Project Management Glossary

A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that shows all the tasks constituting a project. Tasks are listed vertically, with the horizontal axis marking time. The lengths of task bars are to scale with tasks’ durations. (See also bar chart)

An end-of-phase checkpoint at which decisions are made regarding whether and how to continue with the project. (See also phase gate)

A point in a project at which it is decided whether to continue with the work.

An objective set by an individual or an organization. It is a desired endpoint reached by setting and working towards targets.

The process of creating specific, measurable, and attainable goals and of setting deadlines for these goals if desired.

The practice of incorporating features and improvements that go beyond a product’s agreed-upon characteristics. This is generally done to boost customer satisfaction.

The structure by which roles and relationships between project team members and an organization’s high-level decision makers are defined.

A network analysis technique that uses Monte Carlo simulation to bring a probabilistic approach to network logic and the formation of duration estimates. It is an alternative to the PERT technique but is not often used in complex systems.