The vocabulary of project costing and project control.

• Project structure
• Costing
• Project control
• Earned value and indicators
• Risks
• Portfolio

Project structure

ProjectProjet

The deal tracked from the building of the offer through to its end. It holds its settings, its contract breakdown, its sub-projects and its revisions, and goes through six states: Created, Costing, In progress, then Completed, Lost or Abandoned.

See: Revisions

RevisionRévision

A complete snapshot of the project at a given moment: its cost structures and the reference data values they use (hourly rates, calendars, roles). It carries a version name and a description of the assumptions.

See: Revisions

Marked revisionRévision marquée

A frozen revision. It can no longer be changed by any means: no data entry, no import, no automatic processing. Work continues in the next revision.

See: Revisions

Baseline revisionRévision de référence

The marked revision that is authoritative for the baseline budget, the risk reserve, the contractual dates and the planned value. It is designated when the contract is signed and only changes with a contract amendment.

See: Revisions

Cost structureStructure de coûts

A tree of tasks carrying estimate lines. A revision carries a main structure and, where applicable, the differentials of contract amendments and the estimate of each risk.

See: Schedule and estimate

DifferentialDifférentiel

A cost structure that describes a difference from the main structure: tasks and lines added, changed or removed. A contract amendment is prepared as a differential, then merged.

See: Baseline and estimate to complete

Contract breakdownLotissement

The breakdown of the order into contract items, lots and deliverables. Optional, it is used to generate a skeleton schedule and to present the estimate in the terms of the order.

See: Schedule and estimate

Sub-projectSous-projet

A grouping of estimate lines identified by a code defined in the ERP. It is at this level that actual costs are reconciled with the budget, and it is the finest granularity of financial progress.

See: Schedule and estimate

LineageLignée

The identity that a task or an estimate line keeps from one revision to the next. It is what makes it possible to compare two revisions and to reimport a file without creating duplicates.

See: Revisions

Summary taskTâche récapitulative

A task that has subtasks. Its dates and duration derive from theirs. It can carry its own estimate lines, for costs that do not belong to any specific task.

See: Schedule and estimate

MilestoneJalon

A zero-duration task that marks an event: approval, delivery, decision. It can carry estimate lines, for example a down payment to a subcontractor. A milestone included in the milestone trend chart is a contractual milestone.

See: Schedule and estimate

Critical pathChemin critique

The set of tasks whose total float is zero or negative: any delay on one of them delays the end of the project.

See: Schedule and estimate

Costing

Estimate lineLigne de devis

A line carried by a task and attached to a cost category. For labour, it carries a resource role and an effort in hours; otherwise, a quantity and a unit cost. It carries a budgeted amount and a re-estimated amount.

See: Schedule and estimate

Cost typeNature de coût

The class of cost by which the estimate is broken down and displayed: labour, supplies, subcontracting, expenses, provision. Its kind (labour, non-labour or provision) determines how lines are handled.

See: Schedule and estimate

Cost categoryCatégorie de coût

A class of cost attached to a cost type, with an accounting code. For labour, it is the cost category that carries the hourly rate, one per year.

See: Schedule and estimate

Resource roleRôle de ressource

A position in the company, attached to a department, for example “Test engineer”. It belongs to a cost category, which sets its rate, and works to a calendar. Waterfall costs by role, never by named person.

See: Schedule and estimate

Unit costDébours

The unit cost of a non-labour estimate line. The amount of the line is the quantity multiplied by the unit cost.

See: Schedule and estimate

EffortCharge

The number of working hours of a labour line. Its distribution over time is derived from the schedule.

See: Schedule and estimate

Inflation rateTaux d’inflation

The annual rate, specific to each project, that projects the amounts of the reference year onto the following years, according to the year in which each line is consumed.

See: Schedule and estimate

Workload planPlan de charge

The monthly distribution of effort by resource role. Compared with each role’s capacity, it gives the load rate and helps anticipate hiring and subcontracting.

See: Portfolio

Project control

Baseline budget (BAC)Budget de référence

The sum of the budgeted amounts of the lines in the baseline revision, excluding risk provisions, including inflation. Only a contract amendment moves it.

See: Baseline and estimate to complete

Budgeted amountMontant budgété

The amount of a line as set by the baseline revision. It only changes with a new baseline, and it is zero for a line added after it.

See: Baseline and estimate to complete

Re-estimated amountMontant réestimé

The amount of a line as estimated at the latest periodic review. It is the basis on which the estimate to complete is calculated.

See: Baseline and estimate to complete

Estimate to complete (ETC)Reste à engager

The amount of spending still to be committed to finish the project, read from the re-estimated amounts. A task not yet started is worth what was planned, a started task what the project manager re-estimates, a finished task zero. Also called cost to complete.

See: Baseline and estimate to complete

Unanticipated lineLigne non anticipée

A line or task added after the baseline for work that had not been costed. Its budgeted amount is zero: it weighs on the estimate to complete, never on the budget.

See: Baseline and estimate to complete

Contract amendmentAvenant

A contractual change to the project while it is being carried out. Prepared as a differential then merged, it produces a new baseline revision: it is the only event that moves the baseline budget.

See: Baseline and estimate to complete

Periodic reviewRevue périodique

The operation by which the project manager updates the schedule and the estimate to complete, re-examines the risks, imports the actual costs, then marks the revision. The indicators are recalculated as of that date.

See: Baseline and estimate to complete

Actual cost (AC)Coût réel

The amount of spending actually recorded at a given date, imported from the ERP and assigned by sub-project.

See: MS Project, Excel and ERP

WBS elementÉlément d’OTP

The cost assignment code that the ERP attaches to each entry. It carries the project code and the sub-project code, from which Waterfall infers where the spending belongs.

See: MS Project, Excel and ERP

Tracked scopePérimètre suivi

The set of cost lines that enter the indicators. An entry that is legitimate in the accounts but was not budgeted can be excluded from it, while remaining viewable.

See: MS Project, Excel and ERP

Earned value and indicators

Planned value (PV)Valeur planifiée

The share of the baseline budget that should have been earned by a given date, according to the dates of the baseline revision.

See: Earned value

Earned value (EV)Valeur acquise

The value, at budgeted cost, of the work completed by a given date. In Waterfall, a task earns its budgeted amount when it finishes (0/100 rule): no percentage is entered.

See: Earned value

Cost performance index (CPI)Indice de coût

Earned value divided by actual cost. Below 1, the work done has cost more than promised.

See: Earned value

Schedule performance index (SPI)Indice de délai

Earned value divided by planned value. Below 1, less work has been done than planned by that date.

See: Earned value

Cost variance (CV)Écart de coût

Earned value minus actual cost. When negative, the work done has cost more than promised.

See: Earned value

Schedule variance (SV)Écart de délai

Earned value minus planned value. When negative, the project is behind what it should have done.

See: Earned value

Estimate at completion (EAC)Projection à terminaison

The estimated total cost of the project at its end. Waterfall presents three: at budget, the project manager’s (actual cost + estimate to complete), and at the observed rate (baseline budget / cost performance index).

See: Earned value

Physical progressAvancement physique

The share of the promised work that has been done: earned value divided by baseline budget.

See: Earned value

Financial progressAvancement financier

The share of the final spending already committed: actual cost divided by the sum of actual cost and estimate to complete.

See: Earned value

S-curveCourbe en S

The curve of cumulative costs: baseline budget, actual cost and projection on the same axis. Shifted by payment terms, it becomes the cash-out forecast.

See: Earned value

Milestone trend chartDiagramme temps/temps

The chart that shows, review after review, the forecast date of each contractual milestone. A milestone that holds traces a horizontal line; a milestone that slips rises.

See: Earned value

Alert thresholdsSeuils d’alerte

The two values, warning and alert, below which a cost or schedule performance index changes zone. They are set in the company reference data.

See: Earned value

Risks

RiskRisque

An uncertain event that may affect cost or schedule. It has a probability, a severity and a state: identified, dismissed or occurred.

See: Risk provisions

SeverityGravité

What a risk would cost if it occurred. In Waterfall, it is not a score: it is the total of the risk’s own estimate.

See: Risk provisions

Risk provisionProvision

The amount set aside for an identified risk: its severity multiplied by its probability. It counts in the estimate and in the estimate to complete, never in the baseline budget.

See: Risk provisions

Risk reserveRéserve pour risques

The sum of the risk provisions of the baseline revision, kept separate from the budget. It is what the remaining provisions and the cost of occurred risks are compared against.

See: Risk provisions

Risk matrixMatrice de risques

The grid of four probability levels and four severity levels that classifies risks, according to bounds set in the reference data.

See: Risk provisions

Cost at occurrenceCoût à la survenance

The total of a risk’s own estimate at the moment it is declared to have occurred. It is frozen thereafter.

See: Risk provisions

Risk coverageCouverture des risques

The comparison between the risk reserve and the sum of the remaining provisions and the costs at occurrence. Their signed difference is the coverage gap.

See: Risk provisions

Portfolio

PortfolioPortefeuille

The set of projects selected by a multi-project view: projects in progress, possibly those being costed, and those completed over a period.

See: Portfolio

BacklogCarnet

The sum of the baseline budgets of the projects in progress: what the company has signed and not yet delivered.

See: Portfolio

PipelinePipeline

The sum of the estimates of the projects being costed, gross and weighted by win probabilities: what the company could sign.

See: Portfolio

Win probabilityProbabilité de gain

The estimated chance, as a percentage, of winning an offer. It weights the project’s estimate and effort in the portfolio views.

See: Portfolio

Win rateTaux de transformation

Over a period, the share of offers that left the costing phase and were won rather than lost.

See: Portfolio

Load rateTaux de charge

For a role and a month, the planned effort divided by capacity. Above 100%, the role is overloaded.

See: Portfolio