C

Commercial off the shelf (COTS) A software application that is purchased from a reseller, vendor, or manufacturer.

Communications management plan Documents the types of information needs the stakeholders have, when the information should be distributed, and how the information will be delivered.

Communications planning This Planning process determines the communication needs of the stakeholders, when and how the information will be received, and who will receive the information.

Comprehensive project plan Integrates all planning data into one document that the project manager can be use as a guidebook to oversee the project work during the Execution and Controlling phases.

Configuration management Describes the characteristics of the product of the project and ensures the description is accurate and complete. Controls changes to the characteristics of an item, and tracks the changes made or requested and their status. It is usually a subset of the change control process in most organizations, or it may serve as the change control system.

Constrained optimization models Decision models that use complex principles of statistics and other mathematical concepts to assess a proposed project.

Constraint Anything that either restricts the actions of the project team or dictates the actions of the project team.

Contingency reserve An amount of money or time set aside and dedicated to the project to be used to cover unforeseen costs within the original scope of the project that were not identified as part of the planning process.

Contract A legal document that covers the work that will be done, how the work will be compensated, and any penalties for noncompliance .

Contract administration The process of monitoring vendor performance and ensuring all the requirements of the contract are met.

Contract closeout The process of completing and settling the terms of the contract and determining whether the work described in the contract was completed accurately and satisfactorily.

Control chart A graph of the variance of several samples of the same process over time based on a mean, an upper control limit, and a lower control limit.

Cost baseline The expected cost of the project from the planning phase. Used as a comparison to actual project expenses.

Cost-benefit analysis A commonly used benefit measurement method that calculates the cost, the projected savings, and projected revenue of a project.

Cost budgeting Assigning cost estimates to activities and creating the cost baseline, which measures the variance and performance of the project throughout the project's life.

Cost control Managing the changes to project costs using the cost change control system.

Cost estimating Developing an approximation of the cost of resources needed for each project activity.

Cost of quality The cost of all of the work required to assure the project meets the quality standards. The three costs associated with the cost of quality are prevention costs, appraisal costs, and failure costs.

Cost performance index (CPI) A project tracking mechanism that compares the budgeted cost to the actual cost using ratios. The formula is CPI = EV/AC.

Cost reimbursable contract Provides a seller with payment of all costs incurred to deliver the product and includes a fee to cover the seller's profit.

Cost variance The difference between a task's estimated (budgeted) cost and its actual cost.

Crashing Adding resources to a project to reduce the time it takes to complete the project.

Critical path (CP) The longest path through the project's network diagram that's made up of activities with zero float.

Critical path method (CPM) A schedule development method that determines a single early and late start date, early and late finish date, and float for each activity on the project.

Customer The recipient of the product or service created by the project. In some organizations this stakeholder may also be referred to as the client.