Acronyms and Abbreviations

The following list includes all common acronyms and abbreviations that are used in the world of project management. Terms are linked to definitions where available. Please let me know if you miss an abbreviation or an acronym! I will also extend this list from time to time. However, this list is supposed to include only “pure” project management terms and not industry-specific ones (although I might include some of the software world).

Please note that some of the acronyms might have a different meaning in other contexts so you should take them with a grain of salt if you are not sure about the context. You may want to consult Wikipedia for other meanings.

AC Actual Cost
ACWP Actual Cost of Work Performed
AD Activity Description
ADM Arrow Diagramming Method
AE Apportioned Effort
AF Actual Finish date
AOA Activity – On – Arrow
AON Activity – On – Node
AS Actual Start date
BAC Budget At Completion
BCWP Budgeted Cost of Work Performed
BCWS Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled
BOM Bill Of Materials
CA Control Account
CAP Control Account Plan
CCB Change Control Board
COQ Cost Of Quality
CPAF Cost plus award fee
CPF Cost-Plus-Fee
CPFF Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee
CPI Cost Performance Index
CPIF Cost-Plus-Incentive-Fee
CPM Critical Path Method
CPPC Cost-Plus-Percentage of Cost
CV Cost Variance
CWBS Contract Work Breakdown Structure
DD Data Date
DU Duration
DUR Duration
EAC Estimate at Completion
EF Early Finish Date
EMV Expected Monetary Value
ES Early Start Date
ETC Estimate to Complete
EV Earned Value
EVM Earned Valued Management
EVT Earned Valued Technique
FF Finish-to-Finish
FF Free Float
FFP Firm-Fixed-Price
FMEA Failure Mode and Effect Analysis
FPIF Fixed-Price-Incentive-Fee
FS Finish-to-Start
IFB Invitation for Bid
LF Late Finish date
LOE Level of Effort
LS Late Start date
OBS Organizational Breakdown Structure
OD Original Duration
PC Percent Complete
PCT Percent Complete
PDM Precedence Diagramming Method
PF Planned Finish date
PM Project Management
PM Project Manager
PMBOK Project Management Body Of Knowledge
PMIS Project Management Information System
PMO Program Management Office
PMO Project Management Office
PMP Project Management Professional
PS Planned Start Date
PSWBS Project Summary Work Breakdown Structure
PV Planned Value
QA Quality Assurance
QC Quality Control
QFD Quality Function Deployment
RAM Responsibility Assignment Matrix
RBS Resource Breakdown Structure
RBS Risk Breakdown Structure
RD Remaining Duration
RFP Request for Proposal
RFQ Request for Quotation
SF Scheduled Finish date
SF Start-to-Finish
SOW Statement of Work
SPI Scheduled Performance Index
SS Scheduled Start date
SS Start-to-Start
SV Schedule Variance
SWAG Sophisticated Wild Ass Guess
SWOT Strenths, Weaknees, Oppurtunities, and Threads
TC Target Completion date
TF Target Finish date
TF Total Float
T&M Time and Material
TQM Total Quality Management
TS Target Start date
VE Value Engineering
WBS Work Breakdown Structure

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  • Start Date  A start date of a project is sometimes determined by the expected completion date. If a project is to be...
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  • Estimate at Completion  The phrase estimate at completion, which can also be referred to by the three letter anagram EAC, is an input...
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  • Actual Duration  The term actual duration can refer to a couple of different things depending on usage and context. In one usage,...
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  • Actual Start Date (AS)  Effective Project Management depends largely on keeping track of Actual Start Dates to determine productivity. The Actual Start Date marks...

    • 6 Comments

    1. The homepage of project-management-knowledge continues to reload every 1 second making the home page unreadable

      You do great work here
      Can you look into this

      Thanks

    2. Thanks for the info, Mark. Unfortunately, I cannot reproduce this 🙁 Do you experience this also today?

    4. I understand the purpose of NEC 3 contract relating to project management, engineering &construction but what does the Abreviation NEC mean

    5. This acronym is not part of the PMBOK, I am sorry.

    6. There’s a typo for SWOT: Strenths, Weaknees, Oppurtunities, and Threads — the last one should be Threats
      I surprised SMART is not there: Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, Timed — goal setting
      I surprised SOSTAC is not there: situation, objectives, strategy, tactics, action and control — it’s common in marketing projects

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