project management glossary

parametric cost estimating

 Appraising the costs of a project based on knowledge gathered from similar, but different projects. Typically uses parameters such as weight, power, lines- of-code, or other characteristics of the system to estimate or to scale development cost or schedule. System complexity and team maturity are also influencing factors.

 An estimating methodology using statistical relationships between historical costs and other project variables such as system physical or performance characteristics, contractor output measures, or manpower loading, etc. Also referred to as "top down estimating".

parametric estimating

 An estimating technique that uses a statistical relationship between historical data and other variables (e.g., square footage in construction, lines of code in software development) to calculate an estimate.

parent activity

 Task within the work breakdown structure that embodies several subordinate child tasks.

parent, in scheduling

 The source from which an activity, i.e. the child, is derived.