Appendix A: Project and OPM Definitions

The following Project and Portfolio Management definitions have been excerpted and expanded on from the Project Management Institute’s (PMI’s) Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide).1

• Adaptive: Product developed iteratively, detailed scope defined for each iteration as it begins.
• Adaptive Life Cycle: For example, Agile Methods or Change-Driven, respond to lots of change and stakeholder involvement. Adaptive also interactive and incremental, but iterations have fixed costs and time (2–4 weeks), performing multiple processes in each iteration. Early iterations focus on planning, with particular emphasis on:
  • Scope decomposed into requirements and WBS (work breakdown structure): product backlog.
  • Each iteration begins with prioritizing which high-priority items can be delivered and ends with a delivered product for the customer to review; should have finished, complete, usable features.
  • Sponsor and/or customer representative provides feedback on deliverables and status of backlog items.
  • Preferred in rapidly changing environments, when scope and requirements difficult to obtain.
• Business Case: An evaluation of the potential impact a problem or opportunity has on the organization to determine if it is worthwhile investing the resources to correct the problem or take advantage of the opportunity. An example of the results of the business case analysis of the software upgrade could be that it would improve the software’s performance as stated in the value proposition, but (a) it would decrease overall customer satisfaction by an estimated three percentage points, (b) require 5 percent more task processing time, and (c) reduce system maintenance costs only $800 a year. As a result the business case did not recommend including the project in the portfolio of active programs. Often the business case is prepared by an independent group, thereby, giving a fresh unbiased analysis of the benefits and costs related to completing the project or program.
• Business Objectives: Business objectives are used to define what the organization wishes to accomplish, often over the next 5 to 10 years.
• Business Plan: A formal statement of a set of business goals, the reason they are believed to be obtainable, and the plan for reaching these goals. It also contains background information about the organization and/or services that the organization provides as viewed by the outside world.
• Business Value: Entire value of the business; total sum of tangible (assets, fixtures, equity, utility) and intangible elements (goodwill, recognition, public benefit, trademarks): short-, medium-, or long–term.
• Change Agenda: A literal agenda of events that gets distributed as part of the Enrollment Plan to all prospective change agents (CAs). It sets the stage for meetings or conference calls held with CAs to explain the purpose, scope, and milestones of the project; engage them in a dialog to enroll them in the effort; explain their roles; and show them how they will be active participants in crafting the plan for change.
• Change Control Board: In Information Technology and software development, a Change Control Board (CCB) or Change Control Committee is a committee that makes decisions regarding whether or not proposed changes to a project should be implemented, evaluating potential impacts to stakeholder groups or other systems. In many cases, the CCB also reviews results of implemented changes, and evaluates corrective actions in the event planned changes have any adverse impacts.
• Closing: Lessons learned, final project audits, project evaluations, product validations, acceptance criteria.
• Common Experiences: Shared mission, vision, values (MVV), beliefs; regulations, process/policy/procedure (PPP); common recognition and reward system; risk tolerance; view of leadership/authority; code of conduct, work ethic, hours; operating environments.
• Critical Success Factors: These are the key things that the organization must do extremely well to overcome today’s problems and the roadblocks to meeting the vision statements.
• Effective: An output from a process or sub-process that meets the needs and expectations of end user of the output. Effectiveness is having the right output at the right place at the right time at the right price.
• Executing, Monitoring, and Controlling: Change control procedures; financial control procedures (time reporting, expense and disbursement reviews, accounting codes, standard contract provisions); issue and defect management procedures for identification, action item tracking, and resolution; communication requirements; prioritization, approval and issuing work authorizations, risk control procedures, probability, and impact matrix; standard guidelines, work instructions, proposal, and performance measurement criteria.
• Initiating and Planning: Guidelines, criteria for using organization P&P (policies and procedures) on the project; organization standards/policies (HR, health and safety, ethics, PM policies); product, project life cycles; quality P&Ps (audits, checklists standard process definitions).
• Initiating Sponsor: Individual/group who has the power to initiate and legitimize the change for all of the affected individuals.
• Iterative and Incremental: Project phases/iterations repeat project activities as the team’s knowledge and understanding of the product increases. Iterations develop the product in repeated cycles. Increments add to the functionality in succession. All PM Groups performed.
  • Deliverable(s) produced at the end of each iteration, each iteration incrementally building the deliverables until the exit criteria for the phase are met. The project team processes feedback.
  • High-level vision prepared, but detailed scope is elaborated one iteration at a time, planning for the next as work is being done on the current iteration (managing and confining the scope).
  • Preferred for projects with changing objectives and scope, to reduce complexity, or when partial delivery is beneficial and does not impact the final outcome deliverable(s). Reduces risk on large, complex projects by incorporating lessons learned between iterations.
• Knowledge Base: Including configuration management, versions, and baselines; financial (hours, costs, budgets, overruns); lessons learned; issue/defect databases; process data; prior project files.
• Mission Statement: The stated reason for the existence of the organization. It is usually prepared by the CEO and key members of the executive team and succinctly states what they will achieve or accomplish. It typically is changed only when the organization decides to pursue a completely new market.
• Ongoing work: A repetitive process following existing procedures.
• Operations: Ongoing work, production of goods and services. Generally out of scope from a project/program/portfolio management standpoint. Operational stakeholders should be added to the stakeholder register and their influence (pro or con) addressed as a Risk.
• Organization: any group of people who work together to produce an output. It can be a team, a department, a division, or the total company.
• Organizational Goals: The organization’s goals document the desired, quantified, and measurable results that the organization wants to accomplish in a set period of time to support its business objectives. (For example, increase sales at a minimum rate of 12 percent per year for the next 10 years with an overall average annual growth rate of 13 percent). Goals should be specific rather than general so that there is no ambiguity.
• Organizational Master Plan: The combination and alignment of an organization’s Business Plan, Strategic Business Plan, Combined Performance Acceleration Management (PAM) Plan, and Annual Operating Plan.
• Organizational planning: Impacts projects; prioritization based on risk, funding, impact on strategic plan objectives.
• Organizational Portfolio Management (OPM): Improves organization capability, linking Project/Program/Portfolio Management with organizational facilitators—structural, cultural, technological, HR practices—to support strategic goals. To apply this methodology, organizations must first measure capabilities, then plan and implement improvements.
• Organizational Process Assets: “Plans, policies, procedures and processes, and knowledge bases specific to or used by the performing organization.” Any artifact, practice, or knowledge used on the project policies, procedures, and processes.
• Organizational Project Management (OPM): A strategy execution framework utilizing OPM with organization-enabling practices to execute the strategic plan, improve performance and results. Competitive advantage OPM improves organization capability linking Project/Program/Portfolio Management with organizational facilitators—structural, cultural, technological, HR practices—to support strategic goals. To apply this methodology, organizations must first measure capabilities, then plan and implement improvements.
• Organizations: “Systematic arrangements of entities (people, departments) aimed at accomplishing a purpose, which may involve undertaking projects.”
• Policy: A principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is an intent to govern, and is implemented as a procedure. Policies are generally adopted by the Board of Directors or senior governance body within an organization, whereas, procedures are developed and adopted by senior managers. Policies can assist in both subjective and objective decision making.
• Portfolio: A centralized collection of independent projects or programs that are grouped together to facilitate their prioritization, effective management, and resource optimization in order to meet strategic organizational objectives.
• Portfolio Components: Constituent programs, projects, and other related work. Status reports, lessons learned, and change requests roll up to the portfolio.
• Portfolio Development Team: Review/prioritize projects and programs for resource allocation, aligned to organizational strategies.
• Portfolio Leader: A senior project manager qualified and appointed to manage multiple concurrent and interdependent subportfolios, programs, and projects. Portfolio leader roles are typically awarded to program managers with years of demonstrated success organizing and managing programs with multimillion-dollar budgets allocated from (and aligned to) the organization’s key Strategic Objectives. (See also Portfolio Management.)
• Portfolio Management: Aligns organizational strategy by prioritizing programs and projects, prioritizing work, and allocating resources. It is the “centralized management of one or more portfolios to achieve strategic objectives.”
• Portfolio Manager: A senior project manager qualified and appointed to manage multiple concurrent and interdependent subportfolios, programs, and projects. Portfolio manager roles are typically awarded to program managers with years of demonstrated success organizing and managing programs with multimillion-dollar budgets allocated from (and aligned to) the organization’s key Strategic Objectives. (See also Portfolio Management.)
• Predictive: Plan-driven product and deliverables defined at the beginning and scope carefully managed.
• Predictive Life Cycle: For example, requirements, feasibility, planning, design, construct, test, turnover; preferred when the outcome is well understood, a base of industry practice exists, or the outcome needs to be delivered in full in order to have value to stakeholders:
  • Rolling wave planning: General macro plan created, then more detailed planning as resources need to be assigned for specific phases.
• Process: “A set of interrelated actions and activities performed to create a prespecified product, service, or result.” Each process is comprised of inputs, outputs, tools, and techniques, with constraints (environmental factors), guidance, and criteria (organizational process assets) taken into consideration.
  • Select appropriate processes to meet project objectives, adapt a defined approach to meet requirements, communicate/engage stakeholders, meet needs, balance constraints.
  • Project Management processes: Ensure flow throughout the project life cycle, include tools and techniques to apply the PM skills and capabilities.
  • Product-oriented processes: Specify and create the product, defined by project life cycle, vary by application area and project phase. Required to define the scope but not defined in PMBOK.1
• Program: Defined as “a group of related projects, subprograms, and program activities managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually.” May include work outside the scope of projects within. A program will always have projects.
• Program Management: Harmonizing projects and program components, controlling interdependencies to achieve benefits outlined in the value proposition. Program Management is the application of tools/techniques and skills/knowledge to meet program requirements, to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually.
  • Focuses on project interdependencies.
  • Resolving resource constraints/conflicts among projects.
  • Aligning strategic direction to impact policies, procedures, processes, goals, and objectives.
  • Resolving issues and change management within governance structure.
• Program Manager: A project manager qualified and appointed to manage multiple concurrent projects. Program managers are typically responsible for organizing and managing the projects under a unifying program to best manage constrained resources across multiple projects. (See also Program Management.)
• Project: Defined as “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.”1 No never-ending projects. Projects must have a defined beginning and end. Projects can create a product, service, improvement, or result, e.g., a plan or document.
• Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) Systems: PPM software enables centralized management of processes, methods, and technologies by project managers and Project Management Offices (PMOs) to concurrently analyze and manage all proposed and active projects.
• Project Champion: An organizational leader with a demonstrated stake in the implementation and sustainability of a portfolio, program, project, or product. Champions will generally exert their influence to remove barriers to success and break down resistance to change. Ideally they will align with other leaders to ensure enrollment and adoption throughout the organization.
• Project Life Cycle: “The series of phases a project passes through from initiation to closure.” Starting, organizing and preparing, project work, closing; cost and staffing levels low at the start and end; risk and uncertainty greatest at the start; ability to influence highest at start; later changes cost more.
• Project Management: The application of tools/techniques and skills/knowledge to meet project requirements. Project Management develops plans to achieve goals within scope, within the portfolio’s goals. PMI suggests there are 47 unique project management processes within five Process Groups:
  • Initiating, planning, executing, monitoring/controlling, and closing.
  • ID requirements, address stakeholder needs, communications, managing stakeholders and creating deliverables, and balancing constraints:
    • Scope, quality, resources, budget, schedule, risks
    • Changes in one factor impact the other, e.g., scope change impact on budget, schedule
    • Changing project requirements, objectives, or schedule may create risks
• Project Management Office (PMO): “Management structure that standardizes the project-related governance processes and facilitates the sharing of resources, methodologies, tools, and techniques.”
  • Supportive (templates, project repository); controlling (compliance); directive (managing).
  • Liaison between process/policy/procedure (PPP) and corporate measurement systems—balanced scorecard.
  • Managing shared resources across all projects within the PMO.
  • PM methodology, best practices.
  • Training and oversight.
  • Monitoring compliance via project audits.
  • Policies, procedures, and templates.
  • Communication across projects.
  • Major scope changes.
  • Optimizes shared organizational resources across all projects.
  • Manage methodologies, standards, overall risks/opportunities, metrics, and interdependencies among enterprise projects.
• Project Management Plan (PMP): This is iterative due to the potential for change. Progressively elaborated throughout the project life cycle, improving and detailing the plan as information and estimates become available, defining and managing work at a detailed level as the project progresses.
• Project Management Processes: Ensure flow throughout the project life cycle, include tools and techniques to apply the PM skills and capabilities.
• Project Management Process Group: “A logical grouping of Project Management inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs. PM Process Groups are not project phases.” Project life cycle is categorized in five process groups:
  1. 1. Initiating: Processes performed to define and authorize a new project or phase to start. Outcomes include scope and charter, overall outcome, stakeholders, project manager, and team.
     1. a. Business case assessment, approval, and funding are external to project boundaries, although the team may be involved in the Business Case development.
     2. b. Project Boundary: Point where “the start or completion of the project or phase is authorized.”
     3. c. Key purpose of Initiation is to align stakeholder expectations with project purpose and enroll them in the scope and objectives to illustrate how they can impact the success of the project.
  2. 2. Planning: Processes required to scope, refine objectives, define actions to meet objectives.
  3. 3. Executing: Processes performed to complete the tasks in the project plan to meet project objectives.
  4. 4. Monitoring and Controlling: Ongoing “background” processes required to track, review, and regulate the project progress and success in all five process stages. ID changes, evaluate, scope, and initiate changes.
  5. 5. Closing: Processes performed to finalize all activities and formally close out the project (or phase).
• Project Manager: An organizational employee, representative, or consultant appointed to prepare project plans and organize the resources required to complete a project, prior to, during, and upon closure of the project life cycle. (See also Project Management, Project Life Cycle.)
• Project Phase: “A collection of logically related project activities that culminate in the completion of one or more deliverables.” Unique to a portion of the project or a major deliverable. Most or all process groups may be executed in each. Completed sequentially, but may overlap. Phase characteristics include:
  • Distinct focus of work from other phases; organizations, location, or skill sets may differ.
  • The Phase objective requires unique controls or processes for that phase.
  • All five Process Groups may be executed to provide added control and boundaries.
  • Phase closure includes transfer or hand-off of the deliverable, i.e., tollgate, milestone, phase review. Requires approval in most cases.
  • May be sequential, overlapping, or predictive (fully plan-driven with overlapping phases).
  • Phase examples: concept development, feasibility study, planning, design, prototype, build, test.
• Project/Program Manager and Portfolio Leader Competencies: Includes knowledge, performance, personal effectiveness. PMs focus on specific project objectives, control assigned project resources, and manage constraints.
• Project Success: Completing the project within constraints of scope, time, cost, quality, resources, and risk (as approved by PMs and senior management); the last baseline approved.
• Project Team: Includes PM, staff, team members. Roles include subject-matter experts, user/customer representatives, sellers, business partners.
• Project Team Manager: An organizational leader with a demonstrated stake in the implementation and sustainability of a portfolio, program, project, or product. The Project Team manager will generally exert his/her influence to remove barriers to success and break down resistance to change. Separate from the project manager, this is the individual who gives technical and political direction to the individuals working on a specific project/program. Ideally he/she will align with other leaders to ensure enrollment and adoption throughout the organization, and ensure his or her direct reports are working in support of the portfolio.
• Software as a Service (SaaS): A licensing and delivery model where software is licensed, centrally hosted, and made available as a service, typically on a subscription basis.
• Stakeholder: “An individual, group, or organization that may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project.” The project team and any “interested entities” internal or external: sponsor, customers and users, sellers, business partners, organizational groups, functional managers, other (financial, government, SMEs, consultants).
• Strategic Business Plan: This plan focuses on what the organization is going to do to grow its market share. It is designed to answer the questions: What do we do? How can we beat the competition? It is directed at the product?
• Strategy: It defines the way the mission will be accomplished. Using a well-defined strategy provides management with a thought pattern that helps it better utilize equipment and direct resources toward achieving specific goals. (For example, “The company will identify new customer markets within the United States and concentrate on expanding markets in the Pacific Rim countries.”)
• Sustaining Sponsor: The individual/group that has the political, logistical, and economic proximity to the individuals affected by a new project/activity.
• System: the organizational structure, responsibilities, procedures, and resources needed to conduct a major function within an organization or to support a common business need. It is a group of processes that are required to complete a task that may or may not be connected.
• Value: The basic beliefs or principles upon which the organization is founded and that make up its organizational culture. They are prepared by top management and are rarely changed because they must be statements that the stakeholders hold and depend on as being sacred to the organization.
• Value Proposition: A document based on a review and an analysis of the benefits, costs, and value that an organization or an individual project or program can deliver to its internal/external customers, prospective customers, and other constituent groups within and outside the organization. It is also a positioning of value, where Value = Benefits – Cost (where cost includes risk).
• Vision Statement: Provides a view of the future desired state or condition of an organization. (A vision should stretch the organization to become the best that it can be.) The vision statement provides an effective tool to help develop objectives.

Reference

1. Project Management Institute. 2013. A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), 5th ed. Newtown Square, PA: PMI.