Reference

Delivery and program management glossary

Plain-English definitions of the terms used across this site, written from the operator's chair.

A

Acceptance criteria

The written conditions a deliverable must meet for the client to sign it off. Agreed before build starts; the basis for go-live approval and for settling scope disputes.

B

Bench

People on payroll who are not currently billable. A necessary buffer for demand, and a direct cost to margin when it grows unmanaged.

Bill rate

The contracted price per hour or day for a role. Set from the cost base plus target margin, not from what the competitor charges.

Blended rate

A single average rate across a mixed team, used to simplify fixed-price or retainer pricing.

Blue-green deployment

Running two identical production environments and switching traffic from the old (blue) to the new (green) so releases and upgrades happen with no downtime.

C

Change request (CR)

A priced, dated record of any change to agreed scope. Raised the same week the change is discovered; the main defence against margin leakage.

Client health

Leading indicators of account risk: renewals, escalations, payment delays, sentiment. Reviewed weekly in a well-run practice.

Cutover

The planned switch from an old system to a new one, executed to a rehearsed runbook with a go/no-go checkpoint and a rollback trigger.

D

Delivery management

Owning every engagement a practice has promised — staffing, quality, dates, client relationships — and, in a mature practice, the revenue and gross margin they produce.

Dependency register

A single list of everything one workstream needs from another or from the client, with owner, date, impact if late and decision date. The program manager's most important document.

E

Engagement

A single contracted piece of work with a client: project, retainer or program. The unit at which revenue and margin are forecast.

F

Fixed price

A contract where the client pays an agreed sum regardless of effort. Carries delivery risk; priced with a 15–20% premium.

Forecast accuracy

How close the month-start forecast of revenue and margin came to actuals. ±5% is disciplined.

Fully loaded cost

A person's total cost to the business: salary, benefits, tools, and an allocation of overhead and shared roles.

G

Go-live

The moment a system becomes the production system for real users. A management outcome, not just a technical event.

Gross margin

Revenue minus fully loaded delivery cost, as a share of revenue. The single best measure of whether a practice is healthy.

H

Hypercare

A defined period after go-live with heightened support and daily triage. Must have an end date, or it becomes unpaid support.

P

P&L (profit and loss)

The statement of revenue earned and cost incurred for a unit. A delivery leader who owns the P&L answers for the margin, not only the schedule.

PIM (product information management)

The system of record for product data — attributes, media, translations — feeding storefronts and marketplaces. Pimcore and Akeneo are common in commerce programs.

PMO (project/program management office)

The function that runs forecasting, staffing, reporting, governance and commercial hygiene across a practice's engagements.

Pod

A small, stable, cross-functional team owning a portfolio of clients, with its own lead and visible margin.

Portfolio

Every engagement a practice is running, viewed together for revenue, margin, risk and staffing.

Program

A set of related projects that deliver one business outcome, with one owner for dependencies, budget and benefit.

Program management

Coordinating a program's projects, dependencies, budget and governance so the business outcome is realised.

Project management

Delivering one defined scope on time, on budget and to quality.

R

RAG status

Red / Amber / Green health rating. Amber requires a plan and a date; red requires leadership in the room.

RAID log

Register of Risks, Assumptions, Issues and Dependencies for an engagement or program.

Realisation

Revenue actually collected divided by revenue at rate card. Reveals discounts, write-offs and unbilled work.

Retainer

A recurring monthly engagement for a fixed capacity or scope. Predictable revenue; watch utilisation of the reserved capacity.

Rollback

The tested procedure to return to the previous system state if a release or cutover fails. If it has not been executed in staging, it does not exist.

Runbook

The step-by-step, timed script for a cutover, release or incident response, rehearsed before it is used for real.

S

Scope creep

Uncontrolled growth in what is being delivered without corresponding change requests. The most common cause of margin loss.

SOW (statement of work)

The contract document defining scope, deliverables, acceptance criteria, timeline and commercial terms.

Steering committee

The sponsor-level governance forum for a program: outcome status, decisions needed, money. Thirty minutes, three slides.

T

T&M (time and materials)

A contract where the client pays for effort at agreed rates. Lower delivery risk; requires disciplined timesheets and realisation tracking.

U

Utilisation

Billable hours divided by available hours. 75–85% is healthy for delivery staff.

Z

Zero-downtime

A release, upgrade or migration during which the production system stays available to users throughout.