end result or mission of a project. Scope statements typically include project objectives, deliverables, milestones, specifications, and limits and exclusions
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WBS Dictionary
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Provides detailed information about each element in the WBS; typically includes the work package level(code), name, and functional description
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Work Breakdown Structure(WBS)
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A hierarchical method that successively subdivides the work of the project into smaller detail
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Work Package
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A task at the lowest level of the WBS; responsibility of work package should be assigned to 1 person and limited to 80 hours of work
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Apportionment Methods
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Costs allocated to a specific segment of a project by using a percentage of planned total cost-for example, framing a house might use 25% of the total cost, or coding a teaching module 40% of total cost
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Bottom-up Estimates
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Detailed estimates of work packages usually made by those who are most familiar with the task (also called micro estimates)
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Contingency Funds
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Usually an amount of money or time set aside to cover identified and unforeseen project risks
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Delphi Method
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A group method to predict future events-e.g., time, cost
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Direct Costs
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Costs that are clearly charged to a specific work package-usually labor, materials, or equipment
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Function Points
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Points derived from past software projects to estimate project time and cost, given specific features of the project
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Learning Curves
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A mathematical curve used to predict a pattern of time reduction as a task is performed over and over
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Overhead Costs
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Typically organization costs that are not directly linked to a specific project; cover expenses such as upper management, legal, market promotion and account; usually charged per unit of time or as a percentage of labor or material costs
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Padding Estimates
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Adding a safety factor to a time or cost estimate to ensure the estimate is met when the project is executed
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Phase Estimating
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This estimating method begins with a macro estimate for the project and then refines estimates for phases of the project as it is implemented; used when an unusual amount of uncertainty surrounds a project & it is impractical to estimate times and costs for the entire project
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Range Estimating
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Works best when work packages have significant uncertainty associated with the time or cost to complete
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Ratio Methods
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Use the ratio of past actual costs for similar work to estimate the cost for a potential project; does not provide a sound basis for project cost control since it does not recognize differences among projects
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Template Method
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Use of a prepared form to develop project networks, costs, and time estimates
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Time & Cost Databases
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Collection of actual versus estimated times and costs of work packages over many projects that are used for estimating new project tasks and their expected possible error
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Activity
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Task(s) of the project that consumes time while people/equipment either work or wait
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Activity-on-arrow(AOA)
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Method for drawing project networks; shown as an arrow
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Activity-on-node(AON)
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Method for drawing project networks; activity is on the node(rectangle)
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Burst Activity
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An activity that has more than one activity immediately following it
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Concurrent Engineering- Cross
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functional teamwork in new-product development projects that provides product design, quality engineering, and manufacturing process engineering all at the same time
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Critical Path-
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The longest activity path(s) through the network; can be distinguished by identifying the collection of activities that hall have the same minimum slack
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Early & late times-
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The forward pass starts with the first project activity and traces each path through the network to the last project activity; you add the activity times as you trace along the path; latest times the backward pass starts with the last project activity on the network; you trace backward on each path subtracting activity times to find the late start and late finishan be distinguished by identifying the collection of activities that all have the same minimum slack
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Free Slack
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The maximum amount of time an activity can be delayed from its early start(ES) without affecting the early start(ES) of any activity immediately following it
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Gantt Chart
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A graphic presentation of project activities depicted as a time-scaled bar line
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Hammock Activity
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A special-purpose, aggregate activity that identifies the use of fixed resources or costs over a segment of the project; derives its duration from the time span between other activities
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Lag Relationship
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The relationship between the start/finish of a project activity and the start and/or finish of another activity; most are finish-to-start, finish-to-finish, start-to-start, and start-to-finish
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Merge Activity
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An activity that has more than one activity immediately preceding it
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Parallel Activity
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One or more activities that can be carried on concurrently or simultaneously
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Sensitivity
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The likelihood the original critical path will change once the project is initiated; a function of the number of critical or near critical paths; a network schedule that has only one critical path and noncritical activities that enjoy significant slack would be labeled insensitive; a sensitive network would be one with more than one critical path and or non-critical activities with very little slack
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Total Slack
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The amount of time an activity can be delayed and not affect the project duration (TS=LS-ES or LF-EF)
