ICDL Project Planning (ICDL) flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Project

A temporary endeavor with a defined start and end, undertaken to create a unique product, service or result, constrained by scope, time, cost and quality.

Triple constraint

The interdependent relationship among scope, time and cost, usually with quality at the centre: changing any one constraint normally requires adjusting at least one of the others.

Project life cycle

The sequence of phases a project passes through from initiation to closure, such as define, plan, execute and close, each typically ending in a review or gate.

Project charter

A document that formally authorizes the project, names the project manager, and records objectives, high-level scope, budget, milestones, constraints and the sponsoring authority.

Progressive elaboration

The ongoing refinement of project plans, scope and estimates as more accurate information becomes available; detail is developed in waves rather than fixed at the start.

Phase gate

A formal review at the end of a phase where governance decides to continue, revise or terminate the project; money already spent is not a valid reason to continue.

Work breakdown structure

A deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of total project scope; its lowest elements are work packages that can be estimated, scheduled, assigned and controlled.

Work package

The lowest level of the work breakdown structure, scoped small enough to estimate cost and duration reliably, commonly sized at roughly eight to eighty hours of effort.

100 percent rule

The rule that a work breakdown structure must include all project scope and nothing extra: the child elements of every node sum exactly to the parent's scope.

Scope statement

A document describing product and project scope, deliverables, acceptance criteria, exclusions, assumptions and constraints; it becomes the baseline for controlling scope changes.

Stakeholder power-interest grid

A classification of stakeholders by influence and interest; high power and high interest are managed closely, while low power and low interest need only monitoring.

RACI matrix

A responsibility assignment chart giving each activity exactly one Accountable owner and marking others as Responsible for doing work, Consulted two-way, or Informed one-way.

Precedence diagramming method

A scheduling technique that draws activities as nodes connected by arrows representing finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish or start-to-finish logical relationships.

Finish-to-start dependency

A relationship in which the successor activity cannot begin until the predecessor has finished; it is the most common dependency type found in project networks.

Lead and lag

Adjustments applied to dependencies: lag inserts waiting time between predecessor and successor, while lead allows overlap by starting the successor before the predecessor finishes.

Critical path

The longest sequence of dependent activities through the network, which sets the shortest possible project duration; activities on it have zero total float.

Total float

The time an activity can be delayed without delaying the project completion date, calculated as late start minus early start or late finish minus early finish.

Crashing

A schedule compression technique that adds resources, overtime or cost to critical-path activities to shorten duration, usually reducing quality or increasing risk.

Resource leveling

Rescheduling activities to resolve resource over-allocation or conflicts within set limits; it frequently extends the project duration and can change the critical path.

Analogous estimating

A top-down technique that estimates using actual data from a similar past project; it is quick and inexpensive but less accurate than detailed estimating methods.

Parametric estimating

Estimating by multiplying a unit rate by a quantity, such as cost per square metre or hours per unit, producing scalable and statistically based results.

Three-point estimating

An uncertainty-aware method using optimistic, most likely and pessimistic values; the PERT expected value equals O plus four times M plus P, divided by six.

Contingency reserve

Budget set aside for identified risks, the known unknowns; it is included in the approved cost baseline and is controlled by the project manager.

Management reserve

Budget held for unidentified risks, the unknown unknowns; it sits outside the cost baseline and can only be released by senior management or the sponsor.

Risk register

A living log recording each risk's identifier, description, cause, probability, impact, score, owner, response strategy, trigger and current status.

Expected monetary value

The probability of a risk multiplied by its monetary impact; summed across all identified risks it gives a quantified basis for the contingency budget.

Earned value management

A performance measurement method integrating scope, schedule and cost by comparing planned value, earned value and actual cost at a given status date.

Schedule variance

SV equals EV minus PV; a negative result shows the work completed is behind the planned schedule, while a positive result shows it is ahead.

Cost performance index

CPI equals EV divided by AC; a value below one means more money was spent than value earned, while a value above one indicates cost efficiency.

Estimate at completion

The forecast total cost of the project; commonly EAC equals BAC divided by CPI when current cost performance is expected to continue until the end.

Change control board

A formal group that reviews change requests, assesses their impact on scope, schedule, cost and risk, and then approves, rejects or defers them.

Lessons learned

Knowledge captured during and after the project about what worked and what did not, stored for reuse so that later projects avoid repeating mistakes.