Glossary
Project Management
Glossary
Key terms from managing processes, projects and teams, in plain language.
A
Absence Management
How teams track absences, classify types, and use data to spot patterns without punishing normal leave
5 min readAgency Project Budget
How to estimate costs by phase, track actuals weekly, and prevent budget overruns on client projects
5 min readAgile
A project management approach built on short cycles, continuous feedback, and adapting to change instead of following a fixed plan.
6 min readAttendance Tracking
Monitoring which team members have logged time today, without daily check-ins
4 min readAudit Log
A full record of every change made to a project: who did what, when, and what changed
5 min readB
Backlog
A backlog is the full, ranked list of work a team has identified but not yet started, from the top-priority item ready to build next to ideas parked for later.
5 min readBillable Hours
Definition, how to track them, and why agencies lose money without a system
6 min readBlocker
A specific obstacle stopping one task from moving forward, until someone outside the task clears it
5 min readBottleneck
A bottleneck is any constraint in a process that limits throughput: a task, person, or step where work backs up because it can't be processed as fast as it arrives.
4 min readBrief
A short document that states a project's goal, audience, and constraints before the work begins
5 min readBudget Burn Rate
How project teams track spending velocity and catch overruns early
6 min readBudget Guardian
Real-time project budget monitoring with burn charts and automatic alerts
5 min readBurndown Chart
A burndown chart is a visual graph that shows how much work remains in a sprint or project versus how much time is left, so teams can see if they're on track.
4 min readBusiness Proposal
A branded document that outlines project scope, pricing, and terms for a prospective client
5 min readC
Capacity Planning
Capacity planning is figuring out whether your team has enough time and skills to take on upcoming work, before you commit to a deadline or a new project.
5 min readChange Management
Change management is the process of planning, approving, and implementing changes to a project's scope, timeline, or budget in a controlled way, so changes don't derail delivery.
4 min readChecklist
A checklist is an ordered list of the specific items that must be true or complete before a piece of work counts as finished, used to catch errors that memory alone misses.
6 min readClient Briefing Form
How to collect project context from clients before work begins
5 min readClient Health Score
How agencies score client engagement and catch churn early
5 min readClient Portal
Definition, what it includes, and how agencies use it
4 min readCritical Path
The critical path is the longest sequence of dependent tasks in a project, the chain that determines the minimum time needed to complete the project.
5 min readCRM
Definition, what CRM software does, and why teams need it alongside project management
7 min readCross-Functional Team
A team that pulls people from different disciplines, like design, engineering, and account management, together around one shared goal instead of one department's task list.
5 min readCycle Time
Definition, formula, and how it differs from lead time
5 min readD
Daily Standup
A daily standup is a short, recurring team check-in, usually 15 minutes or less, where each person shares what they did, what they're doing next, and what's blocking them.
5 min readDeadline
A deadline is the date by which a specific piece of work must be finished, whether that's a single task, a deliverable, or an entire project.
5 min readDefinition of Done
The checklist a team agrees on in advance that decides whether a piece of work is actually finished, so "done" means the same thing to everyone.
5 min readDelegation
Delegation is a manager handing off ownership of a specific piece of work to someone else, not only assigning them a task to execute.
5 min readDeliverables
Deliverables are the specific, tangible outputs a project produces: the items that get handed over to a client or stakeholder when work is complete.
4 min readDocument Management
How teams store, organize, and share files without losing context
6 min readE
Eisenhower Matrix
A four-quadrant framework that sorts tasks by urgency and importance, so a team spends its hours on what matters instead of what's loudest.
5 min readEmployee Engagement
Definition, how to measure it, and why it matters for team performance
5 min readEmployee Onboarding
Definition, stages, and how teams set up new hires fast
6 min readEpics in Project Management
A large body of work too big to finish in one sprint, broken into smaller stories or tasks that can each ship and get marked done on their own.
5 min readEstimation
The practice of predicting how much time, effort, or cost a piece of work will require before it starts, the foundation every schedule, budget, and sprint plan is built on.
7 min readI
Increment in Scrum
The sum of every backlog item a team has finished during the current sprint, added to everything finished in every sprint before it, one running total of usable product.
5 min readInvoice Aging
How to track overdue payments by how long they have been outstanding
5 min readInvoice Automation
Definition, how it works for agencies, and what to automate first
4 min readIteration
A repeated cycle of building, reviewing, and adjusting a piece of work, the general pattern that sprints, design rounds, and product releases all follow in their own way.
5 min readK
L
Labor Cost
The cost of employee time: hourly rate multiplied by hours logged
4 min readLead Time
Definition, formula, and why it's the metric clients feel directly
5 min readLeave Balance
Definition, how accrual works, and how teams track it
4 min readLeave Request
Definition, how approval flows work, and best practices for teams
4 min readM
Man-Hours
A man-hour, also called a person-hour, is the amount of work one person completes in one hour, the basic unit used to estimate tasks and plan team capacity.
5 min readMeeting Agenda
A meeting agenda is the list of topics, owners, and time limits prepared before a meeting starts, so the group knows what needs a decision and how long each item gets.
4 min readMilestone
A milestone is a significant checkpoint in a project timeline: a moment when a key phase is complete, a decision is made, or a deliverable is ready for review.
4 min readMRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)
How agencies and studios track predictable monthly income
4 min readMVP
An MVP, or Minimum Viable Product, is the smallest version of a product a team can build and put in front of real users to test whether the underlying idea works.
6 min readO
OKRs
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) are a goal-setting framework that links ambitious objectives to specific, measurable results that prove the objective was achieved.
5 min readOnboarding Checklist
Definition, what to include, and how to build one that actually works
5 min readOvertime in Time Tracking
Hours logged past the standard work window: a signal, not a number to maximise
4 min readP
Performance Review
Definition, types, how often to run them, and what makes them useful
6 min readPrioritization
The practice of deciding what gets a team's limited time and attention first, across everything competing for it, not only what sits inside one backlog.
6 min readProcrastination
Definition, why it happens on teams, and how task design fixes it
6 min readProfitability Tracking
Definition, how agencies measure project profit, and what numbers to track
5 min readProject Artifacts
A project artifact is any tangible document a project produces to plan, communicate, or prove the work, from the charter that authorizes it to the backlog that tracks what is left.
4 min readProject Baseline
The original approved scope, schedule, and cost, locked in at a point in time and used afterward to measure how far the project has drifted
5 min readProject Charter
A project charter is a short document that formally authorizes a project, defining its purpose, objectives, scope boundaries, team, and key decisions before work begins.
4 min readProject Dependencies
Dependencies are relationships between tasks where one task cannot start (or finish) until another task is complete: the links that determine project sequence and schedule.
4 min readProject Initiation
The first phase of a project, where a team decides whether the work is worth doing, identifies who needs to be involved, and defines the scope loosely enough to start planning in detail.
6 min readProject Kickoff
A project kickoff is the first official meeting of a project team and client, where goals, scope, timeline, communication norms, and team roles are aligned before work begins.
4 min readProject Management
Definition, methodologies, and how teams run projects without overpaying
8 min readProject Management Alerts
Automated notifications that catch project risks before they become problems
6 min readProject Manager
The person accountable for planning a project, coordinating the people delivering it, and keeping it on time, on budget, and aligned with what the client or stakeholder needs.
7 min readProject Phase
A project phase is a distinct stage in a project's lifecycle, such as initiation, planning, execution, or closure, each with its own goals and a clear point where the work is considered finished.
5 min readProject Portfolio
The full set of active and potential projects a business is running or considering, evaluated together for priority, resourcing, and risk.
6 min readProject Proposal
Definition, structure, and how agencies use proposals to win clients
7 min readProject Scope
Project scope defines exactly what a project will deliver, and just as importantly, what it won't. It's the boundary that separates project work from everything else.
5 min readProject Status Page
How agencies share project progress with clients without giving workspace access
5 min readProject Timeline
A project timeline maps all tasks, milestones, and deadlines across the calendar, showing when work starts, how long it takes, and when the project ends.
4 min readPull System
Definition, how it differs from a push system, and the principle behind Kanban
5 min readR
RACI Chart
A RACI chart maps every project task to four roles: Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed, so everyone knows who does what and who decides.
4 min readRealized Rate
The actual blended hourly cost of work done, not what you quoted, what you paid
4 min readRecurring Invoice
How agencies automate monthly billing for retainer clients
5 min readRecurring Projects
How agencies automate repeating work without rebuilding the same board every month
5 min readRelease Planning
Release planning groups several sprints or iterations of work into one coordinated release, deciding what ships together, in what order, and by when.
6 min readRemote Team Management
Definition, challenges, and how distributed teams stay aligned
6 min readResource Allocation
Resource allocation is the process of assigning the right people, with the right skills, to the right tasks at the right time, across all active projects.
4 min readResource Management
Resource management is planning and allocating your team's time, skills, and capacity across projects to maximize output without burning people out.
6 min readRetainer
Definition, types, how agencies structure retainers, and how to manage them
5 min readRetrospective
A retrospective is a structured team meeting at the end of a sprint or project to review what went well, what didn't, and what to change next time.
4 min readRisk Management
Risk management is the process of identifying, assessing, and reducing threats to a project's success before they become problems.
5 min readRoadmap
A roadmap is a high-level plan that shows what a team intends to build or deliver over time, organized by priority or timeframe rather than by day-to-day task.
5 min readS
Scope Creep
Scope creep is the gradual expansion of a project's requirements beyond what was originally agreed, usually without adjusting timeline, budget, or resources.
5 min readScrum
A structured Agile framework that organizes work into fixed-length sprints, with defined roles and ceremonies that keep teams aligned and shipping regularly.
6 min readScrum Master
The person on a Scrum team who facilitates ceremonies, clears blockers, and protects the team's focus, without managing people or owning the backlog.
5 min readSeat Tax
How per-seat pricing inflates software costs as teams grow
4 min readSLA
An SLA (Service Level Agreement) is a formal commitment between a service provider and a client that defines the expected level of service, such as response times, uptime, and quality standards, and the consequences for missing them.
4 min readSmart Onboarding
Role-based employee onboarding checklists that new hires track themselves
5 min readSprint
A fixed-length work cycle, usually 2 weeks, in which a team commits to delivering a defined set of tasks, then reviews results and adjusts before the next cycle.
5 min readSprint Planning
The meeting at the start of a sprint where a team turns a prioritized backlog into a committed, realistic plan for the next 1 to 4 weeks.
7 min readSprint Review
The Scrum ceremony held at the end of every sprint to show finished work to stakeholders and decide what changes in the product backlog next.
5 min readStakeholders
Stakeholders are everyone who has an interest in a project's outcome: clients, team members, managers, end users, and anyone else affected by the work.
5 min readSubtask
Definition, when to split a task apart, and how deep the nesting should go
5 min readSwimlanes
Horizontal rows on a board that split work by team, client, or priority, layered on top of the usual columns
4 min readT
Team Productivity Tracking
How teams measure output, track time, and spot overload, without micromanaging
9 min readTeam Sentiment
Definition, how to measure it, and why it predicts team performance
5 min readTeam Utilization
The percentage of available work hours your team logs, the leading indicator of overload and underload
5 min readTeam Workspace
Definition, what to look for, and how teams choose the right one
4 min readThroughput
Definition, formula, and how it differs from lead time and cycle time
6 min readTime Management
Definition, core methods, and how it differs from tracking hours
7 min readTime Off Management
Definition, leave types, and how teams track employee leave
5 min readTime Tracking
Definition, how it works for teams, and why it matters for billing
6 min readTimeboxing
A time management technique where you assign a fixed amount of time to a task or activity and stop when that time is up, whether the task is finished or not.
5 min readTimesheet
A timesheet is a record of how much time a person spent on specific tasks or projects during a given period, the foundation for billing, payroll, and productivity analysis.
4 min readW
Waterfall
Waterfall is a linear project management approach where each phase must be fully completed before the next begins: requirements, design, build, test, deploy.
5 min readWork Breakdown Structure (WBS)
A WBS breaks a project into smaller, manageable components, making it easier to estimate, assign, schedule, and track all the work required to deliver the project.
5 min readWork Session Meaning & Definition
A work session is a continuous active-work period, tracked by start, end, and breaks, that reveals productivity patterns and overtime risk
4 min readWorkflow
Definition, the parts of a workflow, and how teams turn a process into stages a board can run
6 min readWorkload Management
Definition, how teams balance capacity, and what burnout looks like before it happens
5 min readWorkspace Backup
Why SaaS teams export their project data and what's included
5 min readFlat fee · no seat tax
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