ODCIO PMCoE Lexicon of Terms 5/21/2007

Project Management Center of Excellence

Lexicon of Terms

May 21, 2007

Data Sources

Definitions in the table below were compiled from several sources and modified only when necessary to remove organization specific information. Sources used include he following:

·  CDC Unified Process (CDC)[1]

·  Cornell University Project Management Methodology (Cornell)[2]

·  Chief Information Officer Council, Best Practices Committee, A Balanced Approach to Managing Information Risk in an Unfriendly World, July 20, 2006 (BAMIR)

·  Chief Information Officer Council, A Practical Guide to Enterprise Architecture, Version 1.0, February 2001 (PGTEA)

·  GAO Executive Guide, Information Technology Investment Management, GAO-04-394G, March, 2004. (GAO)

·  Gartner Group, A Report for NIH, Security Architecture, July 18, 2003 (NIH SA)[3]

·  HHS Enterprise Project Life Cycle Framework Overview, Draft Version 8, April 13, 2007 (EPLC)

·  HHS OCIO Glossary of Key Enterprise Terms (HHS ET)[4]

·  HHS OCIO Policy for Information Technology (IT) Earned Value Management (EVM), Final Draft, April 26, 2007. (HHS EVM)

·  NIH Capital Planning & Investment Control Policy and Procedures, Version 3, May 8, 2006 (CPIC)[5]

·  NIH Enterprise Architecture (NIH EA)[6]

·  NIH Wireless Glossary (NIH W)[7]

·  OMB Circular No. A-11, 2006 (OMB A-11)

·  The Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)[8]

·  University of Wisconsin DoIt Project Management Advisor (Wisc)[9]

·  Washington State Department of Information Services Project Management Framework (Wash)[10]

Terms and Definitions

Term / Definition / Source
Acceptable Risk / A concern that is acceptable to responsible management due to the cost and magnitude of implementing countermeasures. / BAMIR
Acceptance / The formal process of accepting delivery of a product or deliverable.
/ Wash
Acceptance Criteria / A high-level description of how the project will accomplish its goals and objectives. / Wash
Accountability / The property that allows auditing of information system activities to be traced to persons or processes that may then be held responsible for their actions. / BAMIR
Accountable / Obliged to take responsibility for one's actions, assigned tasks, and work products. / Cornell
Acquisition / The acquiring by contract, with appropriated funds, of supplies or services (including construction) by and for the use of the federal government through purchase or lease, whether the supplies or services are already in existence or must be created, developed, demonstrated, and evaluated. Acquisition begins at the point when agency needs are established and includes the description of requirements to satisfy agency needs, the solicitation and selection of sources, the awarding of contracts, contract financing, contract performance, contract administration, and those technical and management functions that are directly related to the process of fulfilling agency needs by contract. / GAO
Accreditation / The authorization and approval granted to a major application or general support system to process in an operational environment. It is made on the basis of a certification by designated technical personnel that the system meets pre-specified technical requirements for achieving adequate system security. / BAMIR
Action Item / A task or activity assigned for a specific purpose. / Cornell
Action Plan / A plan derived from recommendations that identifies the
specific actions that will be taken to improve a process or a project and outlines a schedule for implementing those actions. / GAO
Activity / Any work performed on a project. May be synonymous with task, but in some cases it may be a specific level in the Work Breakdown Structure (for example, a phase is broken down into a set of activities, activities into a set of tasks). An activity must have duration, and will result in one or more deliverables. An activity will generally have cost and resource requirements. / Cornell
Actual Completion Date / The point in time that work actually ended on a schedule activity. (Note: In some application areas, the schedule activity is considered “finished” when work is “substantially complete.”) / PMBOK
Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP) / Total costs actually incurred and recorded in accomplishing work performed during a given time period for a schedule activity or work breakdown structure component. Actual cost can sometimes be direct labor hours alone, direct costs alone, or all costs including indirect costs. / PMBOK
Actual Finish Date / The point in time that work actually ended on a schedule activity. (Note: In some application areas, the schedule activity is considered “finished” when work is “substantially complete.”) / PMBOK
Actual Start Date / The point in time that work actually started on an activity. / PMBOK
Alignment / The degree of agreement, conformance, and consistency among organizational purpose, vision, and values; structures, systems, and processes; and individual skills and behaviors. / GAO
Annual Operational Assessment (AOA) / The Annual Operational Assessment (AOA) combines elements from the CPIC evaluation and results from monitoring the performance of the Business Product during normal operations against original user requirements and any newly implemented requirements or changes. This document assists in the analysis of alternatives for deciding on new functional enhancements and/or modifications to the business product, or the need to dispose of or replace the business product altogether. / EPLC
Anti Virus Software / Anti-Virus Software Anti-Virus software is a class of program that searches your hard drive and floppy disks for any known or potential viruses. / NIH SA
Application / The use of information resources (information and information technology) to satisfy a specific set of user requirements (OMB A-130, App. III). In particular, an application is usually considered to be the software component of a system. An application runs on, and may or may not be part of, a general support system. The terms “application” and “information system” are sometimes used interchangeably although the latter has a broader definition to include general support systems. / EPLC
Application Encryption / Application Encryption is a method of security by encrypting the application layer of the transmission / NIH SA
Applications Technology / An area of the technology architecture that includes the technical tools (software) that enable the development of software applications that automate business tasks. / NIH EA
Architecture / A framework or structure that portrays relationships among all the elements of the subject force, system, or activity.
A set of design artifacts, or descriptive representations, that are relevant for describing an object such that it can be produced to requirements (quality) as well as maintained over the period of its useful life (change). / PGTEA
Architecture Baseline / Current NIH technologies and/or process elements in use at NIH. / NIH EA
Architecture Repository / An information system used to store and access architectural information, relationships among the information elements, and work products. / PGTEA
Archive / A place or collection containing records, documents, or other materials of historical interest. / CDC
Artifact / An abstract representation of some aspect of an existing or to-be-built system, component, or view. Examples of individual artifacts are a graphical model, structured model, tabular data, and structured or unstructured narrative. Individual artifacts may be aggregated / PGTEA
As Is Architecture / The current state of an enterprises’ architecture (See baseline architecture.) / PGTEA
As Of Date / The point in time that separates actual (historical) data from future (scheduled) data. / PMBOK
Assessment / An appraisal by a trained team of professionals to determine
the state of an organization’s current processes and to identify the high priority process-related issues facing an organization. An assessment may also result in organizational support for process improvement.
Asset / Property, funding, technical knowledge, or other valuable item owned by an organization. Investments typically create assets, / GAO
Assumption / An assumption is something taken for granted or accepted as true without proof.
Something taken as true without proof. In planning, assumptions regarding staffing, complexity, learning curves, and many other factors are made to create plan scenarios. These provide the basis for estimating. Remember, assumptions are not facts. Making alternative assumptions to get a sense of what might happen in your project is a useful management technique. / CDC/Cornell
Attack / Attempt to gain unauthorized access to an Information System’s (IS) services, resources, or information, or the attempt to compromise an IS’s integrity, availability, or confidentiality. / BAMIR
Audit / A process designed to ensure that the Quality Assurance activities defined in Project Planning are being implemented, and to determine whether quality standards are being met. / Cornell
Authority to Operate (ATO) / An Authority to Operate (ATO) is a formal declaration by a designated approving authority that authorizes operation of a Business Product and explicitly accepts the risk to agency operations (including mission, functions, image, or reputation), agency assets, or individuals, based on the implementation of an agreed-upon set of security controls. Though not security-specific, formal documentation of Section 508 Certification or Exception is also required before a Business Product can be released into operation. / EPLC
Availability / Ensuring timely and reliable access to and use of information. / BAMIR
Balanced Scorecard / A management and measurement system that enables organizations to clarify their vision and strategy, and translate them into action. It provides feedback for both the internal business processes and external outcomes in order to continuously improve strategic performance and results.
/ Wash
Baseline / Baselines are the standard against which actual work is measured. Baselines are used in the annual report to Congress required by Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act Title V on variances of 10 percent or more from cost and schedule goals and any deviation from performance (scope) goals. Baseline cost and schedule goals should be realistic projections of total cost, total time to complete the project, and interim cost and schedule goals. Performance (scope) goals should be realistic assessments of what the investment or project is intended to accomplish, expressed in quantitative terms, if possible.
An approved starting point or condition against which future changes are measured. It is the approved time phased plan (for a project, a work breakdown structure component, a work package, or a schedule activity), plus or minus approved project scope, cost, schedule, and technical changes.
A version of the project that is recognized as the agreed upon schedule, budget, and scope for the project. The baseline is used as the comparison point for project control reporting. There are three baselines in a project: schedule baseline; budget baseline, and product (scope) baseline. The combination of these is referred to as the performance measurement baseline. / EPLC/ CDC/Wisc/
Cornell
Baseline Architecture / The set of products that portray the existing enterprise, the current business practices, and technical infrastructure. Commonly referred to as the “As-Is” architecture. / PGTEA
Baseline Budget / The budget as approved by the project sponsor. (Each time the sponsor approves a new budget, the new approved budget becomes the baseline budget for tracking project costs.) / Wisc
Baseline Finish Date / The finish date of a schedule activity in the approved schedule baseline. / CDC
Baseline Review / A customer review conducted to determine with a limited sampling that a contractor is continuing to use the previously accepted performance system and is properly implementing a baseline on the contract or option under review. / CDC
Baseline Start Date / The start date of a schedule activity in the approved schedule baseline / CDC
Baseline Schedule / A fixed project schedule. It is the standard by which project performance is measured. The current schedule is copied into the baseline. / CDC
Benchmark / A standard against which measurements or comparisons can be made. / Cornell
Benchmarking / A structured approach for identifying the best practices from industry and government and comparing and adapting them to an organization’s operations. Such an approach is aimed at identifying more efficient and effective processes for achieving intended results based on outstanding practices of other organizations. / GAO
Benefit / A term used to indicate an advantage, profit, or gain attained by an individual or organization. Tangible benefits include benefits that can be explicitly quantified. Such benefits may include reductions in cost, increases in productivity, decreases in cycle time, or improvements in quality of service. Intangible benefits include benefits that may be easy to identify but that can be difficult to quantify. These benefits may include more efficient decision making, greater data accuracy, improved data security, reduced customer burden, or increased organizational knowledge. / GAO
Benefits / Contributions to an improvement in a situation. Examples could be a reduction in cost of a work process, or improved productivity. / Cornell
Best Community Practice (BCP) / Abest community practice (BCP) is a document in theNIH Requests for Comments (NRFC) document series that is a statement of principle or an agreed upon approach to completing a process, operation, or architectural function. / NIH EA
Best Practices / Certain procedures recognized during the course of the project by the Project Manager, Project Sponsor, or Project Team that, when exercised, improved the production of a deliverable, streamlined a process, improved standardized templates, etc. Documentation of best practices can (and should) be shared with other Project Managers. / Cornell
Biometrics / Biometrics is the science and technology of measuring and statistically analyzing biological data. In information technology, biometrics usually refers to technologies for measuring and analyzing human body characteristics such as fingerprints, eye retinas and irises, voice patterns, facial patterns, and hand measurements, especially for authentication purposes. / NIH SA
Bottom-up Estimating / Approximating the size (duration and cost) and risk of a project (or phase) by breaking it down into its smallest work components; estimating the effort, duration, and cost of each; and aggregating them into a full estimate. Determining duration through a bottom-up approach requires sequencing and resource leveling to be done as part of the scheduling process. / Cornell
Brick / Brick -A commodity building block of the architecture that specifies the technology or technologiesto be used in the architecture. Generally a brick can be purchased as a unit from one or more suppliers.
A brick specifies NIH adopted technical standards and protocols or technologies and products. They define current and future standards. They also define products or standards in the current environment that are to be retired or contained. / NIH EA