Tool: Property Literacy
A glossary of property project management terms to assist you in understanding the project terminology in relation to the development space.
TOOL
Business Case
A report capturing the information that evaluates and justifies the project, considers any impacts and forecasts its return. Business cases are typical used to define scope, gain approval, plan resources and apply for funding.
Tool: Business Case Template
Service: Writing a Business Case
Business Plan
A report that explains and justifies a businesses goals, how they will be attained and how that attainment will be measured. Often gives background on the business origin, members and its growth so far.
Connected Spaces
Often referred to as bump spaces, these are built spaces designed to encourage social interactions and bring a sense of community, people ‘bumping’ into one another.
Service: Designing Connected Spaces
Constraint
A term used often in project programming at a task level, defining the restraints on a task, for example, approval can only happen every two weeks at review board, therefore need to align the concept design approval with this constraint.
Deliverables
The agreed and specified products/assets/work to be delivered to an agreed standard by an agreed time.
Dependencies
A term used often in project programming at a task level, when one task depends upon another. The dependency can be that the tasks must run in parallel, start to start, finish to finish or one must finish before another task starts.
Tool: Project Management Toolbox
Design and Build
A Design and Build contract is one in which the main contractor is contracted to do the majority of the detailed design as well as the construction, taking on liability and management for both.
Design Management Plan
A report and associated documents used to maintain all design associated within a development, from conception to as-built. DMP’s are used to formalise design approval processes, interfaces and ultimately manage contractors and the design program.
Programme
This is a document that outlines all the major phases of the project and what needs to happen when in order to deliver your project on time and on budget.
Functional Requirements
These are the must have elements of your project and relate to the operational requirements of your project.
Design Brief
This is the document that captures all the information you have about what you want your project to be. This includes aspirations for your project as well as the requirements that you need the project to deliver.
Schedule of areas
The specific sqm areas you require to provide for all the functional requirements of your project.
Lessons Learned
The process of continued reflections upon work that has been completed and how feedback from this influences work to be completed, other projects and standards in the future.
Tool: Project Management Toolbox
Project Sponsor
The person who sponsors the development and who sits at the top of the reporting tree. For a start-up initiative or social enterprise, the organisation/collective that incubates the project.
Professional Services
These are all the experts that you need to deliver a specific service i.e architecture, planners, lawyers and builders.
Procurement
Procurement is the process that you go through to source the carious capabilities and resources you need to deliver your project. Both products and services can be procured. Undertaking a robust procurement process assists you in getting the best value out of the people and materials that you need to deliver your project.
Tender process
This is the process you go through to identify the best person or organisation to provide the services or products that you require. It involves clearly articulating what is required, or what you want to buy and all the conditions of the purchase. These are competitive so that the open market or multiple players can be invited to tender for the work. This assist you to achieve greater value for money.
Expression of Interest (EOI)
This is a document that is used early on in a project’s life cycle process to get an understanding of the markets interest in either participating in your project or providing products or services to assist you to deliver your project.
Request For Proposal (RFP)
These are more detailed documents that outline all the requirements of your project and what you are asking for from the market.
Request For Information (RFI)
Formal requests for clarification, typically between the contractor and client. RFI’s are registered and tracked to reduce bias with suppliers and ensure the correct information is given by the correct person within a specified response period, to ensure schedule isn’t compromised.
Risk and Risk Management
Risk is any exposure to danger that will compromise the purpose of the project/development, the deliverables or the people and businesses involved with the project. This danger can be in terms of injury, delay, compromise of quality, financial exposure and budget blowouts as well as legal liabilities. Risk is managed through a risk register, with each risk being assessed on its degree of impact and probability of occurring. Risk is managed through mitigation or reduction.
Tool: Project Management Toolbox
Change Management
When you project is in delivery mode, there needs to be a good record of any deviations from the original plan. It is important to track these as changes can impact your cost, delivery timeframes and what is delivered as the end product.
Stakeholder
Individuals and groups that have an interest in the project/development. These can be groups, organisations, businesses, the community or anybody or any entity that may be impacted by the development directly or indirectly. Key stakeholders are those with the largest impact on the project or who are impacted the most by it.
Variation
A change from the scope and contractual documents that is agreed upon by the affected parties. The variation is to be proposed and approved via the approval process outlined in the design management plan and/or other planning documentation. Variations can often affect the parameters of a project such as cost, time, design and quality.
For additional terminology, see these great resources by Smartsheet and APM.