More Than 600 Website Project Management and Digital Marketing Definitions

This is a great resource for learning, reminding, or brushing up on website development terminology and digital marketing jargon in 2021. Help your colleagues and clients brush up on their knowledge by sharing, linking, or referring to this document.

Impress your audience during presentations, reports, or weekly stand-ups by referring to acronyms or external department terminology used by programmers, project managers, stake holders, usability professionals, information architects, and SEM/SEO marketers.

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

1. Above The Fold The First Visible Screen before a person must scroll. All the content at first contentful paint.
2. Acceptance criteria - A part of the quality assurance and website project testing phase, requirements expected of project deliverables must meet all acceptance criteria. Without acceptance criteria, there is no way to measure or test if the work is complete.
3. Acceptance test - A test or multiple tests by end users to ensure the actual final product represents the requirements document and potential problems do not exist or have been identified.
4. ACCESSIBILITY Standards that allow people with disabilities to use a website. This includes visually and hearing impaired people. See the entire document: Website Accessibility Under Title II of the ADA standards and rules. Some companies have been sued by their state's attorney general for NOT being ADA compliant.
5. Acquisition process - When companies do not have or need the staff or resources until the project is signed, they institute acquisition processing to obtain all resources needed once the agreements have been finalized. This usually takes place on large or specialty projects.
6. Action item - An activity or task that must be completed.
7. Action item status - This tracks an action item’s progress from beginning to end. All projects consist of multiple action items, keeping track of each item's status is required.
8. Activity - The smallest unit of work required to complete a project work package (which does include multiple activities).
9. Activity list - A list and description of all activities required to complete the project.
10. Actual cost of work performed (ACWP) - ACWP is the official name project managers use to track the ACTUAL cost incurred for work completed. This can be compared to the estimated costs during and after a project. When someone is reporting on the ACWP, it is usually not good news, however, this can be useful when estimating future projects.
11. Actual duration - The ACTUAL length of time it took to complete an activity, which can be compared to the estimated time and used to influence future projects.
12. Actual effort - The amount of ACTUAL labor performed to complete an activity on the activity list. Actual effort is usually expressed in person-hours and can be calculated to the 1/12th of an hour.
13. Actual expenditure - The sum of ACTUAL costs paid from a budget.
14. Actual progress - This measures the amount of work ACTUALLY completed on a project to-date. Actual progress used to assess a project's progress vs project baselines (theoretical progress) and is usually stated as a percentage.
15. Adaptive project framework (APF) -An approach to project management that rejects traditional, linear project management and instead accepts changing requirements and allows projects to be affected by external business environments. The ADF stresses flexibility in many aspects of project management and focuses on performing and evaluating project work in stages to allow room for replanning due to changing business goals, objectives, and requirements.
16. Administrative closure -This refers to the set of formal requirements fulfilled to end a project. Among other things, it involves documenting the formal acceptance of deliverables and ensuring that all relevant information is sent to a project’s sponsor and stakeholders.
17. Agile -The Agile family of methodologies is a superset of iterative development approaches aimed at meeting ever-changing customer requirements. Agile development proceeds as a series of iterations, or sprints, with incremental improvements made in each sprint. Since agile projects do not have fixed scopes, agile methodologies are adaptive, and the iterative work is guided by user stories and customer involvement.
18. Agile project management -Agile project management draws from concepts of agile software development. Agile approaches focus on teamwork, collaboration, and stakeholder involvement, as well as the use of iterative development methods.
19. Allocation -The assigning of resources for scheduled activities in the most efficient way possible. (See also resource allocation)
20. AJAX Stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. AJAX is typically used for creating dynamic web applications and allows for asynchronous data retrieval without having to reload the page a visitor is on. The JavaScript on a given page handles most of the basic functions of the application, making it perform more like a desktop program instead of a web-based one.
21. Algorithms: A process or formula by which stored information is retrieved and ordered in meaningful ways.
22. Alt text: Alternative text is the text in HTML code that describes the images on web pages.
23. AMP: Often described as “diet HTML,” accelerated mobile pages (AMP) are designed to make the viewing experience lightning fast for mobile visitors.
24. Analogous estimating -This technique uses historical project data to prepare time and cost estimates. It is considered the most inaccurate estimation technique. (See also top-down estimating)
25. Analytical estimating -This technique computes total project time and cost estimates by preparing estimates for each project activity and adding them together. Analytical estimating is considered the most accurate estimation technique. (See also bottom-up estimating)
26. ANCHOR TEXT The text a link uses to refer to your site. This can make a big difference in your site’s search engine results. See also: Backlink.
27. API: An application programming interface (API) allows for the creation of applications by accessing the features or data of another service like an operating system or application.
28. Approach analysis -During the project planning phase, this type of analysis is used to examine the various methods by which a project’s goals may be achieved.
29. Assignment contouring -The process of assigning people to project work for changing numbers of hours per day as the project moves through different stages. Assignment contouring is typically done using project management software.
30. Async: Short for “asynchronous,” async means that the browser doesn’t have to wait for a task to finish before moving onto the next one while assembling your web page.
31. Assumption -Factors deemed to be true during the project planning process, though proof of their validity is not available. A project’s assumptions can affect its risks and outcomes, so you must consider them carefully.
32. Authorization -In general, authorization is the power to make decisions that the management grants. The specific remit for authorization varies on a case-by-case basis.
33. Authorized work -Work that management or others in authority approve.

⇧ Back To Top

1. BACK END The back end of a website is the part hidden from view of regular website visitors. The back end generally includes the information structure, applications, and the CMS controlling content on the site.
2. BACKLINK Backlinks are links from other sites back to your own. They’re sometimes also referred to as “trackbacks” (especially on blogs). Backlinks have a huge impact on your sites search rankings. Lots of backlinks from high-ranking sites can greatly improve your search engine results, especially if those links use keywords in their anchor text.
3. Banner Banners are graphic images that commonly function as Web-based billboards. Banner ads generally appear toward the top-center of the screen, and are used as attention-grabbing links to other sites.
4. Bar chart -A diagrammed calendar schedule of project activities’ start and end dates in logical order. (See also Gantt chart)
5. Baseline -This term represent the costs and schedules approved at the start of the project. They use baselines as a basis for monitoring and evaluating performance.
6. BELOW THE FOLD This term is a carry-over from newspaper publishing days. In newspaper terms, “below the fold” means content was on the bottom half of the page (below the physical fold in the paper). In web design terms, “below the fold” refers to the content that is generally going to be below the point first viewable to the average website visitor in their browser (in other words, viewers would have to scroll down to see the content).
7. Benefits realization -This term focuses on ensuring that project results give customers and stakeholders the benefits they expect.
8. Black hat: Search engine optimization practices that violate Google’s quality guidelines.
9. Blueprint -A document that explains what a program means to accomplish and describes a program’s contribution to organizational objectives.
10. BOSCARD -This method details and considers the background, objectives, scope, constraints, assumptions, risks, and deliverables of new projects.
11. Bottom-Up estimating -This calculation computes total time and cost estimates for projects by preparing individual estimates for each of a project’s activities and adding them together. Bottom-up estimating is considered the most accurate estimation technique. (See also analytical estimating)
12. BOUNCE RATE A website’s bounce rate is the percentage of people who leave the site from the same page they entered the site, without clicking through to any other pages. This can be a good indicator of how good a website’s navigation is, as well as an indicator of the quality of the site’s content (a very high bounce rate doesn’t bode well for either of those things).
13. BREADCRUMB Breadcrumbs are the bit of navigation elements that generally appear near the top of a give web page that show you the pages and subpages the appear before the page you’re on. For examples, on a blog, the breadcrumbs might look something like: Home > Category > Year > Month > Post (or they might be a lot simpler that that). The breadcrumbs term comes from the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel.”
14. Brief - This refers to the document produced during a project’s concept phase. It is the primary document outlining requirements.
15. Bots: Also known as “crawlers” or “spiders,” these are what scour the Internet to find content.
16. Budget -The sum of money allocated for a project. The term may also refer to a comprehensive list of revenues and expenses.
17. Budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP) -The portion of the budget allocated to scheduled work actually performed in a period of time. (See also earned value)
18. Budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS) -The portion of the budget allocated to work scheduled to be performed in a period of time. (See also planned value)
19. Burn down chart -A graph that shows the relationship between the number of tasks to be completed and the amount of time left to complete these tasks.
20. Burst point -A point in a network diagram at which multiple successor activities originate from a common predecessor activity. None of the successor activities may start until one finishes the predecessor activity.
21. Business analysis -The practice of identifying and solving business problems. It focuses on creating and implementing solutions to business needs via organizational development, process reengineering, or any number of other methods.
22. Business case -A documentation of the potential outcomes of a new project, including benefits, cost, and effects. It shows the reasoning for starting the project.
23. Business imperative -An issue, situation, or circumstance with the potential to affect a business in one way or another, depending on the course of action used to address it. Organizations prioritize business imperatives for actions that will realize any potential benefits or avoid any potential harm.
24. Business model -A company’s business model is the system by which the organization’s profitable activities are planned, structured, and executed, and by which it interacts with its customers.
25. Business operations -The entire ensemble of activities or business processes through which a company uses its assets to create value for its customers.
26. Business process -A Business process is a system of activities by which a business creates a specific result for its customers. There are three categories of business processes: management processes, operational processes, and supporting processes.
27. Business process modeling (BPM) -Business process modeling is the representation, analysis, and evaluation of business processes in an effort to improve them.
28. Business requirements -The conditions a product must satisfy to effectively serve its purpose within a business.
29. Business value -The business value of a project is the sum of positive effects — tangible and intangible — it has on the business.

⇧ Back To Top

1. CACHE/CACHING Cached files are those that are saved or copied (downloaded) by a web browser so that the next time that user visits the site, the page loads faster.
2. Calendar unit -The smallest unit of time — usually hours or days — by which project activity durations are measured.
3. Caffeine: Google’s web indexing system. Caffeine is the index, or collection of web content, whereas Googlebot is the crawler that goes out and finds the content.
4. Channel: The different vehicles by which you can get attention and acquire traffic, such as organic search and social media.
5. Click: Definition When someone clicks your ad, like on the blue headline or phone number of a text ad, Google Ads counts that as a click.
A click is counted even if the person doesn't reach your website, maybe because it's temporarily unavailable. As a result, you might see a difference between the number of clicks on your ad and the number of visits to your website. Clicks can help you understand how well your ad is appealing to people who see it. Relevant, highly-targeted ads are more likely to receive clicks. In your account statistics, you'll see the click-through rate (CTR), which tells you how many people who’ve seen your ad end up clicking on it. This metric can help you gauge how enticing your ad is and how closely it matches your keywords and other targeting settings. Note that a good CTR is relative to what you're advertising and on which networks. To help increase your clicks and CTR, start by creating great ad text and strong keywords to make ads that are highly relevant and very compelling to your customers.
6. Content page A Web page designed to convey specific information to a user. Content pages are often found two or three clicks deep within a Web site. The defining characteristic of a content page is a reliance on text, graphics, and pictures that are designed to convey information on a given subject to users.
7. Click-through rate: The ratio of impressions to clicks on your URLs.
8. Conversion rate: The ratio of visits to conversions. Conversion rate answers how many of my website visitors are filling out my forms, calling, signing up for my newsletter, etc.?
9. Capability maturity model (CMM) -This model is used to assess the maturity of business process capabilities. It was created to assess the capabilities of software development processes but is now used in a number of other industries as well. Like other maturity models, the CMM allows organizations to assess themselves against external benchmarks and provides recommendations for improvement.
10. Card Sorting A method for organizing information that involves sorting a series of cards into groups that make sense to the participants. Each card represents a single term, function or object. Card sorting helps to reveal users' mental models, or patterns that the end users would expect to find.
11. CASCADING STYLE SHEETS Also referred to simply as CSS, Cascading Style Sheets are used to define the look and feel of a web site outside of the actual HTML file(s) of the site. In recent years, CSS has replaced tables and other HTML-based methods for formatting and laying out websites. The benefits to using CSS are many, but some of the most important are the simplification of a site’s HTML files (which can actually increase search engine rankings) and the ability to completely change the style of a site by changing just one file, without having to make changes to content.
12. Case study -A case study involves extensive and in-depth formal research into an area of a company, a situation, or an event. Case studies typically result in formal reports that are published in academic or professional publications. They investigate important, singular, or locally representative cases that contribute to the advancement of knowledge.
13. Champion -A project champion makes project success a personal responsibility. This person pushes the project team to work hard, liaise with stakeholders on behalf of the project, and support the project manager. Project champion is an informal role.
14. Change control -Change control is the process of identifying, evaluating, approving, and implementing changes to a project. It ensures that changes are introduced in a controlled and effective manner and that any adjustments necessitated by changes are also addressed.
15. Change control board -An appointed group of stakeholders who evaluate proposed changes and decide when and whether to make them.
16. Change control system/process -The process by which changes to the project are evaluated before approval, implemented, and documented.
17. Change freeze -The point at which scope changes to a project are no longer permissible.
18. Change management plan -A Change management plan details the change control process. It is created to ensure all changes are managed according to procedure. Change management plans can be created for individual projects or for organizations undergoing transitions.
19. Change request -A formal document submitted to the change control board that requests changes to the finalized project management plan. Change requests are usually made only for significant changes, as smaller changes with little to no impact on the project work can be brought to the project manager.
20. Citations: Also known as a “business listing,” a citation is a web-based reference to a local business' name, address, and phone number (NAP).
21. Client/Customer -The people who will directly benefit from a project. A team executes a project with specific attention to a client’s requirements.
22. Client-side & server-side rendering: Client-side and server-side rendering refer to where the code runs. Client-side means the file is executed in the browser. Server-side means the files are executed at the server and the server sends them to the browser in their fully rendered state.
23. CLIENT-SIDE Client-side refers to scripts that are run in a viewer’s browser, instead of on a web server (as in server-side scripts). Client-side scripts are generally faster to interact with, though they can take longer to load initially.
24. Cloaking: Showing different content to search engines than you show to human visitors.
25. Closing phase -The final phase of the project management life cycle, in which all aspects of the project are officially completed and closed. This includes making sure that all deliverables have been given to the client, that the team notifies suppliers of completion, and that the team updates stakeholders regarding the end of the project and overall project performance.
26. CMS -See Content Management System
27. Code of accounts -An alphanumeric system used to assign unique identifiers to all work breakdown structure components.
28. Collaborative negotiation -Collaborative negotiation entails all negotiating parties obtaining at least some of what they want from negotiations.
29. Communications log -This document is used to track all project-related communications. It is organized and edited by the project manager and details who communicated, when and where the communication took place, what information was shared, and the results of the communication.
30. Communications management plan -This plan states who will send and receive information on aspects of the project, what details are communicated, and when communications are sent. It is part of the project management plan.
31. Communities of practice -Groups of people who share an area of interest within project management. They meet regularly to share and develop knowledge in the area of interest.
32. Competence -The ability and knowledge required to perform the tasks associated with a specific role.
33. Competence framework -The set of competence expectations by which one assesses a person’s suitability for a specific role.
34. Concept -The beginning phase of the project management life cycle. In the concept phase, the team presents the opportunity or problem (along with possible solutions) and examines the general feasibility of the project.
35. Conceptual project planning -Conceptual project planning involves developing the documentation from which a project’s organization and control system will originate.
36. Concurrent engineering -A product development approach where design and development are carried out at the same time. It is used to shorten the development life cycle and to release products more quickly. The simultaneous execution of design and development can help to improve design practicality.
37. Configuration -Configuration of a product involves shaping its functions and characteristics to make it suitable for customer use.
38. Configuration management -Configuration management ensures that the product of a project meets all necessary specifications and stipulations. It provides well-defined standards for the management and team to guarantee that they meet quality and functional requirements, as well as any other characteristics considered important.
39. Consensus -A decision agreed upon by all members of a group.
40. Constraint -A limitation on a project. Among other things, constraints may be financial or based on time or resource availability.
41. Constructability -Constructability is a concept used in complex hard projects to assess and examine the entire construction process before beginning construction. It reduces the number of errors, setbacks, and delays once construction work actually begins.
42. Construction -The process by which a team builds infrastructure. Construction projects are complex. Engineers and architects supervise them, while a project manager manages the project work.
43. Consumable resource -A nonrenewable resource that cannot be used once consumed.
44. CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Also known as a CMS, the Content Management System is a backend tool for managing a site’s content that separates said content from the design and functionality of the site. Using a CMS generally makes it easier to change the design or function of a site independent of the site’s content. It also (usually) makes it easier for content to be added to the site for people who aren’t designers.
45. Contingency plan -An alternative or additional course of action planned in anticipation of the occurrence of specific risks.
46. Contingency reserve -An allocation of time or money (or both) set aside for the occurrence of known possibilities that could delay a project or make it more expensive. It is not the same as a management reserve, which is an allocation made for unforeseeable circumstances. Use of a contingency reserve is typically authorized upon the occurrence of a contingency.
47. Contract administration -The process by which a team manages a relationship with a contracting party. It establishes protocols for dealings between contracting parties.
48. Contract closeout -The process of determining whether the terms of a contract were completed successfully and of settling any remaining terms.
49. Control Account -A work breakdown structure tool that allows aggregation of costs for work packages as part of earned value management calculations.
50. Control chart -Control charts compare process results with historical averages and process control limits to show whether a process meets results expectations. If a process’s results are inconsistent or fall outside process control limits, it may need to be examined and adjusted.
51. Core process -A process that follows an established order and is central to the performance of the process system or project of which it is part.
52. Corrective action -A step taken to bring work back into alignment with performance expectations after it has failed to meet expectations. A corrective action, which is reactive, is not the same as a preventive action, which is proactive.
53. Cost baseline -The sum of work package estimates, contingency reserve, and other associated costs by which project performance is assessed. A formal change control process is necessary to change the cost baseline.
54. Cost benefit analysis -A Cost benefit analysis is used to weigh project costs against anticipated tangible project benefits.
55. Cost engineering -The application of scientific and engineering principles to several aspects of cost management. Among other things, cost engineers contribute to estimation procedures and project cost management. Cost engineering may also be called project controls in some industries.
56. Cost management plan -This plan details how project costs will be planned, funded, and controlled. It is a part of the project management plan.
57. Cost of quality -The cost associated with ensuring project quality. This cost may mean the difference between unacceptable and acceptable project results.
58. Cost overrun -A cost overrun occurs when unexpected costs cause a project’s actual cost to go beyond budget.
59. Cost performance index -A cost performance index measures the cost efficiency of a project by calculating the ratio of earned value to actual cost.
60. Cost plus fixed fee contract (CPFC) -Under a cost plus fixed fee contract, the seller is reimbursed for costs incurred and paid a predetermined fixed fee.
61. Cost plus incentive fee contract (CPIF) -Under a cost plus incentive fee contract, the seller is reimbursed for costs incurred and paid an additional fee if they meet performance criteria specified in the contract.
62. Cost plus percentage of cost contract (CPPC) -Under a cost plus percentage of cost contract, the seller is reimbursed for costs incurred and paid an additional amount equal to a percentage of the costs incurred if they meet performance criteria specified in the contract.
63. Cost reimbursable contract -A cost reimbursable contract is a contract under which a seller is reimbursed for costs incurred and paid an additional sum as per a predetermined agreement as profit. They are typically negotiated for projects with costs that are not fully known or not well defined.
64. Cost variance -The Cost variance of a project is its earned value minus its actual cost. A negative cost variance indicates that a project is running over budget. A positive cost variance indicates that a project is running below budget.
65. Cost/schedule impact analysis -A cost/schedule impact analysis determines the effects of a particular change on a project’s cost or schedule.
66. Crashing -A schedule compression technique used to speed up project work by increasing the rate at which critical path activities are completed by adding more resources — usually more personnel or more equipment. Crashing increases project costs, so it is used first on activities that can be sped up at the least additional cost.
67. Crawl budget: The average number of pages a search engine bot will crawl on your site
68. Crawling: The process by which search engines discover your web pages.
69. Critical chain project management (CCPM) -Critical chain project management is an approach to managing projects that emphasizes the resources needed to complete project activities over activity order and durations set in a schedule. It uses resource optimization techniques like resource leveling and requires that activity start times be flexible.
70. Critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) -CISD is a psycho-educational exercise for small groups who have experienced a traumatic event. It is sometimes used in project management to help project teams cope with trauma and to rebuild team cohesion.
71. Critical path activity -A scheduled activity that is part of a project’s critical path.
72. Critical path method -The Critical path method is used to estimate the shortest length of time needed to complete a project and to determine the amount of float for activities that are not part of the critical path.
73. Critical success factor -A critical success factor is an aspect of a project that is crucial to the success of the project.
74. Criticality index -Each project activity is assigned a percentage called a criticality index, which is a measure of how frequently it is a critical activity in project simulations. Activities with high criticality indexes are likely to prolong project duration if delayed.
75. CSS -See Cascading Style Sheets
76. Current finish date - The most up-to-date estimate of when an activity will finish.
77. Current start date -The most up-to-date estimate of when an activity will start.
78. Current state -A detailed representation of current business processes that is used as a point of comparison for efforts to analyze and improve processes’ efficiency, effectiveness, and outputs.

⇧ Back To Top

1. Dashboard A visual and customizable summary of your account’s performance data created by inserting scorecards, charts, tables, or notes on your performance data, into a customizable grid.
2. Data date -A data date, also called an as-of date, is a point at which a project’s status is measured and documented. It separates actual data from scheduled data.
3. Decision tree analysis -A diagrammatic technique used to illustrate a chain of decisions and to examine the implications of multiple decision-making or situational outcomes.
4. Decomposition -The hierarchical breaking down of project deliverables into smaller components that are easier to plan and manage.
5. Deep linking Hypertext link to a page on a Web site other than its home page
6. Defect repair -An action taken to remedy a product that is nonfunctional or does not match expectations or requirements.
7. Define -The phase in the portfolio life cycle in which projects, programs, and any organizational changes needed to realize strategic objectives are identified and examined.
8. Definitive estimate -A definitive estimate reaches a total project cost estimate by computing cost estimates for all a project’s work packages. Definitive estimating is considered a highly accurate estimation technique, with estimates falling within a ten-percent range of the actual budget.
9. Deflection -The transferring of risk to another party, generally via a contract.
10. De-indexed: Refers to a page or group of pages being removed from Google’s index
11. Deliverable -A final product or product component that must be provided to a client or stakeholder according to contractual stipulations.
12. Delphi technique -An estimation method based on expert consensus. Experts make estimates individually and simultaneously and then review their estimates as a group before making another set of estimates. The process is repeated, with the pool of estimates typically becoming narrower after each round of review until a consensus is reached. (See also wideband delphi)
13. Destination URL: The URL address of the page in your website that people reach when they click your ad.
14. Dependency -A logical relationship between project activities in a network diagram that determines when a dependent activity may begin.
15. DEPRECATED Deprecated code is code that is no longer included in the language specifications. Generally this happens because it is replaced with more accessible or efficient alternatives.
16. DHTML Stands for Dynamic HyperText Markup Language. DHTML fuses XHTML (or any other markup language), the DOM, JavaScript (or other scripts), and CSS (or other presentation definition languages) to create interactive web content.
17. Discrete effort -Project work directly associated with components of a work breakdown structure. It is directly measurable. Discrete effort is one of three types of activities used to measure work performance as part of earned value management.
18. Discretionary dependency -The preferred way to sequence activities when there is no logical limitation on how they must be ordered.
19. DITHER In GIF and certain other image formats, there is a limited color palette used for each image. Because of this, not all colors in an image are presented. Dither is used to approximate these colors by combining pixels of different colors side by side.
20. Do nothing option -An element of a project business case that states the consequences, if any, of not undertaking the project.
21. DNS Stands for Domain Name Service (alternately Domain Name System or Domain Name Server). Basically, it’s the thing that converts IP addresses into domain names. DNS servers are provided with the IP address of your web server when you assign your domain name to those servers. In turn, when someone types your domain name into their web browser, those DNS servers translate the domain name to the IP address and point the browser to the correct web server.
22. DOCTYPE The doctype declaration specifies which version of HTML is used in a document. It has a direct effect on whether your HTML will validate.
23. DOM, THE Stands for Document Object Model. It’s a language-indpendent, cross-platform convention for representing objects in XML, XHTML, and HTML documents. Rules for interacting with and programming the DOM are specified in the DOM API.
24. DOMAIN The domain is the name by which a website is identified. The domain is associated with an IP address. Domains can be purchased with any combination of letters, hyphens (-), and numbers (though it can’t start with a hyphen). Depending on the extension (.com, .net, .org, etc.), a domain can be anywhere up to 26 to 63 characters long.
25. Drawdown -A method used to exercise control on the release of project funds. Instead of making entire project budgets available from the outset, management may choose to release funds at specific times. These releases are called drawdowns. Drawdowns may coincide with phase gates so that funds are released at the beginning of each phase.
26. DTD Stands for Document Type Definition. DTD is one of several SGML and XML schema languages. It provides a list of the attributes, comments, elements, entities, and notes in a document along with their relationships to each other.
27. Dummy activity -In activity-on-arrow diagrams, where arrows represent activities, dummy activities show logical relationships between activities. They are not actual activities themselves -dummy activity arrows are drawn with broken lines to differentiate them from regular activity arrows.
28. Duration -The amount of time taken to complete an activity or task from start to finish.
29. Duration compression -Duration compression techniques shorten a project’s duration without reducing its scope. This typically requires additional expenditure. There are two main duration compression techniques: crashing and fast tracking. (See also schedule compression technique)
30. Dynamic systems development method -The dynamic systems development method is one of the agile product development methodologies. Like other members of the agile family, it conducts development in a series of iterations, with user-story-based improvements made in increments. The dynamic systems development method operates with fixed cost and time constraints and uses the MoSCoW prioritization method to identify the desired product requirements with these constraints in mind.

⇧ Back To Top

1. Early finish date -The earliest time by which a scheduled project activity can logically finish.
2. Early start date -The earliest time by which a scheduled project activity can logically start.
3. Earned schedule -A method of measuring schedule performance that improves upon traditional earned value management. Earned value management tracks schedule variance only in terms of money and not in terms of time and thus does not accurately indicate schedule performance by the end of a project. To address this discrepancy, earned schedule theory uses the same data as traditional earned value management but tracks schedule performances separately with respect to money and time.
4. Earned value -A concept used to gauge project schedule and cost performance. Portions of the project budget are assigned to components of the work breakdown structure, and successful completion of a work breakdown structure component is understood as value earned through work.
5. Earned value management -A method of measuring project performance and progress with regard to scope, time, and costs. It is based on the use of planned value (where portions of the budget are allotted to all project tasks), and earned value (where progress is measured in terms of the planned value that is earned upon completion of tasks).
6. E-COMMERCE Short for electronic commerce. It’s the buying and selling of goods online, through websites. Products sold through e-commerce can be physical products that require shipping, or digital products delivered electronically.
7. Effort -The amount of labor needed to complete a task. It is measured in person-hours or similar units.
8. Effort estimate -A calculated approximation of the effort — measured in staff-hours or similar units — needed to complete an activity.
9. Effort management -The most efficient allocation of time and resources to project activities.
10. ELASTIC LAYOUT An elastic layout is one that uses percentages and ems for widths paired with a max-width style to allow the site layout to stretch when font sizes are changed. It’s ability to flex to accommodate the browser width and reader’s font preferences are where it gets its name.
11. EM Em is a unit of measurement for sizing fonts and other elements within a web page relative to the item’s parent element. A 1em font is equal to the point size for the font already defined in the parent element (2em would be twice the current size; .5em would be half the current size).
12. EMBEDDED STYLE An embedded style is a CSS style written into the head of an XHTML document. It only effects the elements on that page, instead of site-wide as a separate CSS file does. Style in an embedded style sheet will override styles from the linked CSS file.
13. End user -The person or persons who will eventually use the product of a project. Products are designed with end users in mind.
14. Engaging or Engagement A metric of usability that focuses on capturing or maintaining the audience's attention, interest, or interaction.
15. Enhancement, maintenance, and upgrade (EMU) -Enhancement, maintenance, and upgrade are project classifications used in the software development industry. Enhancement projects involve improving the functionality or performance of software. Maintenance projects keep software functioning as expected. Upgrade projects create a new version of the software, called a release.
16. Enterprise environmental factors -Internal and external factors that can impact projects. They include such things as climate, available resources, and organizational structure.
17. Enterprise modeling -Enterprise modeling is the creation of a model to represent an organization’s structure, processes, and resources. Enterprise models are built to increase understanding of how organizations work. They form the basis of improvement or restructuring efforts.
18. Epic -A set of similar or related user stories.
19. Estimate at completion (EAC) -The estimated total cost for all project work, calculated as the sum of the actual cost and the estimate to complete.
20. Estimate to complete (ETC) -At a given point in a project, the estimate of the cost of the work that still needs to be completed.
21. Estimating funnel -A metaphor for the increased accuracy in estimation made possible as a project progresses.
22. Estimation -The use of estimating techniques to reach approximations of unknown values.
23. Event chain diagram -A visual representation of a schedule network based on event chain methodology. It shows relationships between project activities and risk events.
24. Event chain methodology -A schedule network analysis method that enables uncertainty modeling. It is used to identify risk events’ impact on a schedule.
25. Event-Driven -The adjective describes an action that is prompted by the occurrence of an event.
26. Execution phase -The execution phase begins after activity approval and is the phase in which the team executes the project plan. Execution is typically the longest and most expensive phase in the project management life cycle.
27. Executive sponsor -Typically a member of the organization’s board who is ultimately responsible for the success of the project. They provide high-level direction to project managers and are accountable to the board for project success.
28. Expert judgment -The practice of using expert opinion to guide decision making.
29. EXTENSIBLE MARKUP LANGUAGE Otherwise known as XML. XML is a markup language used for writing custom markup languages. In other words, XML describes how to write new languages (it’s sometimes referred to as a “meta” language because of this). It also serves as a basic syntax that allows different kinds of computers and applications to share information without having to go through multiple conversion layers.
30. External dependency -An outside relationship that affects the completion of a project activity.
31. EXTERNAL STYLE SHEET This is a CSS document that is written in a separate, external document. The biggest advantage to using an external style sheet is that it can be linked to by multiple HTML/XHTML files (which means changes made to the style sheet will effect all the pages linked to it without having to change each page individually).
32. Extreme programming (XP) -An agile software development methodology that emphasizes a high degree of responsiveness to evolving customer demands. Development cycles in extreme programming are short, and releases are frequent. Its main features include high-volume communication with customers and pair programming.
33. Extreme project management (XPM) -An approach to project management used mostly for complex projects with a high degree of uncertainty. XPM is designed for projects where requirements are expected to change. Therefore, it focuses on flexibility more than rigid scheduling. Where traditional project management proceeds sequentially through the project management life cycle and thus clearly defines problems, scopes, and solutions, extreme project management accepts that all three aspects will change as the project proceeds and thus emphasizes continual learning over deterministic planning.

⇧ Back To Top

1. Faceted navigation: Often used on e-commerce websites, faceted navigations offer a number of sorting and filtering options to help visitors more easily locate the URL they’re looking for out of a stack of thousands or even millions of URLs. For example, you could sort a clothing page by price: low to high, or filter the page to view only size: small.
2. Fallback plan -A predetermined alternative course of action adopted if a risk occurs and a contingency plan proves unsuccessful in avoiding the risk’s impact.
3. FAVICON Favicons are tiny (generally 16x16 pixels, though some are 32x32 pixels), customizable icons displayed in the web address bar in most browsers next to the web address. They’re either 8-bit or 24-bit in color depth and are saved in either .ico, .gif or .png file formats.
4. Fast tracking -A schedule compression technique or duration compression technique in which the duration of a critical path is shortened by performing sections of some critical path activities concurrently instead of consecutively.
5. Feasibility study -An evaluation of how likely a project is to be completed effectively, or how practical it is, taking resources and requirements into consideration.
6. Featured snippets: Organic answer boxes that appear at the top of SERPs for certain queries.
7. Finish-To-Start -In a finish-to-start relationship, a successor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has finished.
8. Finish-To-Finish -In a finish-to-finish relationship, a successor activity cannot finish until a predecessor activity has finished.
9. Fishbone diagram -A fishbone diagram is used in project management to identify and categorize the possible causes of an effect. (See also Ishikawa diagram)
10. Fitts' Law The further away a target is, and the smaller its size, the longer it will take for a user to reach it. The time required to move from a starting point to within the confines of a target area is dependent on a logarithmic relationship between the distance from the point to the target area and the size of the target.
11. Fixed duration -A task in which the time required for completion is fixed.
12. Fixed formula method -The fixed formula method calculates earned value in a given period of time by splitting a work package budget between the start and completion milestones of a work package. A known proportion of value is earned upon beginning the work package, and the rest is earned upon completing the work package.
13. Fixed price contract (FPC) -A fixed price contract pays an agreed-upon fee and does not incorporate other variables, such as time and cost.
14. Fixed units -A task in which the number of resources used is fixed.
15. FIXED WIDTH LAYOUT A fixed width layout has a set width (generally defined in pixels) set by the designer. The width stays the same regardless of screen resolution, monitor size, or browser window size. It allows for minute adjustments to be made to a design that will stay consistent across browsers. Designers have more control over exactly how a site will appear across platforms with this type of layout.
16. Fixed work -A task in which the amount of effort required is fixed.
17. Float -A measure of the schedule flexibility involving a particular task.
18. Flowchart -A diagram that lays out the complete sequence of steps in a process or procedure.
19. FOCAL POINT The focal point of a web site is the spot on a web page that they eye is naturally drawn to. This could be an image, a banner, text, Flash content, or just about anything else. You want to make sure that whatever is acting as your focal point is the most important part of your site.
20. Focus Group A focus group is a focused discussion where a moderator leads a group of participants through a set of questions on a particular topic. Focus groups are often used in the early stages of product planning and requirements gathering to obtain feedback about users, products, concepts, prototypes, tasks, strategies, and environments.
21. Focused improvement -An improvement strategy based on the theory of constraints. Attention is focused on addressing one limiting factor — called a constraint — at a time in order to optimize a system. Each constraint is improved until it no longer limits the system’s performance.
22. FOLD (see "above the fold" or "below the fold") The fold is a term carried over from newspaper design and pagination (where the fold referred to the physical fold in the paper). The fold in a website is the point on the webpage that rests at the bottom of someone’s browser (in other words, to see anything below the fold, they would have to scroll down). There are varying opinions on how important the fold is in web design.
23. Forecast -A prediction or estimation of future project status based on available information.
24. Formal acceptance -The step at which authorized stakeholders sign off on a product, indicating that it meets their expectations.
25. Forward pass -A technique used to calculate early start and finish dates by working forwards from a point in a project schedule model.
26. Free float -The amount of time by which an activity can be postponed without affecting the early start dates of a successor activity.
27. FRONT-END The front-end is basically the opposite of the back-end. It’s all the components of a website that a visitor to the site can see (pages, images, content, etc.) Specifically, it’s the interface that visitors use to access the site’s content. It’s also sometimes referred to as the User Interface.
28. Function Allocation Function allocation is a classic human factors method for deciding whether a particular function will be accomplished by a person, technology (hardware or software) or some mix of person and technology. To do this, the investigator considers error rates, fatigue, costs, hazards, technological feasibility, human values, ethical issues, and the desire of people to perform the function.
29. Functional manager -The individual in charge of all activities carried out by a particular functional department within an organization.
30. Functional organization -An organization which organizes and manages staff members in groups based on specialty areas.
31. Functional requirements -The working characteristics of a product. These are based on how end users will use the product.
32. Future state -A detailed representation of the ideal condition of a company’s business processes after improvement.

⇧ Back To Top

1. Gantt chart -A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that shows all the tasks constituting a project. Tasks are listed vertically, with the horizontal axis marking time. The lengths of task bars are to scale with tasks’ durations. (See also bar chart)
2. Gap analysis An evaluation technique used to demonstrate the difference between the desired state and the current state.
3. Gate -An end-of-phase checkpoint at which decisions are made regarding whether and how to continue with the project. (See also phase gate)
4. Gestalt Principles Humans visually perceive items not in isolation, but as part of a larger whole. These principles include humans tendencies towards similarity, proximity, continuity, and closure.
5. Global navigation A means to access primary content or functions from every page
6. Go/No go -A point in a project at which it is decided whether to continue with the work.
7. Goal -An objective set by an individual or an organization. It is a desired endpoint reached by setting and working towards targets.
8. Goal setting -The process of creating specific, measurable, and attainable goals and of setting deadlines for these goals if desired.
9. Gold plating -The practice of incorporating features and improvements that go beyond a product’s agreed-upon characteristics. This is generally done to boost customer satisfaction.
10. Google Ads: Definition Google Ads is Google's online advertising program. Through Google Ads, you can create online ads to reach people exactly when they're interested in the products and services that you offer.
Google Ads is a product that you can use to promote your business, help sell products or services, raise awareness, and increase traffic to your website. Google Ads accounts are managed online, so you can create and change your ad campaign at any time, including your ad text, settings, and budget. There's no minimum spending commitment, and you set and control your own budget. You choose where your ad appears, set a budget that's comfortable for you, and easily measure the impact of your ad.
11. Google Ad group: Definition An ad group contains one or more ads that share similar targets.
12. Google Analytics goals: What actions are you hoping people take on your website? Whatever your answer, you can set those up as goals in Google Analytics to track your conversion rate.
13. Googlebot / Bingbot: How major search engines like Google and Bing crawl the web; their “crawlers” or “spiders.”
14. Google Search Console: A free program provided by Google that allows site owners to monitor how their site is doing in search.
15. Google Tag Manager: A single hub for managing multiple website tracking codes.
16. Governance -The structure by which roles and relationships between project team members and an organization’s high-level decision makers are defined.
17. Graphical evaluation and review technique (GERT) -A network analysis technique that uses Monte Carlo simulation to bring a probabilistic approach to network logic and the formation of duration estimates. It is an alternative to the PERT technique but is not often used in complex systems.
18. GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE Also referred to by its acronym: GUI. A graphical user interface uses an input device (like the mouse) and visual representations of how the user is able to interact with a web application. In other words, it’s all the front-end stuff you see on a web application. It’s purpose is to allow you to interact with a web application without having to enter code.

⇧ Back To Top

1. Hammock activity -In a schedule network diagram, a hammock activity is a type of summary activity that represents a number of grouped -but unrelated -smaller activities that occur between two dates.
2. Handover -In the project life cycle, a handover is the point at which deliverables are given to users.
3. Hanger -An unplanned break in a network path, usually caused by oversights regarding activities or dependent relationships between activities.
4. Header tags: An HTML element used to designate headings on your page.
5. HERMES -A project management method created by the Swiss government and used by IT and business organizations. It is a simplified project management method that can be adapted to projects with varying degrees of complexity. It provides document templates to expedite project-related work.
6. Heuristic A usability guideline for evaluating a user interface, which can be used to identify design problems. Usability heuristics often need to be adjusted depending on the interface and the technology used. There are lists of heuristics that have been compiled by various people and organizations that are commonly used for this method.
7. Heuristic Evaluation A usability evaluation method in which one or more reviewers, preferably experts, compare a software, documentation, or hardware product to a list of design principles (commonly referred to as heuristics) and identify where the product does not follow those principles.
8. Heuristic Walkthrough A type of inspection that combines aspects of heuristic evaluation, the cognitive walkthrough, and the pluralistic usability walkthrough.
9. HEXADECIMAL Also referred to a “hex” numbers, they are a base-16 numbering system used to define colors online. Hex numbers include the numerals 0-9 and letters A-F. Hexadecimal numbers are written in three sets of hex pairs. Because screen colors are RGB (Red, Green, Blue), the first pair defines the red hue, the second pair defines the green hue, and the third pair defines the blue.
10. Hick's law (Hick-Hyman law) The time it takes to make a decision increases proportionally to the number and complexity of choices. Hick's law is the appropriate model in choosing an alternative from a menu or navigation bar for decision times, rather than Miller's "magic number" of seven plus or minus two.
11. High-Level requirements -The high-level requirements explain the major requirements and characteristics of the final product, including its purpose as a product and within the company. (See also product description)
12. Historical information -Data from past projects used in the planning of future projects.
13. .HTACCESS The .htaccess file is the default directory-level configuration file on Apache servers. They are also known as “distributed configuration files.” Configuration directives contained in the .htaccess file apply to the directory in which the file is placed as well as all of its subdirectories. Within the .htaccess file things like authorization and authentication, rewriting of URLs, cache control and customized error responses can all be specified.
14. HTML Stands for Hypertext Markup Language. It’s the primary language used to write web pages. HTML is primarily intended as a way to provide content on websites (with CSS handling the layout and stylistic options), though it can also be used to determine how that content is displayed.
15. HTML TAG Also referred to as an HTML element, an HTML tag is the bit of code that describes how that particular piece of the web page it’s on is formatted. Typical tags specify things like headings, paragraphs, links, and a variety of other items.
16. HTTP Stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. HTTP is a set of rules for transferring hypertext requests between a web browser and a web server.
17. HTTPS Similar to HTTP, HTTPS stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol over SSL (Secure Socket Layer) or, alternately, HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure. Like HTTP, it’s a set of rules for transferring hypertext requests between browsers and servers, but this time it’s done over a secure, encrypted connection.
18. Human resource management plan -A human resource management plan details the roles of and relationships between personnel working on a project, as well as how personnel will be managed. It is part of the project management plan.
19. Hypercritical activities -Critical path activities with negative slack time. They are created when a sequence of critical path activities leading up to another activity is too long to be completed in the stated duration.
20. HYPERLINK A hyperlink is a link from one web page to another, either on the same site or another one. Generally these are text or images, and are highlighted in some way (text is often underlined or put in a different color or font weight). The inclusion of hyperlinks are the “hyper” part of “hypertext.”
21. HYPERTEXT Hypertext is any computer-based text that includes hyperlinks. Hypertext can also include presentation devices like tables or images, in addition to plain text and links.
22. Hreflang: A tag that indicates to Google which language the content is in. This helps Google serve the appropriate language version of your page to people searching in that language.

⇧ Back To Top

1. IFRAME Short for Inline Frame. An iframe is used to display one or more web pages within another normal web page (one that isn’t a frameset page).
2. Image sitemap: A sitemap containing only the image URLs on a website.
3. Impressions: Definition How often your ad is shown. An impression is counted each time your ad is shown on a search result page or other site on the Google Network.
Each time your ad appears on Google or the Google Network, it's counted as one impression. In some cases, only a section of your ad may be shown. For example, in Google Maps, we may show only your business name and location or only your business name and the first line of your ad text.
4. Indexing: The storing and organizing of content found during crawling.
5. Industrial Design An applied art focusing on the aesthetics, usability, ergonomics, and production of physical products, such as automobiles, appliances and consumer electronics. Industrial designers may specify the overall shape, interactive properties, colors, texture, and sounds of an object, as well aspects of the manufacturing process.
6. Information Architecture (IA) The process of organizing information including the structure, design, layout and navigation in a way that is easy for people to find, understand and manage the information.
7. Information distribution -The channels used to provide stakeholders with timely information and updates regarding a project.
8. Initiation phase – The formal start of a new project. It involves receiving proper authorization and creating a clear definition for the project.
9. INLINE STYLE Elements with CSS written directly around the element it affects, instead of in a separate style sheet or header style.
10. Inputs -The information required to start the project management process.
11. Inspection -The process of reviewing and examining the final product to assess compliance to initial requirements and expectations.
12. Integrated assurance -The process of coordinating assurance activities across a number of assurance providers.
13. Integrated change control -The coordination of changes throughout all aspects of a project, including scope, budget, and schedule.
14. Integrated master plan (IMP) -A project management tool used to break down project work in large, complex projects. It lists project tasks and events in a hierarchical structure and shows relationships between them.
15. Integrated master schedule (IMS) -An integrated master schedule is produced from an integrated master plan. It is a list of all project tasks represented as a networked schedule.
16. Integration management plan -A document that explains integration planning and details how changes to project aspects will be managed.
17. Integration planning -The process of deciding how project elements will be integrated and coordinated and how changes will be addressed throughout the project management process.
18. Integrative management -Management processes that coordinate a number of project aspects including cost, schedule, and resources (among others).
19. Interaction Design The discipline of Interaction Design (IxD) defines the structure and behavior of interactive systems. Interaction Designers strive to create meaningful relationships between people and the products and services that they use, from computers to mobile devices to appliances and beyond.
20. Internal links: Links on your own site that point to your other pages on the same site.
21. User-Centered Design (UCD)
22. Interface A view or presentation of an object, service, or environment that a person (or group) interacts with, and the capabilities that provide for interaction across the interface.
23. Invitation for bid -An invitation for expressions of interest that a procuring organization extends. (See also request for proposal)
24. IP address: An internet protocol (IP) address is a string of numbers that’s unique to each specific website. We assign domain names to IP addresses because they’re easier for humans to remember (ex: “moz.com”) but the internet needs these numbers to find websites.
25. Ishikawa diagram -Ishikawa diagrams are used in project management to identify the possible causes of an effect. (See also fishbone diagram)
26. ISO 10006 -A set of quality-management guidelines for projects. It is a standard created by the International Organization for Standardization.
27. Issue -Anything that can cause problems for a project. The term typically refers to major problems that cannot be tackled by the project team on their own.
28. Issue log -Project issues and the persons responsible for resolving them. It may also include issue status, plans for resolution, and resolution deadlines.
29. Iteration -A concept from iterative software development that specifies a fixed time cycle for development work, typically a few weeks long. The development life cycle consists of a number of iterations, sometimes with a functional version of the software produced at the end of each one. Iterative development prioritizes time over scope, so there are rarely concrete requirements to be achieved in an iteration.
30. Iterative Design Design methodology involving repeated cycles of design, evaluation, and analysis. Refinements are made for the next cycle based on the analysis and feedback.
31. Iterative development -Iterative development focuses on developing products in a series of repeated fixed-time iterations, instead of working towards a single deliverable. At the end of an iteration, the team assesses progress and sets targets for the next iteration.
32. Iterative and incremental development -Iterative and incremental development is any combination of the iterative and incremental development approaches. It is an alternative to the waterfall development method: instead of focusing on sequential development with a single end product, it passes through a number of development cycles, with an improved version of the product, called an increment, produced at the end of each iteration.

⇧ Back To Top

1. JavaScript: A programming language that adds dynamic elements to static web pages.
2. JSON-LD: JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data (JSON-LD) is a format for structuring your data. For example, schema.org can be implemented in a number of different formats, JSON-LD is just one of them, but it is the format preferred by Google.

⇧ Back To Top

1. Kanban -The word kanban means visual signal in Japanese. Kanban is a visual communication approach to the project management process. It uses visual tools like sticky notes or virtual cards in an online bulletin board to represent project tasks and to track and indicate progress throughout a project.
2. Key performance indicator (KPI) -A Key performance indicator is a metric for measuring project success. Key performance indicators are established before project execution begins.
3. Keywords: Definition Words or phrases describing your product or service that you choose to help determine when and where your ad can appear. The keywords you choose are used to show your ads to people. Select high-quality, relevant keywords for your ad campaign to help you reach only the most interested people, who are more likely to become your customers. When someone searches on Google, your ad could be eligible to appear based on the similarity of your keywords to the person's search terms, as well as your keyword match types. Keywords are also used to match your ad to sites in the Google Network that are related to your keywords and ads. A great keyword list can help improve the performance of your ads and help you to avoid higher prices. Poor keywords can ultimately cause you to have higher prices and lower ad position.
4. Keyword's Quality Score - Quality Score is calculated based on the combined performance of 3 components including the expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience.
5. Kickoff meeting -The first meeting between a project team and stakeholders. It serves to review project expectations and to build enthusiasm for a project.
6. KPI: A “key performance indicator” is a measurable value that indicates how well an activity is achieving a goal.

⇧ Back To Top

1. Labels Naming conventions for buttons or site navigation.
2. Lag/Lag time -A necessary break or delay between activities.
3. LAMP Stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP (or sometimes Perl or Python), and is referring to the specifications of a web server (defining the operating system, web server, database, and scripting language, in that order). One of the advantages of LAMP setups is that the software used is all free and open source.
4. LANDING PAGE A landing page is the page where a visitor first enters a website. Oftentimes, a special landing page is created to elicit a specific action from the new visitor (usually in connection with an advertising or marketing campaign).
5. Landing page: Definition The webpage where people end up after they click your ad. The URL of this page is usually the same as your ad's final URL. For each ad, you specify a final URL to determine the landing page where people are taken when they click your ad. Your landing page experience is one of several factors that helps determine a keyword's Quality Score. The experience of a landing page is represented by such things as the usefulness and relevance of information provided on the page, ease of navigation for the user, and how many links are on the page.
6. Late finish date -The latest possible date a scheduled activity can be completed without delaying the rest of the project.
7. Late start date -The latest possible date a scheduled activity can be started without delaying the rest of the project.
8. Lateral thinking -Lateral thinking involves using a roundabout method to inspire new ideas or solutions. It can be done in a variety of ways, from using a random word to choosing an object in a room as a basis for thought.
9. Lazy loading: A way of deferring the loading of an object until it’s needed. This method is often used to improve page speed.
10. Lead/Lead time -The amount of time an activity can be brought forward with respect to the activity it is dependent upon.
11. Lean manufacturing -A production methodology based on the idea of streamlining and doing more with less, such as by providing customers with the same product value while eliminating waste and thus reducing production costs.
12. Lean six sigma – Lean six sigma combines the no-waste ideals of lean manufacturing with the no-defects target of six sigma. The goal of Lean six sigma is to eliminate waste and defects so that projects cost less and deliver more consistent quality.
13. Learnability A measure of the degree to which a user interface can be learned; an attribute of a usable system. The ease of learning the functionality of a system and gaining proficiency to complete basic and necessary tasks. Factors affecting this measure include the amount of time, training, and support required for the user to learn the system.
14. Lessons learned -The sum of knowledge gained from project work, which can be used as references and points of interest for future projects.
15. Level of effort -Work that is not directly associated with components of a work breakdown structure but that can instead be thought of as support work. Examples of level of effort include maintenance and accounting. It is one of three types of activities used to measure work performance as part of earned value management.
16. Life cycle -The entire process used to build its deliverables. Life cycles are divided into a number of phases. A variety of life cycle models are in use in project management.
17. Likert Scale A response range for a type of survey question in which a person is asked to agree or disagree with a statement. The scale typically runs from 1 ("strongly disagree") to 5 or 7 ("strongly agree"). With a Likert scale, neither the numerical scores nor the intervals between score values have any intrinsic meaning.
18. Link equity: The value or authority a link can pass to its destination.
19. Line of balance -A graphical technique used to illustrate relationships between repetitive tasks in projects such as building identical housing units. Each set of repetitive tasks is illustrated as a single line on a chart. Project managers look for places where dependent tasks intersect, indicating that the successor task must be delayed.
20. Linear sequential model -A linear sequential model moves through a project life cycle’s phases systematically and sequentially. It is typically used for small projects with straightforward requirements, since sequential development makes it difficult to revise design based on testing or preliminary feedback. (See also waterfall model)
21. Linear scheduling method -A graphical scheduling technique used to assign resources when project work consists of repetitive tasks. It focuses on maximizing resource use and reducing time wastage due to interruptions.
22. LINK FARM A link farm is any website setup specifically to increase the link popularity of other websites by increasing the number of incoming links to that site. While some link farms are single pages listing unrelated links, others consist of networks of sites that contain multiple links back and forth to one another. Search engines can generally recognize these types of schemes and often remove link farms from their directories and penalize the sites linking to and from them.
23. LIQUID LAYOUT A liquid layout is one that is based on percentages of the browser window’s size. The layout of the site will change with the width of the browser, even if the visitor changes their browser size while viewing the page. Liquid layouts take full advantage of a person’s browser width, optimizing the amount of content you can fit onscreen at one time.
24. Local pack: A pack of typically three local business listings that appear for local-intent searches such as “oil change near me.”
25. Logic network -A chronologically arranged diagram that shows relationships between project activities.
26. Logical relationship -A dependency between project activities or between project activities and milestones.
27. Look and Feel The consistent visual design and application of a corporate identity to an interface.
28. Long-tail keywords: Longer queries, typically those containing more than three words. Indicative of their length, they are often more specific than short-tail queries.

⇧ Back To Top

1. Management -The act of overseeing planning, personnel, and resources to achieve a goal.
2. Management process -The act of planning and executing a project or process to meet a defined set of objectives or goals. Management processes may be carried out at multiple levels within organizations, with the scale and scope of activities typically increasing up the organizational hierarchy.
3. Management reserve -An allocation of money or time (or both) to address unforeseeable circumstances that might delay or increase the costs of a project. A management reserve is not the same as a contingency reserve, which is an allocation made for known possibilities. The senior management must typically approve any release of funds from a management reserve.
4. Management science (MS) -A field of study that seeks to improve organizational decision making through the use of quantitative and scientific research methods. It evaluates management decisions and outcomes to find optimal solutions to problems, and thus enables better decision making. (See also operations research)
5. Manual penalty: Refers to a Google “Manual Action” where a human reviewer has determined certain pages on your site violate Google’s quality guidelines.
6. MARKUP This refers to the coding applied to a text document to change it into an HTML, XML, or other Markup Language document.
7. Master project -A master project file comprises a number of smaller projects, called subprojects, arranged hierarchically.
8. Matrix organization -Employees in a matrix organization report to more than one boss, with different lines of reporting representing different organizational projects or functions. A matrix structure can boost employee engagement and cross-field approaches to problem solving, but it can also create ambiguity over an employee’s role.
9. Maturity model -Maturity is the extent to which an organization’s methods, processes, and decisions are standardized and optimized. A maturity model assesses one or more of these aspects against a set of external benchmarks to determine an organization’s maturity level. Maturity models allow organizations to assess themselves according to management best practices. They typically offer recommendations for improvement.
10. Megaproject -A complex, large-scale, and high-investment project. Only hard projects may be termed megaprojects.
11. Merge point -A point in a network diagram at which multiple predecessor activities culminate in a single successor activity. The successor activity may not start until all the predecessor activities have finished.
12. META DATA Meta data is the data contained in the header that offers information about the web page that a visitor is currently on. The information contained in the meta data isn’t viewable on the web page (except in the source code). Meta data is contained within meta tags.
13. META DESCRIPTION -the data that fully describes the content, use, and benefits of the page. The meta description should appear in the search engine results page of a search engine or directory to help compel or inform a searchers on the content of the page in which they will land.
14. META TAG A meta tag is an HTML tag used to include meta data within the header of your web page. Common Meta Tags are Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
15. Milestone -Milestones indicate specific progress points or events in project timelines. They mark progress needed to complete projects successfully.
16. Milestone schedule -A milestone schedule details the time relationships associated with project milestones.
17. Minification: To minify something means to remove as many unnecessary characters from the source code as possible without altering functionality. Whereas compression makes something smaller, minification actually removes things.
18. Mission statement -A concise enunciation of the goals of an activity or organization. Mission statements are usually a short paragraph, and can be created for entire organizations or for individual projects. They are designed to provide direction and guidance.
19. Mobile-first indexing: Google began progressively moving websites over to mobile first indexing in 2018. This change means that Google crawls and indexes your pages based on their mobile version rather than their desktop version.
20. Modern project management -An umbrella term for a number of contemporary management strategies. In contrast to traditional management, modern project management: features more recognition of quality and scope variation; refines processes more frequently; stresses collective, interdisciplinary knowledge and team consensus over individual leadership. It is also less based on traditional hierarchies- modern project teams draw from a range of organizational levels and functional areas.
21. Monte Carlo simulation/technique -Monte Carlo simulation is a computer-based technique that performs probabilistic forecasting of possible outcomes to facilitate decision making. For each possible decision — from the most high-risk to the most conservative — a Monte Carlo simulation provides decision makers with a range of possible outcomes and the likelihood that each will occur.
22. MoSCoW -The MoSCoW prioritization method allows project managers to communicate with stakeholders on the importance of delivering specific requirements. The acronym indicates four categories of priority and importance for project requirements. Each requirement is prioritized as a “must have,” a “should have,” a “could have,” or a “won’t have.”
23. Most Likely Duration -An estimate of the most probable length of time needed to complete an activity. It may be used to compute expected activity duration through a technique called three-point estimation.
24. Motivation -A reason or stimulus that makes a person behave in a certain manner. In management, motivation refers to the desire to pursue personal or organizational goals and is positively associated with productivity.
25. Murphy’s Law -Murphy’s Law — “What can go wrong will go wrong.” — is cited in project management as a reason to plan adequately for contingencies.

⇧ Back To Top

1. NAVIGATION Navigation refers to the system that allows visitors to a website to move around that site. Navigation is most often thought of in terms of menus, but links within pages, breadcrumbs, related links, pagination, and any other links that allow a visitor to move from one page to another are included in navigation.
2. Near-critical activity -A near-critical activity has only a small amount of total float, or slack time. Near-critical activities have a high chance of becoming critical since their float is easily exhausted.
3. Near-critical path -A series of activities with only small amounts of total float, called near-critical activities. A near-critical path may become a critical path if its float is exhausted.
4. Negative variance -The amount by which actual project performance is worse than planned project performance. Negative variances in time and budget show the project is taking longer and is more expensive than planned, respectively.
5. Negotiation -A discussion to resolve an issue between parties. Negotiations can take place at any point during an activity and may be formal or informal.
6. NESTING Nesting refers to putting one HTML element within another element. When this is done, the elements have to be closed in the reverse order from how they were opened.
7. Net present value (NPV) -Net present value is a concept that compares the present value of a unit of currency to its inflation-adjusted possible value in the future. It allows organizations to determine the financial benefits, or lack thereof, of long-term projects.
8. Network Path -In a schedule network diagram, a network path is a logically connected continuous series of activities.
9. Node -In a network diagram, a node is a point at which dependency lines meet. In activity-on-node diagrams, nodes represent activities. In activity-on-arrow diagrams, they represent events or stages.
10. NoIndex tag: A meta tag that instructions a search engine not to index the page it’s on.
11. Nonlinear management (NLM) -Nonlinear management refers broadly to management practices which emphasize flexibility, self-organization, and adaptation to changing circumstances. It runs counter to concepts in linear management, which seek to impose structure on organizations. The defining characteristics of nonlinear management include encouragement of out-of-the-box thinking, proactivity in responding to challenges, and flexible working arrangements for employees.

⇧ Back To Top

1. Objective -A clear, concise statement about what an activity is meant to accomplish. Objectives are written to be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. A successful project meets all its stated objectives.
2. OPEN SOURCE Open source refers to the source code of a computer program being made available to the general public. Open source software includes both web-based and desktop applications. Open source programs are generally free or very low cost and are developed by teams of people, sometimes comprised mostly of volunteers.
3. Operations and maintenance -Operations and maintenance is the stage at which a project or system is handed over to staff who will put it into full operation and carry out routine maintenance.
4. Operations management -The duty of ensuring that an organization's operations are functioning optimally. Operations managers maintain and improve the efficacy and efficiency of business processes. They seek to develop operations which deliver high-quality outputs while keeping costs low.
5. Operations research (OR) -A field of study that uses mathematical, statistical, and scientific methods to aid and optimize decision making. It uses techniques such as mathematical modeling and optimization to enable better decision making. (See also management science)
6. Opportunity -In project management, an opportunity is a possibility that can contribute to project objectives. Opportunities in project management are classified as a type of risk.
7. Opportunity cost -The opportunity cost of a particular course of action is the loss of potential gains from all alternative courses of action.
8. Optimistic duration -An estimate of the shortest length of time needed to complete a specific activity or task. It may be used to compute expected activity duration through a technique called three-point estimation.
9. Order of magnitude estimate -An order of magnitude estimate provides an early, imprecise idea of the time and money required to complete a project. It uses historical data from completed projects to form adjusted estimates for similar new projects, usually presenting these estimates as ranging from -25 percent to +75 percent of the actual budget to indicate the levels of uncertainty involved.
10. Organic: Earned placement in search results, as opposed to paid advertisements.
11. Organization -A formally structured arrangement of parties that actively pursues a collective purpose. Organizations can be affected by external factors, and they in turn can affect the external environment.
12. Organization development -Broadly, organization development involves strategic efforts to improve aspects of organizational performance such as efficacy, efficiency, and sustainability, as well as aspects of organizational health such as employee satisfaction and engagement. The term may also refer to a field of study focusing on the characteristics of organizations and their growth and evolution.
13. Organizational breakdown structure -A hierarchical model of an organization's units and all its activities. It shows relationships between activities and organizational units and indicates the responsibilities of each unit, thus providing a holistic perspective of how an organization operates.
14. Organizational enabler -Any practice, tool, knowledge, or skill base that facilitates an organization’s pursuit of its objectives may be termed an organizational enabler.
15. Organizational planning -The strategic process of defining roles, responsibilities, and reporting hierarchies for parties within an organization, keeping the organization’s objectives in mind. It is carried out based on the principles and strategies by which an organization manages its members.
16. Organizational process assets -The specific set of formal and informal plans and processes in use at an organization. They also constitute the sum of knowledge and experience accumulated from past efforts. Organizational process assets are essentially the unique knowledge and processes that facilitate an organization’s operations.
17. Organizational project management -A strategic approach that emphasizes the effective management of projects, programs, and portfolios as the best way to pursue organizational objectives. It focuses on aligning an organization’s activities with its objectives and on managing these activities collectively, so they contribute to objectives.
18. Organizational project management maturity -A measure of an organization’s ability to meet its objectives by effectively managing all its activities. It can be assessed with a maturity model called the OPM3, which, like other maturity models, provides comparisons and recommendations for improvement.
19. Output -In project management, an output is the (usually physical) end product of a process.
20. Overall change control -The evaluation, coordination, and management of project-related changes. It concerns both the effective integration of changes to benefit the project and the management of adverse changes or emergencies, so that project activities are not disrupted.

⇧ Back To Top

1. PageRank: A component of Google's core algorithm. It is a link analysis program that estimates the importance of a web page by measuring the quality and quantity of links pointing to it.
2. Pagination: A website owner can opt to split a page into multiple parts in a sequence, similar to pages in the book. This can be especially helpful on very large pages. The hallmarks of a paginated page are the rel=”next” and rel=”prev” tags, indicating where each page falls in the greater sequence. These tags help Google understand that the pages should have consolidated link properties and that searchers should be sent to the first page in the sequence.
3. Panda: A Google algorithm update that targeted low-quality content.
4. PAGEVIEW A pageview is a request for an entire web page document from a server by a visitor’s browser. In other words, for each page view your site had, someone (or a search engine spider) looked at that page.
5. P3 assurance -P3 assurance involves satisfying sponsors and stakeholders that projects, programs, and portfolios are on course to meet performance expectations, fulfill objectives, and meet requirements.
6. P3 management -P3 management refers collectively to the management of projects, programs, and portfolios.
7. Paper Prototyping A study conducted on a paper version of a design to get feedback early on in the design process.
8. Parallel life cycle -In a parallel life cycle, certain phases are conducted in parallel (they overlap).
9. Parametric estimating -A technique for estimating cost and duration based on using historical data to establish relationships between variables — for example, calculating unit costs and the number of units required to complete a similar activity.
10. Pareto chart -A Pareto chart is a combination bar chart and line graph where the bars represent category frequencies in descending order from left to right, and the line tracks the cumulative total as a percentage.
11. Path convergence -On a schedule network diagram, path convergence occurs when an activity has multiple predecessors.
12. Path divergence -On a schedule network diagram, path divergence occurs when an activity has multiple successors.
13. People Also Ask boxes: A box in some SERPs featuring a list of questions related to the query and their answers.
14. Percent complete -The percent complete indicates the amount of work completed on an activity as a percentage of the total amount of work required.
15. Performance measurement baseline -A performance measurement baseline uses the schedule, cost, and scope baselines to create a point of comparison by which project performance is assessed. Variance from the performance measurement baseline may prompt corrective action.
16. Performance reporting -Performance reporting is formally informing stakeholders about a project's current performance and future performance forecasts. The aspects of performance to be reported are typically laid out in a communications management plan.
17. Performing organization -The performing organization for a project is the one whose members and resources most directly perform the project work.
18. PERMALINK Short for “permanent link.” Generally used only on blogs, a permalink is a link that is the permanent web address of a given blog post. Since most blogs have constantly-changing content, the permalink offers a way for readers to bookmark or link to specific posts even after those posts have moved off the home page or primary category page.
19. Persona The creation of a representative user based on available data and user interviews. Though the personal details of the persona may be fiction, the information used to create the user type is not.
20. Pessimistic duration -The pessimistic duration is an estimate of the longest length of time needed to complete a specific activity or task. It may be used to compute expected activity duration through a technique called three-point estimation.
21. PEST analysis -A PEST analysis examines how political, economic, social, and technological factors might affect a project.
22. Phase -A distinct stage in a project life cycle.
23. Phase gate -A phase gate is an end-of-phase checkpoint where the project leadership reviews progress and decides whether to continue to the next phase, revisits work done in the phase, or ends the project.
24. Planned value (PV) -The budget assigned to the work it is meant to accomplish. (See also budgeted cost for work scheduled)
25. Planning -The development of a course of action to pursue goals or objectives.
26. Planning phase -In project management, planning refers specifically to a phase of the life cycle that involves creating plans for management, control, and execution, as well as for what a project is meant to accomplish.
27. Planning poker -A consensus-based estimation technique. It attempts to avoid the anchoring effect — where the first estimate forms a baseline for all subsequent estimates — by having project team members make estimates simultaneously and discuss their estimates until they reach agreement.
28. PLUG-IN A plug-in is a bit of third party code that extends the capabilities of a website. It’s most often used in conjunction with a CMS or blogging platform. Plug-ins are a way to extend the functionality of a website without having to redo the core coding of the site. Plugins can also refer to bits of third-party software installed within a computer program to increase its functionality.
29. Portfolio -A collectively managed set of programs and projects.
30. Portfolio balancing -An aspect of organizational project management, portfolio balancing involves selecting and tailoring a portfolio’s components so they can be managed in line with organizational objectives.
31. Portfolio charter -A portfolio charter details the formal structure of a portfolio and describes what it is meant to achieve. It authorizes the creation of a portfolio and connects its management with organizational objectives.
32. Portfolio management -The collective management of portfolios and their components in line with concepts of organizational project management.
33. Portfolio manager -The individual responsible for balancing and controlling a portfolio in line with concepts of organizational project management.
34. Portfolio, program, and project management maturity model (P3M3) -The P3M3 assesses organizational performance in portfolio, program, and project management via a set of key process areas (KPAs). Like other maturity models, the P3M3 allows organizations to measure their performance against external benchmarks and provides a roadmap for project performance and delivery improvement.
35. Positive variance -The amount by which actual project performance is better than planned project performance. Positive variances in time and budget show the project is proceeding faster and is less expensive than planned, respectively.
36. Precedence diagramming method (PDM) -The process of constructing a project schedule network diagram. It illustrates the logical relationships between project activities and shows the order in which they must be performed by using nodes to represent activities and arrows to show dependencies. PDM also indicates early and late start and finish dates, as well as activity durations.
37. Precedence network -A precedence network visually indicates relationships between project activities. Boxes and links are used to represent activities and activity relationships. Precedence networks also detail the time relationships and constraints associated with activities.
38. Predecessor activity -In a schedule, a predecessor activity logically comes immediately before another activity, which is dependent on the predecessor.
39. Preventive action -A step taken to ensure future work does not stray from performance expectations. A preventive action, which is proactive, is not the same as a corrective action, which is reactive.
40. PRINCE2 -PRINCE2 is an acronym for projects in controlled environments, version 2. It is a project management methodology that emphasizes business justifications for projects. PRINCE2 management is based on clear organization of project roles and responsibilities and managing when necessary rather than by obligation. It involves planning and executing projects in a series of stages, with stipulated requirements for each work package.
41. PRiSM -PRiSM is an acronym for projects integrating sustainable methods. It is a project management methodology that focuses on minimizing negative impacts on society and the environment. PRiSM focuses on sustainability. It is essentially green project management.
42. Probability and impact matrix -A visual framework for categorizing risks based on their probability of occurrence and impact.
43. Problem statement -A problem statement concisely states and describes an issue that needs to be solved. It is used to focus and direct problem-solving efforts.
44. Process -A process is a repeatable sequence of activities with known inputs and outputs. Processes consume energy.
45. Process architecture -The sum of structures, components, and relationships that constitute a process system, which is a complex system of processes. It refers to the overall design of a process system and comprises both infrastructure (the constituent parts and relationships) and suprastructure (the larger system of which the process system is part).
46. Process management -The act of planning, coordinating, and overseeing processes with a view to improving outputs, reducing inputs and energy costs, and maintaining and improving efficiency and efficacy.
47. Process-based project management -A methodology that views projects as means of pursuing organizational objectives. It involves using an organization’s mission and values to guide the creation and pursuit of project objectives. If project objectives aren’t in alignment with the company mission statement, they are amended accordingly.
48. Procurement management plan -A procurement management plan explains how an organization will obtain any external resources needed for a project.
49. Product breakdown structure (PBS) -A product breakdown structure is used in project management to record and communicate all project deliverables in a hierarchical tree structure. It may be thought of as a comprehensive list of all project outputs and outcomes.
50. Product description -A product description defines and describes a project product and its purpose.
51. Product verification -Product verification involves examining a deliverable to ensure, among other things, that it meets requirements, quality benchmarks, and expectations set by the product description. It is conducted before a product is presented to a customer for acceptance.
52. Professional development unit (PDU) -A continuing education unit that project management professionals (PMPs) take to maintain certification.
53. Program -A collectively managed set of projects.
54. Program charter -An approved document that authorizes the use of resources for a program and connects its management with organizational objectives.
55. Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) -PERT is a statistical method used to analyze activity and project durations. PERT networks are typically illustrated with activity-on-arrow diagrams. The method makes use of optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely durations to estimate expected durations for project activities and to determine float times, early and late start dates, and critical paths.
56. Program management -The collective management of programs and their components in line with concepts of organizational project management.
57. Program manager -A program manager has formal authority to manage a program and is responsible for meeting its objectives as part of organizational project management methods. They oversee, at a high level, all projects within a program.
58. Programming language: Writing instructions in a way a computer can understand. For example, JavaScript is a programming language that adds dynamic (not-static) elements to a web page.
59. Progress analysis -The measurement of progress against performance baselines. Progress analysis collects information about the status of an activity that may prompt corrective action.
60. Progressive elaboration -The practice of adding and updating details in a project management plan. It aims at managing to increase levels of detail as estimates are revised, and more up-to-date information becomes available.
61. Project -A temporary, goal-driven effort to create a unique output. A project has clearly defined phases, and its success is measured by whether it meets its stated objectives.
62. Project accounting -In project management, project accounting deals with reporting on the financial status of projects. It measures financial performance and actual costs against budgets or baselines. Therefore, it complements project management while providing financial information to the sponsor. Project accounting may also be referred to as job cost accounting.
63. Project baseline -A project baseline comprises the budget and schedule allocations set during the initiation and planning phases of a project. Assuming the scope of the project remains unchanged, it may be used to determine variance from budget or schedule.
64. Project calendar -A project calendar indicates periods of time for scheduled project work.
65. Project charter -A Project charter is a document that details the scope, organization, and objectives of a project. It is typically created by a project manager and formally approved by the sponsor. A project charter authorizes the project manager’s use of organizational resources for the project and is understood to be an agreement between the sponsor, stakeholders, and project manager.
66. Project cost management (PCM) -The use of an information system to estimate, measure, and control costs through the project life cycle. It aims at completing projects within budgets.
67. Project definition -A project definition or project charter is a document created by a project manager and approved by a project sponsor that details the scope, organization, and objectives of a project. It authorizes a project manager’s use of resources for a project and constitutes an agreement between the sponsor, stakeholders, and project manager (See also project charter)
68. Project management body of knowledge (PMBOK) -The PMBOK is a collection of project management-related knowledge maintained by the Project Management Institute.
69. Project management office -An organizational unit that oversees project management-related activities within an organization. It seeks to facilitate and expedite project work through the use of standard procedures. A project management office also functions as a repository of general, project-related knowledge and resources.
70. Project management process -A management process that encompasses all phases of a project, from initiation to the meeting of objectives.
71. Project management professional (PMP) -A Project management professional (PMP) is a person certified by the Project Management Institute upon completion of a course of formal education, an examination, and a certain number of hours managing projects. The certification is considered the gold standard in project management.
72. Project management simulators -Software training tools that teach project management skills via interactive learning and provide real-time feedback by which project management trainees can practice and reassess their decision making. Some simulators, such as the Monte Carlo simulator, are used to support and complement decision making in real projects.
73. Project management software -Project management software is a family of tools typically used in the management of complex projects. They provide the ability to: calculate estimates; create and manage schedules and budgets; track and oversee project activities and progress; assign and allocate resources; optimize decision making; and communicate and collaborate with members of a project team.
74. Project management triangle -A visual metaphor that illustrates relationships between scope, cost, and schedule. It expresses the idea that none of the three aspects can be amended without affecting the others.
75. Project manager -The person tasked with initiating, planning, executing, and closing a project, and with managing all aspects of project performance through these phases. The term is typically used for a project management professional. Project managers are able to use organizational resources for projects. They serve as contact points for sponsors, program managers, and other stakeholders.
76. Project network -A visual representation of the activities and dependencies involved in the successful completion of a project.
77. Project performance indicators -Measures used to assess project performance, usually with reference to project or performance baselines. These typically include cost, schedule, and scope statuses.
78. Project phase -A distinct stage in a project management life cycle. Each phase comprises a set of project-related activities.
79. Project plan -A document formally approved by the project manager, sponsor, and other stakeholders which states the approved cost, schedule, and scope baselines. It guides project execution, control, and quality and performance assessment. The project plan also forms the basis for communication between parties involved in a project. Project plans can vary in their levels of detail.
80. Project planning -Project planning is usually the longest phase of the project management life cycle. It involves determining cost, schedule, and scope baselines and using these to create a detailed roadmap for executing project activities and producing deliverables.
81. Project portfolio management (PPM) -A method of collectively managing a portfolio’s constituent programs and projects to pursue organizational objectives. It involves optimizing the mix and scheduling of projects to pursue objectives as effectively as possible. Project portfolio management is closely related to organizational project management.
82. Project schedule network diagram -A diagram is a visual representation of how scheduled project activities are ordered and related. Depending on the type of network diagram, boxes represent activities or events, and arrows indicate activities or dependencies, typically with expected durations.
83. Project scope statement -A project scope statement details what a project is meant to achieve and describes the deliverables expected. It forms the basis of measurable objectives by which the success of a project will be assessed. Project scope statements are typically part of project plans.
84. Project stakeholders -Broadly, a Stakeholder is any party which may be affected by a project. In project management, the term usually refers to parties with an interest in the successful completion of a project.
85. Project team -A project team is responsible for leading and collectively managing a project and its related activities through the project’s life cycle. Project teams may contain members from several different functional groups within an organization. Depending on the nature of the project, a project team may be disbanded upon completion of a project.
86. Project tiers -Project sizing categorizes projects into project tiers based on staff power or time required for completion to determine the most appropriate project management practices.
87. Projectized organization -A projectized organization arranges all its activities into a collection of projects, programs, and portfolios. Projects are typically completed for external clients or customers. The prioritization of project work means the project manager can utilize resources and assign work as they see fit.
88. Proof of concept -A proof of concept is derived from a pilot project or experiment that examines whether an activity can be completed, or a concept can be realized. It shows the feasibility of an idea.
89. Proport -The term proport is used to define the sum of unique skills that team members bring to a project. These skills can be harnessed for collective benefit.
90. Prototype A lightweight initial design of an interface or product, used to capture initial concepts and layouts to gather feedback from users, as well as project participants and stakeholders. (see also Rapid Prototyping)

⇧ Back To Top

1. Qualitative risk analysis -A project management technique that subjectively analyzes risk probability and impact. The risks are categorized on a probability and impact matrix, and those deemed significant may undergo a quantitative risk analysis.
2. Quality -In project management, quality is a measure of a deliverable’s degree of excellence. Quality may also refer to a clearly defined set of stakeholder requirements by which results are assessed.
3. Quality assurance -A set of practices designed to monitor processes and provide confidence that result in deliverables meeting quality expectations. It may involve quality audits and the stipulated use of best practices.
4. Quality control -The use of standardized practices to ensure that deliverables meet stakeholder expectations. It involves not only the definition and identification of unacceptable results but also the management of processes to optimize results.
5. Quality management plan -A quality management plan identifies stakeholders’ quality expectations and details quality assurance and quality control policies to monitor results and meet these expectations. It is part of a project management plan.
6. Quality planning -Quality planning involves identifying expected quality standards and creating mechanisms to ensure these standards are met. It may also recommend corrective action if quality standards are not being met.
7. Quality, cost, delivery (QCD) -QCD is an approach to management that focuses on assessing production processes with regard to three aspects: quality, cost, and delivery. It seeks to simplify process management and facilitate decision making by providing objective information about each of the three aspects, with an understanding that modifications to any one aspect will also affect the others.
8. Quantitative risk analysis -The mathematical analysis of risk probability and impact. In project management, it is not a substitute for qualitative risk analysis. Instead, quantitative analysis is conducted after qualitative analysis and assesses risks that qualitative analysis has identified as significant.
9. Query: Words typed into the search bar.

⇧ Back To Top

1. RAID log -RAID is an acronym for risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies. The RAID log is a project management tool that records developments in these four aspects of project work for the stakeholders’ benefit and for an end-of-project review.
2. RankBrain: the machine learning component of Google’s core algorithm that adjusts ranking by promoting the most relevant, helpful results.
3. Ranking: Ordering search results by relevance to the query.
4. Rapid Prototyping The creation of low-cost representations of the user interface to a system as a method of brainstorming, creating, testing and communicating ideas about the system being developed.
5. RASCI/RACI chart -A RASCI chart is created during project initiation to identify those who are: responsible for project activities, accountable for ensuring that work is done, signing off on the work, consulted in relation to work activities, and informed about the status of the work. The acronym may be simplified as RACI. (See also responsibility assignment matrix)
6. Redirection: When a URL is moved from one location to another. Most often, redirection is permanent (301 redirect).
7. Reengineering -Reengineering involves the extensive redesign or rethinking of core processes to achieve major performance improvements. It focuses on optimizing key performance areas such as quality and efficiency. Reengineering often involves restructuring organizations so that multi-functional teams can manage processes from start to end.
8. Referral Traffic: Traffic sent to a website from another website. For example, if your website is receiving visits from people clicking on your site from a link on Facebook, Google Analytics will attribute that traffic as “facebook.com / referral” in the Source/Medium report.
9. Rel=canonical: A tag that allows site owners to tell Google which version of a web page is the original and which are the duplicates.
10. Release -In IT project management, a release is a fully functional software delivered to a customer as agreed, typically after a series of iterations.
11. Remote team -A remote team’s members work in collaboration, usually electronically, from different geographic locations.
12. Rendering: The process of a browser turning a website’s code into a viewable page.
13. Repeatable -The term repeatable is used to describe a sequence of activities that may be easily and efficiently replicated. Repeatable processes are economical since they typically avoid negative variances and have established operations.
14. Request for proposal -A formal invitation for expressions of interest that is extended by an organization looking to procure goods or services. (See also invitation for bid)
15. Request for quotation -Upon receipt of proposals after issuing a request for proposal, an organization will issue a request for quotations to shortlisted proposers, asking for detailed cost estimations for specific goods or services.
16. Requirements management plan -A requirements management plan explains how project requirements will be defined, managed, and delivered. It is part of a project management plan and is used to guide project execution and control to adequately deliver requirements.
17. Requirements traceability matrix -A table that tracks requirements through the project life cycle and product testing. It is used to ensure that a project is able to deliver the stipulated requirements during the verification process.
18. Requirements -A set of stipulations regarding project deliverables. They are a key element of the project scope and explain in detail the stakeholders’ expectations for a project.
19. Residual risk -Any risks that have not or cannot be addressed by risk mitigation or risk avoidance procedures.
20. Resource allocation -The assigning and scheduling of resources for project-related activities, ideally in the most efficient manner possible. Resource allocation is typically handled by a project manager, though they may be overridden by a program manager if resources are to be shared between multiple projects. (See also allocation)
21. Resource availability -Resource availability indicates whether a specific resource is available for use at a given time.
22. Resource breakdown structure -A hierarchical list of resources needed for project work, classified by type and function.
23. Resource calendar -A resource calendar indicates resource availability, usually by shift, over a period of time.
24. Resource leveling -A technique that involves amending the project schedule to keep resource use below a set limit. It is used when it is important to impose limits on resource use. Resource leveling can affect a project’s critical path.
25. Resource loading profiles -Resource loading profiles indicate the number and type of personnel required to do project work over periods of time.
26. Resource optimization techniques -Resource optimization techniques seek to reconcile supplies and demands for resources. Depending on whether project duration or limiting resource use is prioritized, they can be used to amend activity start and finish dates in ways that do or do not affect a project’s critical path. (See also resource leveling and resource smoothing)
27. Resource smoothing -A technique that makes use of float when allocating resources so as not to affect total project duration. It is used when project time constraints are important. Resource leveling does not affect a project’s critical path.
28. Resource-Limited schedule -A resource-limited schedule has had its start and end dates adjusted based on the expected availability of resources.
29. Resources -The elements needed for a project to successfully meet its objectives. Examples of resources include equipment, staff, locations, facilities, and money.
30. Responsibility assignment matrix -A responsibility assignment matrix identifies those who are: responsible for project activities, accountable for ensuring that work is done, consulted about work activities, and informed about the work status. (See also RASCI/RACI chart)
31. Responsive design: Google’s preferred design pattern for mobile-friendly websites, responsive design allows the website to adapt to fit whatever device it’s being viewed on.
32. Retainage -The sum of money withheld from a contract payment until completion of the contract according to terms.
33. Return on investment (ROI) -The expected financial gain of a project expressed as a percentage of total project investment. It is used to assess the overall profitability of a project.
34. Rich snippet: A snippet is the title and description preview that Google and other search engines show of URLs on its results page. A “rich” snippet, therefore, is an enhanced version of the standard snippet. Some rich snippets can be encouraged by the use of structured data markup, like review markup displaying as rating stars next to those URLs in the search results.
35. Risk -The probability of occurrence of a specific event that affects the pursuit of objectives. Risks are not negative by definition. In project management, opportunities are also considered risks.
36. Risk acceptance -Risk acceptance involves acknowledging a risk and not taking preemptive action against it.
37. Risk appetite -The amount and type of risk an organization is willing to accept in anticipation of gains. It is not the same as risk tolerance, which is the amount of variation in performance measures that an organization is willing to accept.
38. Risk assessment -An activity that involves identifying possible risks to a project and examining how these risks, if they occur, would affect objectives.
39. Risk avoidance -Risk avoidance focuses on avoiding threats that can harm an organization, its projects, or assets. Unlike risk management, which is geared toward mitigating the impact of a negative event, risk avoidance seeks to address vulnerabilities and make sure those events do not occur.
40. Risk breakdown structure -A hierarchical model of all risks, arranged categorically.
41. Risk category -A set of risks grouped by cause.
42. Risk efficiency -A concept based on the idea of maximizing the return-to-risk ratio. It can do this in two ways: by minimizing exposure to risk for a given level of expected return or by seeking the highest possible expected return for a given level of risk.
43. Risk enhancement -Risk enhancement involves increasing the probability of an opportunity, or positive risk, occurring.
44. Risk exploitation -Risk exploitation focuses on ensuring that an opportunity, or positive risk, occurs.
45. Risk identification -The process of identifying and examining risks and their effects on project objectives.
46. Risk management -A subset of management strategies that deals with identifying and assessing risks and acting to reduce the likelihood or impact of negative risks. Risk managers seek to ensure that negative risks do not affect organizational or project objectives.
47. Risk mitigation -Risk mitigation involves decreasing the probability of a negative risk occurring, as well as protecting project objectives from a negative risk’s impact.
48. Risk monitoring and control -The risk monitoring and control process uses a risk management plan to identify risks and implement appropriate risk responses.
49. Risk owner -A risk owner is responsible for determining and enacting appropriate responses to a specific type of risk. (See also risk response owner)
50. Risk register -A risk register, or risk log, is a tool used to chronicle risky situations and risk responses as they arise.
51. Risk response owner -A risk owner monitors a specific type of risk and implements appropriate risk responses when necessary. (See also risk owner)
52. Risk response planning -Risk response planning is typically conducted after risk analyses to determine appropriate courses of action for risks is deemed significant.
53. Risk sharing -Risk sharing involves handing ownership of a positive risk to a third party who is typically specialized and better able to realize the opportunity.
54. Risk threshold -The level at which the likelihood or impact of a risk becomes significant enough that the risk manager deems a risk response necessary.
55. Risk tolerance -The level of variation in performance measures that an organization is willing to accept. It is not the same as risk appetite, which is the level and type of risk an organization is prepared to accept in anticipation of gains.
56. Risk transference -Risk transference involves handing ownership of risk to a third party who is typically specialized and better able to address the risk or to withstand its impact.
57. Risk trigger -An event that causes a risk to occur. A trigger can serve as a warning that a risk has occurred or is about to occur.
58. Robots.txt: Files that suggest which parts of your site search engines should and shouldn't crawl.
59. Rolling wave planning -A planning approach that focuses on in-depth detailing of work to be accomplished in the near term and progressively lower levels of detail for work scheduled farther in the future. It is based on the idea that work scheduled in the future is more subject to change and thus less worth planning in detail. Rolling wave planning only works for schedules with clearly defined iterations.
60. Root cause -The primary reason an event occurs.
61. REALLY SIMPLE SYNDICATION Also referred to as RSS. RSS is a standardized XML format that allows content to be syndicated from one site to another. It’s most commonly used on blogs. RSS also allows visitors to subscribe to a blog or other site and receive updates via a feed reader.
62. Run book -A comprehensive catalog of information needed to conduct operations and to respond to any emergency situations that arise during operations. It typically details, step by step, all regular operational procedures and emergency responses.

⇧ Back To Top

1. S-Curve analysis -An s-curve tracks cumulative financial or labor costs. S-Curve analysis is used to compare a project’s cumulative costs at any given point with a cumulative cost baseline created during the planning phase. It allows project managers and sponsors to assess performance and progress.
2. Scanability How easy it is to read and understand a body of text.
3. Schedule -A comprehensive list of project activities and milestones in logical order, with start and finish dates for each component.
4. Schedule baseline -A schedule baseline is the original project schedule — approved by the project team, sponsor, and stakeholders — by which performance is assessed. Schedule baselines are generally inflexible, though alteration of a schedule baseline via a formal change control process may be allowed.
5. Schedule compression technique -A schedule compression technique speeds up projects without affecting scope by decreasing the duration of a project’s critical path. There are two main schedule compression techniques crashing and fast tracking. (See also duration compression)
6. Schedule model -A logically arranged, time-based plan for project activities. It is used to create a project schedule.
7. Schedule model analysis -Schedule model analysis examines the project schedule created from a schedule model. It aims to optimize the schedule, usually via the use of scheduling software.
8. Schedule network analysis -Schedule network analysis uses a variety of techniques to identify early and late start and finish dates for project activities and thus to create project schedules.
9. Schedule performance index (SPI) -The ratio of earned value to planned value at a given point in time. It shows whether a project is running to schedule. An SPI lower than one indicates the project is behind schedule. An SPI higher than one indicates the project is ahead of schedule.
10. Schedule variance -Schedule variance is the difference between earned value and planned value at a given point in time.
11. SCHEMA Generally, a schema is an XML document used in place of a DTD to describe other XML documents.
12. Schema.org: Code that “wraps around” elements of your web page to provide additional information about it to the search engine. Data using schema.org is referred to as “structured” as opposed to “unstructured” — in other words, organized rather than unorganized.
13. Scientific management -Scientific management was an early attempt to bring scientific approaches to process management. Its earliest form was derived from a 1911 monograph by Frederick W. Taylor, who focused on increasing economic efficiency via the analysis and optimization of labor processes.
14. Scope -The scope of a project constitutes everything it is supposed to accomplish in order to be deemed successful.
15. Scope baseline -The set of requirements, expectations, and work packages approved as project deliverables. It is used to guide and assess project performance.
16. Scope change management -Scope change management deals with amendments to the scope as set in the scope baseline and project management plan. Since scope amendments typically affect cost and schedule estimates, scope change management involves revising estimates and adequately communicating these to stakeholders, as well as obtaining the resources necessary to fulfill new scope requirements.
17. Scope creep -Scope creep refers to gradual changes in project scope that occur without a formal scope change procedure. Scope creep is considered negative since unapproved changes in scope affect cost and schedule but do not allow complementary revisions to cost and schedule estimates.
18. Script Generally refers to a portion of code on an HTML page that makes the page more dynamic and interactive. Scripts can be written in a variety of languages, including JavaScript.
19. Scrum -Scrum is an iterative development procedure used in software development projects. Scrum-based projects focus on prioritizing requirements and working towards a clear set of goals over a set time period, called a sprint. The development team thus works through the list of requirements over a number of sprints. Scrum-based projects usually do not have project manager. Instead, the project team meets daily for progress updates.
20. Secondary risk -A risk created by a risk response.
21. Security -Security in project management refers broadly to protecting humans, information, and resources from risk.
22. Search engine: An information retrieval program that searches for items in a database that match the request input by the user. Examples: Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
23. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques used to improve website positioning (ranking) on the web's search engines. The specific goal is to have the site listed among the first results for searches on particular keywords.
24. Semantics Semantics is a term used to distinguish the meaning of an instruction from its format. A semantic error occurs when you enter a legal command that does not make sense in the current context. To reduce error, provide semantic hints. Example of a semantic hint: Use AND to retrieve a smaller set of records in which both of the search terms are present. Use OR to retrieve a larger number of records; OR is commonly used to search for synonymous terms or concepts.
25. SERP features: Results displayed in a non-standard format.
26. SERP: Stands for “search engine results page” — the page you see after conducting a search.
27. SERVER-SIDE Server-side refers to scripts run on a web server, as opposed to in a user’s browser. Server-side scripts often take a bit longer to run than a client-side script, as each page must reload when an action is taken.
28. Sitemap: A list of URLs on your site that crawlers can use to discover and index your content.
29. Six Sigma -An approach to process management that focuses on the near total elimination of product or service defects. It uses quality management methods to improve and optimize processes involved in the production of a product or service so that 99.99966 percent of process outcomes are defect-free.
30. Slack time -The length of time an activity's early start can be delayed without affecting project duration. (See also float)
31. Slip chart -A slip chart graphically compares predicted activity completion dates with originally planned completion dates.
32. Slippage -The negative variance between planned and actual activity completion dates. Slippage may also refer to the general tendency of a project to be delayed beyond planned completion dates.
33. SOAP Stands for Simple Object Access Protocol. It’s an XML-based protocol exchanging information across the internet to allow an application on one site to access an application or database on another site.
34. Soft project -A soft project does not have a physical output.
35. Software engineering -Software engineering is generally defined as the use of engineering principles in software development. It systematically employs scientific and technological approaches in the design, operation, and modification of software.
36. SPECIFICATION A specification is a document that offers an explicit definition and requirements for a web service or technology and generally includes how the technology is meant to be used, along with the tags, elements, and any dependencies.
37. Spiral life cycle -An IT system’s development model that aims to learn from experience by drawing from both iterative development and the waterfall model. It has four sequential phases: identification, design, construction, and evaluation and risk analysis. At the end of each life cycle, an iteration is assessed by the customer, and the spiral sequence begins again upon receipt of customer feedback. The spiral model is typically used in long-term projects or those where requirements are expected to vary, and customer feedback is to be incorporated in phases.
38. Sponsor -A sponsor has ultimate authority over a project. They provide high-level direction, approve project funding as well as deviations from cost and budget, and determine project scope. Sponsors are typically members of the senior management and are expected to provide high-level support for a project.
39. Sprint -In iterative project development, a sprint is a fixed unit of time during which the project typically passes through a complete development life cycle. A sprint is usually a few weeks long.
40. SRCSET: Like responsive design for images, SRCSET indicates which version of the image to show for different situations.
41. SSL certificate: A “Secure Sockets Layer” is used to encrypt data passed between the web server and browser of the searcher.
42. Stakeholder -In project management, a Stakeholder is any party with an interest in the successful completion of a project. More generally, the term refers to anyone who is affected by a project. (See also project stakeholder)
43. Standards -A standard prescribes a collection of standardized rules, guidelines, and characteristics requirements for processes or products that are approved by a recognized body. Standards are not by definition mandatory. They are adopted by consensus, although they may be enforced as a requirement for participation in certain markets.
44. Start-To-Finish -In a start-to-finish relationship, a successor activity cannot finish until a predecessor activity has started.
45. Start-To-Start -In a start-to-start relationship, a successor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has started.
46. Statement of work (SoW) -A Statement of work is a comprehensive and detailed list of deliverables expected under a contract, with expected dates for each deliverable.
47. Steering committee -A steering committee provides high-level strategic guidance on a project. It typically comprises individuals from a number of stakeholder organizations and serves to provide consensus-based direction on projects with a large number or a diversity of stakeholders.
48. Storyboard A technique for illustrating an interaction between a person and a product (or multiple people and multiple products) in narrative format, which includes a series of drawings, sketches, or pictures and sometimes words that tell a story. Read more about the Storyboard method.
49. Story point -In sprint-based projects, a story point is a measure of the amount of work required to implement a particular user story. Assigning and totaling story points allows project teams to target a realistic number of user stories for action during an iteration or sprint.
50. Structured Data: Another way to say “organized” data (as opposed to unorganized). Schema.org is a way to structure your data, for example, by labeling it with additional information that helps the search engine understand it.
51. Style sheet A set of statements that specify presentation of a document. Style sheets may have three different origins: they may be written by content providers, created by users, or built into browsers or plug-ins.
52. Successor activity -In a schedule, a successor activity logically comes after and depends on an activity immediately preceding it.
53. Summary activity -In a network diagram, a summary activity combines a set of related activities and visually represents them as a single activity.
54. Sunk cost -A cost that cannot be recovered once spent.
55. Systems development life cycle (SDLC) -In systems engineering, the systems development life cycle is the process of creating, releasing, and maintaining an information system, which may comprise hardware, software, or both. The typical SDLC has six sequential phases: planning, analysis, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance.
56. Systems engineering -A field of engineering that applies principles of systems thinking to the development of complex systems. Since complex systems are more difficult to coordinate and make cohesive, systems engineering focuses on developing and optimizing systems as interactive wholes instead of sums of parts. As complex systems comprise both technical and human elements, systems engineering is, by nature, interdisciplinary.

⇧ Back To Top

1. TAG A tag is a set of markup characters that are used around an element to indicate its start and end. Tags can also include HTML or other code to specify how that element should look or behave on the page. See also HTML Tag.
2. Task -In project management, a task is a unit of work or activity needed for progress towards project goals. Typically, a task must be completed by a set deadline. Tasks may be further broken down into assignments or subtasks.
3. Task analysis -A task analysis details the actions or resources required to complete a task.
4. Taxonomy A scheme for classifying a body of knowledge and defining the relationships among the pieces. Sometimes referred to as a controlled vocabulary, a taxonomy is often used to classify content to aid in the creation of information architecture. SEE Information Architecture.
5. TEMPLATE A template is a file used to create a consistent design across a website. Templates are often used in conjunction with a CMS and contain both structural information about how a site should be set up, but also stylistic information about how the site should look.
6. Testing -The testing phase involves assessment of the product developed so as to gauge quality and performance and to determine whether requirements have been met.
7. Testing (Usability) The process of validating that a system meets pre-specified usability objectives. These objectives should be task-based, and should tie directly to product requirements, including results from analytic tools such as personas, scenarios, and task analysis. Testing may validate a number of objective and subjective characteristics, including task completion, time on task, error rates, and user satisfaction. Testing may be formal or informal, may be local (with testers physically present at same location as users) or remote, and may result in qualitative or quantitative data. Testing may occur at any point in the development cycle, from early analysis through product delivery and beyond. Testing may be based on paper designs, models, or display mock-ups, as well as on products in development and completed products.
8. Theory of constraints -The theory of constraints explains that any process is limited from optimum performance by its weakest link or links, called constraints. The theory of constraints methodology involves identifying these weak links via a strategy called focusing and improving them until they no longer limit performance.
9. Thin content: Content that adds little-to-no value to the visitor.
10. Think-aloud Protocol A direct observation method of user testing that involves asking users to think out loud as they are performing a task. Users are asked to say whatever they are looking at, thinking, doing, and feeling at each moment. This method is especially helpful for determining users' expectations and identifying what aspects of a system are confusing.
11. Threat -A negative risk that could adversely affect project objectives.
12. Three-point estimating -A superset of estimating techniques that use averages (or weighted averages) of most likely, optimistic, and pessimistic costs, and duration estimates to form final estimates.
13. Time and material contract -A time and material contract pays per unit of time and reimburses materials costs for contracted work.
14. Time chainage diagram -In project management, a time chainage diagram graphically represents scheduled activities for a hard project completed sequentially over a geographic distance, such as the construction of a motorway or the laying of a pipeline. It thus provides both a scheduled time and a relative geographic location for each activity.
15. Time limit -The time limit for a task is the window of time or deadline by which it must be completed.
16. Time-scaled network diagram -A network diagram is time scaled if the lengths of activities are drawn to scale to indicate their expected durations.
17. Timebox -Timeboxing is a project management strategy that prioritizes meeting deadlines over scope requirements. It involves assigning specific lengths of time, called timeboxes, to project activities. Project teams work to address as many requirements as possible within each timebox, proceeding to successor activities once the time limit has passed.
18. Timeline -A Timeline is a graphical, sequential representation of project activities.
19. Title tag: An HTML element that specifies the title of a web page.
20. To-Complete Performance Index (TCPI) -A project’s to-complete performance index is the cost performance it needs to achieve to be completed within budget. The TCPI is calculated as the ratio of work remaining to budget remaining.
21. Tolerance -The acceptable level of variance in project performance. The project sponsor is typically informed if tolerance levels are crossed.
22. Top-Down estimating -Top-Down estimating uses historical data from similar projects to compute time and cost estimates.
23. Total cost of ownership (TCO) -The total cost of ownership estimates the sum total of direct and indirect costs incurred in the purchase, operation, and maintenance of an asset through its life.
24. Total float -The length of time an activity can be delayed from its early start date without affecting the project end date.
25. Traffic: The amount of visits or sessions to a website within a certain time frame. Similar to automobile traffic. How busy is the site and how many people are visiting within that time frame.
26. Trigger condition -A condition that causes a risk to occur. Trigger conditions can serve as warning signs that risks have occurred or are about to occur. (See also risk trigger)

⇧ Back To Top

1. Unified process -A unified process may refer to any one of a family of iterative software development process frameworks. Unified processes have four phases: inception, elaboration, construction, and transition. Each phase comprises a number of timeboxed iterations, which in turn involve a cycle of specifying requirements, analysis, design, implementation, and testing, with emphases on these shifting as the project team proceeds through iterations. Each iteration results in an improved version of the system called an increment.
2. Unnatural links: Google describes unnatural links as “creating links that weren’t editorially placed or vouched for by the site’s owner on a page.” This is a violation of their guidelines and could warrant a penalty against the offending website.
3. URL Stands for Uniform Resource Locator. A site’s URL is its address, the item that specifies where on the Internet it can the found.
4. URL parameters: Information following a question mark that is appended to a URL to change the page’s content (active parameter) or track information (passive parameter).
5. USABILITY Usability refers to how easy it is for a visitor to your site to use your site in its intended manner. In other words, are navigation, content, images, and any interactive elements easy to use, functioning the way they were intended, and that your intended target visitor will not need any special training in order to use your site. If a website is difficult to use, people leave.
Usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. The word "usability" also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process. Usability Usability is the degree to which something -software, hardware or anything else -is easy to use and a good fit for the people who use it.
6. Usability Engineering The disciplined application of usability practices to assess the needs and abilities of users, in conjunction with the business requirements, practices, and processes of an organization. These are combined to develop an effective user experience, and to integrate that experience into a product or service. Usability engineering also encompasses the business and interpersonal skills to work effectively with the business and development organizations to integrate usability practices and goals within the overall development, marketing, support, training, and quality assurance processes of the product group.
7. Usability Evaluation Assessing the usability of a product with the purpose of identifying usability problems and/or obtaining usability measures. The purpose of evaluation can be to improve the usability of the product as part of design/development (formative evaluation), or to assess the extent to which usability objectives have been achieved (summative evaluation).
8. Use case -In software development, a use case is a step-by-step list of actions that end users would take to achieve specific goals. Use cases facilitate end user-focused software testing.
9. User-Centered Design (UCD) An approach or philosophy that emphasizes early and continuous involvement of users in the design and evaluation process.
10. User Experience (UE) Every aspect of the user's interaction with a product, service, or company that make up the user's perceptions of the whole. User experience design as a discipline is concerned with all the elements that together make up that interface, including layout, visual design, text, brand, sound, and interaction. UE works to coordinate these elements to allow for the best possible interaction by users.
11. User-Generated Content (UGC) -content written by site visitors often in the form of blog comments, product or service reviews and ratings, question and answer tools, and bulletin boards. Popular sites that are 100% user-generated content includes Reddit, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
12. User story -A project requirement stated in one sentence. It typically identifies users, real or hypothetical, what these users want from software, and why they want it. Project development teams prioritize user stories in each iteration by assigning story points
13. UTM code: An urchin tracking module (UTM) is a simple code that you can append to the end of your URL to track additional details about the click, such as its source, medium, and campaign name.

⇧ Back To Top

1. V life cycle -The V in V life cycle stands for verification and validation. It is a sequential software development process that matches a corresponding testing phase to each phase in the software development life cycle. During the verification phase, a project team works at increasingly granular levels of detail to identify requirements and design, and then builds the software. Validation proceeds in the opposite direction, as testers examine software components in turn before moving on to systems testing and finally checking that the project as a whole meets requirements.
2. Value engineering -Value engineering seeks to increase the functionality-to-cost ratio of a product by providing improved functionality at lower cost. Some applications of value engineering attract criticism, as manufacturers may decrease costs by using lower-quality components that decrease product lifespans.
3. Value for money ratio -In project management, the value for money ratio is expressed as the ratio of financial and other benefits to the resources expended in a project.
4. Value tree -A hierarchical model of the characteristics of a product or service that determine its value.
5. Variance analysis -The practice of investigating deviations between planned and actual performance.
6. Variance at completion (VAC) -A project’s variance at completion is the difference between its budget at completion and its estimate at completion.
7. Vertical slice -A performance indicator that demonstrates progress across all project components or performance areas at a given point in time.
8. Virtual design and construction (VDC) -A method based on using technology in design and construction projects. It uses building information modeling (BIM) tools that focus on designable and manageable aspects of projects to create integrated models that predict project performance.
9. Virtual team -A virtual team comprises people from different organizations, locations, or hierarchies. It is not necessarily the same as a remote team, which is a group of people working together from different locations.

⇧ Back To Top

1. Waterfall model -The Waterfall model is a software development life cycle in which development phases are sequential, non-iterative, and do not overlap. It is typically reserved for small projects with straightforward, clearly defined requirements since a sequential development process makes it difficult to revisit the analysis and design phases once testing has begun. (See also linear sequential model)
2. Web Analytics The measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage.
3. Webmaster guidelines: Guidelines published by search engines like Google and Bing for the purpose of helping site owners create content that will be found, indexed, and perform well in search results.
4. WEB SERVER A web server is a computer that has software installed and networking capabilities that allow it to host web sites and pages and make them available to internet users located elsewhere. There are a few different setups that can be used for a web server, including the LAMP setup mentioned earlier.
5. Weighted milestone method -The weighted milestone method allows project managers to estimate earned value by splitting work packages into weighted segments. Each segment represents a portion of the budget value for the work package and ends with a milestone. When a segment milestone is classified as complete, a portion of the total work package value has been earned.
6. What-If scenario analysis -A simulation technique that allows project managers to determine and compare specific conditions’ effects on project schedules and objectives.
7. White hat: Search engine optimization practices that comply with Google’s quality guidelines.
8. Wideband delphi -An estimation technique based on expert consensus. Each member of an estimation team uses a work breakdown structure to create anonymous estimates of the effort required to complete each project element or work package. The estimates are then reviewed as a group before the experts create new estimates, and the process is repeated for a number of rounds until a consensus is reached. (See also delphi technique)
9. Widget Screen-based controls that are used to interact with a Web site and other systems. Widgets include pushbuttons, selection lists, radio buttons, sliders, etc.
10. Wireframe Rough outline of navigation and content elements that make up a user interface. Typically visual design and precise layout are not addressed.
11. Work -In project management, work is the amount of effort needed to complete a task.
12. Work authorization system -A formal procedure to ensure that project work is performed on time and in logical order.
13. Work breakdown structure (WBS) -A Work breakdown structure is a comprehensive, hierarchical model of the deliverables constituting the scope of a project. It details everything a project team is supposed to deliver and achieve. A work breakdown structure categorizes all project elements, or work packages, into a set of groups and may be used to form cost estimates.
14. Work breakdown structure dictionary -A document that details, describes, and provides scheduling information for every element of a work breakdown structure. It may be thought of as a dictionary-cum-schedule of work packages.
15. Work package -The work packages of a project are its lowest-level deliverables. They are detailed in a work breakdown structure dictionary.
16. Work stream -In project management, a work stream is a logically arranged series of activities that must be completed to pursue project objectives. The term typically refers to the full sequence of work activities from project initiation to project closure.
17. Workaround -A way to circumvent a problem which does not have a permanent solution or for which no adequate response was planned.
18. WYSIWYG An acronym for "What you see is what you get." It describes the way in which the layout on the graphical screen is a representation of the printed version of the document.

⇧ Back To Top

1. X-Bar control charts -An x-bar control chart includes two separate charts that display the means and sample ranges for a number of periodically gathered, same-size samples. The sampled data constitute some characteristic of a product or a process.
2. XHTML Stands for Extensible Hypertext Markup Language. Basically, XHTML is HTML 4.0 that has been rewritten to comply with XML rules.
3. XML Stands for Extensible Markup Language. XML is a specification for creating other, custom markup languages. It’s an extensible language because it allows for the user to define the mark-up elements.

⇧ Back To Top