GLOSSARY
The CAPM exam is based specifically on the PMBOK Guide. The PMBOK Guide ensures language and terminology consistency, and it helps ensure that exam questions are rooted in the profession’s common, best practices. Take some time to study this glossary to foster an understanding of terms you will see on the CAPM exam.
Acceptance criteria A set of conditions that must be met before deliverables are accepted by the stakeholders. (Chapter 5)
Actual cost Realized cost incurred for work performed during a specific time period. (Chapter 7)
Adaptive approaches Project deliverables are defined iteratively within a project (e.g., agile). (Chapter 5)
Agreements A contract is a mutually binding agreement that obligates the seller to provide the specified products, services, or results. (Chapter 12)
Assignment matrix A grid that shows team resources assigned to work packages. (Chapter 9)
Assumption log The assumption log is a high-level document, and operational assumptions and constraints are normally identified in the business case before the project is initiated and will flow into the project charter. Lower-level activity and task assumptions are generated throughout the project. (Chapter 4)
Backlog In an agile approach, the backlog is the set of requirements to be implemented in the project. (Chapter 5)
Beta distribution Cost estimates based on three points as variables into the formula. (Chapter 7)
cE = (cO + 4cM + cP) / 6
Business requirements High-level needs of the organization. (Chapter 5)
Close Project or Phase The process of finalizing all activities for the project, phase, or contract. (Chapter 5)
Colocation Placing many or all of the most active project team members in the same physical location. (Chapter 9)
Communication skills The soft skills or people skills needed to manage people doing project work. The top 2 percent of project managers exhibit superior relationship and communication skills. (Chapter 3)
Communications management plan The communications management plan is a component of the project management plan that describes how project communications will be planned, structured, monitored, and controlled. (Chapter 10)
Conduct Procurements The process of obtaining seller responses, selecting a seller, and awarding a contract. (Chapter 12)
Conflict management Managing conflicts in a timely and constructive way to achieve a high-performing team using five general techniques: withdraw/avoid, smooth/accommodate, compromise/reconcile, force/direct, collaborate/problem-solve. (Chapter 9)
Control Procurements The process of managing procurement relationships, monitoring contract performance and making changes and corrections as appropriate, and closing out contracts. (Chapter 12)
Control Quality The process of monitoring and recording results of executing the quality management activities to assess performance and ensure the project outputs are complete, correct, and meet customer expectations. (Chapter 8)
Control Schedule The process of monitoring the status of the project to update the project schedule and managing changes to the schedule baseline. (Chapter 6)
Control thresholds Targets to compare against cost performance measurements; typically expressed as percentage deviations from the baseline plan. (Chapters 6 and 7)
Cost aggregation Creating a summary of cost estimates by averaging WBS work packages up to control accounts and the entire project. (Chapter 7)
Cost baseline The approved version of the time-phased project budget excluding any management reserves. (Chapter 7)
Cost estimate A quantitative assessment of the likely costs for resources required to complete a given activity; typically expressed in currency (e.g., USD). (Chapter 7)
Cost management plan A component of the project management plan that describes how project costs will be planned, structured, and controlled. (Chapter 7)
Cost performance index (CPI) Ratio of earned value to actual cost to measure efficiency of budgeted resources. (Chapter 7)
CPI = EV / AC
Cost variance (SV) The delta between the earned value and the actual costs. (Chapter 7)
CV = EV − AC
Define Activities The process of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables. (Chapter 6)
Deliverables Any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that is required to be produced to complete a process, phase, or project. (Chapter 5)
Develop Project Charter The process of developing a document that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities. (Chapter 4)
Develop Project Management Plan The process of defining, preparing, and coordinating all plan components and consolidating them into an integrated project management plan. (Chapter 4)
Develop Schedule The process of analyzing activity sequences, durations, resource requirements, and schedule constraints to create a schedule model for project execution and monitoring and controlling. (Chapter 6)
Direct and Manage Project Work The process of leading and performing the work defined in the project management plan and implementing approved changes to achieve the project’s objectives. (Chapter 4)
Directions of influence Classifies stakeholders based on their influence on the work of the project or the project team in one of four ways: upward, downward, outward, and sideward. (Chapter 12)
Duration Number of work periods required to complete an activity or WBS component (e.g., hours, days, weeks). (Chapter 7)
Earned value (EV) The budget associated with authorized work that has been completed. (Chapter 7)
Earned value analysis (EVA) Compares the performance measurement baseline to the actual schedule and cost performance. (Chapter 7)
Earned value management (EVM) A methodology to assess project performance and progress by looking at scope, schedule, and resource measurements. (Chapter 7)
Effort Number of labor units required to complete an activity or WBS component (e.g., hours, days, weeks). (Chapter 7)
Emotional intelligence (EI) The ability to identify, assess, and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others; useful in reducing tension and increasing cooperation. (Chapter 9)
Estimate Activity Durations The process of estimating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with estimated resources. (Chapter 6)
Event-based risks Risks that are uncertain future events that must be identified and managed. (Chapter 11)
Hierarchical charts Charts that show relationships in a graphical, top-down format, including work breakdown structures, organizational breakdown structures, and resource breakdown structures. (Chapter 9)
Impact/influence grid A 2 × 2 matrix data representation technique used to categorize project stakeholders to assist the team in building positive relationships. Groups stakeholders according to their level of impact on the project versus their influence over the project’s outcomes. (Chapter 12)
Influence The soft skills or people skills needed to have an effect that may change the character, development, or behavior within a project environment. (Chapter 12)
Influencing Addressing important issues and reaching agreements while maintaining mutual trust. (Chapter 9)
Joint application design/development (JAD) JADs are facilitated sessions that focus on hosting business subject matter experts (SMEs) and implementation SMEs to quickly develop requirements. (Chapter 5)
Leadership The ability to lead a team and inspire them to do their jobs well. (Chapter 9)
Level of accuracy The acceptable range identified by stakeholders for cost estimates (e.g., +/−10%). (Chapter 7)
Level of precision The rounding to be applied to cost estimates (e.g., USD 595.95 to USD 596 or USD 600). (Chapter 7)
Manage Communications The process of ensuring timely and appropriate collection, creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, management, monitoring, and ultimate disposition of project information. (Chapter 10)
Manage Project Knowledge The process of using existing knowledge and creating new knowledge to achieve the project’s objectives and contribute to organizational learning. (Chapter 4)
Manage Quality The process of translating the quality management plan into executable quality activities that incorporate the organization’s quality policies into the project. (Chapter 8)
Management reserves An amount added to the cost baseline to produce the project budget; the change control process is used to access the management reserves during a project. (Chapter 7)
Monitor and Control Project Work The process of tracking, reviewing, and reporting the overall progress to meet the performance objectives defined in the project management plan. (Chapter 4)
Monitor Communications The process of ensuring the information needs of the project and its stakeholders are met. (Chapter 10)
Motivation Providing a reason for someone to act. (Chapter 9)
Nonevent risks Variability risk and ambiguity risk. (Chapter 11)
Opportunities Positive risks. (Chapter 11)
Organizational theory Information regarding the way people, teams, and organizational units behave. (Chapter 9)
Overall project risk strategies Five alternative strategies: avoid, exploit, transfer/share, mitigate/enhance, or accept. (Chapter 11)
Perform Integrated Change Control The process of reviewing all change requests; approving changes and managing changes to deliverables, project documents, and the project management plan; and communicating the decisions. (Chapter 4)
Physical resource management Allocating and using physical resources in a project (e.g., material, equipment, supplies). (Chapter 9)
Plan Communications Management The process of developing an appropriate approach and plan for project communications activities based on the information needs of each stakeholder or group, available organizational assets, and the needs of the project. (Chapter 10)
Plan Procurement Management The process of documenting project procurement decisions, specifying the approach, and identifying potential sellers. (Chapter 12)
Plan Quality Management The process of identifying quality requirements and/or standards for the project and its deliverables and documenting how the project will demonstrate compliance with quality requirements and/or standards. (Chapter 8)
Plan Schedule Management The process of establishing the policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, developing, managing, executing, and controlling the project schedule. (Chapter 6)
Planned value (PV) Authorized budget assigned to scheduled work. (Chapter 7)
Power/influence grid A 2 × 2 matrix data representation technique used to categorize project stakeholders to assist the team in building positive relationships. Groups stakeholders according to their level of authority or power in the project versus their influence over the project’s outcome. (Chapter 12)
Power/interest grid A 2 × 2 matrix data representation technique used to categorize project stakeholders to assist the team in building positive relationships. Groups stakeholders according to their level of authority or power versus their interest in the project’s outcome. (Chapter 12)
Predictive approaches Project deliverables are defined at the beginning of the project (e.g., waterfall). (Chapter 5)
Prioritization In large projects or large communities of stakeholders, it may be necessary to prioritize stakeholder needs. (Chapter 12)
Procurement Management Plan The procurement management plan is a component of the project management plan that describes how a project team will acquire goods and services from outside the performing organization. It describes how the procurement processes will be managed from developing procurement documents through contract closure. A procurement management plan can be formal or informal, can be highly detailed or broadly framed, and is based upon the needs of each project. (Chapter 12)
Product scope The features and functions that characterize a product, service, or result created within a project. (Chapter 5)
Project charter The project charter is the document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities. It documents the high-level information on the project and on the product, service, or result the project is intended to satisfy. (Chapter 4)
Project Communications Management In the Project Communications Management knowledge area, project managers focus on making sure that stakeholders are understood in terms of their communications needs. It also involves determining what communication outputs will be exchanged over the course of the project (i.e., status updates, minutes of meetings, reports on deliverables, etc.). (Chapter 10)
Project Integration Management Project Integration Management is a collection of processes required to ensure that the various elements of the projects are properly coordinated. It involves making trade-offs among competing objectives and alternatives to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations. (Chapter 4)
Project management plan The project management plan is a formal approved document that defines the plan for how the project will be executed, monitored, and controlled. (Chapter 4)
Project Procurement Management Project Procurement Management is about establishing, maintaining, and closing relationships with suppliers of goods and services for the project. (Chapter 12)
Project Quality Management Project Quality Management contains the knowledge and processes required to ensure the highest-quality products and deliverables are produced by the project. (Chapter 8)
Project requirements Actions, processes, or other conditions that a project needs to meet. (Chapter 5)
Project resilience Having an empowered project team with budgets and processes in place to cope with emergent risks based on frequent reviews and clear input from stakeholders. (Chapter 11)
Project Schedule Management Project Schedule Management includes the processes required to manage the timely completion of the project. (Chapter 6)
Project scope The work performed to create a product, service, or result within a project. Project scope can include product scope; however, product scope cannot include project scope. (Chapter 5)
Prompt lists A predetermined list of risk categories that might help identify individual project risks and could also act as a source of overall project risk. (Chapter 11)
Qualitative risk analysis An analysis that assesses the relative priority of identified individual project risks using their probability of occurrence. (Chapter 11)
Quality function deployment (QFD) QFD is a facilitation technique using the voice-of-the-customer technique. (Chapter 5)
Quality management plan The quality management plan is a component of the project management plan that describes how the organization’s quality policies will be implemented. It describes how the project management team plans to meet the quality requirements set for the project. (Chapter 8)
Quality reports The quality reports can be graphical, numerical, or qualitative. The information provided can be used by other processes and departments to take corrective actions to achieve the project quality expectations. The information presented in the quality reports may include all quality management issues escalated by the team; recommendations for process, project, and product improvements; corrective actions recommendation (including rework, defect/bugs repair 100 percent inspection, and more); and the summary of findings from the Control Quality process. (Chapter 8)
Quality requirements Requirements that capture a condition or criteria needed to validate the successful completion of a project deliverable or fulfillment of other project requirements. (Chapter 5)
Quantitative risk analysis An analysis that assesses quantitative impact of significant risks previously identified in the qualitative risk analysis. (Chapter 11)
RACI A chart that shows assignments of roles and responsibilities, specifically, Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. (Chapter 9)
Requirement A requirement is a condition or capability that is required to be present in a product, service, or result to satisfy an agreement or other formally imposed specification. (Chapter 5)
Requirements traceability matrix A grid that links product requirements from their origin to the deliverables that satisfy them. (Chapter 5)
Reserve analysis Analyzes the status of contingency and management reserves. (Chapter 7)
Resource breakdown structure A hierarchical representation of resources by category and type; used to acquire and monitor resources. (Chapter 9)
Resource calendar A calendar that identifies the availability of resources for working days, shifts, start and end of normal business hours, weekends, and public holidays. (Chapter 9)
Resource management plan A project document that defines the approach to identify different resources needed for the project. (Chapter 9)
Resource planning Ensuring that enough resources are available for successful project completion. (Chapter 9)
Resource requirements Requirements that identify the types and quantities of resources required for each work package or activity. (Chapter 9)
Responsiblity assignment matrix (RAM) A grid that shows team resources assigned to work packages; a RACI chart is an example of a RAM. (Chapter 9)
Risk An uncertain event or condition that, if realized, can have a positive or negative effect on a project. (Chapter 11)
Risk acceptance Project team acknowledges the risk and takes action only if it occurs. (Chapter 11)
Risk appetite The degree of uncertainty an organization or individual is willing to accept in anticipation of a reward. (Chapter 11)
Risk audit An official inspection used to assess the effectiveness of the risk management process. (Chapter 11)
Risk avoidance Project team takes steps to eliminate the risk. (Chapter 11)
Risk breakdown structure A hierarchical representation of potential sources of project risk, including technical risk, management risk, commercial risk, and external risk. (Chapter 11)
Risk data quality assessment A technique to evaluate the degree to which the data about risks is useful for risk management. (Chapter 11)
Risk enhancement Project team acknowledges the risk and takes action to increase the probability of occurrence or impact of an opportunity. (Chapter 11)
Risk escalation Project team acknowledges that a risk is outside its sphere of influence and shifts ownership to a higher level in the organization. (Chapter 11)
Risk exploiting Project team acknowledges the risk and takes action to ensure that an opportunity occurs. (Chapter 11)
Risk exposure A quantified loss potential of a risk calculated by multiplying the probability of an incident occurring by its potential financial losses. (Chapter 11)
Risk management plan A component of the project management plan that describes how risk management activities will be structured and performed. (Chapter 11)
Risk mitigation Project team acts to decrease the probability of occurrence or impact of a threat. (Chapter 11)
Risk opportunity strategies Five alternative strategies: escalate, exploit, share, enhance, or accept. (Chapter 11)
Risk owner Person responsible for monitoring the risks and choosing and implementing an appropriate risk response strategy. (Chapter 11)
Risk register A component that captures details of individual project risks, including a list of identified risks, potential risk owners, and potential risk responses. (Chapter 11)
Risk report A report that describes the overall project risk and the current overall project risk status. (Chapter 11)
Risk review A meeting that examines and documents the effectiveness of risk responses. (Chapter 11)
Risk sharing Project team allocates ownership of an opportunity to a third party who is best able to capture the benefit of the opportunity. (Chapter 11)
Risk threat strategies Five alternative strategies: escalate, avoid, transfer, mitigate, or accept. (Chapter 11)
Risk threshold Level of risk exposure above which risks are addressed and below which risks may be accepted. (Chapter 11)
Risk transference Project team shifts the impact of a threat to a third party together with ownership of the response. (Chapter 11)
Rules of performance measurement The decision on how to measure performance in a project (e.g., EVM, WBS control accounts, bottom-up EAC). (Chapter 7)
Salience model Analyzes stakeholders based on their power (level of authority), urgency, and legitimacy (or proximity). Used for large, complex stakeholder communities to determine relative importance of stakeholders. (Chapter 13)
Schedule baseline A schedule baseline is the approved version of a schedule model that can be changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results. It is accepted and approved by the appropriate stakeholders with baseline start dates and finish dates. During Monitoring and Controlling, the approved baseline dates are compared to the actual start and finish dates to determine whether variances have occurred. The schedule baseline is a component of the project management plan. (Chapter 6)
Schedule management plan A component of the project management plan that establishes the criteria and the activities for developing, monitoring, and controlling the schedule. The schedule management plan may be formal or informal, highly detailed or broadly framed, based upon the needs of the project, and includes appropriate control thresholds. (Chapter 6)
Scope baseline The approved version of a scope statement, WBS, and its associated WBS dictionary. (Chapter 5)
Self-organizing teams Teams that carry out their work without having a centralized point of control; an agile concept. (Chapter 9)
Sequence Activities The process of identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities. (Chapter 6)
Solution requirements Requirements that describe the features, functionality, and characteristics of the product, service, or result. (Chapter 5)
Stakeholder An individual, group, or organization that may affect or be affected by project work, including decisions, activities, and outcome or deliverables. This applies to a project, program, and portfolio. (Chapter 12)
Stakeholder analysis A systematic technique used to understand the “stake” a stakeholder has in a project, program, and portfolio. Can include noting their interest, rights, ownership, knowledge, and contribution. (Chapter 12)
Stakeholder cube A three-dimensional representation of the information contained in the three stakeholder analysis grids (power/interest, power/influence, impact/influence). (Chapter 12)
Stakeholder diversity Identifying how many stakeholders are involved and their cultural backgrounds. This is a consideration for tailoring the approach to stakeholder management. (Chapter 12)
Stakeholder engagement The measurable involvement of a stakeholder in a project, program, or portfolio. (Chapter 12)
Stakeholder engagement assessment matrix A point-in-time matrix that compares the current engagement level of a stakeholder group to the desired engagement level of that stakeholder group. Stakeholder engagement levels are listed as one of five levels: unaware, resistant, neutral, supportive, or leading. (Chapter 12)
Stakeholder engagement plan A plan that identifies strategies and actions to engage stakeholders on a given project, program, or portfolio. Part of the project management plan. (Chapter 12)
Stakeholder register A project document that catalogs all stakeholders and information about the stakeholders so that project team members can understand what information the stakeholder groups can provide. May also capture expectations of the stakeholders. (Chapter 12)
Stakeholder requirements Requirements that describe the needs of a stakeholder group. (Chapter 5)
Stakeholder satisfaction One of the aspects used to measure project success. (Chapter 12)
SWOT analysis A technique that examines a project from each of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats perspectives. (Chapter 11)
Team building Activities that enhance the team’s social relations in order to build a collaborative, cooperative working environment. (Chapter 9)
Team charter A document that reflects agreed-upon operating guidelines for the team. (Chapter 9)
Threats Negative risks. (Chapter 11)
To-complete performance index Ratio that measures the cost performance required to be achieved with the remaining resources in order to meet a specified management goal. (Chapter 7)
TCPI = (BAC − EV) / (BAC − AC) or TCPI = (BAC − EV) / (EAC − AC)
Transition requirements One-time-use-only functionality needed to help move from the current situation to future situations—for example, migrating data from one database to another database. (Chapter 5)
Trend analysis A data analysis technique that examines project performance over time to determine if performance is improving or deteriorating. (Chapter 5)
Triangular distribution Cost estimates based on three points as variables into the formula. (Chapter 7)
cE = (cO + cM + cP) / 3
Tuckman ladder Five stages of development a team may go through: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. (Chapter 9)
Units of measure The dimension used to measure resources (e.g., staff hours, staff days, staff weeks) or quantities used, such as meters, liters, tons, kilometers, or cubic yards. (Chapter 7)
User stories User stories are short, text-based descriptions of functionality required by a stakeholder group. (Chapter 5)
Variance analysis A data analysis technique used to compare a baseline to the actual results and determine if the variance (difference) is within the threshold amount or if corrective or preventive action is appropriate. (Chapter 5)
WBS dictionary A document that provides detailed deliverable, activity, and scheduling information about each component in the WBS. (Chapter 5)
Work breakdown structure (WBS) The planned work to take place in a project hierarchically decomposed into work packages of 80 hours or less. (Chapter 5)
Work package The lowest level of the WBS; it is assigned a unique identifier. (Chapter 5)