PMO acronyms explained
If RAID, EVM, SOFT or CPI/SPI aren't familiar yet, this is your one-stop glossary. Every concept below has a dedicated page in Sageon Business — this just explains what they mean.
Project status
RAG
Red / Amber / Green. A traffic-light status indicator for a project's overall health.
- Green — on track
- Amber — at risk; needs attention but not yet broken
- Red — off track; needs intervention now
In Sageon Business, project RAG rolls up to programme and portfolio level automatically.
RAID
Risks / Assumptions / Issues / Dependencies. The four categories of "things to track" on any project. See the RAID logs article for detail.
Financials
EVM
Earned Value Management. A method for measuring whether a project is delivering value at the rate you planned.
Three key numbers:
- PV (Planned Value) — what you said you'd have done by now, in £
- EV (Earned Value) — what you've actually delivered, in £
- AC (Actual Cost) — what you've actually spent, in £
CPI
Cost Performance Index = EV / AC. How efficient your spend is.
- CPI > 1.0 — under budget for the work delivered
- CPI = 1.0 — exactly on budget
- CPI < 1.0 — over budget (CPI of 0.88 means you're 12% over)
SPI
Schedule Performance Index = EV / PV. How fast you're delivering versus plan.
- SPI > 1.0 — ahead of schedule
- SPI = 1.0 — on schedule
- SPI < 1.0 — behind schedule
EAC
Estimate At Completion. Your forecast of what the project will actually cost when done, given current performance.
Reporting
SOFT
Strengths / Opportunities / Failures / Threats. A project status report format used quarterly or at major gates. Sageon Business auto-generates a draft SOFT from your project data.
KPI
Key Performance Indicator. Any single metric you've decided to track.
Delivery methodology
PMBOK
The Project Management Body Of Knowledge — the standard reference from PMI (US-led). Defines processes, phases, knowledge areas.
PRINCE2
PRojects IN Controlled Environments (v2) — the UK government's standard methodology. Process-driven, gate-based, popular in UK PMOs.
MoSCoW
Must / Should / Could / Won't have. A prioritisation framework for requirements.
Resourcing
RACI
Responsible / Accountable / Consulted / Informed. A way to map who does what on each project task.
FTE
Full-Time Equivalent. A way to express headcount in hours-per-week terms (1 FTE = 37.5 hr/week typically).