N

Net present value (NPV) Evaluation of the cash inflows using the discounted cash flow technique, which is applied to each period the inflows are expected. The total present value of the cash flows is deducted from the initial investment; assumes that cash inflows are reinvested at the cost of capital. Similar to discounted cash flows.

Network diagram A depiction of project activities and the interrelationships between these activities.

Network operating system (NOS) Server software that allows the creation of network user accounts, and provides other functionality such as network printing, etc.

Normalization The process of reducing data elements in a database to their base elements so as to reduce redundancy. Typically many different tables will be needed in a database system to accommodate the various sections of data.

Normalizing The process of normalizing a database ( see normalization).