Introduction to project management/IPM103/Resources/Glossary

Glossary

Alternative analysis

An estimating technique that includes several solutions to complete the same task.

Bottom-up estimation

Breaking all tasks down to their small packages to estimate the resources required for each.

Crashing

Adding more resources to a task, in order to speed up the activity.

Effort based activities

When applying more effort will result in the task being completed quicker.

Expert Estimation

Using an expert to provide estimates of the resource requirements for a project. For example, a quantity surveyor.

Fixed duration activities

When no matter what resources you add the activity will still take the same time. For example, the time taken for paint to dry.

Law of diminishing returns

When adding resources reaches a point when the output does not increase proportionally. For example, when you have so many people working on one task that they start getting in each other's way.

Published estimating data

Using published estimation guides to estimate resource requirements.

Resource calendar

A calendar that shows the availability of resources over time.

Resource Requirements

The number and type of resources required to complete all the tasks in a project.