GAQM APM key terms

A temporary effort undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result, with a defined start and end, a budget, and success criteria agreed with the sponsor.

The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet requirements, balancing competing demands of scope, time, cost, quality, and risk.

The person assigned by the performing organization to lead the team and achieve project objectives, holding accountability for planning, execution, and reporting even when authority is limited.

The senior individual who funds the project, champions it at executive level, approves major changes and baselines, and resolves issues beyond the project manager's authority.

Any person or group who can affect, be affected by, or perceive themselves to be affected by the project, including customers, users, suppliers, regulators, and internal departments.

The interdependent limits of scope, time, and cost that determine project quality; changing one generally forces adjustment in at least one of the others.

The sequence of phases a project passes through from initiation to closure, with each phase producing deliverables and typically ending in a review or approval gate.

A formal review point at the end of a phase where deliverables and business justification are examined and continuation, revision, or termination is decided.

A document justifying the investment by describing the problem or opportunity, options considered, expected benefits, costs, risks, and the rationale for the chosen approach.

The document that formally authorizes the project, names the project manager, and states high-level objectives, scope boundaries, key stakeholders, budget, and success criteria.

A narrative description of the project's boundaries, deliverables, acceptance criteria, assumptions, and exclusions that clarifies what work is and is not included.

A hierarchical decomposition of the total scope into manageable work packages, usually shown by deliverable, forming the basis for estimating, scheduling, and control.

The lowest level of a work breakdown structure, small enough to be reliably estimated, assigned to one owner, scheduled, and tracked for cost and progress.

The approved combination of the scope statement, work breakdown structure, and WBS dictionary, used to detect and evaluate scope changes during execution.

Uncontrolled expansion of project scope through small, unapproved additions that are not matched by extra time, budget, or resources, eroding schedule and cost performance.

A living document recording identified stakeholders, their roles, interests, influence, expectations, and communication needs, used to plan engagement.

The process of assessing stakeholders by power, interest, impact, and attitude to decide how closely each should be engaged and what information they need.

A table linking each requirement to its source, related deliverables, and verification method, ensuring nothing is dropped and every output is justified.

A discrete, schedulable piece of work derived from a work package, with defined duration, dependencies, and resources needed to produce an output.

A graphical model of activities and their logical dependencies, used to determine sequence, calculate float, and identify the critical path.

The longest sequence of dependent activities through the network, which sets the shortest possible project duration; delay on it delays the whole project.

The amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying its successor or the project finish date; critical activities have zero float.

Shortening the schedule without reducing scope, typically by crashing (adding resources at extra cost) or fast-tracking (overlapping activities at extra risk).

A significant point or event in the project with zero duration, used to mark completion of a key deliverable, phase, or approval and to track high-level progress.

A bar chart displaying activities against a calendar timeline, often with dependencies and progress markers, widely used for communicating the schedule to stakeholders.

The approved version of the schedule, including start and finish dates, used as the reference against which actual progress and delays are measured.

The approved time-phased budget excluding management reserve, against which actual costs are compared to measure cost performance.

Budget or time set aside for identified risks with known likelihoods, held by the project manager and released as those risks occur or are retired.

Budget held outside the cost baseline for unplanned, unknown-unknown work, released only with sponsor or senior management approval when scope changes are authorized.

A log of identified risks with their probability, impact, score, owner, and planned responses, reviewed regularly throughout the project.

A planned action for a threat or opportunity, such as avoid, mitigate, transfer, accept, or escalate for threats, chosen according to cost and effectiveness.

A document specifying who receives which information, in what format, how often, and through which channel, based on stakeholder needs and project complexity.

A responsibility matrix marking, for each activity or deliverable, who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed, clarifying roles and preventing gaps or duplication.

An approved, frozen reference version of scope, schedule, or cost that is changed only through formal change control, enabling meaningful performance comparison.

A formal proposal to modify scope, schedule, cost, quality, or other project elements, which must be assessed, approved or rejected, and recorded before implementation.

A designated group, often including the sponsor and key stakeholders, that reviews change requests and decides approval, deferral, or rejection according to defined criteria.

A technique comparing planned value, earned value, and actual cost to measure schedule and cost performance and forecast the final project outcome.

Earned value minus planned value; a negative result indicates work is behind the planned schedule at the measurement date.

Earned value minus actual cost; a negative result means the project has spent more than the value of work completed.

A forecast of total project cost, typically actual cost plus a revised estimate for remaining work, recalculated as performance data changes.

The total approved budget for the project, used as the denominator when forecasting and as the reference for final cost comparison at closure.

A record of problems currently affecting the project, with owner, priority, and resolution status, distinct from risks because the event has already occurred.

Process-oriented activities that evaluate whether the project is using the right methods and standards, aiming to prevent defects rather than detect them after the fact.

Product-oriented activities that inspect deliverables and measure results against acceptance criteria, identifying defects and triggering corrective action.

The specific, testable conditions a deliverable must satisfy for the customer or sponsor to formally accept it, agreed before work begins.

Confirmation, often by review or testing, that a deliverable meets its documented requirements and acceptance criteria before formal handover.

The component of the project plan describing quality standards, metrics, assurance and control activities, and the roles responsible for meeting them.

The formal process of confirming deliverables are accepted, releasing team and resources, closing contracts, archiving records, and obtaining sign-off from the sponsor.

Documented insights about what worked and what did not, captured during and after the project and stored so future teams can reuse them.

The process of tracking whether the outcomes promised in the business case are actually achieved after deliverables are handed over, often beyond project closure.