Course 4 Glossary - Project Execution

Google Project Management Certificate · Course 4: Project Execution - Running the Project

This is the whole vocabulary of Course 4 as study notes for revision, grouped alphabetically so a term is quick to find. It exists for the five minutes before a quiz, or for the moment a term turns up in a module and I want the short version without rereading the chapter.

A

Term	What it means
Abandoned project	A project whose deliverables never reach the customer because nobody planned the handoff or transition. (it does end, unlike a never-ending project, but the work lands nowhere)
Acceptance criteria	The standards agreed up front that a product, service or process has to meet before anyone can call it done.
Accessible	Usable by people with disabilities without extra adaptation, whether that is the product itself, a survey, a slide deck or a meeting room.
Action item	One concrete task somebody has agreed to complete, usually captured in a meeting or a retrospective with an owner attached.
Adoption metrics	Numbers showing whether a product, service or process is accepted and used at all, such as conversion rate or onboarding completion. (adoption is the yes or no; engagement is how much use follows)
Air cover	Backing and protecting your team when leadership sends out-of-scope requests or criticism their way, putting the team’s needs ahead of stakeholder wants.
Analytics	Using data to answer business questions, uncover relationships and predict outcomes. (data is the raw facts, a metric is how you measure them, analytics is the conclusion you draw)

B

Term	What it means
Bad compromise	An agreement reached by splitting the difference, where meeting in the middle leaves the deliverable worse than either original position would have. (contrast trench wars, where neither side gives ground at all)
Bar chart	Bars whose length and colour compare categories against each other; the default choice when the message is comparing values.
Bug	A technical fault in the product, typically surfaced during testing or reported after launch.
Burndown chart	A line chart of work remaining against time, so the team sees how many tasks are left before the deadline. It is the method that makes scope creep visible as it happens.

C

Term	What it means
Change	Anything that alters the tasks, structures or processes of a project, measured against the baseline set for scope, budget and time.
Change log	The running record of every notable change, which is what lets you explain to stakeholders why something became slower or more expensive.
Character	The qualities other people credit you with, such as honesty, integrity and kindness. A personal source of influencing power.
Collaboration	People working together on the same activity rather than beside each other on separate pieces.
Confirmation bias	Hunting for the data that supports what you already believe, for instance surveying only the stakeholders you know agree with you.
Conger’s four steps	Jay A. Conger’s route to persuading someone: establish credibility, frame for common ground, provide evidence, connect emotionally.
Continuous improvement	The ongoing effort to keep making a product or service better, starting with noticing which processes need creating, removing or improving. (the mentality; process improvement is the concrete act)
Control	An experiment or observation designed so that stray variables cannot explain the result. The control group stays unchanged, so any difference is attributable to the one thing you altered.
Cost variance	The gap between what you actually spent and what you budgeted. Low variance means your estimating is sound.
Critical user journey	The sequence of steps a real user walks through to finish a task in your product, which is what a test case should follow.
Customer satisfaction score	A single figure, usually the average of several happiness metrics, showing how well the delivered project met customer and stakeholder needs.

D

Term	What it means
Dashboard	A summary screen or chart giving a snapshot of progress and performance in one place, so stakeholders can read project health quickly. It summarises rather than reproduces the underlying data.
Data	The facts, numbers and feedback available about a project.
Data analysis	Collecting, cleaning and organising data so you can draw conclusions, make predictions and decide what to do next.
Data bias	An error that tilts results in a particular direction because of what the collector or the reader already believes. (four named types: sampling, observer, interpretation, confirmation)
Data ethics	The well-grounded standards of right and wrong that govern how data is collected, shared and used.
Data privacy	Protecting a person’s information and activity every time their data is handled, in line with the law and with their own stated preferences.
Data visualization	Presenting information graphically so it is faster to grasp and easier to remember. It filters, condenses and sticks.
Data-driven improvement frameworks	Repeatable methods, such as DMAIC and PDCA, for improving something on the evidence rather than on instinct.
Dependability	Team members are reliable and finish their work on time. Second on Google’s list of five factors of team effectiveness.
Dependencies	Tasks, activities or milestones that rely on one another, so one has to move before the next can start or finish. Usually the single biggest source of project risk.
Dependency management	Handling all those interrelated tasks and resources so the project still lands on time and on budget: identify, record, monitor continuously, communicate.
Deviation	Any departure from the original plan, in either direction. Finishing a task early is a deviation just as a supplier failure is.
Discretionary dependencies	Links the team chose to create between tasks that could perfectly well have run independently. (mandatory dependencies are imposed by law or contract; these are a team decision)
Diversity	The visible and invisible differences each person carries, giving them a distinct perspective on the world and the work. (diversity is the differences; inclusivity is what the team does with them)
DMAIC	A five-step improvement cycle: define, measure, analyse, improve, control.
Duration	How long something takes from start to finish, measurable per task, per milestone or across the whole project.

E

Term	What it means
Edge case	A rare outlier at the extreme maximum or minimum of a parameter that the original requirements never anticipated, such as a user uploading a million photos in one session.
Engagement metrics	Numbers describing how much something is actually used: how often, for how long and across how many features. (adoption asks whether it is used at all)
Escalation	Bringing higher-level leadership in to clear an obstacle, confirm priorities or validate next steps. It is what you do with a blocker the team cannot shift on its own, and it should be encouraged rather than treated as failure.
Ethical leadership	Leading in a way that holds to honesty, justice, respect, community and integrity, so concerns can be raised and heard.
Expressiveness	How well you communicate with others, including storytelling and emotional connection. A personal source of power.
External dependencies	Tasks that hinge on something outside the project, such as a regulator’s approval or another project’s output. (internal dependencies sit between two tasks in the same project)

F

Term	What it means
Feedback survey	A structured way of asking users which features they like, dislike or find hard to navigate, run either before launch or after it to drive iteration.
Force majeure	An unforeseeable crisis, such as a strike or a pandemic, that stops someone fulfilling a contract.

G

Term	What it means
Gantt chart	A schedule visual showing tasks as horizontal bars against time, carrying owners and sequence. Best for projects with many dependencies and large teams, and the Waterfall default.

H

Term	What it means
Happiness metrics	A subset of quality metrics covering how users feel about a product overall: visual appeal, ease of use, likelihood to recommend. (the customer satisfaction score is normally the average of several of these)
Headline	The single sentence a slide exists to make, stated at the top so the point registers in a few seconds.
History	The personal track record between you and another person, which makes influencing them easier or harder.

I

Term	What it means
Impact	The belief that your work matters and genuinely changes something. One of Google’s five factors of team effectiveness.
Impact report	The end-of-project presentation to key stakeholders showing how the project went and what value it added to the business. (aimed outward at stakeholders; the closeout report is aimed at the next project manager)
Inclusive leadership	Leading so that every person’s identity, background and experience is respected, valued and built into how the team works day to day.
Inclusivity	The practice of deliberately including people who would otherwise be excluded or pushed to the margins.
Influencing	Changing how another person thinks or behaves, which is how a project manager gets work done without formal authority over anyone.
Influencing statement	An opening line that sets your audience up to hear the ask, compressing all four of Conger’s steps into a sentence or two.
Infographic	A concise one-page visual summary, mostly graphics with light supporting text, built to carry complex information when you are not there to explain it.
Information	Your level of access to and control over what is known in the organisation. An organizational source of power.
Internal dependencies	A link between two tasks inside the same project. (external dependencies rely on people or events outside it)
Interpretation bias	Reading an ambiguous situation as clearly positive or clearly negative when several readings are equally defensible.
Issue	A known, real problem that may stop a task being completed. (a risk is still hypothetical; an issue has already arrived, and an unresolved issue becomes a blocker)

K

Term	What it means
Key performance indicator (KPI)	A measurable value showing how effectively the organisation is hitting a business objective, and therefore whether you are on track for your success criteria.
Knowledge	The power drawn from your expertise, your particular skill set and your appetite for learning new things. A personal source of power.

L

Term	What it means
Legend	The key beside or beneath a chart that explains what each colour or section represents.
Line chart	Data points joined across time, best for showing trends and behaviour over a period or overall.

M

Term	What it means
Mandatory dependencies	Task links required by law or contract, such as a city inspection before construction can continue.
Metric	A quantifiable measurement used to track and assess a business objective. (productivity metrics measure output over time; quality metrics measure whether the outcome is acceptable)
Milestone	A significant point in the schedule marking progress, usually the completion of a deliverable or a whole phase.

N

Term	What it means
Network	The people you are connected with professionally and personally. An organizational source of power, and one that grows when you connect others.
Never-ending project	A project whose deliverables and tasks simply cannot be completed, so it drifts on with no end. (an abandoned project does end, but the deliverable never reaches the customer)

O

Term	What it means
Observer bias	Two people looking at the same data or event and genuinely seeing different things.
On-time completion rate	The productivity metric showing what share of the work is finishing on schedule, and the headline number stakeholders ask for.

P

Term	What it means
PDCA	Plan, do, check, act: identify a problem, try a fix, test whether it worked, then refine it. A proven fix becomes a best practice.
Pie chart	A circle divided into slices, each a share of the whole. Use it for composition, and keep the categories few.
Portfolio	All the projects and programs across an entire organisation, managed centrally.
Probability and impact matrix	A grid plotting each risk by how likely it is against how much damage it would do, so the ones needing attention first become obvious.
Process improvement	Examining an existing process and making it more effective, cheaper or better for the customer. (the concrete analysis; continuous improvement is the mindset behind it)
Productivity metrics	Measures of output and efficiency over time: milestones hit, tasks completed, projections and duration.
Program	A collection of related projects managed together towards a longer-term business objective.
Project closeout report	The document a project manager writes for the next project manager: what the team did, how they did it, what they delivered, and how the work performed against quality, budget and schedule. (knowledge transfer, where the impact report is a stakeholder pitch)
Project closing	The formal process of finishing a project, a phase and its contractual obligations so nothing is left dangling. (a milestone closeout does this for one finished milestone that will not be revisited; the final closeout does it comprehensively at the end)
Project status report	A periodic snapshot summarising the project’s common elements at a point in time: name, date, summary, status, milestones and tasks, issues.
Project task	An activity to be completed within a set period of time.
Projection	A forecast of a future outcome such as duration, cost, performance or quality, based on what you know today.
Psychological safety	How safe a person feels taking an interpersonal risk on the team, such as admitting a mistake or challenging the plan. Google found it the number one driver of team effectiveness.

Q

Term	What it means
Qualitative data	Subjective information that numbers cannot capture, such as written feedback describing how a service felt.
Quality	The deliverable meets the outlined requirements and also meets or exceeds what the customer expected. Finished and good are not the same thing, and the customer is the judge.
Quality assurance (QA)	The continuous review process checking that the project is on course to deliver something good, through audits, check-ins and stakeholder reporting. (preventive, and it runs across the whole life cycle)
Quality control (QC)	Inspecting the actual results and deliverables against the standard, and applying corrections where they fall short. (detective and corrective, and a subset of QA activities)
Quality metrics	Measures of whether outcomes are acceptable: number of changes, number of issues, cost variance.
Quality planning	Working out which quality standards genuinely apply to this project and designing the procedures that will satisfy them. (standards say what good means; planning says how you will reach it)
Quality standards	The requirements, specifications or guidelines that define fit for purpose, agreed with the team and the customer at the very start. (the definition of good, from which planning, assurance and control all follow)
Quantitative data	Numerical and statistical facts you can count and compare.

R

Term	What it means
RAG status report	A report colouring progress like a traffic light: red for critical issues needing resolution, amber or yellow for potential schedule or budget trouble, green for on track. (agree what each colour means for your project before the first report goes out)
Reputation	How people across the organisation perceive you overall. An organizational source of power, and a positive one carries far more influence than a negative one.
Retrospective	A blameless team discussion of successes, setbacks and possible improvements, held after milestones and as part of closing. (the regular reflective practice; a post-mortem is the deeper look back after one specific failure)
Risk	A potential event that could occur and affect the project. (hypothetical by definition; once it happens it becomes an issue or a change)
Risk exposure	An estimate of the potential future loss from a specific activity or event, used to rank which risks deserve attention.
Risk management	Identifying potential risks and issues, judging how serious they are, and deciding and applying the steps that address them.
Risk register	The table listing every identified risk and dependency, with its description, its likely impact and the tasks it touches.
Roadmap	A high-level tracking visual showing major milestones and how the project should evolve over time, typically quarter by quarter.
ROAM technique	A way of sorting risks that have already materialised into resolved, owned, accepted or mitigated. (ROAM handles live risks after the event; the probability and impact matrix prioritises them beforehand)
ROCCC	A data ethics check that your data is reliable, original, comprehensive, current and cited.
Role	The position you hold within the organisation or team. The most basic organizational source of power.

S

Term	What it means
Sampling bias	The group you collected data from does not represent the wider population, so the conclusions do not either.
Scope creep	The gradual growth of a project’s scope through added requests and changes that were never planned or budgeted for.
Signal	An observable change indicating the overall health of the project, the equivalent of a fever telling you something is wrong.
Signpost	A verbal cue in a presentation telling the audience where you are heading next and what to expect.
Stacked bar chart	A bar chart with each bar split into segments, so totals and their component parts read at the same time. Also called a marimekko chart.
Storytelling	Turning facts into a narrative with a beginning, a middle and an end, which is what makes data persuasive and memorable.

T

Term	What it means
Team	People who own an objective jointly and work through it together, sharing the planning, the decisions and the setbacks. (a team collaborates on shared work; a work group is simply people grouped under the same manager)
Team dynamics	The forces, conscious and unconscious, that shape how a team behaves and performs.
Teamwork	Working collaboratively with everyone committed to and moving towards the same goal.
Test case	A defined sequence of steps plus the result you expect from them, used in user acceptance testing.
Timeboxing	Putting a fixed time limit on a topic or activity, with a small buffer, so the important items get the attention they deserve.
Timeout	Deliberately stepping away from the project for a moment to regroup and adjust the game plan.
Tracking	Following the progress of project activities so deviations from the plan surface early enough to act on.
Trench wars	A standoff where two peers or groups cannot agree and neither will give ground, so the project stalls between them. (contrast a bad compromise, where both do give ground but the product suffers)

U

Term	What it means
User acceptance test (UAT)	A near-final trial with genuine end users confirming the product works end to end under realistic conditions. Sometimes called a beta test.
User story	A short, informal description of a feature written from the end user’s point of view, used to shape requirements and script tests.

W

Term	What it means
Work groups	People assembled by organisational or managerial hierarchy who work toward a common goal, largely through individual contributions. (a team works on the goal collectively)

Where these come up

Execution 1 - Tracking, Status Reports and Change - tracking methods, RAG status, dependencies, ROAM, escalation, change requests.
Execution 2 - Quality Management and Continuous Improvement - the quality chain, UAT and test cases, controls, PDCA and DMAIC, retrospectives.
Execution 3 - Data-Informed Decision Making - metrics, signals, data ethics and bias, analysis, charts and dashboards.
Execution 4 - Leadership and Influencing Skills - teams and work groups, psychological safety, air cover, Conger’s four steps, sources of power.
Execution 5 - Effective Project Communication - communication channels, timeboxing, inclusive and accessible meetings.
Execution 6 - Closing a Project - closing criteria, never-ending and abandoned projects, impact reporting, the closeout report.