Appendix B

Glossary of the Main MSP Terms

This appendix contains the terms that are relevant to MSP. I draw the detail from the AXELOS Project and Programme Management (PPM) Common Glossary at www.axelos.com/glossaries-and-acronyms/common-glossary/. Axelos is the name of the new joint-venture set up by the UK government to hold the intellectual property rights for MSP and a number of other change-delivery practices.

The Common Glossary is much more than a simple glossary for MSP or any other change-delivery practice such as PRINCE2. The Common Glossary Reference Group tries to apply consistency to the definitions used across different manuals. But they try not to be too inflexible; if there's a good reason for a manual to use a slightly different definition because of the context in which the term is used, then that's fine.

I've been heavily involved in the Common Glossary since its inception. I drafted the first version and have been on the Common Glossary Reference Group, which continues to approve new entries. Hardly surprising therefore that I think the Common Glossary is pretty useful.

I'm not a fan of adding a lot of additional information to glossary entries. I think that makes the glossary difficult to maintain and more complex than it needs to be. In my view a glossary should just give definitions. So, in the main, I give you the exact definition from the Common Glossary here, with a couple of exceptions. Firstly, my editors have made a couple of very minor tweaks just to make the sentences flow a bit more easily. Secondly, I've added a further explanation for particularly obscure terms. I put these explanations in italics. I've also added a few definitions of my own, which are also in italics to differentiate them from terms in the Common Glossary.

Glossaries within Your Programme

Publishing a glossary within your programme is a good idea. Here's a little guidance:

• By all means change definitions if doing so is necessary in your culture:
  • Be careful not to turn creating definitions into a cottage industry.
  • Remember that you need to maintain any new definitions.
• If you find that one word is used with two meanings within your programme, include both meanings and state the circumstances in which each definition is relevant.
• If you find two words with one meaning in use in your organization, again be inclusive and include both terms. Don't force one group who use one term to drop a favourite word. This sort of glossary is sometimes also known as a lexicon.
• If you find that two communities have apparently different definitions and disagreement exists over which is right, try to find some common ground. Let me give you an example of how to do this. If one community talks about a Senior Responsible Owner and another one talks about the Programme Director, define a term called, say, Programme Sponsor, which could mean Programme Director or Senior Responsible Owner. You can then also include both definitions and state the circumstances when they're relevant.

In other words, use your glossary to build a consensus and to celebrate diversity rather than impose conformity.

MSP Glossary

• Accountable: Describes the individual who's personally answerable for an activity. Accountability can't be delegated, unlike responsibility.
• Aggregated risk: The overall level of risk to the programme when all the risks are viewed as a totality rather than individually: can include the outputs of particular scenarios or risk combinations.
• As-is state:: The current operating structure and performance of the parts of the business that will be impacted by a programme.
• Assumption: A statement that's taken as being true for the purposes of planning, but which can change later. An assumption is made where some facts aren't yet known. The risk exists that assumptions aren't correct.
• Baseline: A reference level against which an entity is monitored and controlled.
• Benefit(s): The measurable improvement resulting from an outcome perceived as an advantage by one or more stakeholders, and which contributes towards one or more organizational objective(s).
• Benefits management: The identification, definition, tracking, realization and optimization of benefits within and beyond a programme.
• Benefit Profile: Used to define each benefit (and dis-benefit) and provide a detailed understanding of what will be involved and how the benefit will be realized.
• Benefits Realization Plan: Used to track realization of benefits across the programme and set review controls.
• Benefits Register: Summary document that contains key information from the Benefit Profiles.
• Best practice: A defined and proven method of managing events effectively.
• Blueprint: A description of the future (the ‘to be’ state) in some detail, used to maintain focus on delivering the required transformation and business change.
• Border: The time-bound limitations of a tranche, that is, when end-of-tranche reviews are held and the programme receives endorsement to move into the next tranche.
• Boundary: The scope of what a programme covers; the extent of its influence and authority.
• Business as usual: The way the business normally achieves its objectives.
• Business Case: Used to validate the initiation of the programme and the on-going viability of the programme.
• Business Case management: The manner in which a programme's rationale, objectives, benefits and risks are balanced against the financial investment, and how this balance is maintained, adjusted and assessed during the programme.
• Business change authority: An individual who represents a group of Business Change Managers, similar to a senior Business Change Manager or business change sponsor.
• Business Change Manager: The role responsible for benefits management, from identification through to realization, and for ensuring that the implementation and embedding of the new capabilities are delivered by the projects. Typically allocated to more than one individual and also known as a change agent.
• Business Change Team:: A group of specialists appointed to support a Business Change Manager in the business change management aspects of benefits realization.
• Capability: The completed set of project outputs required to deliver an outcome; this exists prior to transition. It's a service, function or operation that enables the organization to exploit opportunities.
• Change manager: Reports to the Business Change Manager and may operate at a project level to support benefits realization, namely focus on the realization of a particular benefit.
• Configuration: A generic term, used to describe a group of products or items that work together to deliver a product or service, or a recognisable part of a product or service. A configuration may be configuration item of a larger configuration.
• Configuration item: An asset subject to configuration management. The asset may be a component of a product, a product or a set of products in a release.
• Configuration management: Technical and administrative activities concerned with the creation, maintenance and controlled change of configuration throughout the life of a product.
• Consult: Give groups or individuals the opportunity to contribute to and make recommendations on an action or document.
• Corporate governance: The on-going activity of maintaining a sound system of internal control by which the directors and officers of an organization ensure that effective management systems, including financial monitoring and control systems, have been put in place to protect assets, earning capacity and the reputation of the organization.
• Corporate portfolio: The totality of the change initiatives within an organization; it may comprise a number of programmes, standalone projectsand other initiatives that achieve congruence of change. In other words, all the changes that you're making fit together.
• Corporate portfolio board: One name for the body within the organization that has authority to make decisions about the composition and prioritisation of the organization's portfolio of programmes and projects. This may be the corporate board, and in MoP (Management of Portfolios) it's also referred to as the portfolio direction group or investment committee. MoP is another manual produced by Axelos and published by TSO.
• Cross-organizational programme: A programme requiring the committed involvement of more than one organization to achieve the desired outcomes; also referred to as a cross-cutting programme.
• Dependency: An activity, output or decision required to achieve some aspect of the programme. It can be internal or external to the programme.
• Design Authority: Provides expert advice or has responsibility for some aspect of the programme that needs to be controlled; for example, a target operating model. It aims to ensure appropriate alignment and control when changes are being planned and implemented.
• Dis-benefit: A measurable decline resulting from an outcome perceived as negative by one or more stakeholders, which reduces one or more organizational objective(s).
• Emergent programme: A programme that subsumes one or more pre-existing projects into a coherent alignment with corporate policy and strategy.
• End goal: The ultimate objective of a programme – the same as the to-be state (also called the future state).
• Feedback log: A document used to capture, track and ensure that all stakeholder feedback is dealt with.
• Gated review: A structured review of a project, programme or portfolio as part of formal governance arrangements carried out at key decision points in the life-cycle to ensure that the decision to invest as per the agreed Business Case remains valid.
• Governance: The functions, responsibilities, processes and procedures that define how a programme is set up, managed and controlled.
• Inform: In the context of a RACI table, a group or individual that has to be advised of a change or a decision. In MSP, this term is typically used in the context of something that affects activities or document creation. A RACI table is a table showing which role is responsible, accountable, consulted or informed for or about an activity. I haven't included RACI tables for each process in this book, but I have summarised them when I give the responsibilities around the process.
• Issue: A relevant event that happened, wasn't planned and requires management action. It can be a problem, query, concern, change request or risk that occurred.
• Key performance indicator (KPI): A metric (financial or non-financial) used to set and measure progress towards an organizational objective.
• Leadership: The ability to direct, influence and motivate others towards a better outcome.
• Programme Mandate: Used to describe the required outcomes from the programme, based on strategy or policy objectives.
• Margin: The flexibility that a programme has for achieving its Blueprint, benefits and Business Case.
• Opportunity: An uncertain event that can have a favourable impact on objectives or benefits.
• Outcome: The result of change, normally affecting real-world behaviour or circumstances. Outcomes are desired when a change is conceived. Outcomes are achieved as a result of the activities undertaken to effect the change; they're the manifestation of part of or all the new state conceived in the Blueprint.
• Output: The tangible or intangible artefact produced, constructed or created as a result of a planned activity.
• P3M3: The Portfolio, Programme and Project Management Maturity Model that provides a framework with which organizations can assess their current performance and put in place improvement plans.
• Plan: A detailed proposal for doing or achieving something, detailing the what, when, how and by whom.
• Policy: A course of action (or principle) adopted by an organization; a business statement of intent, setting the tone for an organization's culture.
• Portfolio: The totality of an organization's investment (or segment of it) in the changes required to achieve its strategic objectives.
• Product: An input or output, whether tangible or intangible, that can be described in advance, created and tested; also known as an output or deliverable.
• Programme: A temporary flexible organization structure created to co-ordinate, direct and oversee the implementation of a set of related projects and activities in order to deliver outcomes and benefits related to an organization's strategic objectives; a programme is likely to have a life that spans several years.
• Programme assurance: Independent assessment and confirmation that the programme as a whole or any of its aspects are on track, that it's applying relevant practices and procedures, and that the projects, activities and business rationale remain aligned to the programme's objectives. See also gated review.
• Programme Brief: Used to assess whether the programme is viable and achievable.
• Programme Board: A group established to support a Senior Responsible Owner in delivering a programme.
• Programme management: The co-ordinated organization, direction and implementation of a dossier of projects and transformation activities (that is, the programme) to achieve outcomes and realize benefits of strategic importance.
• Programme Manager: The role responsible for the set-up, management and delivery of a programme; typically allocated to a single individual.
• Programme Office: The function providing the information hub and standards custodian for a programme and its delivery objectives; it can provide support for more than one programme.
• Programme organization: How a programme will be managed throughout its life-cycle, the roles and responsibilities of individuals involved in the programme, and personnel management or human resources arrangements (also known as programme organization structure).
• Project: A temporary organization created for the purpose of delivering one or more business outputs according to a specified Business Case.
• Project register: Document that records the list of projects; an alternative term for projects dossier.
• Proximity (of risk): The time factor and how close an event is; that is, risks occur at particular times and the severity of their impact varies depending on when they occur.
• Quality: The degree to which the features and inherent or assigned characteristics of a product, person, process, service and/or system bear on its ability to show that it meets expectations or stated needs, requirements or specification.
• Quality assurance: The planned systematic process used to provide confidence that outputs will match their defined quality criteria.
• Quality control: The process of monitoring specific results to determine whether they comply with the relevant standards and identifying ways to eliminate causes of unsatisfactory performance.
• Quality management system: The complete set of quality standards, procedures and responsibilities for a site or organization.
• Register: A formal repository that's managed and requires agreement on its format, composition and use.
• Responsible: Describes the individual who has the authority and is expected to deliver a task or activity; responsibility can be delegated.
• Risk: An uncertain event or set of events that, if it occurs, has an effect on the achievement of objectives. A risk is measured by a combination of the probability of a perceived threat or opportunity occurring and the magnitude of its impact on objectives.
• Risk appetite: The amount of risk the organization, or a subset of it, is willing to accept.
• Risk assessment: The identification and evaluation of risks.
• Risk estimation: The estimation of probability and impact of an individual risk, taking into account predetermined standards, target risk levels, interdependencies and other relevant factors.
• Risk evaluation: The process of understanding the net effect of identified threats and opportunities on an activity when aggregated together.
• Risk identification: Determination of what can pose a risk; a process to describe and list sources of risk (threats and opportunities).
• Risk management: The systematic application of principles, approaches and processes to the tasks of identifying and assessing risks, and then planning and implementing risk responses.
• Senior Responsible Owner (SRO): The single individual with overall responsibility for ensuring that a project or programme meets its objectives and delivers the projected benefits.
• Sponsor: The main driving force behind a programme or project. Some organizations use the term instead of Senior Responsible Owner.
• Sponsoring Group: The driving force behind a programme, which provides the investment decision and top-level endorsement for the rationale and objectives of the programme.
• Stakeholder: Any individual, group or organization that can affect, be affected by, or perceives itself to be affected by, a programme.
• Stakeholder Map: A diagrammatic representation of the stakeholders relevant to an organizational activity and their respective interests.
• Stakeholder Register: A document that contains a summary of the information in the stakeholder profiles.
• Strategy: An approach or line to take, designed to achieve a long-term aim. Strategies can exist at different levels in an organization – in MSP corporate strategies achieve objectives that give rise to programmes. Programmes then develop strategies aligned with these corporate objectives against particular delivery areas.
• Threat: An uncertain event that can have a negative impact on objectives or benefits.
• To-be state: The future planned state of an organization as described by the Blueprint.
• Tranche: A programme management term describing a group of projects structured around distinct step changes in capability and benefit delivery.
• Transformation: A distinct change to the way an organization conducts all or part of its business.
• Transition: The changes that need to take place in business as usual, which are hopefully managed, as project outputs are exploited in order to achieve programme outcomes.
• Transition plan: The schedule of activities to cover the transition phase of the Benefits Realization Plan.
• Vision: A picture of a better future that will be delivered by the programme.
• Workstream: The logical grouping of projects and activities that together enable effective management. Workstreams may delineate projects against a variety of criteria.