A B C D E F G H I L M N O P R S T U V W
Word or Phrase |
Explanation |
An applied hour and/or dollar amount as procedurally defined by a contractor's management system and used for performance measurement. In MPM these can be manually input, or imported from external accounting systems. (See Actuals/Actual Cost.) |
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A cost incurred or booked as defined by Generally Accepted Accounting Principals (GAAP) and further defined as a cash or accrual method in audited/unaudited financial statements and government disclosure statement. For labor, hour and dollar amounts, usually equals labor ACWP; for other elements of cost (particularly material), there may be a timing difference between actual costs and ACWP. Actuals do not include unallowable cost in government contracting. (see Actual Cost of Work Performed). |
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ACWP |
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Algorithm |
A set of logical steps for solving a problem or accomplishing some end result. |
Alphanumeric |
Consisting of letters and/or numbers. |
Apportioned Effort |
Effort that by itself is not readily divisible into short span work packages, but which is related in direct proportion to some other measured effort. |
At Complete Variance |
The difference between the Budget at Completion (BAC) and Estimate at Complete (EAC). This represents a forecast of budget overrun or underrun. |
See Budget at Completion. |
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Baseline/Baseline Estimate |
The estimate or budget of time, resources, hours and dollars required to complete a task or group of tasks. |
Batch |
A compilation of multiple processes performed all at once; for example, Batch Reports, Batch Imports, and Batch Exports. |
BCWP |
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BCWS |
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BI (Business Intelligence) Tool |
A type of application software designed to report, analyze and present data. The tools generally read data that have been previously stored, often, though not necessarily, in a data warehouse or data mart. |
The negotiated contract cost plus the estimated cost of authorized priced or unpriced changes to the original cost. The term 'BAC' applies not only to specific tasks, but also to cost-of-money, Gen & Admin, undistributed budget, and management reserve. |
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The hours, as applicable, and dollar amounts which have been budgeted, for completed work packages and/or completed portions of work packages. |
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The hours and/or dollar amounts which have been budgeted for all work necessary to complete a project. |
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Burden |
Indirect costs (such as overhead and general & administrative expense) which are allocated to a project's base amounts. Each direct (or prime) cost category (labor, materials, etc.) is allocated its burden (or proportionate share) of the indirect costs. |
Burdened Dollars |
Prime (or direct) dollar amount plus overhead dollar amount. |
An in-house accounting system identifier used to record actual costs. In performance measurement systems, one or more charge numbers are assigned to the control account and/or work package. MPM allows only one Charge Number per WBS element. |
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Child/Children |
A WBS element belonging to or subsidiary to another WBS element which is at a higher level in the WBS hierarchy. |
A class of cost (COC) is a subcategory of an element of cost (EOC). You can have up to 13 COCs for each EOC. |
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CLIN |
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COC |
See Class of Cost. |
COM |
See Cost of Money. |
Comma separated value (CSV) refers to the format of a data file. Each field in the file is separated by a comma. Each record is entered on a single line. |
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Conditioning Screen |
A screen displayed on your monitor where you define various categories of data to display on reports or exports and/or make selections from options listed on the screen. |
The number used to identify a specific contract deliverable. |
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Conventions |
The manner in which concepts are described in the MPM documentation. |
Control Account |
A management control point at which budgets, earned value, estimates and actual costs are accumulated and computed for variance analysis. The Control Account is a natural control point for cost/schedule planning and control since it represents the work assigned to one responsible organization on one Contract Work Breakdown Structure element. |
The cost of investing capital in equipment and facilities which are necessary to perform a given contract. Depending upon contract terms, COM can been treated as 1) non-fee bearing cost; 2) not as a cost; or 3) part of fee. |
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The ratio of work accomplished (BCWP) to the actual cost of work performed (ACWP) expressed by the formula: (Monthly/Cumulative) BCWP (Monthly/Cumulative) ACWP MPM uses only cumulative values for CPI calculations. |
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A report which shows the cost and schedule performance status of a contract; periodic submittal required under DoDI 5000.2 (Encl. 2), usually monthly. |
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DoD established characteristics that a contractor's internal management system must possess to insure effective planning and control of contract work and costs. The government instruction is DoDI 7000.2 |
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Cost/Variance |
The difference between BCWP and ACWP. |
A report which shows the cost and schedule performance status of a contract; periodic submittal is required under DoDI 5000.2 (Encl. 4) |
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CPI |
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CPR |
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C/SCSC |
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CSV |
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C/SSR |
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The setting or value for various functions or fields which MPM will use unless you change it. |
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Dimension |
A data element that categorizes each item in a data set into overlapping regions. It provides a means to “slice and dice” data in a data warehouse. Dimensions also provide structured labeling information to otherwise unordered numeric means. The primary function of dimensions is threefold: to provide filtering, grouping and labeling. |
Direct Costs |
The prime cost of labor or materials which is directly related to a specific WBS element and is chargeable directly to the contract. |
Discrete Milestone |
A milestone having a definite, scheduled time and budget for occurrence signaling an event. |
Distributed Project |
A portion of a project distributed outside the host processing unit for maintenance and control. |
Dollars: |
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Prime |
Direct cost of each resource or amount chargeable for each resource. |
Overhead |
Overhead amount allocated to the prime (base/direct) hours/dollars. |
Total Burdened |
Prime + Overhead |
Total Cost |
Prime + Overhead + G&A |
Total Dollars |
Prime + Overhead + G&A + COM |
Total Price |
Total Dollars + Fee |
DW (Data Warehouse) |
A central repository for project and global data from any and all corporate locations. The consolidated data can be used for analysis and reporting. |
Earned Value |
The value of work completed to date; also known as BCWP. The total budget for completed work packages plus a pro rata share of the budget for work packages only partially completed. |
A quantitative method used to calculate BCWP; MPM provides many methods of calculating earned value which are defined in Earned Value Method (EVM) Descriptions. |
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Element/WBS Element |
A discrete portion of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS); an identifiable product, set of data, or service. In MPM all tasks from the contract level to the lowest finite level require a WBS identifier. |
Definitions vary dependent upon the accounting structure but normally include categories of labor, material, other direct costs, and subcontractor. |
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Element Type |
The WBS identifier element type. C: Cost Account W: Work Package P: Planning Package O: Other |
EOC |
See Element of Cost. |
Equivalent Person Month |
One person working normal hours/days exclusive of holidays, normally expressed in hours per month. In MPM it is defined by the resource work calendar or fiscal calendar hours per month. |
The total cost of all work performed to date (ACWP) plus all estimated costs of all work necessary to complete the total project. Also known as Latest Revised Estimate. |
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The total estimated cost of all remaining work necessary to complete the total project. |
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Estimate the WBS |
The process of estimating resources requirements for a specific WBS ID. |
ETC |
See Estimate to Complete. |
EVM |
See Earned Value Method. |
Export |
Any data originating within MPM that is transferred to an outside system. |
A period of time or calendar unit used for accounting purposes which may or may not coincide with the standard Gregorian calendar. |
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Float |
The number of calendar units between the early start and late start of an activity. |
Functional Organization |
An organization or group of organizations with a common operational orientation (for example, Design, Engineering, Quality Assurance). |
A scheduling tool showing the time span of each activity or WBS as a horizontal line, the ends of which correspond to the start and finish of the activity or WBS as indicated by a date line on the chart. (Also known as a bar chart.) |
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Expenses incurred in the management and administration of a company and allocated in whole or part to a contact. |
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Global ID |
The ID assigned to the group of files that define a global set. |
The group of files that define calendars, rate tables, etc. Each global set is assigned a unique global ID. |
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A labor unit of time. |
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Import |
Any data brought into MPM from a source outside MPM. |
The formula used in MPM for IEAC is BAC/CPI. This EAC formula assumes the project will continue to perform at the same efficiency rate through the completion of the contract. |
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Indirect Cost |
Burden (usually overhead and G&A) allocated to an accounting base and charged to contract effort. |
Input |
Anything you communicate to your computer by any method (i.e., typed from the keyboard, copied from another drive or retrieved from a CD). |
Input Screen |
A screen displayed on your monitor into which you enter raw data. |
Inventory Account/Charge Numbers |
An accounting record (normally a charge number) used to hold or suspend actual costs until applied (or input) to the performance measurement system as ACWP. See Actuals/Actual Costs. |
A word, phrase or other text that identifies a particular field of a report or chart. |
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Lag |
The period of time required between the finish of one activity and the start of another activity. Often referred to as a constraint or dependency. |
The actual cost of all incurred cost to date plus the anticipated cost of remaining work. Also known as Estimate at Completion (EAC). |
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Effort of a general supportive nature. It is activity which cannot be associated with a measured task or milestone and is controllable by time-phased budgets established for that purpose. For LOE activity, BCWP = BCWS. |
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Link/Network Link |
The means by which activities are connected to produce a network diagram and/or define activity relationships. |
LOE |
See Level of Effort. |
LRE |
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A labor unit of time. |
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An amount of the total allocated budget withheld for management control purposes rather than designated for the accomplishment of a specific task or set of tasks. It is not a part of the Performance Measure Baseline, but is included in the total Contract Budget Base. Management cannot be a negative value. |
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Material Burden/Material Overhead |
Material indirect costs allocated to a material base. |
Measure |
Data that can be examined or analyzed, such as sales or cost data. You can select and display the data in a measure. Measures can be stored as variables or relations, or measures can be calculated by means of formulas. These are derived from the records in the fact table and therefore consist of numeric facts. |
Menu |
The screen display of options available for your selection. |
A discrete point or event for measurement/assessment of work package accomplished. (Also called an interim milestone.) |
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Milestone Weight |
A numerical factor assigned to a milestone for a portion of a task to express its relative budget value to the total budget value for the task. |
MPM DW (Data Warehouse) |
A central repository for project and global data from any and all corporate locations. The consolidated data can be used for analysis and reporting. |
Expenditures against specific tasks that would not occur on a repetitive basis in any given program. Examples are such items as preliminary design effort, qualification testing, initial tooling and planning, etc. |
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ODC |
See Other Direct Costs. |
OLTP |
On-Line Transaction Processing is a class of program that facilitates and manages transaction-oriented applications. |
A hierarchical structure depicting an organization and used as a framework for assigning and managing work responsibilities. Can also be used to summarize data by department, responsible person, functional categories, natural work groups, matrix organization, project organizations, etc. |
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Original Duration |
The length of time a particular activity will require to complete, from start to finish; usually expressed in work days. |
A group of certain accounting elements which can be isolated to specific tasks, other than labor and material. |
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Overhead |
Indirect costs which, because they are incurred for common or joint objectives, are not readily subject to treatment as direct costs. Indirect costs are planned and applied as a rate against a direct cost base. |
Overhead Dollars |
Overhead amount allocated to the prime (base/direct) hours/dollars. |
Parent |
A higher level WBS element owning other elements as subsidiaries at a lower level in the WBS hierarchical tree structure. |
Performing Organization |
The OBS departments which expend resources to accomplish a WBS task, usually work package elements. (See Responsible Organization for comparison). |
Planning Package |
A logical aggregation of far term work within a control account that can be identified and budgeted but is not yet defined into work packages. Planning packages are identified during the initial baseline planning to establish the time phasing of the major activities within a control account and the quantity of the resources required for their performance. Planning Packages are planned into work packages consistent with the rolling wave concept prior to the performance of the work. |
Price Variance |
Difference between the earned price of a purchase item and its actual cost. Price variance is derived by subtracting (earned quantity X actual cost) from (earned quantity X planned cost). |
Prime Dollars |
The dollar amount chargeable for the resource itself before adding overhead and G&A; that is, direct cost. |
A report used for analyzing cost or schedule variances to determine cause, effect and action necessary for correction; usually generated by the responsible manager. |
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Purchased Parts |
Parts or small sub-assemblies purchased from an outside source, usually outside of the prime contractor's manufacturing capability. |
A term used to indicate computer methodology wherein data is updated and summarized at the time of input as opposed to methods where data is input and then at some later time is processed and updated. |
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Recurring Costs |
Expenses for specific tasks that occur repeatedly during the life of the project. |
Replanning |
A change in the original plan for accomplishing authorized contractual requirements. |
Reprice |
The process of recalculating estimated (or budget) based upon different resource rates and/or overhead/G&A rates and/or COM rates contained in the Resources and Burdens windows. |
A document requesting a bid for a specified body of work; it also outlines the fee arrangement, the scope of the work, time for performance and reporting requirements. |
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Resource |
The most elemental level of a bidding or costing category used to establish the requirements for a task. |
(See Performing Organization for comparison) A defined department/unit within an organization structure (OBS) which is assigned responsibility for accomplishing specific tasks and to which one or more control accounts are assigned. |
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RFP |
See Request for Proposal. |
The ratio of work accomplished (BCWP) to the actual cost of work scheduled (BCWS) expressed by the formula: (Monthly/Cumulative) BCWP (Monthly/Cumulative) BCWS MPM uses only cumulative values for SPI calculations. |
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Schedule Variance |
The difference between BCWP and BCWS (BCWP — BCWS). |
Scrap & Rework Factor |
The allowance for material and labor deficiencies not meeting product specification. |
SOW |
See Statement of Work. |
Spread Curve |
Numeric distribution pattern used in an automatic spread of a resource. |
Standard Hour |
Industrial Engineering Standard Hour; a quantitative measurement of work content. |
A document which outlines the work required to complete a given project; prepared by the customer. |
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The calendar date conditioned by the user, used on many time-oriented graphic reports. |
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To Complete Performance Index (TCPI) |
The projected value to be earned for every measurable unit to be expended in the future. TCPI = BAC — Cum BCWP BAC — Cum ACWP |
Total Cost Dollars |
Prime dollar amount plus overhead dollar amount plus G&A dollar amount. |
Total Dollars |
Prime dollars plus overhead amounts plus G&A plus cost of money. |
That portion of the contract budget not yet assigned to a specific WBS element. |
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Unit of Measure |
A single quantity regarded as a whole and adopted as a standard of measurement; may be hours, dollars, months, etc. |
Value |
The quantity or percentage contributed by a single unit of measure to the whole. |
Variance |
Deviation from as established amount. |
The formula used in MPM for VAC is BAC — LRE. |
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A numerical factor assigned to a particular milestone or portion of a task to express its relative amount to the whole task. |
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WBS |
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WBS Element |
A portion of a work breakdown structure; it may be an identifiable product, a set of data, or a service. |
What If Analysis |
The process of analyzing possible alternative plans in terms of budget, manpower and resource amounts required for the completion of a project. |
A hierarchical tree, usually product oriented, that organizes, defines and graphically displays the hardware, software, services and other work tasks necessary to complete a project. |
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Work Package (WP) |
A detailed task representing a unit of work at the levels where the work will be performed, having scheduled start and completion dates and a budget. |
XREF |
Optional fields provided as additional identifiers that can be used for reporting, exporting, or onscreen filtering. |