PRINCE2 Dictionary of Terms

This is an A-Z Dictionary, from the 2009 edition. PRINCE2® is a registered trade mark of AXELOS Limited. View the Agile Dictionary. Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) Dictionary. Full ITIL glossary of terms. See also the Project Management Dictionary and the Risk Management Dictionary.

A - accept to avoid | B - baseline to Business Case | C - center of excellence to customer's quality expectations | D - Daily Log to DSDM Atern | E - embedding (PRINCE2) to exploit | F - H - fallback to host site | I - impact to Issue Report | L - O - Lesson Log to output | P - performance targets to Project Support | Q - quality to quality tolerance | R - records to role description | S - schedule to supplier | T - tailoring to trigger | U - W - user acceptance to Work Package

A - accept to avoid

accept (risk response)

A risk response to a threat where a conscious and deliberate decision is taken to retain the threat, having discerned that it is more economical to do so than to attempt a risk response action. The threat should continue to be monitored to ensure that it remains tolerable.
risk responses">See other risk responses

acceptance

The formal act of acknowledging that the project has met agreed acceptance criteria and thereby met the requirements of its stakeholders.

acceptance criteria

A prioritized list of criteria that the project product must meet before the customer will accept it, i.e. measurable definitions of the attributes required for the set of products to be acceptable to key stakeholders.

activity

A process, function or task that occurs over time, has recognizable results and is managed. It is usually defined as part of a process or plan.

agile methods

Principally, software development methods that apply the project approach of using short time-boxed iterations where products are incrementally developed. PRINCE2 is compatible with agile principles. See the Agile Dictionary for more on Agile Projects

approval

The formal confirmation that a product is complete and meets its requirements (less any concessions) as defined by its Product Description.

See also Activity Code.

approver

The person or group (e.g. a Project Board) who is identified as qualified and authorized to approve a (management or specialist) product as being complete and fit for purpose.

assumption

A statement that is taken as being true for the purposes of planning, but which could change later. An assumption is made where some facts are not yet known or decided, and is usually reserved for matters of such significance that, if they change or turn out not to be true, there will need to be considerable replanning.

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authority

The right to allocate resources and make decisions (applies to project, stage and team levels).

authorization

The point at which an authority is granted.

avoid (risk response)

A risk response to a threat where the threat either can no longer have an impact or can no longer happen.

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