Glossary of Project Management Terms – T

Target Completion Date
Date imposed on an activity or project by the user. There are two types of target dates; target start dates, and target finish dates.

Target Finish – Activity
Target Finish is the user’s imposed finish date for an activity. A Target Finish date is used if there are pre-defined commitment dates.

Target Finish Date
The date planned to finish work on an activity.

Target Finish – Project
A user’s Target Finish date can be imposed on a project as a whole. A Target Finish date is used if there is a pre-defined completion date.

Target Start – Activity
Target Start is an imposed starting date on an activity.

Target Start Date
The date planned to start work on an activity.

Task
The smallest indivisible part of an activity when it is broken down to a level best understood and performed by a specific person or organisation.

TCO
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is an estimate of all direct and indirect costs associated with an asset or acquisition over its entire life.

Team
A team is made up of two or more people working interdependently toward a common goal and a shared reward.

Team Building
The ability to gather the right people to join a project team and get them working together for the benefit of a project.

Team Development
Developing skills, as a group and individually, that enhance project performance.

Team Leader
Person responsible for leading a team.

Technical Assurance
The monitoring of the technical integrity of products.

Technical Guide
A document that guides managers, team leaders and technical assurance co-ordinators on planning the production of products.

Technical Products
Products produced by a project for an end user.

Tender
A document proposing to meet a specification in a certain way and at a stated price (or on a particular financial basis), an offer of price and conditions under which the tendered is willing to undertake work for the client.

Termination
Completion of the project, either upon formal acceptance of its deliverables by the client and/or the disposal of such deliverables and the end of their life.

Terms of reference
A specification of a team member’s responsibilities and authorities within the project.

Theory of Constraints (TOC)
Theory of Constraints is a management philosophy of continuous improvement achieved by identifying and managing the most important constraint that affects quality and productivity.

Tied Analysis
Activities that have to be performed sequentially or within a predetermined time of each other.

Time Analysis
The process of calculating the early and late dates for each activity on a project, based on the duration of the activities and the logical relations between them.

Time Based Network
A linked bar chart, a bar chart that shows the logical and time relationships between activities.

Time Limited Scheduling
Scheduling of activities, so that the specified project duration, or any imposed dates are not exceeded. Note: This may cause the envisaged resource levels to be exceeded.

Time-Limited Resource Scheduling
The production of scheduled dates in which resource constraints may be relaxed in order to avoid any delay in project completion.

Time Now
Specified date from which the forward analysis is deemed to commence.
(The date to which current progress is responded. Sometimes referred to as the status date because all progress information entered for a project should be correct as of this date.)

Time Recording
The recording of effort expended on each activity in order to update a project plan.

Time-Scaled Logic Drawing
A drawing that displays the logical connection between activities in the context of a time scale in which each horizontal position represents a point in time.

Time-Scaled Network Diagram
A project network diagram drawn so that the positioning of the activity represents schedule.

Time Sheet
A means of recording the actual effort expended against project and non-project activities.

Top Down Cost Estimating
The total project cost is estimated based on historical costs and other project variables and then subdivided down to individual activities.

Total Float
Time by which an activity may be delayed or extended without affecting the total project duration.
(Or violating a target finish date)

Total Quality Management (TQM)
A strategic, integrated management systems for customer satisfaction that guides all employees in every aspect of their work.

Transit Time
Dependency link that required time and no other resources. It may be a negative time.

Turnaround Report
A report created especially for the various responsible managers to enter their progress status against a list of activities that are scheduled to be in progress during a particular time window.