ChiralityIssued 12 October 2026 · Source 653f2f7f8c ↗ · Markdown
Terms for Project Practice
Use these meanings within the courses. A governing law, contract, or standard can define a term differently. Use that definition where it applies.
Definitions
| Term | Meaning in this series |
|---|---|
| Acceptance | An authorized decision, based on examination, that an identified result satisfies stated conditions for a stated purpose. |
| Accountability | The obligation to explain and answer for a responsibility or decision. |
| Actual expenditure | Cost recorded as incurred. It is distinct from a commitment or forecast. |
| Applicability | The relationship that makes a requirement govern the work under its stated conditions. |
| Approved basis | The identified requirements, decisions, and limits approved as a reference for stated work. Applicable external obligations retain their standing. |
| Assumption | A proposition used in reasoning while its truth remains unconfirmed. |
| Assurance | Activities that provide justified confidence in the work and its intended result. |
| Authority | The right to make a stated decision or perform a stated act. |
| Baseline | An identified reference state placed under a defined change process. |
| Budget | The amount authorized for a defined scope. |
| Change control | The process for assessing, deciding, communicating, and implementing departures from a controlled basis. |
| Claim | A statement that something is the case. |
| Commissioning | Activities that establish an installation's readiness and behavior under defined conditions before the relevant operating handover. |
| Competence | The knowledge, skill, experience, and judgment needed for the assigned work. |
| Configuration | The identified arrangement and characteristics of the product or system. |
| Configuration control | Control of changes to the product and its defining information. |
| Constraint | A limit that the work must respect. |
| Contingency | An identified allowance for uncertainty under the project's rules. It is not permission to change scope. |
| Decision basis | The evidence, requirements, assumptions, options, and consequences considered in a decision. |
| Deliverable | An identified result that a participant must supply under the assignment. |
| Dependency | A relationship in which one activity or result needs a contribution or condition from another. |
| Document control | Identification and control of document revisions, status, access, distribution, and retention. |
| Estimate | An assessment of a quantity, cost, or duration with a stated basis and uncertainty. |
| Evidence | Information that can support or challenge a stated claim. |
| Finding | An identified observation or conclusion that needs a defined response. |
| Forecast | The present assessment of a future outcome. A forecast does not amend an authorized commitment. |
| Governance | The arrangement of authority, accountability, decision rights, and oversight for the undertaking. |
| Handover | Transfer of an identified result and its continuing responsibilities to a receiving party. |
| Interface | A boundary through which parts, disciplines, people, or organizations exchange a contribution or interact. |
| Issue | A present condition that requires attention or a decision. |
| Judgment | A person's consideration of purpose, evidence, uncertainty, consequences, and the responsibility they will carry. |
| Operating envelope | The range of conditions under which the product must perform. |
| Professional responsibility | The obligations that attach to the person's professional practice. An internal assignment does not erase them. |
| Project basis | The identified purpose, requirements, scope, constraints, and decisions used to develop and execute the project. |
| Project engineering | Coordination of the technical basis, design contributions, interfaces, and technical grounds for the combined result. |
| Project management | Organization and control of the undertaking's commitments, work, resources, decisions, and delivery. |
| Proposal | A suggested action or change that has not yet received the required decision. |
| Provenance | The origin and history needed to understand where information came from. |
| Readiness | Satisfaction of the conditions required to start a stated activity or rely on a stated contribution. |
| Requirement | A needed result or constraint under an applicable authority or accepted assignment. |
| Responsibility | The work, decision, or duty that a person or organization must carry under the applicable arrangement. |
| Review | Examination of the work, its basis, and its conclusions by a person with suitable competence and assigned purpose. |
| Revision | An identified version of a document or other controlled item. |
| Risk | The relationship between uncertainty and its possible effects on objectives or affected parties. |
| Scope | The work and results included in an assignment, with its boundaries and exclusions. |
| Stakeholder | A person or organization that affects the undertaking or is affected by it. |
| Status | The declared condition of an item under the relevant process, such as draft, approved, or superseded. |
| Validation | Examination of whether the result is fit for its intended use under the relevant conditions. |
| Verification | Examination of conformity to specified requirements. |
| Warrant | The grounds that justify a claim for the proposed reliance. |
An authorized decision can establish or change commitments, permissions, and assigned responsibilities. It does not establish unexamined physical behavior or performance. A declared status needs supporting evidence for the proposed reliance.