Project Management Glossary of Terms

Every new project you'll undertake starts here. Time is money, and the baseline is both. It is the original cost and schedule you set for your project. We'll tell you a secret: no project goes exactly as planned. The baseline will help you determine how far team has deviated from the original plan. Based on this knowledge, you'll be able to better estimate the time and resources your team needs to complete the next project.

Project constraints are the limitations of your project. Like road signs, they tell you what you can and cannot do. Before you start a project, it's important to carefully evaluate all of your constraints. Don't miss any blind spots; make sure you assess cost, human resources, time limits, quality, and potential ROI.

The critical path method is used to model projects. According to Professor Scott E. Page from the University of Michigan, thinking with models helps you outperform those who do not. Don't forget to include these factors in your model: all tasks necessary to complete the project, time estimations for each step, task dependencies, and final milestones or deliverables. By taking all of these factors into account, CPM helps you calculate your optimal timeline to intelligently plan every project.

Sometimes referred to as "slack." It's the amount of time you can potentially burn on a task before affecting the project timeline. Float is the extra cushioning protecting your deadlines. Note that items on your Critical Path will have "zero free float" and if you want to maintain your schedule they cannot be delayed.

Meet your lifesaver. This horizontal bar chart was devised by Henry Gantt at the turn of the twentieth century and was used to visualize project schedules by project managers all over the world ever since. It includes start and end dates for a project, and illustrates task dependencies. We, at Wrike, are proud of our cool, interactive Gantt chart. It helps you update project schedules, due dates, and dependencies with a quick drag-and-drop!

The measurable indicators of where your project stands, like timed laps around a track. When you set benchmarks for success in the beginning of a project, it's easier to check them off along the way. "Did we hit 10,000 page views today? Make 50 sales calls this week? And what about the revenue, has it doubled yet?" And while you obviously can't determine project success by numbers alone, it's helpful to use your KPIs to navigate the project path and, if needed, easily get back on course.

Your project portfolio is much like any other portfolio. It contains all of your best work as an easy reference tool so that you can properly manage your resources. It keeps all of the processes, methods, and technologies right at your hand. With the help of PPM you can mix-and-match your resources for optimal planning before a new project begins.

They're all you've got. Literally. Your project resources are anything and everything you need to complete your task. They may include people, tools, money, facilities, or other tangible necessities.

For project managers, scope is the information and work required to complete a project. Gather your "how-to"s before jumping in blind - How will we fund it? What are our milestones? How will we define success? Documenting your project scope should be a part of your planning process. Controlling it becomes the challenge once you have begun.

Everything seems to be going fine, but then those little issues sneak up on you and suddenly everything is wrong. Maybe it's the uncontrolled growth of a project. Or the new feature you add to your project plan without updating the constraints. This is scope creep and it usually appears near the end of your project timeline. If it occurs, you risk overspending or missing deadlines. Update your budget, schedule, and resources with every project addition to eliminate scope creep before it can surprise you.

The people who have an interest in the completion of the project. Your team, your investors, your boss. Simple as that.

The key to the WISA is to anticipate many different possible project outcomes and create solutions before they occur. Examples include a delayed deliverable, going over budget, or a change in available resources. By preparing for those "what-if" situations, you will be able to act quickly in any situation.

This is how you break down your work into smaller deliverables. It is a hierarchical tree structure that builds up to a final product. In Wrike you can build this hierarchy by creating sub-folders for your projects. Have you heard of small wins? Reducing projects into bite-sized pieces can help boost your team's productivity. Start with your overall project folder, and break it down further and further until you can effortlessly manage its every component.