C

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Cause-and-effect diagrams (also called Ishikawa diagrams and fishbone diagrams)

Used for root cause analysis of what factors are creating the risks within the project. The goal is to identify and treat the root of the problem, not the symptom.

Centralized contracting

All contracts for all projects need to be approved through a central contracting unit within the performing organization.

Change Control Board

A board that determines the validity and need of, and approves or denies, project change requests.

Change Control System

A system to formally accept, review, and act upon project change requests.

Chart of accounts

A coding system used by the performing organization's accounting system to account for the project work.

Checklists

A listing of activities that workers check to ensure the work has been completed consistently; used in quality control.

Closing

The period when a project or phase moves through formal acceptance to bring the project or phase to an orderly conclusion.

Coercive power

The type of power that comes with the authority to discipline the project team members. This is also known as 'penalty power.' Generally used to describe the power structure when the team is afraid of the project manager.

Collective bargaining agreements

These are contractual agreements initiated by employee groups, unions, or other labor organizations; they may act as a constraint on the project.

Communication channel formula

A formula to predict the number of communication channels within a project; the formula is N(N-1)/2, where N represents the number of stakeholders.

Communications Management Plan

A plan that documents and organizes the stakeholder needs for communication. This plan covers the communications system, its documentation, the flow of communication, modalities of communication, schedules for communications, information retrieval, and any other stakeholder requirements for communications.

Compromising

A conflict resolution method; this approach requires both parties to give up something. The decision ultimately made is a blend of both sides of the argument. Because neither party completely wins, it is considered a lose-lose solution.

Configuration management

Activities focusing on controlling the characteristics of a product or service. A documented process of controlling the features, attributes, and technical configuration of any product or service. Sometimes considered a rigorous change control system.

Constrained optimization methods

These are complex mathematical formulas and algorithms that are used to predict the success of projects, the variables within projects, and tendencies to move forward with selected project investments. Examples include linear programming, integer algorithms, and multi-objective programming.

Constraints

Any influence on the project that may limit the options of the project team in performing the project work.

Contingency reserve

A time or dollar amount allotted as a response to risk events that may occur within a project.

Contract

A legal, binding agreement, preferably written, between a buyer and seller detailing the requirements and obligations of both parties. Must include an offer, an acceptance, and a consideration.

Contract administration

The process of ensuring that the buyer and the seller both perform to the specifications within the contract.

Contract change control system

Defines the procedures for how contracts may be changed. Includes the paperwork, tracking, conditions, dispute resolution procedures, and the procedures for getting the changes approved within the performing organization.

Contract closeout

A process for confirming that the obligations of the contract were met as expected. The project manager, the customer, key stakeholder, and, in some instances, the seller complete the product verification together to confirm the contract has been completed.

Contract file

A complete indexed set of records of the procurement process incorporated into the administrative closure process. These records include financial information as well as information on the performance and acceptance of the procured work.

Control account plans

A control tool within the project that represents the integration of the project scope, the project schedule, and the budget. It allows management to measure the progress of a project.

Control charts

These illustrate the performance of a project over time. They map the results of inspections against a chart. Control charts are typically used in projects or operations that have repetitive activities such as manufacturing, test series, or help desk functions. Upper and lower control limits indicate if values are within control or out of control.

Controlling

The project is controlled and managed; the project manager controls the project scope and changes and monitors changes to the project budget, schedule, and scope by comparing plans to actual results and taking corrective action as necessary.

Core processes

These processes are common to all projects. The core processes are scope planning, scope definition, activity definition, resource planning, activity sequencing, activity duration estimation, cost estimating, risk management planning, schedule development, cost budgeting, and project plan development.

Cost baseline

This shows what the project is expected to spend. It's usually shown in an S-curve and allows the project manager and management to predict when the project will be spending monies and over what duration. The purpose of the cost baseline is to measure and predict project performance.

Cost budgeting

A process of assigning a cost to an individual work package. This process shows costs over time. The cost budget results in an S-Curve that becomes the cost baseline for the project.

Cost Change Control

This is part of the Integrated Change Control System and documents the procedures to request, approve, and incorporate changes to project costs.

Cost control

An active process to control causes of cost change, to document cost changes, and to monitor cost fluctuations within the project. When changes occur, the cost baseline must be updated.

Cost estimating

The process of calculating the costs, by category, of the identified resources to complete the project work.

Cost of conformance

The cost of completing the project work to satisfy the project scope and the expected level of quality. Examples include training, safety measures, and quality management activities.

Cost of nonconformance

The cost of completing the project work without meeting the quality standards. The biggest issue here is the money lost by having to redo the project work; it's always more cost-effective to do the work right the first time. Other nonconformance costs are loss of sales, loss of customers, downtime, and corrective actions to fix problems caused by the incorrect work.

Cost of quality

The cost of quality is the expense of all the activities within a project to meet quality objectives.

Cost Performance Index (CPI)

An index that measures how well the project is performing on cost: CPI=EV/AC.

Cost variance

The Cost Variance (CV) is the difference between the Earned Value(EV) and the Actual Costs (AC).

Cost-reimbursable contracts

A contract that pays the seller for the product. In the payment to the seller, there is a profit margin the difference between the actual costs of the product and the sales amount.

Critical Path Method (CPM)

The CPM is the most common approach to calculating when a project may finish. It uses a 'forward' and 'backward' path to reveal which activities are considered critical, and which contain float. If activities on the critical path are delayed, the project end date will be delayed.

Crashing

This is the addition of more resources to activities on the critical path in order to complete the project earlier. Crashing results in higher project costs.

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