Glossary
Glossary
Use these definitions when a schedule field or tool name is unfamiliar. For detailed calculation rules, see the CPM reference.
Organization and files
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Workspace | A home for projects, people, and reusable assets; it can be personal or team-based |
| Program | An organizational grouping of projects within a workspace |
| Project | The real-world job that holds its schedules, reporting history, and team |
| Schedule | A specific plan containing activities, logic, calendars, and progress |
| Folder | An organizational location for schedule files inside a project |
| Current | The one schedule selected to open by default for a project |
| Baseline | The project’s selected reference schedule for comparison |
| Update # | A file’s position in the reporting sequence |
| Version | A preserved snapshot nested beneath a parent schedule |
| Copy | A separate schedule that can be edited independently |
| Archive | A way to remove a file from the normal working list while retaining it for restoration |
Work and logic
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Activity / task | A unit of scheduled work or a supported special activity type |
| Activity ID | The visible code used to identify an activity |
| WBS | Work breakdown structure: the hierarchy organizing the work |
| WBS row | A structural summary row containing other WBS rows or activities |
| WBS Summary activity | A special activity calculated from work beneath its assigned WBS; distinct from a structural row |
| Milestone | A point-in-time start or finish event |
| Level of Effort (LOE) | Supporting work whose span derives from connected activities |
| Predecessor | The activity whose endpoint provides a dependency for another activity |
| Successor | The activity receiving that dependency |
| Relationship / link | An FS, SS, FF, or SF dependency between activity endpoints |
| Lag | Working-time separation or overlap on a relationship, measured on the predecessor calendar |
| Constraint | A date requirement or scheduling restriction applied to an activity |
| Calendar | The working week, hours, and dated exceptions used to schedule work |
See Activities and WBS, Relationships, and Calendars.
Dates, duration, and calculation
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Status date / data date | The reporting boundary between historical progress and remaining work |
| Actual start / finish | Dates recording work that happened |
| Early start / finish | The calculated earliest remaining-work window allowed by the schedule inputs |
| Late start / finish | The calculated latest remaining-work window allowed by the controlling late-date target |
| Original duration | The original planned working duration retained for reference |
| Remaining duration | Working time still needed to finish an activity |
| Actual duration | Working time already consumed; its treatment depends on the calculation mode |
| Total duration | The activity’s overall duration measure under the selected calculation rules |
| Suspend / resume | Boundaries describing an interruption in progressed work; remaining work is still calculated as a continuous block |
| Total float | Working-time movement available relative to the activity’s calculated late finish |
| Free float | Movement available relative to immediate successor timing |
| Negative float | A result indicating that an applicable late-date target is exceeded |
| CPM | Critical Path Method: the network calculation used to forecast dates and float |
| Critical display | Highlighting based on a chosen total-float threshold |
| Driving path | The controlling chain traced to a selected activity or milestone |
| Must Finish By | A schedule finish target used in late-date and float calculation |
See Calculate a schedule and Critical and driving paths.
Progress and performance
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Physical percent complete | A manually reported estimate of work accomplished; it does not determine completion status or remaining duration |
| Duration percent complete | A duration-based progress measure, which can differ from physical progress |
| Updates Through | The cutoff for actual work reported in a progress cycle |
| Due Date | The deadline for contributors to provide their input |
| Push | A collection response indicating the activity has not started for that update |
| Update completion | The proportion of reporting tasks addressed, not construction completed |
| Apply updates | Materialize collected progress into the working schedule and enter Editing |
| Publish update | Complete the cycle and preserve a published child version |
| SPI | Dashboard ratio of actual completion to baseline-planned completion; 1.00 is on plan |
| Hit Rate | Share of starts or finishes planned in an update window that actually occurred |
| Compression | The share of remaining baseline-paced duration that must be compressed to fit available time |
See Submit progress, Run an update, and Dashboards.
Presentation and access
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| View | Saved presentation of schedule information, including columns, filters, grouping, and sorting |
| Filter | Rules that determine which activities are shown |
| Spotlight | A date-window highlight with optional row presentation/filtering |
| Print layout | Reusable page, timeline, header, and footer settings for printed output |
| Report | A reusable reporting setup, including batch view/layout combinations |
| Asset | A reusable item such as a calendar, column, view, resource, or quality profile |
| Quality profile | A definition of checks, thresholds, and scoring rules |
| Member license | Workspace capacity allocated to a person for roles that require licensed membership |
| Premium project slot | Capacity allocated to a team project for Premium collaboration, including progress cycles |
See Views and filters, Print and export, Assets, and Roles and access.