Know the vocabulary of project management

In the professional world, each sector of activity has its own technical jargon that is essential to master. Whether you are a project manager or a member of the project team, if you are new to the field of project management, you should be familiar with the specific terms and concepts that are used. This will allow you to understand what you are being told and to avoid being lost in the first few meetings.

Here is a short lexicon that brings together the most common project management vocabulary to understand and show that you know the subject. Happy reading

Agile

Agile is a flexible method of project management that allows the team to be responsive and adapt to changing client demands. This approach favors the collaboration and dialogue between the project team and the customer. The needs of the customer and their evolution are constantly taken into account in order to provide him with a high quality product that he will be fully satisfied with.

Project manager

As you will have understood, the project manager is the person responsible for managing a project and ensuring its smooth running. Versatile, his role is to supervise the various stages of the project, from the development of specifications to delivery to the customer, ensuring that deadlines and budget are respected. Its missions are varied and generally involve the supervision of a team, planning, or even relationships with the customer.

Critical path

This is the longest succession of tasks in the project. The critical path includes all critical tasks (called critical tasks), time estimates for each task, dependencies between tasks, and final deliverables. However, it does not take into account any risk, margin of manoeuvre, hazard or unforeseen events. This is the minimum and incompressible duration of the project. La critical path method (Critical Path Method) helps you identify priority tasks and make every effort to meet deadlines.

Gantt

The Gantt chart is an effective tool, widely used in project management because it allows you to visualize all the tasks of a project, their dependency, their start and end dates, their duration, their due date, and to monitor their progress.

Risk Management

The risk zero does not exist in project management. A risk is an event that can have a negative impact on your project and hinder its success. Risk management is the process of predicting and minimizing potential risks. To do this, possible risks are identified, their consequences and the probability of their occurrence are evaluated, and an appropriate response is planned to eliminate them or reduce their impact.

Key performance indicators or KPIs

In order to monitor the evolution of your project, you must set up indicators that allow you to measure where you are in relation to the objectives to be achieved. These KPI (Key Performance Indicators) help you assess a situation at a given moment, and to make the appropriate decisions.

To be effective, your indicators should be simple, easy to understand, reliable, and realistic.

Jalon

A milestone (or milestone in English) is a key date in the realization of a project. This is usually the end of an important stage or event in the project. The milestones are clearly shown in the schedule. They are an opportunity for the team and stakeholders to take an interim assessment of the progress of the project, to validate the stage that has just ended and to approve the resulting deliverables. We validate the goals for the next milestone, or we define new ones, and then we get back to work.

Deliverable

The completion of a project generally results in the delivery of a product or service to the customer. This is what we call a deliverable. However, a project may have multiple deliverables that the project team provides to the customer at the end of each stage or milestone. For example, in the development of a mobile application, a deliverable may be a new feature.

But a deliverable can also be a handout of work such as a specification or a feasibility study.

In all cases, a deliverable has a specific, tangible and measurable result with a deadline.

Project management software

This tool is essential to facilitate the management of your projects. Gantt chart, task and resource manager, shared calendars, shared calendars, reporting tools, instant messaging, etc., project management software such as Wimi has all the features you need to effectively manage your projects and promote collaboration within your team.

Stakeholders

These are all the people, groups of people or organizations that are directly or indirectly involved in the realization of your project. Stakeholders can be involved in or influence a decision, task, or project outcome. Therefore, it is therefore necessary to take them into account or consult them throughout the course of the project.

Examples of stakeholders: company management, project team, shareholders, end users, customers, suppliers, public or private organizations, investors, etc.

Kickoff meeting

Also called kick-off meeting, the kickoff meeting is the first meeting to start a project. It brings together all the stakeholders who can thus get to know each other. This meeting is fundamental because it makes it possible to lay the foundations of the project, to discuss the essential elements (the schedule, the milestones, the deliverables, the budget, the resources), to define the operating rules and the best practices, and to ensure that all the people concerned have the same information.

Dashboard

The dashboard is an essential summary tool to help you manage your project. It is a medium (generally digital) on which you can find all the information essential to managing a project. The dashboard allows you to monitor the progress of the project through indicators, assess the performance of your team members, and make the right decisions at the right time.