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GLOSSARY OF TERMS Acceptance Criteria: A
prioritised list of criteria that the final product(s) must meet before the
Customer will accept them; a measurable definition of what must be done for the
final product to be acceptable to the Customer. They should be defined as part
of the Project Brief and agreed between Customer and Supplier no later than the
Project Initiation Stage. They should be in the Project Initiation Document. Baseline: A
snapshot; a position or situation that is recorded. Although the position may be
updated later, the Baseline remains unchanged and available as a reminder of the
original state and as a comparison against the current position. Business Case: Information
that describes the justification for setting up and continuing a PRINCE project.
It provides the reasons (and answers the question `Why?') for the project. It is
updated at key points throughout the project. Change Authority: A
group to which the Project Board may delegate responsibility for the
consideration of Requests for Change. The Change Authority is given a budget and
can approve changes within that budget. Change Budget: The
money allocated to the Change Authority to be spent on authorised Requests for
Change. Change Control: The
procedure to ensure that the processing of all Project Issues is controlled,
including the submission, analysis and decision making. Checkpoint: A
team-level, time-driven review of progress. Checkpoint Report: A
progress report of the information gathered at a Checkpoint meeting, which is
given by a team to the Project Manager and provides reporting data as defined in
the Project Initiation Document. Communication Plan: Part of the Project Initiation Document describing how the project's stakeholders and interested parties will be kept informed during the project. Concession: An
Off-Specification that is accepted by the Project Board without corrective
action. Configuration Management: A
discipline, normally supported by software tools, that gives management precise
control over its assets (for example, the products of a project), covering
planning, identification, control, status accounting and verification of the
products. Contingency Plan: A
plan that provides an outline of decisions and measures to be taken if defined
circumstances, outside the control of a PRINCE project, should occur. Corporate Body: Used
to describe any company, Government department, corporation or charitable body
that is involved in the project. It can be a customer for the end results,
supplier of specialist skills or deliverables, assurance or auditing body. The
word is used to avoid confusion, particularly between the public and private
sectors. Customer: The
person or group who commissioned the work and will benefit from the end results.
Deliverable: An
item that the project has to create as part of the requirements. It may be part
of the final outcome or an intermediate element on which one or more subsequent
deliverables are dependent. According to the type of project, another name for a
deliverable is `product'. End Project Report: A
report given by the Project Manager to the Project Board, that confirms the
hand-over of all deliverables and provides an updated Business Case and an
assessment of how well the project has done against its Project Initiation
Document. End
Stage Assessment: The review by the
Project Board and Project Manager of the End Stage Report to decide whether to
approve the next Stage Plan (unless the last Stage has now been completed).
According to the size and criticality of the project, the review may be formal
or informal. The approval to proceed should be documented as an important
management product. End Stage Report: A
report given by the Project Manager to the Project Board at the end of each
management Stage of the project. This provides information about the project
performance during the Stage and the project status at Stage end. Exception:
A situation where it can be forecast
that there will be a deviation beyond the tolerance levels agreed between
Project Manager and Project Board (or between Project Board and corporate or
Programme management). Exception Plan: A
plan that follows an Exception Report. For a Stage Plan Exception, it covers the
period from the present to the end of the current stage. If the Exception is at
a project level, the Project Plan would be revised. Exception Report: A
report that describes an exception, provides an analysis and options for the way
forward, and identifies a recommended option. It is given by the Project Manager
to the Project Board. Executive: The
chairperson of the Project Board, representing the Customer. Follow-on Action Recommendations: A
report that can be used as input to the process of creating a Business
Case/Project Mandate for any follow-on PRINCE project, and for recording any
follow-on instructions covering incomplete products or outstanding issues. It
also sets out proposals for Post-Project Review of the project's products. Highlight Report: Report
from the Project Manager to the Project Board on a time-driven frequency on
Stage progress. Issue Log: A
log of all Project Issues and Requests for Change raised during the project,
showing details of each issue, its evaluation, what decisions about it have been
made and its current status. Lessons Learned Report: A
report that describes the lessons learned in undertaking the project and that
includes statistics from the quality control of the project's management
products. It is approved by the Project Board, and then held centrally for the
benefit of future projects. Off-Specification: Something
that should be provided by the project, but currently is not (or is forecast not
to be) provided. This might be a missing product or a product not meeting its
specification. Outcome: The
result of a project. Useful term where the project result is not an easily
definable `product'. Post-Project Review: One
or more reviews held after project closure to determine if the expected benefits
have been obtained. PRINCE: A
method that supports some selected aspects of project management. The acronym
stands for PRojects IN Controlled Environments. PRINCE project: A
project whose product(s) can be defined at its start sufficiently precisely so
as to be measurable against predefined metrics and that is managed according to
the PRINCE method. Process:
That which must be done to bring
about a particular outcome, in terms of information to be gathered, decisions to
be made, and results that must be achieved. Producer: This
role represents the creator(s) of a document that is the subject of a Quality
Review. Typically, it will be filled by the person who has produced the product,
or who has led the team responsible. Product: Any
input to or output from a project. PRINCE distinguishes between management
products (which are produced as part of the management of the project),
specialist products (which are those products that make up the final
deliverable) and quality products (which are produced for or by the quality
process). A product may itself be a collection of other products. Product Breakdown Structure: A
hierarchy of all the products to be produced during a plan. Product Checklist: A
list of the major products of a plan, plus key dates in their delivery. Product Description: A
description of a product's purpose, composition, derivation and quality
criteria. It is produced at planning time, as soon as the need for the product
is identified. Product Flow Diagram: A
diagram showing the sequence of production and interdependencies of the products
listed in a Product Breakdown Structure. Programme: A
portfolio of projects selected, planned and managed in a co-ordinated way. Project: A
temporary organisation that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more
business products according to a specified Business Case. Project Assurance: The
Project Board's responsibilities to assure itself that the project is being
conducted correctly. Project Brief: A
description of what the project is to do; a refined and extended version of the
Project Mandate, which has been agreed by the Project Board and which is input
to Project Initiation. Project Closure Notification: Advice
from the Project Board to inform the host location that the project resources
can be disbanded and support services, such as space, equipment and access,
demobilised. Project Closure Recommendation: Notification
prepared by the Project Manager for the Project Board to send (when the board is
satisfied that the project can be closed) to any organisation that has supplied
facilities to the project. Project
Initiation Document (PID): A logical
document the purpose of which is to bring together the key information needed to
start the project on a sound basis and to convey that information to all
concerned with the project. Project Issue: A
term used to cover either a general issue or a Request for Change general issue
request raised during a project. Project Issues can be about anything to do with
the project. They cover questions, suggestions, Requests for Change and
Off-Specifications. Project Management: The
planning, monitoring and control of all aspects of the project and the
motivation of all those involved in it to achieve the project objectives on time
and to the specified cost, quality and performance. Project Management Team: A
term to represent the entire management structure of Project Board, Project
Manager, plus any Team Managers and project assurance roles. Project Manager: The
person given the authority and responsibility to manage the project on a
day-to-day basis to deliver the required products within the constraints agreed
with the Project Board. Project Mandate: Information
created externally to the project, which forms the terms of reference and is
used to start up the PRINCE project. Project Plan: A
high-level plan showing the major products of the project, when they will be
delivered, and at what cost. An Initial Project Plan is presented as part of the
Project Initiation Document. This is revised as information on actual progress
appears. It is a major control document for the Project Board to measure actual
progress against expectations. Project Quality Plan: A
plan defining the key quality criteria and quality-control and audit processes
to be applied to project management and technical work in the PRINCE project. It
will be part of the text in the Project Initiation Document. Project Records: A
collection of all approved management, specialist and quality products and other
material, which is necessary to provide an auditable record of the project. NB. This does not include
working files. Project Start-up Notification: Advice
to the host location that the project is about to start and requesting any
required project support services. Project Support Office: A
group set up to provide certain administrative services to the Project Manager.
Often the group provides its services to many projects in parallel. Quality: The
totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on
its ability to satisfy stated and implied needs. Quality Management System: The
complete set of quality standards, procedures and responsibilities for a site or
organisation. Quality Review: A
Quality Review is an inspection with a specific structure, defined roles and
procedure designed to ensure a document's completeness and adherence to
standards. The participants are drawn from those with an interest in the
document and those with the necessary skills to review its correctness. An
example of the checks made by a Quality Review is `does the document match the
Quality Criteria in the Product Description?' Request for Change: A
means of proposing a modification to the current specification of a product. It
is one type of Project Issue. Reviewer: A
person asked to review a product that is the subject of a Quality Review. Risk Log: A
document that provides identification, estimation, impact evaluation and
countermeasures for all risks to the project. It should be created during the
start-up of the project and developed during the life of the project. Senior Supplier: The
Project Board role that provides knowledge and experience of the main
discipline(s) involved in the production of the project's deliverable(s). Senior User: A
member of the Project Board, accountable for ensuring that User needs are
specified correctly and that the solution meets those needs. Stage : A
division of the project for management purposes. The Project Board approves the
project to proceed one Stage at a time. Supplier: The group or groups responsible for the supply of the project's products. Team Manager: An
optional role that may be employed by the Project Manager to manage the work of
project team members. Tolerance: The
permissible deviation above and below a plan's estimate of time and cost without
escalating the deviation to the next level of management. Separate tolerance
figures should be given for time and cost. User(s): The
person or group who will use the final deliverable(s) of the project. Work Package: The set of information relevant to the creation of one or more products. It will contain the Product Description(s), details of any constraints on production such as time and cost, interfaces, and confirmation of the agreement between the Project Manager and the person or Team Manager who is to implement the Work Package that the work can be done within the constraints.
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