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Acquisition Plan Review - to - Activity on Node

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Acquisition Plan Review ("APR")

The control gate to approve the Acquisition Plan. The APR is the decision point to initiate the project and commit funding, personnel, and other resources to the acquisition. [D03978]

Acquisition Planning

The process by which the efforts of all personnel responsible for an acquisition are coordinated and integrated through a comprehensive plan for fulfilling the organization's need in a timely manner and at a reasonable cost. It includes developing the overall strategy for managing the acquisition. [D03793]

Acquisition Process

The process of acquiring personnel/ goods/services for new or existing work within the general definitions of contracts requiring an offer and acceptance, consideration, lawful subject matter and competent parties. [D00019]

Acquisition Strategy

Determining the most appropriate means of procuring the component parts or services of a project [D04379]

Action

A measure intended to influence the course of the project. [D00020]

Action Item

Something agreed to be done as a result of a discussion at a meeting and usually recorded in the minutes of that meeting. [D03021]

Action Item Flags

A symbol or other form of alert to warn project team members of things to be done usually at or by a specified date and time. [D02351]

Action Plan

A description of what needs to be done, when and by whom. [D03417]

A plan that describes what needs to be done and when it needs to be completed. Project plans are action plans. [D00021]

A sequenced and prioritized chronology of intent, commitment, and tactics: what one is going to get done and some of the key activities involved. [D00022]

Activation

The process of getting something started, typically a project activity of some importance and often dependent upon some prior condition such as completion of a milestone. [D02352]

Active Listening

Paying careful attention to what is being said, then rephrasing that information and feeding it back to the originator to ensure that what you think you heard is what they meant. [D04313]

Standard techniques of active listening are to pay close attention to what is said, to ask the other party to spell out carefully and clearly what they mean, and to request that ideas be repeated if there is any ambiguity or uncertainty. [D00023]

Activity

A task or set of tasks that are carried out in order to create a deliverable
Editor's Note: It should be noted that the term "activity" is used as a collection of tasks, synonymous with task or as a subset of a task. It is recommended that a "task" should be thought of as a subset of "activity". [D02187]

A single task within a project. [D00024]

A specific project task that requires resources and time to complete. [D00025]

An element of work performed during the course of a project. An activity normally has an expected duration, an expected cost, and expected resource requirements. Activities are often subdivided into tasks. [D00027]

Motion toward a clearly targeted result, something one does as distinct from something one gets done (result). [D00028]

Subtask within a project. [D00029]

The smallest self-contained unit of work used to define the logic of a project. In general, activities share the following characteristics: a definite duration, logic relationships to other activities in a project, use resources such as people, materials or facilities, and have an associated cost. [D00030]

(And Activities) A series of tasks performed over a period of time. [D00047]

A task or series of tasks (activities) that is (are) performed over a period of time. [D00026]

An individual task needed for the completion of a project. It is the smallest discrete block of time and resources typically handled by PM software. It is a single task which needs to be done in a project. Multiple activities are related to each other by identifying their immediate predecessors. Solitary activities, which have no predecessors or successors, are allowed. Most PM software packages are precedence-based systems which analyze schedules based on the activity relationships that are specified. Activities can also be called work packages, tasks, or deliverables.
Editor's Note: An Activity represents work being done whereas a Product is the result of work done. [D01854]

An item of work in support of the work scope. An Activity consumes time. [D02258]

An effort that occurs over a time period and generally consumes resources, sometimes also called a "task." [D04610]

A unit of work a worker may be asked to perform. [D04798]

A process which consumes time and usually resources. It also usually produces an output. On a schedule, however, "lead time" or "shutdown" may show as activities using time but not resources and producing no output. [D04906]

The combining of resources and operational procedures to produce a particular output. [D04907]

The smallest unit of work identified in the Project Work Plan. In some methodologies this may be equivalent to a task but in other methodologies an activity may be broken down further into tasks. [D04908]

Any step taken or function performed, either mental or physical, toward achieving some objective. Activities include all the work the managers and technical staff do to perform the tasks of the project and organization. [D05163]

Activity Arrow Net

Project plan in the form of a structural network where the activities are denoted graphically by nodes. [D00031]

Activity Based Costing ("ABC")

A methodology that measures the cost and performance of activities, resources, and cost objects. Resources are assigned to activities, then activities are assigned to cost objects based on their use. Activity based costing recognizes the causal relationships of cost drivers to activities. [D04680]

Activity Based Management ("ABM")

The broad discipline that focuses on achieving customer value and company profit by way of the management of activities. It draws on activity-based costing as a major source of information. [D04790]

Activity Calendar

In computer scheduling, calendar that defines the working and non-working patterns applicable to an activity. The Activity Calendar is normally overridden by the Project Calendar. See also Resource Calendars. [D03586]

Activity Code

A set of numeric or alpha-numeric characters that uniquely identifies a particular activity.
Editor's Note: The coding structure is typically developed through the work breakdown structure as a means of universal reference throughout the project or program. [D02353]

Activity Definition

Identification of the specific activities that must be performed in order to produce project deliverables. [D00033]

Activity Description

A statement specifying what must be done to achieve a desired result. [D01855]

Any combination of characters which easily identifies an activity to any recipient of the schedule. [D00034]

Activity Duration

The best estimate of the time (hours, days, weeks, months, etc.) necessary for the accomplishment of the work involved in an activity, considering the nature of the work and resources needed for it. [D00035]

The length of time (hours, days, weeks, months) that it takes to complete an activity. This information is optional in the data entry of an activity. Work flow (predecessor relationships) can be defined before durations are assigned. Activities with zero durations are considered milestones or hammocks. [D00036]

Activity Duration Estimating

The estimation of the number of work periods that will be needed to complete the activity. [D00037]

Activity Elaboration

A more detailed explanation of the work involved in the Activity, possibly by describing a series of tasks. [D02354]

Activity File

A file containing all data related to the definition of activities on a particular project. [D00038]

Activity ID

A unique code identifying each activity in a project. [D00039]

Activity List

List of project activities. [D00040]

Activity Node Net

Project plan in the form of a structural network where the activities are denoted graphically by arrows. [D00041]

Activity on Arc ("AOA")

In documenting and drawing a network one may place the activities on the arcs or on the nodes (Activity on Node) [D00042]

Activity on Arrow ("AOA")

See Arrow Diagramming Method. [D00048]

A network diagram showing sequence of activities, in which each activity is represented by an arrow, with a circle representing a node or event at each end. [D03709]

Activity on Node

A network where activities are represented by a box or a node linked by dependencies. [D00049]

See also Activity on Arc and Precedence Diagram Method. [D00043]

A network diagram showing sequence of activities, in which each activity is represented by a box or circle (that is a node) and these are interconnected with arrows to show precedence of work. [D03710]