The term finish date refers specifically to the date in which the particular schedule activity as part of the overall project is anticipated to be completed. This term finish date is actually an extremely general one in nature, and is typically never used all by itself in terms of project management. But rather, it is usually accompanied by a modifier of sorts. Some of the most typically used modifiers to the term finish date include the term actual, which refers (not surprisingly), planned (which refers to the date that the finish is expected to fall on), estimated (similar to planned, but typically involves a more formalized prediction), scheduled (similar to planned, but involves actually establishing a formal written plan of date), early, late, baseline, target, and current. The various finish dates can in many cases be modified at a number of points throughout the project, and in many cases can be modified multiple times throughout as circumstances merit and as situations may change. Typically, the finish dates must remain with a particular parameter of sorts.
This term is defined in the 3rd and the 4th edition of the PMBOK.
