GLOSSARY OF OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS IN

GLOSSARY OF OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS IN

EXXCEL CONTRACT MANAGEMENT, INC.

This glossary defines the key concepts that

make up the systematic taxonomy of

Requisite Organization (RO),

Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK),

and EXXCEL CONTRACT MANAGEMENT, INC. (E)

GLOSSARY OF KEY TERMS IN REQUISITE ORGANIZATION

A

Accountability:

A situation where an individual can be called to account for his/her actions by another individual or body authorized both to do so and to give recognition to the individual for those actions.

Every manager is accountable for determining what outputs his/her subordinate produces, and therefore, must have the authority not to have any immediate subordinate whom he/she judges is not able to get the necessary work done. (RO)

Accountability Matrix:

See Responsibility Assignment Matrix.

Action:

An assignment to produce a specified output. The specifications include Quantity (Q) and Quality (Q). An action is a “What”.

Activity:

An element of process performed during the course of a project. An activity normally has an expected duration, an expected cost, and expected resource requirements. Activities are often subdivided into tasks.

Activity Definition:

Identifying the specific activities that must be performed in order to produce the various project deliverables.

Activity Description (AD):

A short phrase or label used in a project network diagram. The activity description normally describes the scope of work of the activity.

Activity Duration Estimating:

Estimating the number of work periods which will be needed to complete individual activities.

Activity-On-Arrow:

See arrow diagramming method.

Activity-On-Node:

See precedence diagramming method.

Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP):

Total costs incurred (direct and indirect) in accomplishing work during a given time period. See also earned value.

Actual Finish Date (AF):

The point in time that work actually ended on an activity. (Note: in some application areas, the activity is considered finished when work is “substantially complete”.)

Actual Start Date (AS):

The point in time that work actually started on an activity.

Administrative Closure:

Generating, gathering, and disseminating information to formalize project completion.

Advisory:

See role relationships.

Aided Direct Output (ADO):

See output.

Alignment of Functions:

The process of getting the right functions at the right level.

Application Area:

A category of projects that have common elements not present in all projects. Application areas are usually defined in terms of either the product of the project (i.e., by similar technologies or industry sectors) or the type of customer (e.g., internal vs. external, government vs. commercial). Application areas often overlap.

“Archimedes’ Principle” of Organization:

Any MAH will move to a level which coincides with the level of applied capability of the chief executive.

Arrow:

The graphic presentation of an activity. See also arrow diagramming method.

Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM):

A network diagramming technique in which activities are represented by arrows. The tail of the arrow represents the start and the head represents the finish of the activity (the length of the arrow does not represent the expected duration of the activity). Activities are connected at points called nodes (usually drawn as small circles) to illustrate the sequence in which the activities are expected to be performed. See also precedence diagramming method.

As-of-Date:

See data date.

Association:

A body made up of individual members come together for a common purpose: there are non-voluntary associations, such as nations whose citizens do not have free choice of membership; and there are voluntary associations, such as companies, trade unions, and clubs, in which the individuals have chosen to become members.

Association Members Who Are Not Employees:

There is widespread unclarity about organizations in which the key work is done by association members rather than by employees, but in which those members come to be regarded as employees which damages morale and effectiveness. The main examples are: church clergy, tenured academic staff of universities, medical staff of hospitals, and true partners.

As members of their associations, and not employees, such individuals can be subject to monitoring to ensure they operate within prescribed limits, but they are individually accountable for their personal effectiveness within those limits and cannot be placed in manager-subordinate relationships (cannot have managers).

Hence personal effectiveness appraisal procedures, etc., do not apply, and should not be used.

Assumed Organization:

See organization.

Attached Subordinates:

See project teams.

Audit:

See role relationships.

Authorities.

Authorities are those aspects of a role that enable the person in the role to act legitimately in order to carry out the accountabilities with which he or she has been charged.

Authority:

Legitimated power - that is to say, power vested in a person by virtue of role to expend resources - material, technical and human. Authority of Manager – veto any new appointments, decides types of work; decides effectiveness, approval, and any input valued; decide removal from job.

B

Backward Pass:

The calculation of late finish dates and late start dates for the uncompleted portion of all network activities. Determined by working backwards through the network logic from the project’s end date. The end date may be calculated in a forward pass or set by the customer or sponsor. See also network analysis.

Bar Chart:

A graphic display of schedule-related information. In the typical bar chart, activities or other project elements are listed down the left side of the chart, dates are shown across the top, and activity durations are shown as date-placed horizontal bars. Also called a Gantt chart.

Baseline:

The original plan (for a project, a work package, or an activity), plus or minus approved changes. Usually used with a modifier (e.g., cost baseline, schedule baseline, performance measurement baseline).

Baseline Finish Date:

See scheduled finish date.

Baseline Start Date:

See scheduled start date.

Bi-Conditional (HC):

A relationship in logic in which q can occur if-and-only-if p occurs.

Budget At Completion (BAC):

The estimated total cost of the project when done.

Budget Estimate:

See estimate.

Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP):

The sum of the approved cost estimates (including any overhead allocation) for activities (or portions of activities) completed during a given period (usually project-to-date). See also earned value.

Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS):

The sum of the approved cost estimates (including any overhead allocation) for activities (or portions of activities) scheduled to be performed during a given period (usually project-to-date). See also earned value.

Business Unit:

A profit-and-loss account within a corporation. Business units are optimally at Str-V, but may be at Str-VII, St-VI, Str-IV or Str-III.

Business Unit Functions Model:

The functions to be found separated out at Str-IV in a full scale Str-V business unit; namely, product development, procurement, production, delivery, marketing and selling; resources enhancement; programming, human resourcing, and production technology specialist staff functions; and financial, physical and human resources sustainment functions.

C

Calendar Unit:

The smallest unit of time used in scheduling the project. Calendar units are generally in hours, days, or weeks, but can also be in shifts or even in minutes. Used primarily in relation to project management software.

Capability: The ability of a person to do work.

Current Actual Capability (CAC): The capability to do a particular kind of work at a given level. The level of a person’s capability to do some particular kind of work with regard not only upon the person’s current cognitive power but also upon how much he or she values that kind of work, and whether or not he or she has had the training and experience necessary to do the work less the absence of a serious personality defect(s) and wisdom about people and things.

Current Applied Capability (CAC)(HC):

The capability someone has to do a certain kind of work in a specific role at a given level at the present time. It is a function of his/her complexity of mental processing (CMP), how much s/he values the work of the role (V), his/her skilled use of knowledge for the tasks in the role (K/S), and the absence of pathological temperamental characteristics (minus T). We can think of this as CAC = f CMP ( V ( K/S ( (-T).

Current Potential Capability (CPC): A person’s highest current level of mental complexity. It determines the maximum level at which someone could work at the present time, given the opportunity to do so and provided that the work is of value to him/her, and given the opportunity to acquire the necessary skilled knowledge. This is the level of work that people aspire to have and feel satisfied if they can get it. When people have work at their CPC they feel they have an opportunity for the full expression of their potential. (RO)

Future Potential Capability (FPC): The maximum level at which a person will be capable of working at some time in the future, say at 5, 10, or 15 years from now.

Knowledge (K): Consists of facts, including procedures, that have been articulated and can be reproduced.

Level: The term Level followed by an Arabic numeral is used to refer to the level of capability of an individual in terms of the stratum at which an individual is judged to have the Potential Capability (PC) or Applied Capability (AC) to work.

Mental Mode: The highest level of mental processing to which an individual will finally mature.

Mental Processing: The use of particular mental process for handling information in order to do work. The four methods of processing information are: Declarative, Cumulative, Serial, and Parallel.

Order of Information Complexity: The four types of mental processing have been found to recur at higher and higher order of complexity of the information that is being processed, giving a recursive hierarchy of levels of mental complexity.

Potential Capability (PC): A person’s highest current level of mental complexity. It is the maximum level at which someone could work at the present time, given the opportunity to acquire the necessary skilled knowledge. This level of work is the level that people aspire to have and feel satisfied if they can get it. When people have work at their current PC, they feel they have an opportunity for the full expression of their capability.

Level of Work in A Role (LOW): The size of a position, how big a role one position is compared with another, how heavy the responsibility.

Skill (S): An ability, learned through experience and practice, to use given knowledge without having to pay attention, i.e. what a person has learned to do without thinking through the steps involved.

Values and Commitment (V/C): Those things to which an individual will give priority or wants to do. Values are vectors which direct our actions. How much we value a role determines our commitment to work in it.

Centralization:

The coalescence of organization-wise services into one centrally organized function, as against dispersing them into small locally organized units (decentralization). Used as a principle of organization in connection only with economies of scale in services.

Change Control Board (CCB):

A formally constituted group of stakeholders responsible for approving or rejecting changes to the project baselines.

Change in Scope:

See scope change.

Chart of Accounts:

Any numbering system used to monitor project costs by category (e.g., labor, supplies, and materials). The project chart of accounts is usually based upon the corporate chart of accounts of the primary performing organization. See also code of accounts.

Charter:

See project charter.

Coaching (HC):

Regular discussions between a manager and an immediate subordinate in which the manager helps the subordinate to increase his/her skilled knowledge so that the subordinate is able to handle an increasing amount of the full range of work available in the subordinate’s role.

Code of Accounts:

Any numbering system used to uniquely identify each element of the work breakdown structure. See also chart of accounts.

Collateral:

See role relationships.

Communications Planning:

Determining the information and communications needs of the project stakeholders.

Compensation:

See remuneration.

Complexity:

Complexity is determined by the number of factors, the rate of change of those factors, and the ease of identification of the factors in a situation.

Complexity of Mental Processing (CMP): The complexity of the process which an individual can apply in handling the complexity in a task.

Task Complexity: The complexity of the information which has to be handled in carrying out a task by means of a particular method.

Concurrent Engineering:

An approach to project staffing that, in its most general form, calls for implementers to be involved in the design phase. Sometimes confused with fast tracking.

Conditional (HC):

A relationship in logic in which if p occurs then q will occur.

Context Trio:

Managers let their subordinates know about the manager’s goals and problems, those of the manager’s manager and inform their subordinates about each other’s assignments.

Contingencies:

See reserve and contingency planning.

Contingency Allowance:

See reserve.

Contingency Planning:

The development of a management plan that identifies alternative strategies to be used to ensure project success if specified risk events occur.

Contingency Reserve:

A separately planned quantity used to allow for future situations which may be planned for only in part (sometimes called “known unknowns”). For example, rework is certain, the amount of rework is not. Contingency reserves may involve cost, schedule, or both. Contingency reserves are intended to reduce the impact of missing cost or schedule objectives. Contingency reserves are normally included in the project’s cost and schedule baselines.

Continual Process Improvement:

Continued process improvement is improvement by a manager of the processes that manager controls and assigns to subordinates in carrying out their work, with emphasis on process variance reduction. Continual process improvement is a managerial accountability. It can be carried out by project teams with an accountable team leader who is appointed by the manager.

Contract:

A contract is a mutually binding agreement which obligates the seller to provide the specified product and obligates the buyer to pay for it. Contracts generally fall into one of three broad categories:

Fixed price or lump sum contracts – this category of contract involves a fixed total price for a well-defined product. Fixed price contracts may also include incentives for meeting or exceeding selected project objectives such as schedule targets.

Cost reimbursable contracts – this category of contract involves payment (reimbursements) to the contractor for its actual costs. Costs are usually classified as direct costs (costs incurred directly by the project, such as wages for members of the project team) and indirect costs (costs allocated to the project by the performing organization as a cost of doing business, such as salaries for corporate executives). Indirect costs are usually calculated as a percentage of direct costs. Cost reimbursable contracts often include incentives for meeting or exceeding selected project objectives such as schedule targets or total cost.

Unit price contracts – the contractor is paid a preset amount per unit of service (e.g., $70 per hour for professional services or $1.08 per cubic yard of earth removed) and the total value of the contract is a function of the quantities needed to complete the work.

Contract Administration:

Managing the relationship with the seller.

Contract Close-out:

Completion and settlement of the contract, including resolution of all outstanding items.

Control:

The process of comparing actual performance with planned performance, analyzing variances, evaluating possible alternatives, and taking appropriate corrective action as needed.

Control Charts:

Control charts are a graphic display of the results, over time and against established control limits, of a process. They are used to determine if the process is “in control” or in need of adjustment.

Coordinative:

See role relationships.

Counseling:

See individual development.

Corrective Action:

Changes made to bring expected future performance of the project into line with the plan.

Cost Budgeting:

Allocating the cost estimates to individual project components.

Cost Control:

Controlling changes to the project budget.

Cost Estimating:

Estimating the cost of the resources needed to complete project activities.

Cost of Quality:

The costs incurred to ensure quality. The cost of quality includes quality planning, quality control, quality assurance, and rework.

Cost Performance Index (CPI):

The ratio of budgeted costs to actual costs (BCWP/ACWP). CPI is often used to predict the magnitude of a possible cost overrun using the following formula: original cost estimate/CPI = projected cost at completion. See also earned value.

Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) Contract:

A type of contract where the buyer reimburses the seller for the seller’s allowable cots (allowable costs are defined by the contract) plus a fixed amount of profit (fee).

Cost Plus Incentive Fee (CPIF) Contract:

A type of contract where the buyer reimburses the seller for the seller’s allowable costs (allowable costs are defined by the contract), and the seller earns its profit if it meets defined performance criteria.

Cost Variance (CV):

(1) Any difference between the estimated cost of an activity and the actual cost of that activity. (2) In earned value, BCWP less ACWP.

Crashing:

Taking action to decrease the total project duration after analyzing a number of alternatives to determine how to get the maximum duration compression for the least cost.

Critical Activity:

Any activity on a critical path. Most commonly determined by using the critical path method. Although some activities are “critical” in the dictionary sense without being on the critical path, this meaning is seldom used in the project context.

Critical Path:

In a project network diagram, the series of activities which determine the earliest completion of the project. The critical path will generally change from time to time as activities are completed ahead of or behind schedule. Although normally calculated for the entire project, the critical path can also be determined for a milestone or subproject. The critical path is usually defined as those activities with float less than or equal to a specified value, often zero. See critical path method.

Critical Path Method (CPM):

A network analysis technique used to predict project duration by analyzing which sequence of activities (which path) has the least amount of scheduling flexibility (the least amount of float). Early dates are calculated by means of a backward pass starting from a specified completion date (usually the forward pass’s calculated project early finish date).

Culture:

The totality of ways of doing things in a social system.

Current Finish Date:

The current estimate of the point in time when an activity will be completed.

Current Start Date:

The current estimate of the point in time when an activity will begin.

Custom and Practice:

See limits.

D

Data:

Facts which may be transformed into information.

Data Date (DD):

The point in time that separates actual (historical) data from future (scheduled) data. Also called as-of-date.

Decentralization:

See centralization.

Decision:

The making of a choice with the commitment of resources.

Definitive Estimate:

See estimate.

Delegated Direct Output (DDO)

Delegated direct output is the giving of an assignment to a subordinate to produce and judge when it is ready to be sent out. This does not have to be approved by the subordinate’s manager before delivery.

Delegation:

The act of assigning tasks to a subordinate.

Deliverable:

Any measurable, tangible, verifiable outcome, result, or item that must be produced to complete a project or part of a project. Often used more narrowly in reference to an external deliverable, which is a deliverable that is subject to approval by the project sponsor or customer.

Dependency:

See logical relationship.

Direct Output (DO)

A direct output is in a tangible or intangible finished product/service that is sent out or delivered inside or outside the organization. A person may secure the help of others in achieving his or her direct output. Direct output that a person sends out directly and is not referred up for approval.

Direct Output Support (DOS)

Direct output support is work done by a subordinate to assist his/her manager with the manager’s own direct output.

Discretion:

The exercise of judgment in making choices in carrying out a task.

Dummy Activity:

An activity of zero duration used to show a logical relationship in the arrow diagramming method. Dummy activities are used when logical relationships cannot be completely or correctly described with regular activity arrows. Dummies are shown graphically as a dashed line headed by an arrow.

Duration (DU):

The number of work periods (not including holidays or other non-working periods) required to complete an activity or other project element. Usually expressed as workdays or workweeks. Sometimes incorrectly equated with elapsed time. See also effort.

Duration Compression:

Shortening the project schedule without reducing the project scope. Duration compression is not always possible and often requires an increase in project cost.

E

Early Finish Date (EF):

In the critical path method, the earliest possible point in time on which the uncompleted portions of an activity (or the project) can finish based on the network logic and any schedule constraints. Early finish dates can change as the project progresses and changes are made to the project plan.

Early Start Date (ES):

In the critical path method, the earliest possible point in time on which the uncompleted portions of an activity (or the project) can start, based on the network logic and any schedule constraints. Early start dates can change as the project progresses and changes are made to the project plan.

Earned Value (EV):

(1) A method for measuring project performance. It compares the amount of work that was planned with what was actually accomplished to determine if cost and schedule performance is as planned. See also actual cost of work performed, budgeted cost of work scheduled, budgeted cost of work performed, cost variance, cost performance index, schedule variance, and schedule performance index. (2) The budgeted cost of work performed for an activity or group of activities.

Earned Value Analysis:

See definition (1) under earned value.

Effort:

The number of labor units required to complete an activity or other project element. Usually expressed as staffhours, staffdays, or staffweeks. Should not be confused with duration.

Entrepreneurial Owners:

Entrepreneurial Owners are the association, and hence are in totally different roles from CEOs who are employee executives: the differences in modes of operation are great.

Equilibration:

The balancing by managers of the standards being used by their immediate subordinates managers in appraising and directing their own immediate subordinates.

Equitable Pay Differentials (HC):

Differences in payment between work at different levels that are experienced by the incumbents as fair and just.

Equitable Payment:

See remuneration.

Estimate:

An assessment of the likely quantitative result. Usually applied to project costs and durations and should always include some indication of accuracy (e.g., ( x percent). Usually used with a modifier (e.g., preliminary, conceptual, feasibility). Some application areas have specific modifiers that imply particular accuracy ranges (e.g., order-of-magnitude estimate, budget estimate, and definitive estimate in engineering and construction projects).

Estimate At Completion (EAC):

The expected total cost of an activity, a group of activities, or of the project when the defined scope of work has been completed. Most techniques for forecasting EAC include some adjustment of the original cost estimate based on project performance to date. Also shown as “estimated at completion.” Often shown as EAC = Actuals-to-date + ETC. See also earned value and estimate to complete.

Estimate To Complete (ETC):

The expected additional cost needed to complete an activity, a group of activities, or the project. Most techniques for forecasting ETC include some adjustment to the original estimate based on project performance to date. Also called “estimated to complete.” See also earned value and estimate at completion.

Event-on-Node:

A network diagramming technique in which events are represented by boxes (or nodes) connected by arrows to show the sequence in which the events are to occur. Used in the original Program Evaluation and Review Technique.

Exception Report:

Document that includes only major variations from plan (rather than all variations).

Expected Monetary Value:

The product of an event’s probability of occurrence and the gain or loss that will result. For example, if there is a 50 percent probability that it will rain, and rain will result in a $100 loss, the expected monetary value of the rain event is $50 (.5 x $100).

Ex Gratia Payment:

See remuneration.

Extant Organization:

See organization.

F

Fast Tracking:

Compressing the project schedule by overlapping activities that would normally be done in sequence, such as design and construction. Sometimes confused with concurrent engineering.

Finish Date:

A point in time associated with an activity’s completion. Usually qualified by one of the following: actual, planned, estimated, scheduled, early, late, baseline, target or current.

Finish-to-Finish (FF):

See logical relationships.

Finish-to-Start (FS):

See logical relationships.

Firm Fixed Price (FFP) Contract:

A type of contract where the buyer pays the seller a set amount (as defined by the contract) regardless of the seller’s costs.

Five-D (5-D) World of Human Life

If we are ever going to succeed in laying a scientific foundation for our understanding of human nature and of our social institutions, we will have to achieve a major shift in our view of the living world: from the 4-dimensional material world (three spatial interwoven with one time dimension) to a 5-dimensional world (three spatial interwoven with two time dimensions).

Let us illustrate the two time dimensions by reference to carrying out a task.

When you begin a task, you target (plan) a completion time, say in 2 weeks. That 2-week time period exists as a time measure of your intention.

Then say, you actually complete the task in 3 weeks.

You now have a record of two different times.

the 2-week targeted time – time of intention.

the 3-week elapsed time – time of achievement.

In the material world you do not need two time dimensions, since material processes – including computers – do not have any intentions.

Thus, when we say it took 2 hours for an alloy to melt, we mean only the elapsed time, for the alloy did not intend to melt in any particular time.

The metallurgist may have had a predicted to target time in mind, but that is part of the 5-D world needed to describe his or her behavior. It is no part of the 4-D world needed to analyze and measure the “behavior” of the alloy.

There is thus the time dimension we are used to, the one we use to say how long something actually took. We record the start of the event, and we record the end, and then we look at our two recordings and say how long the event took. We will call this dimension made up of successive actual time recordings, the time axis of succession.

Then there is the peculiarly human second dimension of time which we shall call the time axis of intention. This time axis projects at right angles to the axis of succession, since it is the idea we have at a given moment on the clock, of how long something might take (prediction or anticipation), of how long we want it to take (desire), or of how long we intend to achieve something (intention). These ideas may change over and over again at successive points along the time axis of succession.

In short, the time axis of succession is the axis along which we record what has actually happened when, in terms of the second, minute, hour, day, month, and year in which it happened. The time axis of intention is the axis which runs from past (memory) to present (perception) to future (intent), all in someone’s present at a point on the axis of succession.

Too academic? Not if you want to bring objective measurement into the study of human affairs. It makes it easy to measure, in the natural science sense, things that have been assumed to be too intangible to measure.

Fixed Price Contract:

See firm fixed price contract.

Fixed Price Incentive Fee (FPIF) Contract:

A type of contract where the buyer pays the seller a set amount (as defined by the contract), and the seller can earn an additional amount if it meets defined performance criteria.

Float:

The amount of time that an activity may be delayed from its early start without delaying the project finish date. Float is a mathematical calculation and can change as the project progresses and changes are made to the project plan. Also called slack, total float, and path float. See also free float.

Forecast Final Cost:

See estimate at completion.

Forward Pass:

The calculation of the early start and early finish dates for the uncompleted portions of all network activities. See also float.

Fragnet:

See subnet.

Free Float (FF):

The amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start of any immediately following activities. See also float.

Functional Manager:

A manager responsible for activities in a specialized department or function (e.g., engineering, manufacturing, marketing).

Functional Organization:

An organization structure in which staff are grouped hierarchically by specialty (e.g., production, marketing, engineering, and accounting at the top level; with engineering, further divided into mechanical, electrical, and others).

Functional Alignment:

See alignment of functions.

Functions:

Types of work activity comprising clusters of accountability.

G

Gantt Chart:

See bar chart.

Gearing (for talent pool):

The process whereby the MoR and immediate subordinate managers check their judgments with each other regarding the levels of current potential capability of individuals in the next two layers down.

General Accountability:

A general accountability is an instruction which applies indefinitely until amended, that specifies conditions, which, whenever they arise require a person to make decisions or take actions.

Goal:

The object of a task; a “what-by-when.”

Goods and Services:

See products and services.

Grade:

A category or rank used to distinguish items that have the same functional use (e.g., “hammer”) but do not share the same requirements for quality (e.g., different hammers may need to withstand different amounts of force).

Grades:

Bands for pay and progression within a stratum.

Graphical Evaluation and Review Technique (GERT):

A network analysis technique that allows for conditional and probabilistic treatment of logical relationships (i.e., some activities may not be performed).

H

Hammock:

An aggregate or summary activity (a group of related activities is shown as one and reported at a summary level). A hammock may or may not have an internal sequence. See also subproject and subnet.

Hanger:

An unintended break in a network path. Hangers are usually caused by missing activities or missing logical relationships.

Horizontal Relations:

See task-initiating role relationships (TIRRs).

HR. Pr.T.:

The three specialist staff functions: human resources, programming and production technology, (and see business unit functions model).

I

Impact Payment:

See remuneration - ex gratia payment.

Implementation:

The act of carrying out policies and programs by means of the assignment of tasks.

Individual Development:

Assisting an individual to work at full potential capability.

Coaching: Regular discussions between a manager and an immediate subordinate in which the manager helps the subordinate to increase his/her skilled knowledge so that the subordinate is able to handle an increasing amount of the full range of work available to the subordinate’s role.

Counseling: Discussion for the purpose of helping an individual to sort out personal difficulties.

Mentoring: Discussion by a manager-once-removed to help a subordinate-once-removed to understand his/her potential and how that potential might be developed to achieve as full a career growth in the organization as possible.

Teaching: Increasing the knowledge of an individual by means of lectures or didactic methods.

Training: Means of helping individuals to enhance their skilled use of knowledge by on-the-job practice or specialized practice opportunities.

Individual Contributor:

An individual contributor is anyone who is meanly engaged in producing direct output; this person does not delegate his/her work. Individual contributor work may occur at any level in the organization. Individual contributors may be managers of subordinates who provide them with direct output support (DOS).

Information Complexity:

See orders of information complexity.

Information Distribution:

Making needed information available to project stakeholders in a timely manner.

Initiation:

Committing the organization to begin a project phase.

Integrated Cost/Schedule Reporting:

See earned value.

Invitation for Bid (IFB):

Generally, this term is equivalent to request for proposal. However, in some application areas it may have a narrower or more specific meaning.

J

Judgment:

The weighing up of the factors in a problem, interplaying verbalized knowledge and data and non-verbalized mental processing in relation to each other, in trying to arrive at a decision.

K

Key Event Schedule:

See master schedule.

Knowledge:

Knowledge is that which we can articulate put into words, formulate, drawings, models. We refer to objective facts including procedures, which can be stated in words, formulas, models, or other symbols that one can learn in the sense of being able to pass examination about them, and which with practice one can use without thinking.

L

Lag:

A modification of a logical relationship which directs a delay in the successor task. For example, in a finish-to-start dependency with a 10-day lag, the successor activity cannot start until 10 days after the predecessor has finished. See also lead.

Late Finish Date (LF):

In the critical path method, the latest possible point in time that an activity may begin without delaying a specified milestone (usually the project finish date).

Late Start Date (LS):

In the critical path method, the latest possible point in time that an activity may be completed without delaying a specified milestone (usually the project finish date).

Lead:

A modification of a logical relationship which allows an acceleration of the successor task. For example, in a finish-to-start dependency with a 10-day lead, the successor activity can start 10 days before the predecessor has finished. See also lag.

Leadership:

Leadership is the process in which one person sets the purpose or direction for one or more other persons, and gets them to move along together in that direction with competence and full commitment. Leadership is one component of all managerial roles.

Level:

See capability.

Leveling:

See resource leveling.

Level of Effort (LOE):

Support-type activity (e.g., vendor or customer liaison) that does not readily lend itself to measurement of discrete accomplishment. It is generally characterized by a uniform rate of activity over a specific period of time.

Level of Task Complexity:

The following procedure can be used to determine the level of complexity of a discrete project or program (task, assignment).

Step One: Formulate the intended output, using task-target-completion time (by-when) as a means of getting precision and clarity in the statement of output.

Step Two: Analyze what work will be required in order to achieve the required output with the planned method. Then ask the following questions specifically about the work:

Can the work be done by following an assigned plan to a goal, over-coming obstacles by direct action trial-and-error as you meet them on the way? – Str-I.

Does the work to be done require the articulation and accumulation of data which are judged significant for the output, and a diagnostic judgment based upon linking those data? – Str-II.

Does the work to be done require the use of serial processing in the construction and choice of a plan which balances future requirements against current activity, and a holding in reserve of other plans which might be brought into play if the selected plan does not work out? – Str-III.

Does the work to be done require a number of interactive projects to be undertaken and adjusted each one in relation to each of the others? – Str IV.

Does the work require a continual touch-feel sensing of how changes occurring anywhere in the project can impact upon the system to which the project is related, leading to direct actions which take into account the probable immediate and downstream consequences which cascade through the whole system? – Str.V.

Does the work to be done require a continual screening of the relevant business environment to identify and favorably influence any and all developments there which might have significance for the projects in hand? – Str-VI.

Does the work to be done require the development of worldwide strategic options and the creation of business units, by growth, acquisition, mergers, joint ventures? – Str-VII.

Step Three: The level of the project is given by the highest-numbered question which is answered in the affirmative.

This procedure is a subjective descriptive process. We do not know of any way, as yet, to measure objectively the complexity of a task or program.

Level of Work (LoW) in Role:

The weight of responsibility felt in roles as a result of the complexity of the work in the role. The level of work in any role can be measured by the time-span of discretion of the tasks in that role.

Life-cycle Costing:

The concept of including acquisition, operating, and disposal costs when evaluating various alternatives.

Limits, Prescribed:

The policies and procedures, rules and regulations, custom and practice, laws, resource and financial constraints, and other limits such as output numbers, or quality or target-completion time, which must be adhered to in carrying out an assigned task or in meeting general accountabilities.

Line Manager:

The manager of any group that actually makes a product or performs a service. (2) A functional manager.

Link:

See logical relationship.

Logic:

See network logic.

Logic Diagram:

See project network diagram.

Logical Relationship:

A dependency between two project activities, or between a project activity and a milestone. See also precedence relationship. The four possible types of logical relationships are:

Finish-to-start – the “from” activity must finish before the “to” activity can start.

Finish-to-finish – the “from” activity must finish before the “to” activity can finish.

Start-to-start – the “from” activity must start before the “to” activity can start.

Start-to-finish – the “from” activity must start before the “to” activity can finish.

Loop:

A network path that passes the same node twice. Loops cannot be analyzed using traditional network analysis techniques such as CPM and PERT. Loops are allowed in GERT.

M

Management:

The act of managing subordinates; but not used as a status term such as “the management.” (See also accountability and authority.)

Management Reserve:

A separately planned quantity used to allow for future situations which are impossible to predict (sometimes called “unknown unknowns”). Management reserves may involve cost or schedule. Management reserves are intended to reduce the risk of missing cost or schedule objectives. Use of management reserve requires a change to the project’s cost baseline.

Manager:

A person in a role in which he or she is held accountable not only for his/her personal effectiveness but also for the output of others; and is accountable for building and sustaining an effective team of subordinates capable of producing those outputs, and for exercising effective leadership. (And see accountability and authority). Only one person can be held accountable for your output, your immediate manager. A manager must add value to the work of immediate subordinates.

Manager-once-Removed (MoR):

The manager of a subordinate’s immediate manager is that subordinate’s manager-once-removed.

Manager – Subordinate Leadership:

The use of managerial authority without the exercise of requisite managerial leadership practices, is sterile. It breeds indifference. The following are the requisite practices for immediate managers of subordinates. These practices are teachable.

The systematic application of these practices is what constitutes immediate managerial leadership, and not some “leadership personality type.” To be effective, however, as we hope we have made you very clear, the following conditions must be obtained:

There exits a requisite structuring of organizational layering in strata.

The manager’s level of capability is within the stratum of the role, and one category of mental complexity above immediate subordinates, all of whom are in roles at the next lower stratum:

The manager values having the role, and is committed to carrying out the managerial leadership requirements:

The manager possesses the necessary skilled knowledge.

Given the above conditions, here are the requisite managerial leadership practices for the exercise of which all immediate managers must clearly and unequivocally be held accountable if they wish to retain their positions.

Two-way managerial team working: Regular meetings with all immediate subordinates to discuss context, plans, problems, and suggestions.

Context setting: Regular up-dating of the background within which the work must be carried out.

Planning: Presentation of alternative courses of action to deal with problems, to ensure subordinates’ understanding and to get their inputs.

Task assignment: Assigning tasks to ensure just-in-time and just-within-quality standards working.

Personal effectiveness appraisal: Judging how well subordinates are working, and discussing it with them.

Merit review: Periodic judgment and discussion of personal effectiveness, and annual evaluation of applied capability with decision on pay level within bands.

Coaching: Helping individual subordinates learn how to handle a wider range of processes that occur within the unit, so that they may advance in career.

Selection and Induction: Practices for choosing new subordinates and for introducing them to the unit.

Deselection and Dismissal

Continual Improvement

Managerial Accountability (HC):

The accountability managers have for their own personal effectiveness; the output of their subordinates; exercising effective managerial leadership of their subordinates; building and sustaining an effective team of subordinates.

Managerial Accountability Hierarchy (MAH):

A system of roles in which an individual in a higher role (manager) is held accountable for the outputs of persons in immediately lower roles (subordinates) and can be called to account for their actions. The MAH is an organization/system in which to employ people and to display their talents to get work done – in which they are recognized for their personal effectiveness as shown in their effectiveness under the prevailing circumstances to produce outputs.

Managerial Authority (HC):

The power vested in a person by virtue of role to expend resources: financial, material, technical and human. At a minimum a manager has the authority with regard to immediate subordinates to decide:

to veto the selection of an unsuitable candidate

assignment of tasks

personal effectiveness appraisal

to initiate removal from a role

Managerial Hierarchies (HC):

Organizations used for employing people to get work done. They are employment systems organized in accountability hierarchies of manager and subordinate roles.

Managerial Leadership:

Managers carry leadership accountability by the nature of their roles. Part of the work of the managerial role is the exercise of leadership. There is no such thing as an effective manager who is not able to discharge leadership accountability in the role effectively. Every manager must exercise decisive value-added leadership.

Managerial Practice:

Managerial practices are the agreed upon comprehensive system of procedures and actions which facilitate managerial work.

Manifest Organization:

See organization.

Marketing:

See sales.

Master Schedule:

A summary-level schedule which identifies the major activities and key milestones. See also milestone schedule.

Mathematical Analysis:

See network analysis.

Matrix Organization:

Any organizational structure in which the project manager shares responsibility with the functional managers for assigning priorities and for directing the work of individuals assigned to the project.

Maturation:

A process in which a given aspect of a person is biologically innate and grows in a regular way to predictable end state, so long as the individual does not encounter any severely limiting environmental conditions, especially in infancy.

Measurement (HC):

The quantification of a property of an entity by means of an objective measuring instrument.

Mental Mode (HC):

The highest level of mental processing to which an individual will finally mature. See capability.

Mental Processing (HC):

The use of a particular mental process for handling information in order to do work. The four methods of processing information are: Declarative; Cumulative; Serial; Parallel. See capability.

Mentoring (HC):

A periodic discussion by a manager-once-removed (MoR) to help a subordinate-once-removed (SoR) to understand his/her potential and how that potential might be developed to achieve as full a career growth in the organization as possible. See capability.

Milestone:

A significant event in the project, usually completion of a major deliverable.

Milestone Schedule:

A summary-level schedule which identifies the major milestones. See also master schedule.

Mitigation:

Taking steps to lessen risk by lowering the probability of a risk event’s occurrence or reducing its effect should it occur.

Modern Project Management (MPM):

A term used to distinguish the current broad range of project management (scope, cost, time, quality, risk, etc.) from narrower, traditional use that focused on cost and time.

Monitoring:

The capture, analysis, and reporting of project performance, usually as compared to plan. See role relationships.

Monte Carlo Analysis:

A schedule risk assessment technique that performs a project simulation many times in order to calculate a distribution of likely results.

Mutual Knowledge Output Team:

A shop- and office-floor unit of a manager and immediate subordinates, small enough for all of its members to know each other and for the manager to know each subordinate well enough to understand their strengths and weaknesses in work, personal foibles, and so on.

Mutual Recognition Unit (MRU):

A three stratum unit which is small enough (under about 250 people) for all of its members to be able to recognize each other.

N

Nature of Human Nature:

Whether you think you do or not, you do have a theory of human behavior. The only choice is in deciding which theory you will use. And the choice is an important one. It will determine how you see people, how you treat them, and your assumptions about them – including yourself. It will affect your values, your views about motivation, and the quality of your interactions and your leadership.

There are many theories floating around:

First, there are the nihilistic theories; for example, the “you have to kick them to get them to work” theory, or no-one wants to work unless they have to, or, people are fundamentally greedy and out to get everything they can for themselves regardless of anyone else.

Then there are the idealistic theories – although these are less common; for example, everyone is altruistic, and all that is needed is to love one another, or, everyone is capable as everyone else—we are all potentially the same.

Then there are the mechanistic theories, like the behavioristic theory that all you have to do is to condition everyone by simple reward and punishment, and it can all to be done in a minute!

We hope it will have been apparent that we have been using none of these theories.

The theory of unconscious mental functioning supports the notion that the exercise of judgment and discretion (that is to say, work) has to do with touch and feel, intuition, the sense of what needs to be done—in a context, of course, of conscious knowledge, policies, and regulations.

To encourage proactivity and initiative one must understand aggression and how to turn it to constructive account.

Constructive aggression occurs when hate can be mitigated by love, and conflict can then be handled without excessive guilt or anxiety.

Anxiety about the hate and aggression stirs excessive guilt and induces intense reactions to stress.

At your peril overlook the power of destructive anxiety generated by antirequisite organization to reduce your corporate effectiveness.

And by the same token, keep in full view the human potential which can be released by requisite organization because of its support for constructive unconscious processes in individuals.

Near- Critical Activity:

An activity that has total float.

Network:

See project network diagram.

Network Analysis:

The process of identifying early and late start and finish dates for the uncompleted portions of project activities. See also Critical Path Method, Program Evaluation and Review Technique, and Graphical Evaluation and Review Technique.

Network Logic:

The collection of activity dependencies that make up a project network diagram.

Network Path:

Any continuous series of connected activities in a project network diagram.

Node:

One of the defining points of a network; a junction point joined to some or all of the other dependency lines. See also arrow diagramming method and precedence diagramming method.

O

Operational Spine:

See business unit functions model.

Order of Magnitude Estimate:

See estimate.

Orders of Information Complexity:

There are five orders of increasing complexity of information:

Pre-Verbal (PV): This is the most concrete order of information expressed in pre-verbal infancy in the form of gestures and physical contact with objects.

Concrete Verbal (CV): Thinking and language as we find it in children. Thoughts and words are immediately tied to a physical pointing out of the things thought about and referred to — or to a thing that, although not physically present, has recently been seen somewhere and is assumed still to be there.

Symbolic Verbal (SV): The form of thought and language used by most adults—from Str-I to Str-IV. Thoughts and words no longer have to refer to specific tangible known pointable entities. They are used as true symbols. They can be construed and worked with as though they themselves were the things.

Conceptual Abstract (CA): The form of thought and language required for successful work at senior corporate levels. Thoughts and words seem abstract in the sense that they refer to other thoughts and words rather than to things; that is to say, conceptual abstract thoughts and words pull ideas together; but they must be able to be related to tangible things at more than one remove.

Universals (U): Here we move up to what is ordinarily thought of in terms of genius—creating new types of society, new systems of ethics and morality, new values and cultures, sweeping new theories.

Organization:

Any system with an identifiable structure of related roles.

Assumed Organization: The pattern of connections between roles as it is assumed to be by the different individuals who occupy positions in the organization; likely to have as many variations as you have people, and produce confusion.

Extant Organization: The pattern of connections between roles as shown by systematic research to be actually operating. The system as it actually functions. It will always be an appropriate picture. It requires that you dig in and find who is actually being held accountable for what, and what activity they are in fact able to exercise in relation to whom and to what.

Formal/Informal Organization: These terms are not used in this book, they are replaced by the concepts of manifest, assumed, extant, and requisite organization.

Manifest Organization: The structure of an organization as it appears on the organization chart.

Requisite Organization: The pattern of connections which ought to exist between roles if the system is both to work efficient and to operate as required by the nature of human nature and the enhancement of mutual trust.

Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS):

A depiction of the project organization arranged so as to relate work packages to organizational units.

Organizational Culture:

Includes: rules and regulations; resources; custom and practice; shared values, language; belief systems; economies; policies and procedures; and traditions and assumptions.

Organizational Epistemology:

The managing and leadership of large-scale institutions are made more difficult because neither managers nor management experts are in a position to know when the data they are using are facts, and when they are judgments or opinions.

You can sharpen and strengthen your leadership if you are clear about the nature of the data you are using for your management, planning and control purposes.

In particular, it is critical to be able to separate out from one another the following three states:

Entities, or things which exist as individually perceivable members of a category of things.

Properties, or integral qualities of an entity.

Attributes, or judgments by individuals (opinions) about things.

These three states can be differentiated by the way we quantify them.

Entities: counted one at a time.

Properties: measured by an objectively operable instrument with an equal-ration scale that runs from zero to infinity. Zero reading means no property and hence no entity. There are no minus numbers. And 2-times-a-reading = twice as much property; e.g., length, temperature (Kelvin scale), ohms, and time-span.

Attributes: rated by the judgment of an individual using no objectively operable scaling. Different raters will differ. Zero may mean neutral. Minus numbers can be used to designate negative feelings. Numbers simply mean more or less. And 2-times- a-rating means more but does not necessarily mean twice as much of the attribute. Examples are beauty, personal effectiveness, promotability, entrepreneurship, and marketability.

Is the above too ‘theoretical’ or ‘academic’ – too removed from reality?

I think not.

It is all about your approach to the social and human realities of your organization.

For a corporate manager to have a penetrating understanding of organizational and behavioral realities can provide a real boost to competitiveness.

Organizational Planning:

Identifying, documenting, and assigning project roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships.

Organizational Structure:

Organizational structure is a system of role relationships made up of positions which have been created at each level to get the necessary work done. The accountabilities and authorities specified for each position establish the boundaries within which people in these positions must behave toward each other. Organization structure includes managerial layering, functional alignment, vertical or horizontal working relationships, and individual contributor roles.

Order of Information Complexity (HC):

The four types of mental processing have been found to recur at higher and higher orders of complexity of the information that is being processed giving a recursive hierarchy of levels of mental complexity.

Outposting:

Is where A sends B to a geographically distant site which is managed by C, and where C is accountable for providing certain resources to B and carries monitoring authority with respect to B’s general conduct on site. A retains full managerial accountability.

Output:

The countable product of the completion of a task.

Direct Output (DO): Output which is signed off directly and neither sent up nor sent down.

Aided Direct Output (ADO): Direct outputs carried out with the assistance of subordinates.

Delegated Direct Output (DDO): Outputs which are assigned to be produced and sent out at subordinate levels.

Overall Change Control:

Coordinating changes across the entire project.

Overlap:

See lead.

P

Parametric Estimating:

An estimating technique that uses a statistical relationship between historical data and other variables (e.g., square footage in construction, lines of code in software development) to calculate an estimate.

Paranoiagenic versus Philogenic Organization

Melanie Klein’s developments in psychoanalysis throw powerful light upon the deeper reaches of interpersonal interaction and working relationships.

At the heart of the very earliest stages of individual development is the struggle to cope with powerful destructive impulses, in the course of which we are prone to see everyone else, even the ones we love, as destructive also, and so we are subject to intense paranoid feelings.

These paranoid feelings are reinforced by primitive impulses of envy and greed. The conflicts engendered as a result of these processes are never completely resolved. They are readily stimulated in adulthood by circumstances, which can give rise in many ways to suspicion or mistrust.

We can thus distinguish between two kinds of institutions:

Paranoiagenic institutions: structures and processes that stir any deeper-lying feelings of suspicion and mistrust, and intensify selfishness, greed, destructive competitiveness, and bad working relationships.

Philogenic Institutions: structures and processes that reinforce our deeper-lying impulses of love, trust, kinship and friendship, and release affection, creative co-operation and innovation.

There are examples in every organization of paranoiagenic and philogenic procedures.

Paranoiagenic (Anti-Requisite)

Disequilibrium between capability, work and pay

Too many levels

MoR-SoR relationship not established

Secrecy

Confusion because of failure to differentiate various kinds of delegation

Philogenic (Requisite)

Equilibrium between capability, work and pay

Personal effectiveness-related recognition

Correct manager-subordinate distance

MoR accountability for justice

Differentiated TARRs and TIRRs

Information openness

Pareto Diagram:

A histogram, ordered by frequency of occurrence, that shows how many results were generated by each identified cause.

Path:

A set of sequentially connected activities in a project network diagram.

Path Convergence:

In mathematical analysis, the tendency of parallel paths of approximately equal duration to delay the completion of the milestone where they meet.

Path Float:

See float.

Pay (Bracket):

See remuneration.

Percent Complete (PC):

An estimate, expressed as a percent, of the amount of work which has been completed on an activity or group of activities.

Penalties:

See recognition.

Performance:

See personal effectiveness.

Performance Reporting:

Collecting and disseminating information about project performance to help ensure project progress.

Personal Effectiveness:

The effectiveness of an individual’s work in producing outputs under prevailing conditions as judged by the immediate manager.

Personal Effectiveness Appraisal: Assessment by a manager of a subordinate’s level of applied capability (which builds into on-going coaching and merit review).

Periodic Personal Effectiveness Review: A review by a manager at specified times (say annually) of a subordinate’s personal effectiveness throughout the period under review, and decision by the manager about the merit award for the subordinate for that period.

PERT Chart:

A specific type of project network diagram. See Program Evaluation and Review Technique.

Phase:

See project phase.

Planning:

An unnecessary mystique has grown up around planning and planning processes, mainly because of attempts to develop planning and information technologies which will somehow throw up the ‘correct’ plans – or at least some options for a correct plan. I propose to chart a simpler approach.

Plans are statements, at a given point in time, of aspirations or intentions about the future. They must suffuse the whole of the organization in the present if it is to progress towards the planned goals.

Although long-term plans set survival targets for the future, they are practical only if they can be related to the present, at every level of the organization, in a planning cascade.

Thus, for example, a practical 7-year plan at Str-V must set a clear operating context for Str-IV 3 year planning; which in turn sets the context for the 18-month development priorities in Str-III; which in turn form the basis of 6-month improvement targets at Str-II; which in turn provide for optimum daily to weekly output targeting at Str-I.

About 7 to 8 years forward is the longest period over which we are capable of planning and carrying out finitely budgeted projects. It is the longest outreach for systematic predicting and forecasting. Beyond 10 years we move into what is often referred to as a conceptual approach – in which the future is constructed rather than forecast. I think it is the phenomenon, which underlies the fact that Str-V (5- to 10-year time-span) is the highest level of truly effective strategic BUs.

There are two features of planning, which warrant attention. One is the manager’s correct use of subordinates to develop the manager’s own plans. The second is the question of the periods of time in which to state the plans.

Managers will certainly want to provide opportunity for their subordinates to make inputs to their plan development. An iterative two-way discussion is essential if a manager’s plans are to give a realistic context for the work of subordinates. Note for example, that a major function of the corporate HQ staff specialists, and of staff specialists in programming, human resources, and production technology within business units, is to assist their managers in planning.

But note also that the function of subordinates is not to decide the plans but to assist their managers to do so – not even to decide the options for the manager to choose from.

The requisite relationship is the direct output support relationship (ADO/DOS), with staff specialists or other subordinates in an advisory position – not acting as planners. There can be no role whose main function is planning.

Whether it be the corporate CEO at Str-VII, or a Str-V business unit president, or a Str-III unit manager, it is for that manager to sit down and agonize for him or herself over what the best plans of action might be.

Help from subordinates in doing so – Yes.

Have the subordinates do it for you – No.

I mention this because many executives tend to see planning as something, which can be handed over to “staff.” This process cannot work: no subordinate can have the necessary capability and time-horizon to think out plans at the manager’s level of complexity.

Planning proposals developed by a subordinate for a manager will inevitably be truncated.

Because of the too short time-horizon, a subordinate must inevitably be unable to perceive opportunities, which exist in the longer term which the manager, should be able to envisage.

A subordinate with as great a time-horizon as his or her manager ought to be promoted immediately!

It may often happen that there are experts among a manager’s SoRs (or lower down) who could help with special studies or analyses. This circumstance is a good example of an opportunity to bring people up to work directly with the manager is an ad hoc attachment teamwork arrangement. (Page Pair )

Direct planning assistance for the manager from experts should not be obtained by delegating the manager’s tasks through the intermediate layers of managers.

That procedure gets everybody engaged in trying to interpret what the manager wants and playing it safe (“second-guessing” the boss), so that whatever is handed back up will at least not be sharply rejected.

Much time is wasted; reports will be bland; a training opportunity will go begging.

Planned Finish Date (PF):

See scheduled finish date.

Planning Horizons:

Planning varies by stratum. You can use the time-span range of each stratum to set a maximum time outreach that is optimum. These planning outreach times can be used systematically. The same planning horizon can be applied to all roles in each stratum, giving an overall coherence to the total planning process.

Str-VII 25-Year Envisionment: The so-called long-term vision at Str-VII sets the survival plan for the organization in the long haul.

The articulation, and communication throughout the organization, of the long-term vision, is a prime act of leadership of the CEO, shared by the board and the corporate collegium.

It sets the framework for the whole of the on-going organization plans, and interacts with their flow, especially the Str-V 7-year critical tasks.

Str-VI 12-Year Conceptual Programs: These are the programs by means of which a Str-VI EVP sets a context for Str-V business unit presidents, and points the BU’s in directions deemed most likely to enhance their balance sheet values while sustaining an effective profit flow.

The interplay between Str-VI EVPs and Str-V BU presidents is the key interaction in keeping the plans of the subsidiaries in line with long-term corporate strategy, and corporate strategies in tune with the real-life experiences of the BUs out in the market place.

Str-V 7-Year Business Unit Critical Tasks: The Str-V BU is the fulcrum of the planning sub-system.

The Str-V BU president must agree with the Str-VI EVP on a cluster of critical 7-year tasks for the BU; set realistic contexts for his/her Str-IV GMs’ 3-year plans; and ensure that there interweaving plans are updated annually in relation to each other.

The 7-year planning period with annual update coincides with the period for budgetable forecasts commonly built into 5-year PPBS (Planned Program and Budgeting Systems) budgets, which in practice extend over 7 years; viz., the year before the budget, the 5 years of the budget, and follow-up year: 1 + 5 + 1 = 7.

Str-IV 3 Year Projects: GMs at Str-IV must have well-articulated plans in terms of budgeted projects over 3-year periods that encompass the annual budgeting cycle, with a current year run-up, next year’s plan, and a post-hoc transition year.

Str-III 18-Month Developments: Output improvement planning that encompasses annual budgets, and allows for 18-month alternatives for increasing the effectiveness of the mutual recognition unit (MRU).

Str-II and Str-I take us into the quarterly, monthly, weekly and hourly layout plans.

Planned Start Date (PS):

See scheduled start date.

Policy:

A statement of limits or objectives which has no target completion time and which persists until changed.

Potential Capability:

See capability.

Power:

The ability of an individual, by virtue of personal abilities, persuasiveness, and resources, to influence others in a situation where he/she has not legitimated authority.

Pr. HR.T.:

See Hr.Pr.T.

Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM):

A network diagramming technique in which activities are represented by boxes (or nodes). Activities are linked by precedence relationships to show the sequence in which the activities are to be performed.

Precedence Relationship:

The term used in the precedence diagramming method for a logical relationship. In current usage, however, precedence relationship, logical relationship, and dependency are widely used interchangeably regardless of the diagramming method used.

Predecessor Activity:

(1) In the arrow diagramming method, the activity which enters a node. (2) In the precedence diagramming method, the “from” activity.

Prescribed Limits:

See limits.

Prescribing:

See role relationships.

Problem-Solving Ability:

The ability of an individual to handle complexity in solving problems. (See working-capability.)

Process:

A series of actions or operations leading to a particular goal.

Procurement Planning:

Determining what to procure and when.

Products and Services:

Outputs produced for clients or consumers.

Program:

A group of related projects managed in a coordinated way. Programs usually include an element of ongoing activity.

Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT):

An event-oriented network analysis technique used to estimate project duration when there is a high degree of uncertainty with the individual activity duration estimates. PERT applies the critical path method to a weighted average duration estimate. Also given as Program Evaluation and Review Technique.

Programming:

See HR. Pr.T.

Project:

A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service. A project has a beginning and an end.

Project Charter:

A document issued by senior management that provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.

Project Communications Management:

A subset of project management that include the processes required to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, dissemination, storage, and ultimate disposition of project information. It consists of:

Communications planning – determining the information and communications needs of the stakeholders: who needs what information, when will they need it, and how will it be given to them.

Information distribution – making needed information available to project stakeholders in a timely manner.

Performance reporting – collecting and disseminating performance information. This includes status reporting, progress measurement, and forecasting.

Administrative closure – generating, gathering, and disseminating information to formalize phase or project completion.

Project Cost Management:

A subset of project management that includes the processes required to ensure that the project is completed within the approved budget. It consists of:

Resource planning – determining what resources (people, equipment, and materials) and what quantities of each should be used to perform project activities.

Cost estimating – developing an approximation (estimate) of the costs of the resources needed to complete project activities.

Cost budgeting – allocating the overall cost estimate to individual work items.

Cost control – controlling changes to the project budget.

Project Human Resource Management:

A subset of project management that includes the processes required to make the most effective use of the people involved with the project: It consists of:

Organizational planning – identifying, documenting, and assigning project roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships.

Staff acquisition – getting the human resources needed assigned to and working on the project.

Team development – developing individual and group skills to enhance project performance.

Project Integration Management:

A subset of project management that includes the processes required to ensure that the various elements of the project are properly coordinated. It consists of:

Project plan development – taking the results of other planning processes and putting them into a consistent, coherent document.

Project plan execution – carrying out the project plan by performing the activities included therein.

Overall change control – coordinating changes across the entire project.

Project Life Cycle:

A collection of generally sequential project phases whose name and number are determined by the control needs of the organization or organizations involved in the project.

Project Management (PM):

The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations from a project.

Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK):

An inclusive term that describes the sum of knowledge within the profession of project management. As with other professions, such as law, medicine, and accounting, the body of knowledge rests with the practitioners and academics who apply and advance it. The PMBOK includes proven, traditional practices, which are widely applied, as well as innovative and advanced ones, which have seen more limited use.

Project Management Professional (PMP):

An individual certified as such by the Project Management Institute.

Project Management Software:

A class of computer applications specifically designed to aid with planning and controlling project costs and schedules.

Project Management Team:

The members of the project team who are directly involved in project management activities. On some smaller projects, the project management team may include virtually all of the project team members.

Project Manager (PM):

The individual responsible for managing a project.

Project Network Diagram:

Any schematic display of the logical relationships of project activities. Always drawn from left to right to reflect project chronology. Often incorrectly referred to as a “PERT chart.”

Project Phase:

A collection of logically related project activities, usually culminating in the completion of a major deliverable.

Project Plan:

A formal, approved document used to guide both project execution and project control. The primary uses of the project plan are to document planning assumptions and decisions, to facilitate communication among stakeholders, and to document approved scope, cost, and schedule baselines.

Project Plan Development:

Taking the results of other planning processes and putting them into a consistent, coherent document.

Project Plan Execution:

Carrying out the project plan by performing the activities included therein.

Project Procurement Management:

A subset of project management that includes the processes required to acquire goods and services from outside the performing organization. It consists of:

Procurement planning – determining what to procure and when.

Solicitation planning – documenting product requirements and identifying potential sources.

Solicitation – obtaining quotations, bids, offers or proposals as appropriate.

Source selection – choosing from among potential sellers.

Contract administration – managing the relationship with the seller.

Contract close-out – completion and settlement of the contract, including resolution of any open items.

Project Quality Management:

A subset of project management that includes the processes required to ensure that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken. It consists of:

Quality planning – identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and determining how to satisfy them.

Quality assurance – evaluating overall project performance on a regular basis to provide confidence that the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards.

Quality control – monitoring specific project results to determine if they comply with relevant quality standards and identifying ways to eliminate causes of unsatisfactory performance.

Project Risk Management:

A subset of project management that includes the processes concerned with identifying, analyzing, and responding to project risk. It consists of:

Risk identification – determining which risks are likely to affect the project and documenting the characteristics of each.

Risk quantification – evaluating risks and risk interactions to assess the range of possible project outcomes.

Risk response development – defining enhancement steps for opportunities and responses to threats.

Risk response control – responding to changes in risk over the course of the project.

Project Schedule:

The planned dates for performing activities and the planned dates for meeting milestones.

Project Scope Management:

A subset of project management that includes the processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully. It consists of:

Initiation – committing the organization to begin the next phase of the project.

Scope planning – developing a written scope statement as the basis for future project decisions.

Scope definition – subdividing the major project deliverables into smaller, more manageable components.

Scope verification – formalizing acceptance of the project scope.

Scope change control – controlling changes to project scope.

Project Teams:

A project team is an ad hoc group of individuals brought together under a team leader to complete a particular assignment.

Attached Colleague Team: A team made up of a project leader and a small group of attached colleagues.

Attached Subordinates Team: A team made up of a team manager and a small group of attached subordinates.

Mixed Team: A team made up of a project leader and a group comprising both attached colleagues and attached subordinates.

Project Time Management:

A subset of project management that includes the processes required to ensure timely completion of the project. It consists of:

Activity definition – identifying the specific activities that must be performed to produce the various project deliverables.

Activity sequencing – identifying and documenting interactivity dependencies.

Activity duration estimating – estimating the number of work periods which will be needed to complete individual activities.

Schedule development – analyzing activity sequences, activity durations, and resource requirements to create the project schedule.

Schedule control – controlling changes to the project schedule.

Projectized Organization:

Any organizational structure in which the project manager has full authority to assign priorities and to direct the work of individuals assigned to the project.

Q

Quality Assurance (QA):

(1) The process of evaluating overall project performance on a regular basis to provide confidence that the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards. (2) The organizational unit that is assigned responsibility for quality assurance.

Quality Control (QC):

(1) The process of monitoring specific project results to determine if they comply with relevant quality standards and identifying ways to eliminate causes of unsatisfactory performance. (2) The organizational unit that is assigned responsibility for quality control.

Quality Planning:

Identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and determining how to satisfy them.

QQT/R:

See task.

R

Recognition:

Identification to individuals of their personal effectiveness, in terms of unrecorded or recorded statements, financial remuneration, or career advancement.

Remaining Duration (RDU):

The time needed to complete an activity.

Regulations:

See limits.

Remuneration:

The total compensation granted to an employee in exchange for work and comprising all forms of payments including money and the financial equivalent of non-monetary payments.

Equitable Pay Differential: Differentials in payment between positions, which are experienced by the incumbents as fair and just.

Ex Gratia (Impact) Payment: Special ad hoc one-time payment given for some special extra effort on a particular occasion.

Impact Payment: see remuneration: ex gratia payment.

Pay Bracket: The range of total compensation from bottom to top for any given grade within a stratum, and hence for any given role within that grade.

Pay Step: A sub-division of a pay band. There are six steps in each band.

Payment Differential (Relativity): The comparative levels of total remuneration as between positions.

Request for Proposal (RFP):

A type of bid document used to solicit proposals from prospective sellers of products or services. In some application areas it may have a narrower or more specific meaning.

Request for Quotation (RFQ):

Generally, this term is equivalent to request for proposal. However, in some application areas it may have a narrower or more specific meaning.

Requisite:

Required by the nature of things.

Requisite Organization (HC):

The patterns of connection which ought to exist between roles if the system is to work efficiently and to operate as required by the nature of the work to be done and the nature of human nature. See organization.

Reserve:

A provision in the project plan to mitigate cost and/or schedule risk. Often used with a modifier (e.g., management reserve, and contingency reserve) to provide further detail on what types of risk are meant to be mitigated. The specific meaning of the modified term varies by application area.

Resource Leveling:

Any form of network analysis in which scheduling decisions (start and finish dates) are driven by resource management concerns (e.g., limited resources availability or difficult-to-manage changes in resource levels).

Resource- Limited Schedule:

A project schedule whose start and finish dates reflect expected resource availability. The final project schedule should always be resource-limited.

Resource Planning:

Determining what resources (people, equipment, and materials) are needed in what quantities to perform project activities.

Resource Sustainment:

Functions concerned with ensuring that human, financial, capital and technical resources are well maintained and not allowed to deteriorate.

Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM):

A structure, which relates the project organization structure to the work breakdown structure to help ensure that each element of the project’s scope of work, is assigned to a responsible individual.

Responsibility Chart:

See responsibility assignment matrix.

Responsibility Matrix:

See responsibility assignment matrix.

Retainage:

A portion of a contract payment that is held until contract completion in order to ensure full performance of the contract terms.

Risk Event:

A discrete occurrence that may affect the project for better or worse.

Risk Identification:

Determining which risk events are likely to affect the project.

Risk Quantification:

Evaluating the probability of risk event occurrence and effect.

Risk Response Control:

Responding to changes in risk over the course of the project.

Risk Response Development:

Defining enhancement steps for opportunities and mitigation steps for threats.

Role:

A role is that part of the organization where tasks are aggregated and an individual placed to carry out those assignments.

Role Complexity:

The complexity in a role as measured by time-span.

Role Relationships:

The accountability and the authority obtaining between any two roles in a social system. Following are the main Accountabilities and Authorities found in role relationships in managerial accountability hierarchies (MAHs):

Advisory/TIRR: A is accountable for deciding on opportunities to help B by advising him/her and trying to persuade him/her to take that advice. B is accountable for deciding whether or not to take the advice, if he/she decides not to, then A is not authorized to go further.

Assistants to First-Line Managers: A First-Line Managerial Assistant (FLMA) carries accountability and authority on the output of that section of a first-line manager’s team of operators or clerks which is assigned to him/her, except that, whereas the manager has deciding managerial authority, the FLMA cannot decide.

Auditing/TIRR: A is accountable for inspecting the work of B and deciding whether or not it is satisfactory within limits. If A decides that it is