Project Management Terms and Definitions

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A

Adoption: Refers to how the customer uses and adapts a product or service without any issues

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Asana: A work management platform that helps teams plan and coordinate their work; useful for building project plans, assigning tasks, automating workflows, tracking progress, and communicating with stakeholders

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B

Benchmark: A point of reference

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Benefits: Expected gains of a project

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Budget: An estimate of the amount of money a project will cost to complete

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Business case: The reason for initiating a project

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C

Collaboration tools: Tools used to quickly and efficiently check in with team members on questions, comments, and other topics related to a project

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Conditional formatting: A feature that adds automatic color coding to cells in a spreadsheet

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Cost-benefit analysis: The process of adding up the expected value of a project—the benefits—and comparing them to the dollar costs

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Customers: The people who will get some value from a successfully-landed project

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D

Data validation: A feature that adds dropdown lists to cells in a spreadsheet

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Deliverable: A tangible outcome from a project; what gets produced or presented at the end of a task, event, or process

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Docs: A digital word processing application

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E

Engagement: Refers to how often or meaningful customer interaction and participation is over time

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F

Function: A feature that generates formulas which can be used to manipulate data and perform calculations in a spreadsheet

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G

Gantt chart: A horizontal bar chart that illustrates a project’s tasks, with clear breakdowns of who’s responsible for the work and when those tasks are due

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H

Header: The top cell or cells in a column in a spreadsheet

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I

Influence: Measures how much power a stakeholder has and how much the stakeholder’s actions affect the project outcome

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Initiation: The first phase within the project life cycle, followed by planning, executing, and closing

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In-scope: Tasks that are included in the project plan and contribute to the project’s goal

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Intangible benefits: Gains that are not measurable or quantifiable, such as customer or employee satisfaction or brand recognition

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Intangible costs: A cost that cannot easily be quantified, such as loss of employee morale or brand damage.

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Interest: Refers to how much the needs of the stakeholder will be affected by project outcomes

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K

Key results: The part of an OKR that describes measurable outcomes that objectively define when the objective has been met

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Key stakeholders: The people with the highest amount of influence on and interest in a project; also called "key players"

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L

Land: To measure the success of a project using the success criteria established at the outset of the project

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Launch: To deliver the final result of a project to the client or user

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M

Materials: Items needed to help get the project done

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Metrics: Data used to measure something, like numbers or figures

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O

Objective: The part of an OKR that defines what needs to be achieved and describes a desired outcome

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Objectives and key results (OKRs): A combination of a goal and a metric to determine a measurable outcome

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Out-of-scope: Tasks that are not included in the project plan and don’t contribute to the project’s goal

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P

Pivot table: A basic analysis tool used to summarize data and show the relationships between data points, making it easier to understand the information contained in a spreadsheet

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Power grid: A two-by-two grid used for conducting a stakeholder analysis; shows stakeholder interest in the project versus their influence over the project

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Primary stakeholders: People who will benefit directly from a project’s success

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Productivity tools: Tools used to manage project tasks, including word processing software, spreadsheets, and presentations

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Project charter: A document that clearly defines the key details of a project

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Project goal: The desired outcome of a project

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Project manager: The person who plans, organizes, and oversees the whole project

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Project proposal: Documentation written at the beginning of a project; kicks off the initiation phase by influencing and persuading the company to move forward with the project

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Project sponsor: The person who’s accountable for the project and who ensures the project delivers the agreed-upon business benefits

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R

RACI chart: A visual that helps to define roles and responsibilities for individuals or teams to ensure work gets done efficiently; lists who is? "responsible," "accountable," "consulted," and "informed" for project tasks

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Return on investment (ROI): A metric used to calculate the return on an investment relative to its cost.

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Resources: The budget, people, materials, and other items needed for a project

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S

Scheduling and work management software: Tools used for assigning tasks to multiple teammates and for tracking and visualizing progress; most useful for bigger projects with a larger number of tasks and a bigger team of people to manage

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Scope: The boundaries of a project; an agreed-upon understanding as to what is included or excluded from a project

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Scope creep: Changes, growth, and uncontrolled factors that affect a project’s scope at any point after the project begins

Scope management: Understanding and negotiating how changes will be evaluated, accepted, and performed

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Silo: A situation in which the knowledge and responsibility for a task falls on one person

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Secondary stakeholders: People who are indirectly impacted by a project’s success

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Slides: Google’s digital presentation application

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SMART goals: A method to evaluate goals; states that goals should be "specific," "measurable," "attainable," "relevant," and "time-bound"

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Spreadsheet: A tool used for organizing, transforming, visualizing, and manipulating information; useful for a wide range of tasks, such as creating timelines, building charts, managing budgets, and tracking tasks

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Stakes: The important parts of a business, situation, or project that might be at risk if something goes wrong

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Stakeholders: Anyone involved in the project who has a vested interest in the project’s success

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Stakeholder analysis: A visual representation of all the stakeholders that illustrates which stakeholders are taking on which responsibilities; also called “stakeholder mapping”

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Stakeholder buy-in: The process of involving stakeholders in decision-making to hopefully reach a broader consensus on the organization's future

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Steering committee: The most senior decision-making body on any project; they have the authority to make changes to the budget and approve updates to the timeline or scope

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Success criteria: The standards that measure how successful a project was in reaching its goals

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T

Team members: The people doing the day-to-day work and making the project happen

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Tools: Aids that make it easier for a project manager or team to manage resources and organize work

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Triple constraint: The combination of the three most significant restrictions of any project: scope, time, and cost.

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