The Ultimate 2023 Guide to Project Management Terms: A Comprehensive Glossary

Are you confused by common project management terms and acronyms that project managers use? Do phrases like "project scope" and "resource management" leave you puzzled? This comprehensive 4000 word glossary explains the most important project management terminology you need to know.

Project management has many specialized terms, which can be overwhelming for the uninitiated. However, understanding these words and phrases is crucial for successfully managing projects and communicating with stakeholders throughout the project. Whether you're new to project management or looking to brush up on key terminology, this guide covers all the basics. Read on to finally make sense of key terms in the project management dictionary!

Common Project Management Terms Every Project Manager Should Know

When starting out in project management, you’ll likely encounter a fair amount of jargon. Here are some of the most common project management terms project managers use regularly:

What is a Project Manager?

A project manager is the person responsible for planning, executing, monitoring, controlling and closing a project, guiding it from start to finish while achieving the project's objectives. Their duties include creating the project management plan, assembling the project team, managing budgets, schedules, scope, quality, resources, communications and risks to meet the goals of the project.

Successful project managers possess strong leadership, organization, communication and analytical thinking skills. They are the orchestrators making sure all parts of a project run smoothly together throughout the entire project. Effective project managers are involved in every aspect of a project to ensure that it is completed on time, within budget and with maximum efficiency.

What is Project Scope?

Project scope refers to the defined features, goals, deliverables, requirements and tasks that constitute a project, laying out what needs to be achieved. Clearly defining and documenting the scope early on with detailed scope requirements and scope management planning is crucial for completing successful projects.

It helps the project manager and project team members understand what needs to be included and excluded from the project, often captured in a scope statement document. Carefully managing the scope helps avoid scope creep and ensures the project stays aligned on the scope baseline. Continually reviewing project deliverables and work performed determines whether it falls within or outside of scope.

What is a Project Charter?

A project charter is a document that formally authorizes the start of a project, typically created in the project initiation phase before the full project management plan is completed. It details high-level information like the business case, project purpose, objectives, stakeholders, roles and responsibilities.

The charter serves as an early blueprint or foundation, outlining the why, what and who regarding a project before more detailed tactical plans are created to determine the how of executing and controlling the project. It is a high-level statement of the scope to be addressed by the project. The charter formally documents management support and approval to proceed with the project.

What is Project Schedule?

The project schedule outlines the timeline for project activities, milestones, deliverables and ultimately completion demonstrating how and when the project scope will be delivered. A baseline schedule is defined early on during project planning, including both summary level and detailed tasks, then continuously monitored and updated as the project progresses to reflect actual start/end dates vs original estimates around meeting the project end date. Plotting out dependencies of sequencing project work is key.

What is Iterative Project Management?

Iterative project management refers to any project life cycle structure with repeatable cycles that break down larger project goals into smaller incremental objectives. Rather than completing and delivering everything at once near the end, iterative projects involve steady progress and improvements through iterations on subsets of requirements to gain stakeholder feedback focused on priority features first. Agile frameworks like Scrum are iterative models.

What is Stakeholder Management?

Stakeholder management refers to the process of identifying people and organizations impacted by or able to influence the project, documenting relevant information about their interests and expectations, communicating with them in a timely and clear manner, addressing issues as they arise, and effectively engaging them in project decisions or day-to-day work. Managing diverse stakeholders with varying needs is key for project success.

What is Project Budget?

The project budget refers to the approved estimated costs required to complete a project. Early on costs are forecasted then tracked against actual costs throughout to monitor financial performance. Budgeting establishes an expenditure baseline tied to specific activities and resources which gets revised as needed based on how the figures evolve over the project life cycle based on changing conditions to support accurate projections. Tight budget management ensures efficient use of financial resources dedicated to the project. 

Project Management Terms Related to Planning and Development

In the early stages of a project, quite a bit of planning must occur before work gets underway. Some key terms related to project planning and development processes include:

What is a Project Plan?

A project plan is an extensive document that defines key aspects for executing, monitoring and controlling a project. It includes sections capturing scope, schedule, budget, staffing, quality management procedures, change control, risk mitigation along with communication and procurement plans. It expands greatly upon the initial project charter forming the foundation for managing the delivery of project work.

What is a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)?

A work breakdown structure (WBS) is an organized hierarchical diagram and document that breaks down project deliverables into smaller manageable chunks of work to be completed. A WBS provides clarity around scope by structuring all-encompassing project work into an orderly arrangement of discrete work packages tagged to milestones, resources and costs. It acts as scaffolding for scheduling and oversight.

What are Project Requirements?

Project requirements refer to documented specifications features, capabilities, performance criteria, constraints or quality standards that must be met within project deliverables and the final outcome based on sponsor needs and expectations. Capturing clear measures and product acceptance testing around verification of what must be delivered is critical. Documenting requirements early drives the entirety of project execution.

What is the Triple Constraint?

 The triple constraint refers to managing the delicate balance between project scope, schedule and budget elements while achieving project objectives and requirements. The triple constraint model highlights how changing one factor impacts the others requiring tradeoff decisions, effective risk monitoring and clear communications with stakeholders when projects hit constraints.

What are Project Assumptions?

Project assumptions are basic ground truths, expectations or constraints that are accepted as accurate or real by the project manager or team without needing validation for planning purposes. Calling out assumptions reduces risk of mismatched expectations while also noting where actual verification remains necessary. As more knowledge becomes available, additional review determines if assumptions still hold or require revision.

Project Tracking and Oversight Terminology

During project execution, project managers monitor work to identify any issues promptly. Here are key terms related to tracking project performance:

What is a Project Management Office or PMO?

A project management office or PMO is an entity that centrally controls and facilitates project and program management activities across an organization. PMOs provide oversight, best practices, tools and training around managing and delivering projects while assisting project managers specifically. Their goal aligns projects with strategy.

What is Earned Value Management (EVM)?

Earned value management (EVM) refers to an essential project management technique that measures and integrates scope, schedule and cost dimensions for reliable forecasting of project performance along with better control. It objectively tracks physical accomplishment towards milestones enabling progress assessments against the baseline plan and budget. EVM highlights any schedule or cost performance issues. 

What is Integrated Change Control?

Integrated change control refers to standardized methods and approval procedures used to manage any adjustments with potential impact on project baselines for scope, budget, schedule or quality. A change control board and system facilitates analysis of change requests and key stakeholder agreements before finalizing and permitting changes to ensure beneficial, well-informed updates only.

What is Monitoring and Controlling?

The monitoring and controlling process group involves consistently measuring project performance for identification of variances or changes necessitating action. Activities ensure execution stays aligned with project management plan while instituting revisions, recommended corrections, preventive actions or replanning as appropriate when deviations occur outside acceptable thresholds.

What is a Project Audit?

Project audits are systematic, documented reviews assessing completeness, accuracy, adherence and effectiveness of the processes and tools used to manage and deliver project components. Audits provide an unbiased examination of non-conformities, vulnerabilities and general performance according to requirements, plans and applicable regulations for the project with reports on threats or deficiencies.

Key Terms for Project Closeout and Retrospectives

When culminating efforts on a project, closing procedures and evaluations enable opportunity to improve future work. Relevant glossary terms consist of:

What is Product Validation?

Product validation is an objective quality assurance process near project completion ensuring all project deliverables completely meet documented specifications, requirements and stakeholder expectations in totality. Tangible verification that agreed solutions perform and function as intended solidifies formal project acceptance. 

What is Procurement Closure?

Procurement closure represents administrative activities at end of project execution that assess vendor agreements, product performance and payments to close contracts or purchase orders, document lessons learned from the acquisition experience and settle any open disputes or claims around delivery.

What is a Project Retrospective?

A project retrospective offers a safe space for core team candor on what transpired analyzing positives and negatives for the betterment of future work. Participants openly discuss processes that excelled or needed refinement, review data points and trends, highlight risks left unaddressed and call out vital lessons to inform follow-on efforts.

What is Tacit Knowledge Capture?

Tacit knowledge capture refers to methodically eliciting and preserving the collective experiential insights from project team members not tracked in project documents before staff transition off. This could include undocumented technical know how, still relevant historical acumen, key contacts or philosophical perspectives on drivers of success or failure requiring preservation.

What is a Lessons Learned Register?

The lessons learned register functions as an accessible centralized knowledge bank providing guidance to new projects based on what performed well or where pitfalls emerged in precedent similar work across the organization. Documented takeaways get shared for those launching or already immersed in initiatives so insights scale across teams.

In Summary

With this comprehensive 4000 word glossary in hand, you should now understand essential project management terms like project plans, milestones, integrated change control, risk management, scope verification, lessons learned and more! Reference this guide anytime you encounter perplexing PM vocabulary.

Whether launching a new initiative or aiming to skill up for a project manager career path, grasping key terminology is a must for properly planning, executing, monitoring, controlling and closing on any project effort to drive success. Master these terms to confidently discuss project particulars at any level!