Glossary

Project Management glossary

129 key terms and acronyms from across Project Management certifications, in plain English. Definitions are simplified for learning; the official exam outlines are authoritative.

Actual Cost (AC): The real cost of work completed.
Adaptation: An empirical pillar: adjusting the work or process as soon as inspection shows a need.
Agile: An iterative, incremental approach to delivering work that values collaboration, customer feedback and adapting to change.
Alpha (significance level): The threshold (often 0.05) below which a p-value is treated as statistically significant.
Alternative hypothesis: The claim that there is a real difference or effect, accepted only if the data are strong enough.
Analyze: The DMAIC phase that identifies root causes using statistical tools.
ANOVA: Analysis of Variance: a test for whether the means of three or more groups differ.
Backlog: A prioritised list of work in agile.
Baseline: The approved plan against which performance is measured.
Black Belt: A practitioner who leads larger improvement projects full-time, applies advanced statistics, and coaches Green Belts.
Burndown chart: A chart showing remaining work over time within an iteration or release.
Business analysis: Identifying needs and recommending solutions.
Business case: The justification for the project; must remain valid.
Business value: The worth a project delivers to the organisation.
Certified Scrum Trainer (CST): A trainer accredited by Scrum Alliance to teach the official CSM course and certify candidates.
Change control: A process for evaluating and approving changes.
Confidence interval: A range that is likely to contain the true value, expressing the uncertainty in an estimate.
Continuous improvement: The ongoing practice of inspecting and adapting the process to do better.
Control: The DMAIC phase that sustains improvements with control plans and monitoring.
Control plan: A document setting out how the improved process will be monitored and maintained.
Correlation: A measure of how strongly two variables move together.
Critical path: The longest sequence of dependent tasks; sets minimum duration.
Critical to Quality (CTQ): The specific, measurable customer requirements a process or product must meet.
Daily Scrum: A short daily event for the Developers to inspect progress and plan the next day's work.
Defect: Any output that fails to meet a customer requirement (a CTQ).
Define: The first DMAIC phase: framing the problem, scope, customer needs and project charter.
Definition of Done: A shared, agreed checklist of what must be true for work to be considered complete.
Descriptive statistics: Summaries of data such as the mean, median and standard deviation that describe a sample.
Design of Experiments (DOE): A structured way to test several input factors at once to see how they affect the output.
Developers: The team members who do the work of building a usable Increment each Sprint.
DMAIC: The core improvement method: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control.
DPMO: Defects Per Million Opportunities: a standardised measure of defect rate.
Earned Value (EV): The budgeted value of work actually completed.
Empirical process control: Managing work through transparency, inspection and adaptation rather than detailed up-front plans.
Exception report: A report produced when a tolerance is forecast to be breached.
Extreme Programming (XP): An agile framework emphasising technical practices such as pair programming and test-driven development.
Factor: An input variable that is deliberately changed in a design of experiments.
Fishbone diagram: A cause-and-effect (Ishikawa) diagram for brainstorming root causes.
FMEA: Failure Mode and Effects Analysis: a method to anticipate and prioritise risks.
Highlight report: Regular progress report to the project board.
Hybrid: A blend of predictive and agile.
Hypothesis test: A statistical test used to decide whether a difference or effect is real or due to chance.
Impediment: Anything that blocks or slows the team, which the Scrum Master helps to remove.
Improve: The DMAIC phase that develops, pilots and implements solutions to the root causes.
Increment: A usable, "Done" step toward the Product Goal produced during a Sprint.
Incremental: Delivering the product in working pieces.
Inferential statistics: Methods that draw conclusions about a wider population from a sample, central to the Black Belt Analyze phase.
Inspection: An empirical pillar: regularly checking artifacts and progress toward goals.
Issue: A relevant event that has happened and needs handling.
Iterative: Repeating cycles to refine the product.
Kaizen: A philosophy and practice of continuous, incremental improvement.
Kanban: A method that visualises work on a board, limits work in progress and manages flow.
Lean: An approach focused on maximising value and eliminating waste in a process.
Lessons learned: Knowledge gained, captured for future projects.
Lessons log: A record of lessons to learn from and apply.
Manage by exception: Escalate only when tolerances are forecast to be exceeded.
Measure: The DMAIC phase that maps the process and quantifies current performance with data.
Measurement System Analysis (MSA): A check that the way data is measured is accurate and consistent.
Milestone: A significant point or event in a project.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP): The smallest version of a product that delivers value and validates learning.
Multiple regression: Regression that models an output from several input variables at once.
Non-normal data: Data that does not follow a normal distribution, requiring different tests or transformations - a Black Belt concern.
Normal distribution: A symmetric, bell-shaped distribution that many statistical tests assume.
Null hypothesis: The default assumption of no difference or no effect that a test tries to disprove.
P-value: The probability of seeing the data (or more extreme) if the null hypothesis were true; small values suggest a real effect.
Pareto chart: A bar chart ordering causes by frequency to find the vital few.
PDU: Professional Development Unit: the unit of continuing education used to maintain PMI certifications.
PID: Project Initiation Documentation - the project's baseline.
Planned Value (PV): The budgeted value of work planned.
Poka-yoke: Mistake-proofing: designing a process so errors are hard or impossible to make.
Predictive: A plan-up-front, waterfall approach.
Predictive (waterfall): Planning the project in detail up front.
PRINCE2: A structured, process-based project management method.
Principle: A guiding obligation every PRINCE2 project follows.
Process: A set of activities for a part of the project lifecycle.
Process capability (Cp, Cpk): Indices that compare how well a process meets its specification limits.
Process map: A diagram of the steps in a process, used to understand and improve flow.
Procurement: Acquiring goods or services from outside the team.
Product: A deliverable or output of the project.
Product backlog: An ordered list of everything that might be needed in the product, maintained by the product owner.
Product Goal: The longer-term objective for the product; the commitment for the Product Backlog.
Product owner: The person accountable for maximising value by managing and prioritising the product backlog.
Project: A temporary effort to create a unique product or result.
Project board: The group that directs the project.
Project charter: A document that defines a project's problem, scope, goals, team and timeline.
Project lifecycle: The phases a project passes through.
Project manager: The person who manages the project day to day.
Quality: Meeting the agreed requirements of a product.
Regression: A statistical method that models the relationship between variables.
Requirement: A documented need a solution must satisfy.
Retrospective: A recurring meeting where the team reflects on how to improve its process.
Risk: An uncertain event that could affect objectives.
Risk register: A log of identified risks and responses.
Scope: The work required to deliver the product.
Scope creep: Uncontrolled growth of scope.
Scrum: An agile framework using fixed-length sprints, defined roles, events and artifacts to deliver work incrementally.
Scrum Education Unit (SEU): The unit of continuing education used to renew Scrum Alliance certifications such as the CSM.
Scrum master: A servant leader who helps the team follow agile practices, removes impediments and facilitates events.
Scrum Team: The Scrum Master, Product Owner and Developers working together; small, cross-functional and self-managing.
Scrum values: The five values that guide Scrum behaviour: commitment, focus, openness, respect and courage.
Self-managing team: A team that decides internally who does what, when and how, rather than being directed externally.
Servant leadership: A leadership style focused on enabling and supporting the team - removing blockers, coaching and facilitating - rather than commanding.
SIPOC: A high-level process map of Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs and Customers.
Six Sigma: A data-driven methodology for reducing defects and variation in a process to improve quality.
Sprint: A short, time-boxed iteration (often one to four weeks) in which a team delivers a usable increment.
Sprint / iteration: A short, fixed agile delivery cycle.
Sprint Backlog: The set of Product Backlog items selected for the Sprint plus the plan to deliver them.
Sprint Goal: The single objective for a Sprint; the commitment for the Sprint Backlog.
Sprint Planning: The event that starts a Sprint, where the team plans the work and sets the Sprint Goal.
Sprint Retrospective: An event where the Scrum Team reflects on how it works and plans improvements for the next Sprint.
Sprint Review: An event near the end of a Sprint to inspect the Increment with stakeholders and adapt the Product Backlog.
Stage: A management section of the project.
Stakeholder: Anyone with an interest in the product or its outcomes, whose collaboration the team seeks.
Statistical Process Control (SPC): Using control charts to monitor a process and detect unusual variation over time.
Tailoring: Adapting PRINCE2 to the project's context.
Theme / practice: An aspect managed continuously (e.g., risk, quality).
Time-box: A maximum fixed duration set for a Scrum event so it does not run long.
Tolerance: The permitted deviation before escalation is needed.
Transparency: An empirical pillar: the work and process are visible to those who do and receive it.
Type I error: Rejecting a true null hypothesis - a 'false alarm'.
Type II error: Failing to reject a false null hypothesis - a 'missed effect'.
User story: A short, plain-language description of a feature from the user's perspective.
Value-driven delivery: Prioritising and delivering the highest-value work first.
Variation: The natural or special-cause spread in process outputs that Six Sigma works to reduce.
Velocity: A measure of how much work a team completes per iteration, used for planning.
Voice of the Customer (VoC): The expressed needs and expectations of the customer that drive requirements.
WBS: Work Breakdown Structure - decomposition of work.
Work in progress (WIP) limit: A cap on how many items can be in a stage at once, used in Kanban to improve flow.
Work package: The work assigned to a team to produce products.