Additional Guidance

Useful websites relating to Project Management and Business Analysis, amongst others, can be found below:

For additional guidance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Glossary

Please use our glossary for definitions of terms.

Term	Meaning
Benefits Realisation	The practice of ensuring that the outcome of a project produces the projected benefits claimed in the Business Case
Business Case	Information that describes the justification for setting up and continuing a project; It provides the reasons for the project
Communication Plan	A useful tool describing how the project's stakeholders and interested parties will be kept informed during the project. Held as a document in its own right
Customer Acceptance Criteria	This document is a written agreement between the project members and the customers exactly what must be completed before the customers will take the product/service and so close the project. With a written record of what each party can expect the project to deliver, there is little chance of confusion later. Without such a record, a project could produce something quite different to what the customer was expecting, and the project could result in doing more than what you thought was originally agreed
Customer Acceptance Form	This is the second part of the Customer Acceptance Criteria and is signed off by the customer and project members. This document records what has been delivered in reference to the Acceptance Criteria
Customer/Customer Representative	The customer of a project is the person or persons who will be using the product or service, or perhaps the funding body that has commissioned the project. Project are often temporary operations that will set up something that will need day to day running afterwards, and those end users are likely to be your customers. A customer Representative is a person who will represent your customers, giving specialist knowledge and requirements
Critical path	This is the sequence of tasks that determine the minimum timescale for a project to be completed. If one of the tasks is delayed, the timescale of the whole project will increase
Deliverable	An item that the project has to create as part of the requirements. Another name for a deliverable is 'product'
Delivery	Managing the project to ensure that the agreed requirements are delivered to cost, time and quality
Discovery	Pre-project activities to produce the outline Business Case, Project Initiation Documentation and Initiation Stage Plan
Exception Report	A report that describes an exception provides an analysis and options for the way forward and identifies a recommended option. Presented to the Project Board by the Project Manager
Gantt Chart	This is a diagram of a plan's activities against a timed background, showing start and end times and resources required
Issue Log	A log of all Project Issues including requests for change raised during the project, showing details of each issue, its evaluation, what decisions about it have been made and its current status
Lessons Learned Report	A report that describes the lessons learned in undertaking the project. It is approved by the Project Board and held centrally for the benefit of future projects
Owner	The overall responsibility for a project
Pipeline	A future project with no agreed due date
Post Implementation Review	One or more reviews held after project closure to determine if the expected benefits have been obtained. It also provides the forum in which lessons learnt can be reviewed
PRINCE2	An acronym for PRojects IN Controlled Environments; process-based method for effective project management
Process modelling	A professional technique used by the Business Analysts to present the interconnection of processes within a business environment
Progress Report	Progress report from the Project Manager to the Project Board on a time driven basis
Project Board	The Project Board is responsible for the overall direction and management of the project. As a minimum, the Project Board should consist of the Accountable Manager and the Customer
Project Brief	A description of what the project is to do. What, Why, Who, When & How
Project Categorisation Document	This document is a multiple choice form which will help you define the size of your project. Determining the size of a project is important, as projects are treated differently according to their size, which is determined by their level of risk, priority, budget and importance to the University's strategic objectives
Project Initiation Document (PID)	A logical document which brings together the key information needed to start the project on a sound basis and convey that information to all concerned with the project
Project Management	The planning, monitoring and control of all aspects of the project and the motivation of all those involved in it to achieve the project objectives on time and to the specified cost, quality and performance
Project Closure Report	A report that confirms the hand-over of all products and provides an assessment of how well the project has done against the Project Brief/Project Initiation Document
Risk/Risk Management	The threat or probability that an action or event, will adversely affect a project's ability to achieve its objectives. Risk management is the identification, assessment and control of these uncertainties to ensure that they do not occur or that their impact is minimal. For more information, read the University's Risk Assessment Guidance Pack
Stakeholders	Parties with interest in the execution and outcome of a project. They would include areas/departments affected by or dependent on the outcome of a project
Exception Report	A report that describes an exception provides an analysis and options for the way forward and identifies a recommended option. Presented to the Project Board by the Project Manager
Gantt Chart	This is a diagram of a plan's activities against a timed background, showing start and end times and resources required
Handover and Closure	Preparing the deliverables to go into Business as Usual and completing lessons learned, benefits realisation and all registers such as risks and issues
Issue Log	A log of all Project Issues including requests for change raised during the project, showing details of each issue, its evaluation, what decisions about it have been made and its current status
Lessons Learned Report	A report that describes the lessons learned in undertaking the project. It is approved by the Project Board and held centrally for the benefit of future projects
Post Implementation Review	One or more reviews held after project closure to determine if the expected benefits have been obtained. It also provides the forum in which lessons learnt can be reviewed
Progress Report	Progress report from the Project Manager to the Project Board on a time driven basis
Project Board	The Project Board is responsible for the overall direction and management of the project. As a minimum, the Project Board should consist of the Accountable Manager and the Customer
User story	A professional technique used by the Business Analysts to present the customers' requirement using colloquial language