C

calendar

The settings that define the working days and time for a project, resources, and tasks.

consolidated project

A Project plan that contains one or more inserted project plans. The inserted projects are linked to the consolidated project so that any changes to the inserted projects are reflected in the consolidated plan, and vice versa. A consolidated project plan is also known as a master project plan.

constraint

A restriction, such as Must Start On (MSO) or Finish No Later Than (FNLT), that you can place on the start or finish date of a task.

contour

The manner in which a resource’s work on a task is scheduled over time. Project includes several predefined work contours that you can apply to an assignment. For example, a back-loaded contour schedules a small amount of work at the beginning of an assignment and then schedules increasing amounts of work as time progresses. You can also manually contour an assignment by editing work values in a usage view, such as the Resource Usage. Applying a predefined contour or manually contouring an assignment causes Project to display a work contour icon in the Indicators column.

Copy Picture

The feature that enables you to copy images and create snapshots of a view.

cost rate table

The resource pay rates that are stored on the Costs tab of the Resource Information dialog box. You can have up to five separate cost rate tables per resource.

cost

The resources required to carry out a project, including the people who do the work, the equipment used, and the materials consumed as the work is completed. Cost is one side of the project triangle model.

CPI

An earned value indicator; the acronym stands for Cost Performance Index. In earned value analysis, this is the ratio of budgeted to actual cost (CPI = BCWP / ACWP).

critical path

A series of tasks that, if delayed, will push out the end date of a project.

CVAn earned value indicator; the acronym stands for Cost Variance. In earned value analysis, this is the difference between budgeted and actual cost (CV = BCWP – ACWP).

CV%

The ratio of cost variance to BCWS, expressed as a percentage (CV% = [(BCWP – ACWP) / BCWP] 100). This is an earned value indicator.