Understanding standard project and schedule related terminology will enable you to communicate more successfully with your team and your stakeholders. A shared understanding of common terms will facilitate progress, and ultimately, success on your project. 

The following definitions come from the Project Management Institute’s Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide):

A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result.

There are two key parts of this definition:

• First, a project is temporary – meaning it has a beginning and an end. It must be done in a limited amount of time with a specific start and finish date.
• Second, a project is producing something unique. A project may be similar to something you have done before but there is something unique about it.

A program is a group of related projects, subsidiary programs, and program activities that are managed in a coordinated manner to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually.

Projects are managed together as a program when there is a benefit to be gained by providing some common oversight, decision making, and management. The projects typically have something in common such as similar products, a common customer, a shared budget, etc.

An organization’s portfolio is made up of all of the projects, programs, subsidiary portfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives.

The Sponsor is a person or group who provides resources and support for the project, program, or portfolio, and is accountable for enabling success.

The sponsor should provide authority and management support to the Project Manager and project team. He reviews and approves the Project Charter, Scope Statement, and the project management plan. The sponsor helps the Project Manager overcome obstacles such as resource acquisition and project prioritization.

The Project Manager (PM) is the person assigned by the performing organization to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives.

This includes leading the planning and development of all project deliverables. The PM has the authority to manage the project. Although the PM owns the responsibility for the project, he typically does not own the resources that will actually perform the work. The PM must be able to acquire resources in the organization to enable the objectives to be met.

It is recommended that the PM have some level of technical understanding of the work taking place on his project but he does not need to be the technical expert on the work to be performed.

The project’s customer is the person or organization that will pay for the project’s product or service or result. Customers can be internal or external to the performing organization. The project is being done for the customer.

A stakeholder of a project is an individual, group, or organization that may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project, program, or portfolio.

A stakeholder may positively or negatively affect or be affected by the project.

In some cases, this can be a large and varied group of people. Some stakeholders have influence over the project and some may be involved in performing part of the project. It is critical to understand who the stakeholders are for your project, and the role they play. 

Key stakeholders for a project always include:

• Project Manager
• Project Team
• Customer/User
• Sponsor

But there may be others, sometimes many, for a particular project.

A Project Management Office (PMO) is a management structure that standardizes the project-related governance processes and facilitates the sharing of resources, methodologies, tools, and techniques.

PMOs are created to support project management functions. The role of the PMO varies from organization to organization. In some cases, the PMO functions as a standards repository and provides subject matter expert (SME) support. In other organizations all project managers are part of the PMO.

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Materials are based on the Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) 7th Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2021

PMBOK is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.