Glossary

     

ACWP (Actual Cost of Work Performed)

The cost of the actual work performed to date on the task or project, including any accrued task fixed costs. This is one of the measures used in the earned value system of tracking progress.

ALAP (As Late As Possible)

This is one of the constraints that Project can put on a task. It is the opposite of As Soon As Possible (ASAP). An ALAP constraint tells Project to ensure that the task starts as late in the project as is possible, taking the task's dependencies into account.

ASAP (As Soon As Possible)

This is a constraint that tells Project to make sure the task starts as soon as its dependencies allow.

BAC (Budget At Completion)

This is a term used in earned value calculations and is the total planned cost of a task or project at the end of that task or project. It is also known in Project as Baseline Cost.

BCWP (Budgeted Cost of Work Performed)

This is a calculation involved with earned value tracking; it's also known as the earned value of the task or project. It is a measure of the value in dollars of the amount of work that has been completed on a task or project.

BCWS (Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled)

This earned value measure represents the cost of the work that was planned to be completed. This is then compared to BCWP to see whether the project is on track.

CV (Cost Variance)

This earned value measure represents the difference between scheduled cost and baseline cost. In Project, this would be the difference between the Cost field and the Baseline Cost field.

EAC (Estimate At Completion)

This is a counterpart to BAC in that BAC deals with the baseline cost, and EAC deals with the currently scheduled costs. EAC is the currently scheduled cost of the task or project at the end of that task or project.

actual

Denotes something that has already been done. For example, there is Work and Actual Work. Work is the amount of effort that is scheduled to be done on a task or project. Actual Work for that same task or project is the amount of work that has already been completed.

Actual Cost of Work Performed

See [ACWP]

As Late As Possible

See [ALAP]

As Soon As Possible

See [ASAP]

base calendar

A calendar upon which other calendars can be built. For example, there is a base calendar in Project called Standard. Suppose the calendar for the resource Steve is built on this base calendar. Any changes to the Standard base calendar will automatically be reflected in Steve's calendar, but I can still customize Steve's calendar without editing the base calendar.

baseline

A copy of a set of other fields in a project that is used for comparison. You set a baseline just before starting the project so that you can later compare the current state of the project to what your estimates were when you started.

baseline cost

The value of the Cost field at the time the baseline was saved. It is then used as the project progresses to compare with the current state of the Cost field, to determine whether the project is on track with the original estimates of cost (represented by the baseline cost).

Budget At Completion

See [BAC]

Budgeted Cost of Work Performed

See [BCWP]

Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled

See [BCWS]

calendar

A calendar in Project defines the periods during a day that Project will define as working time for those using that calendar. A calendar might define the hours between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. as working time, with a one- hour gap at 12 noon for lunch . Any resource, task, or project assigned to use that calendar would define those hours as working time and all other hours in that day as nonworking time.

combination view

Any view that is made up of two other views. For example, you can have a combination view that includes the Gantt Chart view in the top pane and the Task Usage view in the lower pane. When this combination view is applied, it will automatically apply both of these views.

constraint

Normally (without a constraint applied), Project can adjust the start or finish dates of a task based on changing schedule data. A constraint limits Project's ability to shift dates on tasks by associating a task's start or finish date with a particular date. For example, a task can have a Must Start On (MSO) constraint with a date of 5/1. This means that Project will not move the start of this task away from 5/1, even if the schedule dictates that it should.

cost

A measure representing the value in currency of the work done on a task or project, or the work being done by a resource. It is generally made up of the work on the task multiplied by the rate of the resources and then added to any fixed costs associated with the task.

critical path

The critical path is the task or linked series of tasks that determines the finish date of the project. If the finish date of a task on the critical path slips at all, the finish date of the whole project slips as well.

critical

A task is critical if it is on the critical path.

dependency

A common-use term for a predecessor\successor link between two tasks.

See also [link]

detail task

See [subtask]

duration

The number of time periods (commonly days) between the start date and finish date of a task. Whereas work is the amount of effort required to finish a task, duration is the amount of time in which that work must be performed.

duration variance

The difference between the baseline duration and the duration.

earned value

A statistical method of tracking the progress of a project, it compares how much money the baseline says should have been spent up to a certain date with the amount of money that actually has been spent to that date.

Earned Value Cost Variance

See [CV]

Effort Driven

A task setting that controls how Project will distribute task work.

Estimate At Completion ( EAC )

Earlier versions of Project set the EAC field equal to the Cost field. It is now calculated as follows :

EAC = ACWP + (BAC - BCWP)/CPI

EAC is the estimated cost of the task or project based on the cost of the task up to the status date.

finish date

The date on which the task or project will be complete.

Finish-to-Finish link

A dependency link that dictates that the successor task cannot finish until the predecessor task has finished.

Finish-to-Start link

A dependency link that says that the successor task cannot start until the predecessor task has finished. This is the most commonly used link type.

Fixed Cost

A task field used to account for costs other than those associated with resources.

Fixed Duration

A task type that dictates that the duration of a task will stay fixed in response to edits made to either the Work or Units values.

Fixed Units

A task type that dictates that the Units values of the assignments on a task will stay constant when task Work or Duration values are edited.

Fixed Work

A task type that keeps the task Work value constant when the Duration or Unit values are edited.

float

See [ slack ]

Gantt chart

A timephased bar chart graphic display of tasks. Each bar represents a single task, and is drawn from the start date to the finish date.

ID

A number assigned to each task, resource, and assignment that helps users distinguish one from another.

lag

A delay associated with a predecessor\successor link between two tasks. For example, a lag of one day on a Finish-to-Start link says that the start of the successor task cannot start until one day after the finish date of the predecessor task.

leveling

Also known as resource leveling , this is the practice of lowering the workload of a resource that has been assigned to work more hours in a time period than the calendar says are available to work.

leveling delay

The amount of time added to the start date of a task to move the task for leveling resources.

link

A relationship between two tasks that forms a predecessor\successor dependency.

milestone

A point in time and a task that has no Duration value. Milestones are used to mark the beginning and end of phases and other significant events.

Network Diagram

A type of view in Project that was formerly known as the PERT chart. These views display tasks as boxes containing task data. They are especially well-suited for visualizing the relationship between tasks.

nonworking time

Any day on a resource or task calendar that is not marked as working time. Project will not schedule work on a nonworking day. Weekends are set as nonworking time by default.

See also [working time]

overallocation

If any resource is assigned to tasks for which the Assignment Units value for a given time period adds up to more than the resource's Max Units value, that resource is considered to be overallocated.

effort

See [work]

Percent Complete

Percentage of the task or project's duration. It is calculated as Actual Duration/Duration x 100.

Percent Work Complete

Percentage of the task or project's Work value. It is calculated as Actual Work/Work x 100.

Physical Percent Complete

A noncalculated measure of task or project completion used as an optional measure for calculation of earned value metrics.

predecessor

The task in a predecessor\successor relationship that must start or finish before the successor can start or finish.

priority

A measure of a task's relative importance to the completion of the project. In Project, the task priority is also used in one resource leveling method to let users control which tasks will have delay added. Higher priority tasks are delayed after lower priority tasks.

resource

Any person, machine, piece of equipment, or material used to complete the work on a task.

resource contouring

The way in which Assignment Total Work is distributed across the duration of the assignment. For example, an assignment might be 80 hours across two weeks. In a "flat" contour, the work would be evenly divided across the 10 days of duration, 8 hours each day for 10 days. However, a resource could be assigned to work 12 hours per day for the first six days, and then 4 hours a day for the last four days.

resource leveling

See [leveling]

slack

The number of units of Duration (days by default) that a task can slip into the future before the finish date of the project is also delayed. A task with zero days of slack is considered to be on the critical path.

start date

The date on which a task or assignment starts.

Start-to-Finish dependency

A dependency link that dictates that the successor task cannot finish until the predecessor task has started. This is an uncommon and rarely used link type.

Start-to-Start dependency

A dependency that dictates that the successor task cannot start until the predecessor task has also started.

subtask

A subtask is a task that is part of a summary task. The subtasks define the values of the summary task.

successor

The task in a predecessor\successor relationship that cannot start or finish until after the predecessor has started or finished.

summary task

A task that is defined by the values of the tasks indented beneath it. Summary tasks are commonly used to break up projects into logical units or phases. It is through the use of summary tasks that Project supports the concept of a work breakdown structure.

template

Templates are Project files that have been saved so that they can be reused.

work

The amount of time it takes to perform a task, assignment, or project. Commonly measured in hours, it is also known as effort . It can best be thought of as the number of "person-hours" required to complete a task, assignment, or project.

work breakdown structure

Commonly referred to as the WBS , the work breakdown structure is a hierarchical representation of your project's tasks. The summary task\subtask structure models this breakdown of the tasks required to complete your project. Generally, a project is broken down into smaller and smaller tasks. If a task can be broken down into smaller tasks, the task becomes a summary task with subtasks under it that represent the tasks required to complete the summary task.

working time

Days in a resource or task calendar that have been marked as days on which Project can schedule work.

See also [nonworking time]