Strategy and Business Planning Terms

• Business Development (BD): Activities to create long-term value through client relationships and markets.

• Value Proposition: The unique value a service provides to clients.

• Strategic Planning: Defining priorities, goals, and the direction of an organization.

• Vision Statement: A description of what the organization aspires to achieve.

• Mission Statement: A declaration of the organization’s purpose and focus.

• Corporate Governance: The system of rules and processes for directing a business.

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Metrics to measure success and performance.

• Market Penetration: The extent to which a service is adopted in a target market.

• Competitive Analysis: Assessing competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.

• Go-to-Market Strategy (GTM): A plan for launching a product or service.

• Target Market: A specific group of potential clients for services.

• Business Continuity Plan (BCP): Strategies to ensure operations during disruptions.

• Organizational Agility: The ability to adapt quickly to changes in the market.

• Innovation: Creating improved solutions or services to meet client needs.

• Decision-Making Framework: Structured approaches for making strategic choices.

• Quarterly Business Review (QBR): Structured meeting on a quarterly cadence to review health of a customer along with identify key areas of focus, opportunities for expansion and adoption. Can be jointly held with Sales, Customer Success, Support and other teams.

Project Management Terms

• Project Implementation Methodology (PIM): A defined methodology specific to a PS team’s standardized implementation phases, steps, templates and mechanisms to guide the customer through a successful implementation. (See our sample PIM for reference)

• Waterfall Methodology: Sequential project management following a structured approach.

• Agile Methodology: Iterative project management for delivering value incrementally.

• Hybrid Methodology: A customized methodology incorporating aspects of multiple methodologies such as Agile and Waterfall.

• Stakeholder: An individual or group impacted by a project.

• Risk Management: Identifying, assessing, and mitigating project risks.

• Issue Management: Identifying, managing and resolving project issues.

• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): A hierarchical decomposition of tasks in a project.

• Critical Path: The sequence of tasks determining the shortest project timeline.

• Status Report: Document used for effective communication, managing stakeholder expectations, and ensuring alignment across teams. It provides a comprehensive overview of progress, highlights potential issues, and enables informed decision-making.

• Scrum: An Agile framework that organizes work into sprints for progress.

• Kanban: A visual workflow management method for tracking tasks.

• Dependencies: Tasks that rely on the completion of other tasks.

• Project Charter: A document defining scope, objectives, and stakeholders of a project.

• Milestone: A significant event or goal within a project timeline.

• Post-Mortem: A review of successes and challenges after a project’s completion.

• Scope Creep: Uncontrolled changes to a project’s scope.

• Baseline: The original project plan used as a reference point.

• Resource Allocation: Assigning resources to tasks based on availability and need.

• Burn Rate: The rate at which resources or budget are consumed during a project.

• Change Management: The practice of identifying, planning for and managing change brought about from a services implementation. (See our FROM:TO:WHY:WHAT Change Management Framework for a sample.)

Delivery Terms

• Engagement: A specific project or assignment for a client.

• Deliverable: A tangible or intangible output produced during a project.

• Statement of Work (SOW): A document containing a detailed description of tasks, deliverables, scope, expectations, assumptions and other contractual elements.

  Service Level Agreement (SLA): A contract defining service expectations and performance metrics.

• Utilization Rate: Percentage of billable hours worked compared to available hours.

  • Billable Utilization: Hours (time) spent working on billable tasks for the benefit of a customer.

  • Productive Utilization: Hours (time) spent working on tasks to the benefit of the PS team, or larger organization.

• Time and Materials (T&M): A pricing model based on time spent and materials used.

• Fixed Fee: A pricing model where services are delivered for a set price.

• Resource Forecasting: Anticipating resource needs based on current and future projects.

• Capacity Planning: Determining the resources required to meet project demands.

• Revenue Recognition: Recording earned income over time during delivery.

• Profitability: The financial gain generated by a service or project.

• Net Margin: Profit expressed as a percentage of revenue after expenses.

• Time Entry: The practice of logging time towards a project and/or assignment to gain clarity on where time is being spent. Also used for billing purposes, revenue recognition and utilization tracking.

• Resource Management: The practice of managing resources along with their skills & certifications, allocations and staffing to projects/assignments and the training path(s) for each role in the PS organization.

Professional Services Delivery Leadership Terms

• Organizational Learning & Development: Strategies to enhance organizational effectiveness by delivering training and enablement to PS teams.

• Change Management: Processes and tools aimed at aiding customers transitioning from a current state to a future state.

• Thought Leadership: Demonstrating expertise and insight in a specific domain.

• Customer Journey: The complete experience a customer has with a business.

• Client Retention Rate: The percentage of clients retained over a period.

• Customer Churn: The percentage of customers who do not renew or continue utilizing your services or offerings.

• Benchmarking: Comparing performance to industry standards or competitors.

• Attrition: The number or percentage of employees who leave an organization (Both voluntary and involuntary).

• Center of Excellence: The organization/team responsible for standardizing and measuring practices and performance of a professional services business. Commonly responsible for methodologies, tools, operations, learning & development, resource management and more.

• Offering Management: The organization/team responsible for defining professional services offerings, best practices for implementing each offering and the go to market strategies for each offering.