EVM Glossary, A-E

Refer to this list for definitions of essential earned value management terms submitted by project managers from around the world.

Index: A-E | F-L | M-Q | R-Z

- A -

Acceptance
The formal process of accepting delivery of a product or a deliverable.

Activity
The smallest self-contained unit of work used to define the logic of a project. In general, activities share the following characteristics: a definite duration, logic relationships to other activities in a project, use resources such as people, materials or facilities, and have an associated cost.

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

Activity Duration
Activity duration specifies the length of time (hours, days, weeks, months) that it takes to complete an activity. This information is optional in the data entry of an activity. Work flow (predecessor relationships) can be defined before durations are assigned. Activities with zero durations are considered milestones (milestone value of 1 to 94) or hammocks (milestone value of 95 to 99).

Activity Duration Estimating
Estimating the number of work periods that will be needed to complete the activity.

Activity File
A file containing all data related to the definition of activities on a particular project.

Activity ID
A unique code identifying each activity in a project.

Activity-on-Node
A network where activities are represented by a box or a node linked by dependencies. See also Precedence Diagram Method.

Activity Status
The state of completion of an activity. A planned activity has not yet started. A started activity is in progress. A finished activity is complete.

Actual Cost
The cost actually incurred.

Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP)
The sum of costs actually incurred in accomplishing the work performed.

Actual Direct Costs
Those costs specifically identified with a contract or project, based upon the contractor’s cost identification and accumulation system. See also Direct Costs.

Actual Dates
Actual dates are entered as the project progresses. These are the dates that activities really started and finished as opposed to planned or projected dates.

Actual Finish
Date on which an activity was completed.

Actual Start
Date on which an activity was started.

ACWP
See Actual Cost of Work Performed.

ADM Project
Non-hierarchical project that uses the arrow-diagramming method.

Advanced Material Release (AMR)
A document used by organizations to initiate the purchase of long-lead-time or time-critical materials prior to the final release of a design.

Allocation
See Resource Allocation.

Alternate Resource
A resource that may be substituted as the requirement for an activity if the requested resource is not available.

Approval to Proceed
Approval by the project board at initiation or prior to the beginning of the next stage.

Archive Plan
A function of some computer programs that allows versions of a plan to be archived.

Arrow Diagram Method (ADM)
One of two conventions used to represent an activity in a project. Also known as Activity-on-Arrow or i/j method.

As-Late-As-Possible (ALAP)
An activity for which the application sets the early dates as late as possible without delaying the early dates of any successor.

As-Soon-As-Possible (ASAP)
An activity for which the application sets the early dates to be as soon as possible. This is the default activity type in most project management systems.

Assumptions
Statements taken for granted or truth.

Authorized Unpriced Work (AUW)
Any scope changed for which authorization to proceed has been given, but for which the estimated costs are not yet settled.

Authorized Work
The effort which has been defined, plus that work for which authorization has been given, but for which defined contract costs have not been agreed upon.

- B -

Backward Pass
A procedure within time analysis to calculate the late start and late finish dates of all activities in a project.

Balanced Matrix
An organizational matrix where functions and projects have the same priority.

Bar Chart
A view of project data that uses horizontal bars on a time scale to depict activity information. Frequently called a Gantt chart.

Baseline
A copy of the project schedule for a particular time (usually before the project is started) that can be used for comparison with the current schedule.

Baseline Dates
Original planned start and finished dates for an activity. Used to compare with current planned dates to determine any delays. Also used to calculate budgeted cost of work scheduled for earned-valued analysis.

Baseline Review
A customer review conducted to determine with a limited sampling that a contractor is continuing to use the previously accepted performance system and is properly implementing a baseline on the contract or option under review.

Baseline Schedule
The baseline schedule is a fixed project schedule. It is the standard by which project performance is measured. The current schedule is copied into the baseline.

Batch Operations
Operations performed by the computer without the need for any user intervention.

BCWP
Budget Cost of Work Performed.

BCWS
Budget Cost of Work Scheduled.

Benefits
The enhanced efficiency, economy and effectiveness of future business operations to be delivered by a program.

Benefits Framework
An outline of the expected benefits of the program, the business operations affected and current and target performance measures.

Benefits Management
Combined with program management, Benefits Management is the process for planning, managing, delivering and measuring the program benefits.

Benefits Management Plan
Specifies who is responsible for achieving the benefits set out in the benefit profiles and how achievement of the benefits is to be measured, managed and monitored. The Benefits Management Plan is part of the program definition.

Benefits Profiles
Located in the program definition, the Benefits Profiles describe the planned benefits to be realized by the program. The benefits profile also states where, when and how they are to be realized.

Bottom Up Cost Estimating
This is the method of making estimates for every activity in the work breakdown structure and summarizing them to provide a total project cost estimate.

Brainstorming
The unstructured generation of ideas by a group of people.

Breakdown Structure
A hierarchical structure by which project elements are broken down, or decomposed. See also Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS) and Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

Budget
The planned cost for an activity or project.

Budget Cost
The cost anticipated at the start of a project.

Budget at Completion (BAC)
The sum total of the time-phased budget.

Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP)
A measure used in earned value management system that allows you to quantify the overall progress of the project in monetary terms. BCWP is calculated by applying a performance measurement factor to the planned cost. (By comparing BCWP with ACWP, it is possible to determine if the project is under or over budget.) Another term for BCWP is "earned value."

Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS)
The sum of the budgets for all planned work scheduled to be accomplished within a given time period. This term is often used to designate the cumulative to-date budget.

Budget Element
Budget elements are the same as resources -- the people, materials, or other entities needed to do the work of the program. For example, Engineer, Technician, Travel, and Pipe can all be budget elements. These budget elements can be validated against a Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS). Budget elements are typically assigned to a work package, but can also be defined at the cost account level.

Budget Estimate
See Estimate.

Budgeting
Time phased financial requirements.

Budget Unit
The budget unit is the base unit for the calculation. For example, the Engineer budget element might have a budget unit of hours. Since budget units are user defined, they can be any appropriate unit of measure. For example, a budget unit might be hours, dollars, linear feet, or tons.

Burden
Overhead expenses distributed over appropriate direct labor and/or material base.

Business Assurance
Ensuring that actual costs and elapsed time is in line with plan costs and schedule times and that the business case remains available.

Business Assurance Coordinator
A person in the project assurance team who is responsible for planning, monitoring and reporting on all business assurance aspects of a project.

Business Case
A document used to justify the commitment of resources to a project.

- C -

Calculate Schedule
The Critical Path Method (Calculate Schedule) is a modeling process that defines all the project's critical activities which must be completed on time. The Calc tool bar button on the Gantt and PERT (found in most GUI-based PM software) windows calculates the start and finish dates of activities in the project in two passes. The first pass calculates early start and finish dates from the earliest start date forward. The second pass calculates the late start and finish activities from the latest finish date backwards. The difference between the pairs of start and finish dates for each task is the float or slack time for the task (see FLOAT). Slack is the amount of time a task can be delayed without delaying the project completion date. A great advantage of this method is the fine-tuning that can be done to accelerate the project. Shorten various critical path activities, then check the schedule to see how it is affected by the changes. By experimenting in this manner, the optimal project schedule can be determined.

Calendar File
A file containing calendar information for one or more calendars.

Calendars
A project calendar lists time intervals in which activities or resources can or cannot be scheduled. A project usually has one default calendar for the normal work week (Monday through Friday for example), but may have other calendars as well. Each calendar can be customized with its own holidays and extra work days. Resources and activities can be attached to any of the calendars that are defined.

Case Structure
A breakdown of the project budget. Case numbers can be subdivided only twice to produce three levels: Case, Sub-Case, and Sub-Sub-Case.

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.

Change Requests
Change requests may arise through changes in the business or issues in the project. Change requests should be logged, assessed and agreed on before a commitment to the project can be made. Changes may be needed to the scope, design, methods or planned aspects of a project.

Chart of Accounts
Any numbering system, usually based on corporate chart of accounts of the primary performing organization, used to monitor project costs by category.

Child
A lower-level element in a hierarchical structure.

Chunk Chart
List of prioritized project work areas for a given case number and fiscal year as part of a Dept. of Energy (DOE) Defense programs (DP) Sector Project Data Document (PDD)

Close Out
The completion of work on a project.

Code File
A file used in reporting that contains information associated with codes entered on an activity record.

Commitment
A binding financial obligation typically in the form of a purchase order. If commitments are entered as a budget, a forecast using the method Retain EAC can show the open commitments.

Committed Costs
Costs that will still be incurred even if the project is terminated.

Communication
The transmission of information so that the recipient understands what the sender intends.

Communications Planning
Determining project stakeholders’ communication and information needs.

Completion Date
The date calculated by which the project could finish following careful estimating.

Compound Risk
A risk made up of a number of inter-related risks.

Concurrent Engineering
The systematic approach to the simultaneous, integrated design of products and their related processes, such as manufacturing, testing and supporting.

Configuration
The technical description needed to build, test, accept, operate install, maintain and support a system.

Configuration Item
A part a of configuration that has a set function and is designated for configuration management.

Configuration Librarian
Responsible for administering configuration management. The configuration librarian may be on a project team or have system responsibilities rather than project responsibilities.

Configuration Management
The process of defining the configuration items in a system, controlling the release and change of those items throughout the project, recording and reporting the status of configuration items, and verifying the completeness of configuration items.

Conflict Management
The ability to manage conflict effectively.

Constraints
Applicable restrictions that will affect the scope of the project.

Consumable Resource
A type of resource that remains available until consumed (for example, a material).

Contingency
A Contingency is the planned allotment of time and cost for unforeseeable elements with a project. Including contingencies will increase the confidence of the overall project.

Contingency Planning
The development of a management plan that uses alternative strategies to ensure project success if specified risk events occur.

Contract
A mutually binding agreement in which the contractor is obligated to provide services or products and the buyer is obligated to provide payment for them. Contracts fall into three categories: fixed price, cost reimbursable or unit price.

Contract Budget Base
The negotiated contract cost value plus the estimated value of authorized but unpriced work.

Contract Close-out
Settlement of a contract.

Contract Target Cost (CTC)
The negotiated costs for the original definitized contract and all contractual changes that have been definitized, but excluding the estimated cost of any authorized, unpriced changes. The CTC equals the value of the BAC plus management or contingency reserve.

Contract Target Price (CTP)
The negotiated estimated costs plus profit or fee.

Contract Work Breakdown Structure (CWBS)
A customer-prepared breakout or subdivision of a project typically down to level three which subdivides the project into all its major hardware, software, and service elements, integrates the customer and contractor effort, provides a framework for the planning, control, and reporting.

Control and Coordination
Control is the process of developing targets and plans; measuring actual performance and comparing it against planned performance and taking the steps to correct the situation. Coordination is the act of ensuring that work is being carried out in different organizations and places to fit together effectively in time, content and cost in order to achieve the project objectives effectively.

Control Charts
Control charts display the results, over time, of a process. They are used to determine if the process is in need of adjustment.

Control
Control is the process of comparing actual performance with planned performance, analyzing the differences, and taking the appropriate corrective action.

Controlling Relationship
The early dates of an activity is controlled either by a target date on the activity or, more normally, by one of the predecessor relationships. In the latter case, the relationship is called the controlling relationship.

Coordinated Matrix
An organizational structure where the project leader reports to the functional manager and doesn’t have authority over team members from other departments.

Corrective Action
Changes made to bring future project performance into the plan.

Cost
Cost can be divided into internal and external expenses. External costs can be controlled by contracts and budgets for each phase of a project and for each deliverable or work product. Internal cost is the cost of project resources.

Cost Account
A cost account is usually defined as the intersection of the program's work breakdown structure (WBS) and organizational breakdown structure (OBS). In effect, each cost account defines what work is to be performed and who will perform it. Cost accounts are the focal point for the integration of scope, cost, and schedule. Another term for Cost Account is Control Account.

Cost Account Manager (CAM)
A member of a functional organization responsible for cost account performance, and for the management of resources to accomplish such tasks.

Cost Account Plan (CAP)
The management control unit in which earned value performance measurement takes place.

Cost Benefit Analysis
The analysis of the potential costs and benefits of a project to allow comparison of the returns from alternative forms of investment.

Cost Breakdown Structure
A hierarchical structure that rolls budgeted resources into elements of costs, typically labor, materials and other direct costs.

Cost Budgeting
Allocating cost estimates to individual project components.

Cost Codes
Code assigned to activities that allow costs to be consolidated according to the elements of a code structure.

Cost Control Point
The point within a program at which costs are entered and controlled. Frequently, the cost control point for a program is either the cost account or the work package.

Cost Control System
Any system of keeping costs within the bounds of budgets or standards based upon work actually performed. Cost Control is typically a level in the budget element breakdown structure.

Cost Curve
A graph plotted against a horizontal time scale and cumulative cost vertical scale.

Cost Element
A unit of costs to perform a task or to acquire an item. The cost estimated may be a single value or a range of values.

Cost Estimating
The process of predicting the costs of a project.

Cost Incurred
Costs identified through the use of the accrued method of accounting or costs actually paid. Costs include direct labor, direct materials, and all allowable indirect costs.

Cost Management
The effective financial control of the project through evaluating, estimating, budgeting, monitoring, analyzing, forecasting and reporting the cost information.

Cost of Money
A form of indirect cost incurred by investing capital in facilities employed on government contracts.

Cost of Quality
The cost of quality planning, control, assurance and rework.

Cost Overrun
The amount by which a contractor exceeds or expects to exceed the estimated costs, and/or the final limitations (the ceiling) of a contract.

Cost Performance Report (CPR)
A monthly cost report generated by the performing contractor to reflect cost and schedule status information for management.

Cost Plus Fixed Fee Contract (CPFF)
A type of contract where the buyer reimburses the seller for the seller’s allowable costs plus a fixed fee.

Cost Plus Incentive Fee Contract (CPIFC)
A type of Contract where the buyer reimburses the seller for the seller's allowable costs and the seller earnes a profit if defined criteria are met.

Cost Reimbursement Type Contracts
A category of contracts based on payments to a contractor for allowable estimated costs, normally requiring only a "best efforts" performance standard from the contractor. Risk for all growth over the estimated value rests with the project owner.

Cost/Schedule Control Systems Criteria (C/SCSC)
Thiry-five defined standards which have been applied against private contractor management control systems since 1967 in order to insure the government that cost reimbursable and incentive type contracts are managed properly.

Cost/Schedule Planning and Control Specification (C/SPCS)
The United States Air Force inititative in the mid-1960's which later resulted in the C/SCSC.

Cost Schedule Status Report (C/SSR)
The low-end cost and schedule report generally imposed on smaller value contracts, not warranting full C/SCSC.

Cost Performance Index (CPI)
Ratio of work accomplished versus work cost incurred for a specified time period. The CPI is an efficiency rating for work accomplished for resources expended.

Cost Variance
The difference between the budgeted and actual cost of work performed.

Crashing
The process of reducing the time it takes to complete an activity by adding resources.

Critical Activity
An activity is termed critical when it has zero or negative float.

Criticality Index
Used in risk analysis, the criticality index represents the percentage of simulation trails that resulted in the activity being placed on the critical path.

Critical Path
Series of consecutive activities that represent the longest path through the project.

Critical Path Method (CPM)
A technique used to predict project duration by analyzing which sequence of activities has the least amount of scheduling flexibility. Early dates are figured by a forward pass using a specific start date and late dates are figured by using a backward starting from a completion date.

C/SCS
See Cost/Schedule Control Systems.

C/SCSC
See Cost/Schedule Control System Criteria.

Customer
Any person who defines needs or wants, justifies or pays for part or the entire project, or evaluates or uses the results.

Cutoff Date
The ending date in a reporting period.

CV
See cost variance.

- D -

Dangle
An activity or network which has either no predecessors or no successors. If neither, referred to as an isolated activity.

Data Type
The characteristic indicating whether a data item represents a number, date, character string, etc.

Delaying Resource
In resource scheduling, inadequate availability of one or more resources may require that the completion of an activity be delayed beyond the date on which it could otherwise be completed. The delaying resource is the first resource on an activity that causes the activity to be delayed.

Delegating
The process by which authority and responsibility is distributed from Project Manager to subordinates.

Deliverable
A report or product that must be completed and delivered to ensure satisfaction of contractual requirements.

Delphi Technique
A process where a consensus view is reached by consultation with experts. Often used as an estimating technique.

Dependencies
Dependencies are relationships between products or tasks. For example, one product may be made up of several other ‘dependent’ products or a task may not begin until a ‘dependent’ task is complete. See also logical relationship.

Dependency Links
Different types of links connecting activities in a precedence network.

Design and Development Phase
The time period in which production process and facility and production processes are developed and designed.

Detailed Plans
See Detailed Resource Plan and Detailed Technical Plan.

Detailed Resource Plan
A plan implemented when it’s necessary to plan and control a certain major activity within a stage. The plan sets costs and resource usage that correspond to the detailed technical plan.

Detailed Technical Plan
A plan used to give a specific breakdown of major activities. It exists in all but the smallest projects.

Deterministic Network
A network with no facilities to accommodate probabilistic dependencies. Precedence networks are said to be deterministic.

Direct Costs
Those costs (labor, material, and other direct costs) that can be consistently related to work performed on a particular project. Direct costs are best contrasted with indirect costs that cannot be identified to a specific project.

Discontinuous Activity
An activity in which the interval between the start and finish dates is allowed to exceed its duration in order to satisfy start-to-start and finish-to-finish relationships with other activities.

Discontinuous Processing
This option assigns the discontinuous attribute to all activities for a time analysis session, except where overridden by a specific activity type.

Discrete Effort
Tasks that have a specific measurable end product or end result. Discrete tasks are ideal for earned value measurement. See Work Package.

Discrete Milestone
A milestone that has a definite scheduled occurrence in time.

Duration
Duration is the length of time needed to complete an activity.

Duration Compression
Often resulting in an increase in cost, duration compression is the shortening of a project schedule without reducing the project scope.

- E -

EAC
See Estimate At Completion.

Earliest Feasible Date
The earliest date on which the activity could be scheduled to start based on the scheduled dates of all its predecessors, but in the absence of any resource constraints on the activity itself. This date is calculated by resource scheduling.

Early Dates
Calculated in the forward pass of time analysis, early dates are the earliest dates on which an activity can start and finish.

Early Finish
The Early Finish date is defined as the earliest calculated date on which an activity can end. It is based on the activity's Early Start which depends on the finish of predecessor activities and the activity's duration. (See EARLY START) Most PM software calculates early dates with a forward pass from the beginning of the project to the end.

Early Start
The Early Start date is defined as the earliest calculated date on which an activity can begin. It is dependent on when all predecessor activities finish. Most PM software calculates early dates with a forward pass from the beginning of the project to the end.

Earned Hours
The time in standard hours credited as a result of the completion of a given task or a group of tasks.

Earned Value
A cost control that allows you to quantify the overall progress of the project in monetary terms. Earned value is calculated by applying a performance measurement factor to the planned cost. Another term for earned value is Budget Cost of Work Performed.

Earned Value Analysis
Analysis of project progress where the actual money budgeted and spent is compared to the value of the work achieved.

Earned Value Cost Control
The quantification of the overall progress of a project in dollar terms so as to provide a realistic yardstick against which to compare the actual cost to date.

Earned Value Management
A management technique that relates resource planning to schedules and to technical cost and schedule requirements. All work is planned, budgeted, and scheduled in time-phased increments constituting a cost and schedule measurement baseline.

Effort
The number of labor units necessary to complete the work. Effort is usually expressed in staffhours, staffdays or staffweeks and should not be confused with duration.

Effort-Driven Activity
An effort-driven activity provides the option to determine activity duration through resource usage. The resource requiring the greatest time to complete the specified amount of work on the activity will determine its duration.

Effort Remaining
The estimate of effort remaining to complete an activity.

Elapsed Time
Elapsed time is the total number of calendar days (excluding non-work days such as weekends or holidays) that is needed to complete an activity. It gives a "real world view" of how long an activity is scheduled to take for completion.

End Activity
An activity with no logical successors.

Engineering Cost Estimate
A detailed cost estimate of the work and related burdens, usually made by industrial engineering or price/cost estimating. Another term for Engineering Cost Estimate is Bottom-up Cost Estimate.

Enterprise-Wide
Across an entire sector of technology, business area, etc.

Estimate
The prediction of the quantitative result. It is usually applied to project costs, resources and durations.

Estimate At Completion (EAC)
A value expressed in either dollars and /or hours, to represent the projected final costs of work when completed. The EAC is calculated as ETC + ACWP.

Estimate To Complete (ETC)
The value expressed in either dollars or hours developed to represent the cost of the work required to complete a task. Cobra calculates the ETC by subtracting the budgeted cost of work performed from the budget at complete. The ETC is calculated as BAC - BCWP.

Estimating
The act of combining the results of post project reviews, metrics, consultation and informed assessment to arrive at time and resource requirements for an activity.

ETC
See Estimate to Complete.

Event
A point that is the beginning or end of an activity and identified by the I-node or J-node respectively.

Exceptions
Those items that exceed the pre-defined acceptable cost and/or schedule variance.

Expected Monetary Value
A measure of probabilistic value. The EMV is calculated by multiplying each outcome value by its probability and adding all of the results together. It can be calculated using a formula shown here.

Expenditure
A charge against available funds, evidenced by a voucher, claim, or other documents. Expenditures represent the actual payment of funds.

Extended Subsequent Applications Review (ESAR)
A formal review performed in lieu of a full C/SCSC demonstration review, when contractor conditions have changed or when programs change

External Constraint
An external constraint on a project could be any factor that affects the ability to complete the project on time, on budget, or on scope.