Top 10 Project Management Terms (and What They Mean)

When you’re new to the project management scene, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the things you have to learn, as well as all of the new project management lingo—especially if you fell into the role without a lot of training.

Lucky for you, we’ve got you covered. Let’s start with a few important basics about project management terms and concepts.

Understanding these top 10 project management terms is a great first step to leading your team and projects to success. Watch our video about project management terms to learn what they mean and how to put them into practice for your projects.

Project management terminology and definitions

Here’s a quick list of top project management terms and definitions you need to know to lead your projects to success.

1. Requirements

Requirements are conditions or tasks that must be completed to ensure the success or completion of the project. These can take many forms. Just make sure your project requirements are documented so everyone can understand and update them.

2. Project plan

A project plan is a document that defines a project’s processes, tasks, milestones, and assignments while taking scope and deadlines into account. Learn how to build a project plan that helps your team deliver projects on time.

3. Milestone

A milestone is an action or event that marks a significant event or change on a project. Milestones help you monitor important deadlines, dates, and deliverables so you can ensure your project stays on track.

Here's an example of how one team uses milestones to track major project deadlines.

4. Stakeholder management

Stakeholder management is the process of identifying and engaging with the people who are responsible for or even fund a project throughout the course of the project. Establishing clear expectations for who your stakeholders are and when you’ll need to engage them can help approvals go more smoothly and prevent project delays.

5. Scope

A project’s scope is what needs to be achieved and the work that must be done to deliver a project. Creating a well-defined scope statement is a simple way to prevent scope creep so your team doesn’t get sidetracked by unplanned change or feature requests.

6. Risk

Risk is an uncertain event that, if it occurs, has an effect on at least one project objective. Every project manager should have a risk assessment on hand so you can anticipate and address risk before it throws your project off course.

7. Expectation management

Expectation management is ensuring everyone on a project—team and stakeholders included—are aware of how the project will work, how you’ll communicate, and how things will get done.

8. Status report

A status report is a detailed and recurring document that helps you, your stakeholders, and your internal team stay honest about your work, process, budget, and issues.

9. Resource management

Resource management is creating a forecast or staffing plan to ensure that teams are assigned to work and productive, not overbooked. Learn how to manage and allocate resources with TeamGantt's resource management tools.

10. Change management

Change management is the process, tools, and techniques used to manage unscheduled change on a project. Having a process for managing project change helps ensure the transition goes off without a hitch.

Learn more about project management

Want to learn even more project management terms, processes, and definitions? Check out TeamGantt’s Guide to Project Management. You’ll get a deep dive into everything you need to know to be an awesome project manager.

Manage your projects with speed and ease

TeamGantt makes building, scheduling, and tracking project plans quick, easy, and—dare we say—fun! Just drag and drop, and you’re done.

And because all the project action happens online, you can share progress and collaborate with your team and stakeholders in real time. No more boring spreadsheets or chasing down project updates before a big meeting!

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