Glossary

Topic	Description
Agile Iterative/Incremental Development (SCRUM) and RUP/UML	Agile means being able to quickly change direction. In software development, it requires strong discipline to code for agility. It includes writing tests for functionality before coding. It calls for naming of functionality to exactly match the intent and the terminology of the problem domain. It demands cessation of coding when the tests pass. The sum total of all the disciplines delivers an ability to change direction quickly. New and unexpected functionality required to cope with a sudden change in the business landscape can be inserted in existing code using test-driven development and all the previous tests will pass or fail to instantly indicate where code needs to be refactored to stay functional. If functionality is added before it is required then it becomes “dead weight” when refactoring is called for. Iterative and Incremental development is a cyclic software development process developed in response to the weaknesses of the waterfall model. It is an essential part of the Rational Unified Process, the Dynamic Systems Development Method, Extreme Programming and generally the agile software development frameworks. RUP: Inception, Elaboration, Construction, Transition
Business Process Improvement	The organization may be a for-profit business, a non-profit organization, a government agency, or any other ongoing concern. Most BPI techniques were developed and refined in the Manufacturing era, though many of the methodologies (like Six Sigma) have been successfully adapted to work in the predominantly Services-based economy of today. While there are differences in the challenges that each type of industry poses, the fact remains that the core principles of BPI and how they apply to business improvement, remain portable across industries and functions.
Cloud Computing	Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility (like the electricity grid) over a network (typically the Internet).
Component:	A component in the Unified Modeling Language (UML) “represents a modular part of a system, that encapsulates its content and whose manifestation is replaceable within its environment. A component defines its behavior in terms of provided and required interfaces, methods, and attributes”. A component may be substituted by another if and only if their provided and required interfaces are identical. This idea is the underpinning for the plug-and-play capability of component-based systems and promotes software reuse. As can be seen from the above definition, UML places no restriction on the granularity of a component. Thus, a component may be as small as a figures-to-words converter, or as large as an entire document management system. Larger pieces of a system’s functionality may be assembled by reusing components as parts in an encompassing component or assembly of components, and wiring together their required and provided interfaces.” Such assemblies are illustrated by means of component diagrams.
Critical Chain Project Management	Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) is a method of planning and managing projects that puts more emphasis on the resources required to execute project tasks developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. This is in contrast to the more traditional Critical Path and PERT methods, which emphasize task order and rigid scheduling. A Critical Chain project network will tend to keep the resources levelly loaded, but will require them to be flexible in their start times and to quickly switch between tasks and task chains to keep the whole project on schedule.
eCommerce Project Management	[[Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily since the spread of the Internet. A wide variety of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well.
Feature	A software characteristic specified or implied by requirements documentation (for example, functionality, performance, attributes, or design constraints).
Function	In software engineering, a functional requirement defines a function of a software system or its component. A function is described as a set of inputs, the behavior, and outputs (see also software). Functional requirements may be calculations, technical details, data manipulation and processing and other specific functionality that define what a system is supposed to accomplish. Behavioral requirements describing all the cases where the system uses the functional requirements are captured in use cases. Functional requirements are supported by non-functional requirements (also known as quality requirements), which impose constraints on the design or implementation (such as performance requirements, security, or reliability). How a system implements functional requirements is detailed in the system design. As defined in requirements engineering, functional requirements specify particular results of a system. This should be contrasted with non-functional requirements which specify overall characteristics such as cost and reliability. Functional requirements drive the application architecture of a system, while non-functional requirements drive the technical architecture of a system. In some cases a requirements analyst generates use cases after gathering and validating a set of functional requirements. Each use case illustrates behavioral scenarios through one or more functional requirements. Often, though, an analyst will begin by eliciting a set of use cases, from which the analyst can derive the functional requirements that must be implemented to allow a user to perform each use case.
Information Security Management	Information security means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction.[1] The terms information security, computer security and information assurance are frequently used interchangeably. These fields are interrelated and share the common goals of protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information; however, there are some subtle differences between them. These differences lie primarily in the approach to the subject, the methodologies used, and the areas of concentration. Information security is concerned with the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data regardless of the form the data may take: electronic, print, or other forms.
Management Information System	Management Information System (MIS) is a subset of the overall internal controls of a business covering the application of people, documents, technologies, and procedures by management accountants to solving business problems such as costing a product, service or a business-wide strategy. Management Information Systems are distinct from regular information systems in that they are used to analyze other information systems applied in operational activities in the organization. Academically, the term is commonly used to refer to the group of information management methods tied to the automation or support of human decision making, e.g. Decision Support Systems, Expert systems, and Executive information systems.
Manifest	An assembly manifest is a text file containing metadata about .NET assemblies. It describes the relationship and dependencies of the components in the assembly, versioning information, scope information and the security permissions required by the assembly. On the Java platform, a manifest file is a specific file contained within a JAR archive. It is used to define extension and package related data. It is a meta data file that contains name-value pairs organized in different sections.
Process Management	Process Management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, techniques and systems to define, visualize, measure, control, report and improve processes with the goal to meet customer requirements profitably. It is different from program management in that program management is concerned with managing a group of inter-dependent projects.
Product Management	Product management is an organizational function within a company dealing with the planning or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product lifecycle. Product planning (in-bound marketing) and product marketing (outbound marketing) are different yet complementary efforts with the objective of maximizing sales revenues and market share.
Program Management	Program Management is the process of managing multiple ongoing inter-dependent projects. An example would be that of designing, manufacturing and providing support infrastructure for an automobile manufacturer. This requires hundreds, or even thousands, of separate projects. In an organization or enterprise, Program Management also reflects the emphasis on coordinating and prioritizing resources across projects, departments, and entities to ensure that resource contention is managed from a global focus.
Project Estimation	The ability to accurately estimate the time and/or cost taken for a project to come in to its successful conclusion is a serious problem for software engineers. The use of a repeatable, clearly defined and well understood software development process has, in recent years, shown itself to be the most effective method of gaining useful historical data that can be used for statistical estimation. In particular, the act of sampling more frequently, coupled with the loosening of constraints between parts of a project, has allowed more accurate estimation and more rapid development times.
Project Management	Project Management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. A project is a finite endeavor (having specific start and completion dates) undertaken to create a unique product or service which brings about beneficial change or added value. This finite characteristic of projects stands in sharp contrast to processes, or operations, which are permanent or semi-permanent functional work to repetitively produce the same product or service. In practice, the management of these two systems is often found to be quite different, and as such requires the development of distinct technical skills and the adoption of separate management philosophy – Process Group: Initiation, Planning and Design, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, Closing – Knowledge Area: Integration, Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Human Resources, Communications, Risk, Procurement. Triple Constraints: Scope (Quality), Schedule, Budget
Project Management Office	The Project Management Office (PMO) in a business or professional enterprise is the department or group that defines and maintains the standards of process, generally related to project management, within the organization. The PMO strives to standardize and introduce economies of repetition in the execution of projects. The PMO is the source of documentation, guidance and metrics on the practice of project management and execution.
Project Portfolio Management (Managing Multiple Projects) – (PPM)	Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is a term used by project managers and project management (PM) organizations to describe methods for analyzing and collectively managing a group of current or proposed projects based on numerous key characteristics. The fundamental objective of the PPM process is to determine the optimal mix and sequencing of proposed projects to best achieve the organization’s overall goals – typically expressed in terms of hard economic measures, business strategy goals, or technical strategy goals – while honoring constraints imposed by management or external real-world factors. Typical attributes of projects being analyzed in a PPM process include each project’s total expected cost, consumption of scarce resources (human or otherwise) expected timeline and schedule of investment, expected nature, magnitude and timing of benefits to be realized, and relationship or inter-dependencies with other projects in the portfolio.
Quality Management	Quality management is a method for ensuring that all the activities necessary to design, develop and implement a product or service are effective and efficient with respect to the system and its performance. Quality management can be considered to have four main components: quality planning, quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement. Quality management is focused not only on product quality, but also the means to achieve it. Quality management therefore uses quality assurance and control of processes as well as products to achieve more consistent quality. Quality Management is all activities of the overall management function that determine the quality policy, objectives and responsibilities and implement them by means such as quality control and quality improvements within a quality system.
Requirements Management	Requirements management is all about balance, communication, and adjustment along the way. To prevent one class of requirements from over-riding another, constant communication among members of the development team is critical. For example, in software development for internal applications, the business has such strong needs that it may ignore user requirements, or believe that in creating use cases, the user requirements are being taken care of. The purpose of Requirements management is to manage the requirements of a project and to identify inconsistencies between those requirements and the project’s plans and work products. Requirements management practices include change management and traceability.
Resource Breakdown Structure	In project management, the Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS) is a standardized list of personnel resources related by function and arranged in a hierarchical structure. The Resource Breakdown Structure standardizes the Departments personnel resources to facilitate planning and controlling of project work. It defines assignable resources such as personnel, from a functional point of view; it identifies “who” is doing the work. The total resources define the Top Level, and each subsequent level is a subset of the resource category (or level) above it. Each descending (lower) level represents an increasingly detailed description of the resource until small enough to be used in conjunction with the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to allow the work to be planned, monitored and controlled.
Risk Management	Risk management is the process of measuring, or assessing risk and then developing strategies to manage the risk. In general, the strategies employed include transferring the risk to another party, avoiding the risk, reducing the negative effect of the risk, and accepting some or all of the consequences of a particular risk. Traditional risk management, which is discussed here, focuses on risks stemming from physical or legal causes (e.g. natural disasters or fires, accidents, death, and lawsuits).
Scope Management	Requirements specified to achieve the end result. The overall definition of what the project is supposed to accomplish, and a specific description of what the end result should be or accomplish. A major component of scope is the quality of the final product. The amount of time put into individual tasks determines the overall quality of the project. Some tasks may require a given amount of time to complete adequately, but given more time could be completed exceptionally. Over the course of a large project, quality can have a significant impact on time and cost (or vice versa).
Strategic Management	Strategic management is the art and science of formulating, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that will enable an organization to achieve its objectives[1]. It is the process of specifying the organization’s objectives, developing policies and plans to achieve these objectives, and allocating resources to implement the policies and plans to achieve the organization’s objectives. Strategic management, therefore, combines the activities of the various functional areas of a business to achieve organizational objectives. It is the highest level of managerial activity, usually formulated by the Board of directors and performed by the organization’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and executive team. Strategic management provides overall direction to the enterprise and is closely related to the field of Organization Studies. In the field of business administration it is possible mention to the “strategic consistency.” According to Arieu (2007), “there is strategic consistency when the actions of an organization are consistent with the expectations of management, and these in turn are with the market and the context.”
Work Breakdown Structure	A work breakdown structure or WBS is a fundamental tool commonly used in project management and systems engineering. It is a tree-like structure that permits summing of subordinate costs for tasks, materials, etc., into their successively higher level “parent” tasks, materials, etc. For each element of the work breakdown structure, a description of the task to be performed is generated. This technique (sometimes called a System Breakdown Structure) is used to define and organize the total scope of a project.

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