Terms A to M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X Y Z
| N | |
| Negative Float | Negative float means that the project end date cannot be met based on the current status and the forecast plan for accomplishing the remaining work. |
| Negotiated Contract Cost | The estimated cost negotiated on a cost plus fixed fee contract or the negotiated contract target cost in either a fixed price incentive contract, a cost plus incentive fee contract, or a cost plus award fee contract. Also see contract target cost. |
| Network Crashing | Also known as Schedule Acceleration. The process of shortening the schedule if the required duration is longer than the time actually available. |
| Network Schedule | A schedule format in which the activities and milestones are represented along with the interdependencies among activities, work packages and planning packages. It expresses the logic (i.e., predecessors and successors) of how the project is to be accomplished. Network schedules are the basis for critical path analysis, a method for identification and assessment of schedule priorities and impacts. Also see Integrated Master Schedule (IMS). |
| Nonrecurring Costs | Expenditures against specific tasks that would not occur on a repetitive basis in any given project. Examples are such items as preliminary design effort, qualification testing, and initial tooling. |
| Not to Exceed (NTE) | The portion of an estimated price for work scope the contractor is allowed to bill the government before reaching a final agreement on contract terms. Expenditures against the work scope are limited to this value, however baseline planning typically reflects an estimated value that is completed during the negotiation process. |
| O | |
| Organization Breakdown Structure (OBS) or Organizational Structure | The hierarchical arrangement of an organization's management structure for a project that graphically depicts the reporting relationships. The OBS for a project is typically limited to showing only managerial positions down to the Control Account Manager (CAM) level, but may depict lower organizational levels. |
| Original Budget | The budget established at, or near, the time the contract was signed, based on the negotiated contract cost. |
| Other Direct Costs (ODC) | Costs other than labor and material that may be directly charged to a contract. Typical examples of ODC are such items as travel, computer time, and services. |
| Overhead Costs | See Burden. |
| Over Target Baseline (OTB) | An established performance measurement baseline (PMB) that exceeds the value of the negotiated contract. An OTB results from a formal reprogramming process with the prior coordination or approval (as applicable) of the customer. |
| Over Target Schedule (OTS) | An established baseline schedule that extends beyond the contract milestones or delivery dates. An OTS requires the prior coordination or approval (as applicable) of the customer. |
| P | |
| Percent Complete Technique | The least desirable of the discrete earned value techniques as it is a subjective measure of status. |
| Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB) | The time phased budget plan against which contract performance is measured. It consists of the time phased budgets assigned to scheduled control accounts and the applicable indirect budgets. For future effort, not planned to the control account level, the performance measurement baseline also includes budgets assigned to higher level CWBS elements and undistributed budgets. It equals the total allocated budget (TAB) less management reserve |
| Planned Completion Date (PCD) | See Baseline Completion Date (BCD). |
| Planned Value (PV) | See Budgeted Cost for Work Scheduled (BCWS). |
| Planning Package (PP) | If far-term effort in a control account cannot be subdivided into detailed work packages, it may be identified in larger planning packages for baseline control purposes. The budget for a planning package is identified specifically to the work that is intended, is time-phased to the extent possible, and has controls which prevent its use in performance of other work. Eventually, all work in planning packages will be planned to the appropriate level of detail in work packages before that work commences. |
| Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) | A scheduling technique that employs network diagrams displaying relationships between activities to portray a defined scope of work. |
| Price Variance (PV) | The portion of a material cost variance that is caused by the difference between the planned/earned unit cost of a purchased item and its actual unit cost. Price variance is derived as follows: PV = (earned price per unit - actual price per unit) x actual quantity received or issued. |
| Program | A long-term undertaking that is usually made up of more than one project. |
| Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) | An early network diagram technique and algorithm that allowed three time estimates for determining an activity's likely duration: an optimistic, a most likely, and a pessimistic duration. |
| Program or Project Manager (PM) | The person responsible for executing the overall planning, direction, control, coordination, and evaluation of the assigned program or project. May also be referred to as a project leader or project director. |
| Project | A complex effort made up of interrelated tasks performed by various organizations, with a well-defined technical objective, schedule, and budget. |
| Project Controls Manager (PCM) | The Project Control Manager facilitates all EVM Project activities and provides the liaison between the project management team and the finance team. The manager works with the CAMs to manage day-to-day operations of the EVMS. |
| Project Risk Analysis | The system that provides a continuous analysis of identified risks, with respect to their impact on project cost, schedule and technical performance. |
| Purchase Order | A written agreement of any transaction between a company and a supplier in which materials, parts, facilities or services are exchanged for financial consideration which involve a contract; the mutual understanding and obligations must be a matter of record. |
| Q | |
| Quantifiable Backup Data (QBD) | Documentation that substantiates the percentage of earned value claimed for any earned value technique that uses a percent complete component. QBDs are intended to depict lower level accomplishments below the work package level that are planned and earned in support of the percentage of earned value claimed in a reporting period. |
| R | |
| Rate Variance | See Labor Rate Variance. |
| Recurring Costs | Expenditures against specific tasks that occur on a repetitive basis. Examples are sustaining engineering, production of operational equipment, and tool maintenance. |
| Resource | Anything used in completing a project or program. Resources include people (labor), material and equipment. Ultimately, resources are measured in dollars (or appropriate currency) although labor resources may be measured in hours. |
| Resource Leveling | The process of analyzing resource usage over time and modifying it to make the distribution more efficient. |
| Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) | A graphic representation that reflects the integration of project participants (internal organizations, work teams, subcontractors) with individual CWBS elements to form control accounts. |
| Request for Information (RFI) | A solicitation sent to a broad base of potential suppliers for the purpose of conditioning suppliers' minds, developing strategy, building a database, and preparing for an RFP or RFQ. |
| Request for Proposal (RFP) | An early stage in a procurement process, issuing an invitation for suppliers, often through a bidding process, to submit a proposal on a specific commodity or service. The RFP process brings structure to the procurement decision and allows the risks and benefits to be identified clearly upfront. |
| Request for Quotation (RFQ) | A standard business process whose purpose is to invite suppliers into a bidding process to bid on specific products or services. |
| Risk | The level of uncertainty associated with an outcome. In programs/projects, there are typically three components of risk: technical, schedule and cost. |
| Risk and Opportunity (R&O) | An uncertain future event or situation that could impact the ability to achieve overall project requirements within defined technical, schedule, and cost objectives. Risk has two components: 1) the probability (or likelihood) of a particular outcome and 2) the consequences of a realized risk. Risks are typically thought of as negative that may need to be mitigated to minimize the impact to the project. A risk with positive consequences is referred to as an opportunity that may be captured as a benefit to the project. |
| Risk and Opportunity Assessment | An organized process to quantify risks and opportunities so they can be evaluated and adjustments in priorities can be made as appropriate. |
| Rolling Wave Planning | The progressive refinement of detailed work definition by continuous subdivision of planning packages into work packages. Budget and schedule planning details are developed for the near term and more summary allocations are made for future periods. Detail is developed for the future work as information becomes available. Learn More |
| Rubber Baseline | The practice of modifying the project plan to closely match the cumulative actual cost line (time-phased). The work to be done remains in the future while the budget for the work is moved into the near term. Essentially, the practice disintegrates work from its time phased budget. |
| S | |
| Schedule Acceleration | In the process of developing the first project schedule, it is fairly common to find that the required duration is longer than the time desired or actually available. Even if the initial schedule does satisfy the required completion date, revised management direction may result in the need for a shorter schedule. In either of these cases, it is necessary to find a way to shorten the schedule. This process is also called schedule acceleration, "crashing" the network or fast tracking. |
| Schedule Baseline | The formally approved and resource leveled schedule that identifies what must be accomplished to support project objectives. |
| Schedule Margin | A technique for improving schedule accuracy by modeling the anticipated impact of schedule risk in the schedule. Schedule margin activities are established and managed as a margin of time in the schedule to offset unforeseen issues during project execution. The project manager owns the schedule margin activities. They consume no resources, are baselined, and under change control. Learn More about Schedule Margin |
| Schedule Performance Dataset (SPD) | Schedule data submission for the Integrated Program Management Data and Analysis Report (IPMDAR). |
| Schedule Risk Assessment (SRA) | A risk management process by which the project team uses multiple estimates for durations, etc. to predict the probability of completing the project on time. |
| Schedule Traceability | Consistency between schedule dates, status, and revisions at all levels of schedule detail (vertical traceability) and between schedules at the same level of detail (horizontal traceability). |
| Schedule Variance (SV) | The difference between Budgeted Cost for Work Performed (BCWP) and Budgeted Cost for Work Scheduled (BCWS). SV = BCWP - BCWS. A positive value indicates a favorable condition and a negative value indicates an unfavorable condition. |
| Schedule Visibility Task (SVT) | A schedule activity that is not resource loaded and represents effort that is not part of the budgeted project scope, but is necessary to complete a logical sequence of activities and properly time-phase downstream project effort. Common examples of SVTs include "concrete drying" (wait time) and "customer review" (external effort). |
| Secondary Float | Similar to Total Float, but calculated from an intermediate event rather than from the project finish date. |
| Setback Chart | A plan for a single unit of production in the Line Of Balance scheduling technique. This chart is built by identifying events that represent the stages of completion of the product, and by putting them in sequence with the lead-time between events. |
| Single Point Adjustment (SPA) | Process that sets existing contract cost or schedule variances to zero. It typically accompanies a re-plan of all remaining effort with the goal of completing the project on schedule and on budget. This change is accomplished in the current period (the single point) to avoid making retroactive changes. |
| Slack | See Float. |
| Soft Constraint | Allows the logic to drive the schedule (i.e., restricts only movement to the left) on the constrained activity. |
| Statement of Objectives (SOO) | A document that provides basic, top-level objectives of an acquisition and is provided in the request for proposal (RFP) in lieu of a government-written statement of work (SOW). It provides potential offerors the flexibility to develop cost-effective solutions and the opportunity to propose innovative alternatives meeting the objectives. |
| Start-To-Finish (SF) | A relationship between two activities that states that an activity cannot finish until another activity starts. This is a rarely used PDM relationship that usually can be more appropriately shown using some other logic representation. |
| Start-To-Start (SS) | A relationship between two activities that states that an activity cannot start until another activity starts. |
| Statement of Work (SOW) | The document that defines the work scope requirements for a contract. |
| Subcontract | Effort on a given contract that has been issued to another manufacturer or supplier in accordance with the issuing contractor's design specification or directions for the end item. A subcontract may or may not have EVMS reporting as a flow down requirement based on the dollar value or criticality of the effort, or based on the agreement between the issuing contractor and its customer. |
| Summary Level Planning Package (SLPP) | An aggregation of work for far-term efforts, not able to be identified to the control account level, that can be assigned to reporting level WBS elements (and is, therefore, not undistributed budget). These efforts have work scope, budget, a period of performance, and are planned in control accounts as soon as it is practicable. |
| Surveillance | A recurring process by an independent party, normally DCMA or other cognizant federal agency, to assess the continuing compliance of a contractor's EVMS with the EIA-748 and the company's written EVMS documentation. Subcontractor surveillance is often conducted by the prime contractor in cooperation with the subcontractor's cognizant federal agency. Learn More |
| T | |
| Target Cost | See Contract Budget Base and Contract Target Cost. |
| Task | See Activity. |
| To Complete Performance Index (TCPI) | The cost efficiency that would have to be attained to achieve the EAC value being used in the formula: TCPI = Remaining budget/current Estimate to Complete or TCPI = BAC – BCWP (cum) / EAC – ACWP (cum). Over 1.0 equals a projected favorable performance. Under 1.0 equals a projected unfavorable performance. |
| Top Down Approach | An approach in schedule development that uses high level milestones to identify key project schedule requirements or events that must occur in certain sequences and time frames. |
| Total Allocated Budget (TAB) | The sum of all budgets allocated to the contract. Total allocated budget consists of the performance measurement baseline (PMB) and all management reserves. The TAB is equal to the contract budget base (CBB) unless an over target baseline (OTB) has been implemented (See Formal Reprogramming). |
| Total Float (TF) | The amount of time an activity or path can be delayed or expanded before it impacts the project end date. |
| Total Float Consumption Index (TFCI) | Provides an indication of total float consumption as an efficiency factor; i.e., if a project continues at its current rate of total float consumption, can the remaining work be completed within the forecasted finish date. A TFCI index that is trending below 1.0 is an indication that a project may not complete on time. |
| Traceability | A term used in both scheduling and estimating to indicate consistency of information. Also see Schedule Traceability, Historical Traceability, Horizontal Traceability, and Vertical Traceability. |
| U | |
| Undefinitized Contract Action (UCA) | See Authorized Unpriced Work. |
| Undistributed Budget (UB) | A temporary holding account for authorized scope of work and its budget that has not yet been authorized to a control account or summary level planning package. UB cannot be a negative value. |
| Units Complete Technique | An earned value technique used when physical counts of products or completed output are the measurement of status. |
| Usage Variance (UV) | The UV is the difference between earned quantity of materials and actual quantity used, expressed in dollars. UV is derived as follows: UV = (earned quantity - actual quantity) x earned unit price. |
| V | |
| Variance | The value by which any schedule or cost performance varies from a specific plan. Significant variances are those differences between planned and actual performance that require further review, analysis, or action. See Cost Variance, Schedule Variance, and Variance at Completion. |
| Variance Analysis | The process of comparing actual results with planned results. |
| Variance Analysis Report (VAR) | A report describing the nature, cause, impact, and corrective action for variances that exceed established thresholds. |
| Variance At Completion (VAC) | The difference between budget at completion (BAC) and estimate at completion (EAC). A positive value indicates a projected underrun and a negative value indicates projected overrun. |
| Variance Threshold | Internal and external tolerances (or thresholds) established by contract or management direction. Variance conditions outside the threshold limits require investigation, analysis, corrective action, and reporting. |
| Vertical Traceability | In estimating, the ability to accurately summarize estimate data with no exclusions, no double counting, and correct summation totals. In scheduling, consistency of schedule dates, status, and revisions at all levels of schedule detail. |
| Volume Variance | See Labor Efficiency or Volume Variance. |
| W | |
| Work Authorization (WA) | The document representing a bilateral agreement between the project manager and the manager of the responsible organization to accomplish and manage the authorized scope of work, schedule, and budget. |
| Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) | A product-oriented, family-tree composed of hardware, software, services, data and facilities and other project-unique tasks. A Work Breakdown Structure displays and defines the product(s) to be developed and/ or produced and relates the elements of work to be accomplished to each other and to the end product. |
| Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Dictionary | A two-part document containing: 1) a listing of all WBS elements, and 2) the defined scope of each element. Work that is included, as well as closely related work that is excluded is normally contained in the definition of each WBS element. |
| Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Index | An indentured listing of all CWBS elements in tabular form cross-referenced to the contract statement of work paragraph numbers. Other contract and funding related references (e.g., Contract Line Item Numbers) are also often included. |
| Work Package (WP) |
A work package is a natural subdivision of a control account. It is uniquely distinguishable from all other work packages and may be subdivided into activities or tasks. A work package is the point at which work is planned, progress is measured, and earned value is assessed. A work package has the following characteristics:
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| Work Team | Also known as Integrated Product Team. It is a grouping of project personnel along project objective lines rather than along organizational lines. Work teams represent a transition from a functional organization structure to a multi-functional project objective arrangement. |
