Glossary of terms

Below lists some of the terms you’ll hear in use, both in project management and when bidding for and managing your ULF project:

• Aim – this is the overall purpose of your project.
• Objective – one or two lines of detailed text explaining exactly what you are trying to achieve.  Objectives should be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound (specify the time frame you’re working within). 
• Deliverable – these are the ‘whats’ you will have at the end of the project; this might be reports, case studies, numbers of people with particular qualifications etc.
• Outcome – what difference will your project’s products/services make?  In ULF terms, these are your measures: e.g. learner numbers, learner achievements/qualifications, how many learning centres that have opened through your project. You will have to specify what you plan to achieve for each quarter throughout the project, and report what you actually achieved.
• Outputs – these are the services and products that your project has delivered. Many people report on these, without thinking what difference they have made.
• Monitoring – this is checking periodically that your project is on track and if not, identifying the reasons why.  It is important to have thought through what you’ll measure and when, so you know whether you’re achieving the right things.
• Evaluation – this is the process at the end of the project when you look back and consider whether the project achieved what it set out to do, what worked well, and what didn’t (and you would do differently next time).  It is a really useful exercise if you intend to submit another similar bid.
• Audit – this essentially means ‘checking’, usually a sample of documents, to make sure that the right things have been recorded and kept.  It usually refers to financial records and whether the receipts and related records have been kept. Your project will be audited periodically and you will be asked to provide evidence for the costs and outcomes on which you have reported.
• Milestones – these are key stages during your project that you will use to check whether you are on target in terms of time and delivering what you expect. Think of them as mini-deadlines. If you don’t meet them, you need to take action or your whole project is likely to fall behind time. 
• Tasks – these are individual activities that need to be completed to achieve one of the deliverables of your project.  For example, if you are writing a report, you will need to:
  • Gather and collate the information to be included
  • Structure and write the report
  • Have the report proofread
  • Convert it to PDF (for online use), or alternatively
  • Get quotes for printing, and select a printer etc.