PMP GLOSSARY (from G to I )

Gantt Chart. A bar chart of schedule information where activities are listed on the vertical axis, dates are shown on the horizontal axis, and activity durations are shown as horizontal bars placed according to start and finish dates.

Grade. A category or rank used to distinguish items that have the same functional use (e.g., “hammer”) but do not share the same requirements for quality (e.g., different hammers may need to withstand different amounts of force).

Ground Rules. Expectations regarding acceptable behavior by project team members.

Group Creativity Techniques. Techniques that are used to generate ideas within a group of stakeholders.

Group Decision-Making Techniques. Techniques to assess multiple alternatives that will be used to generate, classify, and prioritize product requirements.

Guideline. An official recommendation or advice that indicates policies, standards, or procedures for how something should be accomplished.

Hammock Activity. See summary activity.

Hard Logic. See mandatory dependency.

Histogram. A special form of bar chart used to describe the central tendency, dispersion, and shape of a statistical distribution.

Historical Information. Documents and data on prior projects including project files, records, correspondence, closed contracts, and closed projects.

Human Resource Management Plan. A component of the project management plan that describes how the roles and responsibilities, reporting relationships, and staff management will be addressed and structured.

Idea/Mind Mapping. Technique used to consolidate ideas created through individual brainstorming sessions into a single map to reflect commonality and differences in understanding and to generate new ideas.

Identify Risks. The process of determining which risks may affect the project and documenting their characteristics.

Identify Stakeholders. The process of identifying the people, groups, or organizations that could impact or be impacted by a decision, activity, or outcome of the project; and analyzing and documenting relevant information regarding their interests, involvement, interdependencies, influence, and potential impact on project success.

Imposed Date. A fixed date imposed on a schedule activity or schedule milestone, usually in the form of a “start no earlier than” and “finish no later than” date.

Incentive Fee. A set of financial incentives related to cost, schedule, or technical performance of the seller.

Incremental Life Cycle. A project life cycle where the project scope is generally determined early in the project life cycle, but time and cost estimates are routinely modified as the project team’s understanding of the product increases. Iterations develop the product through a series of repeated cycles, while increments successively add to the functionality of the product.

Independent Estimates. A process of using a third party to obtain and analyze information to support prediction of cost, schedule, or other items.

Influence Diagram. A graphical representation of situations showing causal influences, time ordering of events, and other relationships among variables and outcomes.

Information Gathering Techniques. Repeatable processes used to assemble and organize data across a spectrum of sources.

Information Management Systems. Facilities, processes, and procedures used to collect, store, and distribute information between producers and consumers of information in physical or electronic format.

Initiating Process Group. Those processes performed to define a new project or a new phase of an existing project by obtaining authorization to start the project or phase.

Input. Any item, whether internal or external to the project that is required by a process before that process proceeds. May be an output from a predecessor process.

Inspection. Examining or measuring to verify whether an activity, component, product, result, or service conforms to specified requirements.

Inspections and Audits. A process to observe performance of contracted work or a promised product against agreed-upon requirements.

Interpersonal Skills. Ability to establish and maintain relationships with other people.

Interrelationship Digraphs. A quality management planning tool, the interrelationship digraphs provide a process for creative problem-solving in moderately complex scenarios that possess intertwined logical relationships.

Interviews. A formal or informal approach to elicit information from stakeholders by talking to them directly.

Invitation for Bid (IFB). Generally, this term is equivalent to request for proposal. However, in some application areas, it may have a narrower or more specific meaning.

Issue. A point or matter in question or in dispute, or a point or matter that is not settled and is under discussion or over which there are opposing views or disagreements.

Issue Log. A project document used to document and monitor elements under discussion or in dispute between project stakeholders.

Iterative Life Cycle. A project life cycle where the project scope is generally determined early in the project life cycle, but time and cost estimates are routinely modified as the project team’s understanding of the product increases. Iterations develop the product through a series of repeated cycles, while increments successively add to the functionality of the product.