Glossary: PATech's terms R 2.0

Ad hoc	Latin for "out of control". See "chaos management".
Advantage	Learning to see processes and effects in new ways, on demand; learning to learn.
Appraisal	Determining value. See "Assessment".
Assessment	Consideration of something in order to determine its value, with improvement in mind.
Benchmarking	Benchmarking is the search for and implementation of better ideas. It is a blend of quantitative and qualitative research methods well tested and suited to help people break into new models of effectiveness and efficiency by finding and studying new approaches, particularly new processes. Benchmarking projects begin when there's clearly a need for change and improvement; they end when the learnings have been turned into improvements in the "customer effect" system.
Bug	An insect.
Chaos Management	The irrational belief that enough confusion and ad hoc (see "ad hoc") heroic effort invested in a project will raise the skills and capabilities of the project team to a sublime level and make the project successful. Chaos management is hard on the developers, but gives the managers a fail-safe excuse for project failure ("There must not have been enough confusion!").
Customers	The people or organizations who pay for our products and services to satisfy their needs.
Defect	A difference between what something should be and what it is found to be.
Effect	The result of actions. Contrast with "side-effects", the unplanned result of actions.
Effective	Having an intended or expected effect. Effectiveness may require a few tries to get the wished for effect.
Efficient	Acting or producing effectively with a minimum of waste, expense, or unnecessary effort. Getting the effect directly, because the effect and the process to get it are understood.
Evaluation	Consideration of something in order to determine its value, for use or purchase in mind.
Fluent	"Process fluency" is the ability to work with existing and to establish appropriate, robust new processes to meet needs readily and seemingly effortlessly; capable of flowing with an existing process or to a new process with out disruption or hesitation.
Friction-Free Development	The consequences of efficient processes followed fluently with discipline.
Goals	The measurable outcomes of following plans to achieve strategies.
Inspection	A formal assessment where a work product is examined in detail by someone other than the developer to detect faults, violations of development standards, and other problems.
Life Cycle	The period of time from when the idea for a product or service is conceived until the time it is no longer available for use. This includes phases such as a requirements phase, a development phase, an installation phase, an operation phase, and a retirement phase.
Partner	In Benchmarking, organizations that actively participate in a benchmarking study by replying to questionnaires or participating in interviews.
Out of Control	For processes, when special causes exist that prevent the process from being performed as designed it is considered to be out of control.
Pinball	An analogy that describes why we need to go beyond satisfying our customers requirements- we have to do more than the minimum to get them to come back, so we can play again.
Practice	Part of a process that is performed locally in "riff’s" of activities; Several practices may contribute to a process. Rehearsal of a process, gaining experience in performing a process by doing it.
Process	A series of actions, changes or functions bringing about a result. Process is how we create effects for customers, based on our vision, values, strategies, goals and the tools with which we work.
Personal Software Process? (PSP)	A methodology for giving individual software engineers the capability to manage their work at CMM Level 5. Together with the Team Software Process, these methods get improvement results fast. Developed by Watts Humphery and the Software Engineering Institute, this is the most effective way to make a team productive quickly.
Quality	The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy given needs. Or in other words, the degree to which the product or service meets its requirements.
Side Effect	The unplanned consequence of taking an action without proper planning.
Software	Computer programs, procedures, rules, documentation, and data that prescribe the way a computer system operates.
Sponsor	In benchmarking, organizations that initiate and participate in a benchmarking study. Sponsors typically set the goals for a study as well as contribute their information by responding to questionnaires or participating in interviews. In change or project management the sponsor is the customer, the person or organization paying for the project or for the change.
Strategy	Long term actions that lead to realizing a vision.
Technology	Those things that extend human perception and ability to cause effects.
Testing	The most expensive process for exercising or evaluating a component, product or service by manual or automated means to identify differences between expected and actual results.
Validation	The process of evaluating whether software complies with its requirements.
Values	Those things (e.g. behaviors, customs, feelings) an organization or its people hold dear and see as necessary to accomplish their vision, and wish to maintain into the future.
Verification	The process of determining whether work products conform to their specified requirements.
Vision	A shared understanding of the desired future conditions for an organization or group of people.
Whole Product	In change management. the entire set of things it takes to satisfy a segment of an adopter population that the change will meet their needs. May include: kits, training, transition packages, consulting, tools, etc.