7.1. Terms A–M

Acceptance criteria — Specific, testable conditions a deliverable must meet to be considered acceptable. (3-6)

Actual Cost (AC) — What was actually spent to complete work performed to date. (5-3)

Adaptive approach — A delivery approach that plans iteratively, treating change as expected input. (1-2, 4-1)

Assumption — Something believed true without proof, logged and monitored through the project. (2-1-2)

Backlog (product) — A prioritized list of work items, refined continuously; the adaptive-project analog of an RTM. (3-3, 4-2)

Burndown chart — Shows remaining work in the current iteration over time. (4-3)

Burnup chart — Shows completed work (and total scope) over time across iterations. (4-3)

Change control — The formal process for assessing, approving, or rejecting proposed changes to a predictive project's baselines. (5-3)

Constraint — A fixed limitation the project must operate within. (2-1-2)

Contingency reserve — Money held inside the cost baseline for identified risks; the project manager can generally authorize its use. (2-2-3)

Cost Variance (CV) — EV − AC; measures whether a project is under or over budget. (5-3)

Critical path — The longest sequence of dependent activities from start to finish; sets the minimum project duration. (5-2-1)

Definition of Done — The team-wide standard specifying what "complete" means for every backlog item; when an item meets it, an Increment exists. One per product, and an organizational Definition of Done is a minimum teams may strengthen but not weaken. (4-5)

Earned Value (EV) — The budgeted cost of work actually completed to date. (5-3)

Emotional intelligence (EQ) — The ability to recognize, understand, and manage one's own and others' emotions. (2-3)

Enterprise environmental factor (EEF) — A condition, not under the project team's control, that influences the project (e.g., organizational culture). (4-1)

Expected monetary value (EMV) — A risk's probability multiplied by its monetary impact; the figure placed on decision-tree branches. (2-2-3)

Extreme Programming (XP) — An adaptive framework emphasizing engineering practices like pair programming and test-driven development. (4-4)

Project management plan — The integrating document that contains every subsidiary plan (scope, schedule, cost, quality, resource, communications, risk, procurement, stakeholder) and keeps them consistent as changes occur. There is no separate "integration management plan". (5-2-2)

Issue — A risk that has already occurred, or any current problem needing resolution. (2-1-2)

Iteration — A fixed-length timebox (e.g., a sprint) during which planned work is built and reviewed. (4-2)

Kanban — An adaptive framework using continuous flow and work-in-progress limits, without fixed iterations. (4-4)

Management reserve — Money held outside the cost baseline for unknown risks; using it normally requires management or sponsor approval. (2-2-3)

Milestone — A significant point or event with zero duration. (2-2-1)

Monte Carlo simulation — A quantitative technique that runs a cost or schedule model thousands of times across estimated ranges to produce a probability distribution of outcomes. (2-2-3)