Institute · Glossary

Terms alone do not create clarity.

Terms, perspectives and questions for organisations in transition

Project management, agility, risk management and artificial intelligence are now part of almost every organisation’s vocabulary.

But the same terms do not always represent the same understanding.

This glossary places key terms in context, explains their practical relevance, and adds questions that help turn abstract concepts into concrete dialogue.

Less buzzwords.
More shared understanding.

Many misunderstandings begin not with answers, but with different interpretations of terms. If people want to act together, they should first clarify what they are talking about.

Consulting

Structuring initiatives and enabling decisions

These terms help classify projects, programmes, risks and change initiatives. The focus is not method for method’s sake, but how an organisation can remain capable of action under real conditions.

Project management

Reflective questions

Which influencing factors are preventing progress despite a clear plan?
Which decisions are missing for the project to become truly actionable?

Definition

Project management is the goal-oriented planning, organisation and steering of a time-bound initiative. It aligns scope, timelines, resources, costs, quality, risks, responsibilities and decisions.

Why it matters

A project never exists outside its organisation. Informal expectations, competing priorities and dependencies can influence its trajectory as strongly as any project plan.

Programme management

Reflective questions

Are projects aligned to one shared benefit or only to local deliverables?
Where are dependencies emerging without clear ownership?

Definition

Programme management coordinates multiple connected projects and change activities that together aim to create strategic benefit.

Why it matters

A programme is more than the sum of projects. The key question is whether dependencies, benefits and shared decisions are steered effectively.

Multi-project management

Reflective questions

How many initiatives can the organisation realistically carry in parallel?
Which projects delay each other because of shared bottlenecks?

Definition

Multi-project management steers several concurrent projects within one organisation or domain, with focus on shared resources, dependencies and conflicts.

Why it matters

Many organisations do not have a project problem, but a simultaneity problem: too many initiatives competing for the same constrained attention and capacity.

Project portfolio management

Reflective questions

Which initiatives contribute most to strategic goals?
Which projects would not be started again if we decided today?

Definition

Project portfolio management evaluates and prioritises the full set of planned and running initiatives against strategy, benefit, risk and available capacity.

Why it matters

A portfolio is a conscious selection, not a wish list. Strong portfolio steering decides not only what to start, but also what to delay or stop.

PMO and project governance

Reflective questions

Which decisions are faster or better because of the PMO?
Where does governance create clarity and where only additional effort?

Definition

A Project Management Office supports or steers standards, transparency, methods, resources and decision routines. Project governance defines responsibilities and decision authority.

Why it matters

A PMO creates value only if it improves decisions and increases project actionability. Additional reporting alone does not improve delivery.

Risk management

Reflective questions

Which known risks are not openly addressed?
Which assumption, if wrong, would seriously endanger the initiative?

Definition

Risk management is the systematic handling of uncertainty that can affect goals, decisions or outcomes, including identification, assessment, treatment, monitoring and communication.

Why it matters

Risk management should not simulate certainty. It should make uncertainty visible so responsible decisions remain possible under incomplete information.

Project and programme risks

Reflective questions

Which dependency is outside the direct control of the team?
Where might local success undermine overall programme benefit?

Definition

Project and programme risks are uncertain events or conditions that may affect goals, schedules, costs, quality, benefits or acceptance.

Why it matters

Critical risks often arise at interfaces and handovers between initiatives and organisation, not inside one work package.

Prioritising initiatives

Reflective questions

Which criteria currently decide priority in practice?
What is consciously not started to make priorities effective?

Definition

Prioritisation means consciously ordering or selecting initiatives based on transparent criteria such as benefit, urgency, risk, effort and strategic contribution.

Why it matters

Prioritisation is only real when resources, decisions and attention actually follow the chosen order.

Decision processes

Reflective questions

Who can decide, who must be involved, and who only needs information?
Which decision keeps being postponed despite enough information?

Definition

Decision processes describe how options are developed, evaluated, decided and transferred into accountability.

Why it matters

Decisions often fail less because of missing data than because of unclear roles, conflicting interests or avoidance of responsibility.

Organisational development

Reflective questions

Which behaviour should concretely change and what reinforces it today?
Which small change could be tested under real conditions?

Definition

Organisational development is the planned and learning-oriented evolution of structures, collaboration, leadership, culture and capabilities.

Why it matters

Organisations cannot be rebuilt like machines. Change emerges through experience, feedback and gradual adjustment of routines.

Digital transformation

Reflective questions

Which organisational problem should digitisation solve?
Which existing practice would merely be digitised without being rethought?

Definition

Digital transformation describes fundamental changes in services, processes, business models and collaboration enabled by digital technologies.

Why it matters

Digital transformation is not purely a technology project. It also changes roles, decisions, expectations and organisational identity.

AI strategy and AI application

Reflective questions

Which clearly scoped task could AI support meaningfully?
How would participants recognise that the application is genuinely useful?

Definition

An AI strategy clarifies where artificial intelligence should create value, what preconditions are required, and how benefit, risk and responsibility are managed.

Why it matters

Use cases should start from a concrete task and expected improvement, not from tool availability.

Change management

Reflective questions

Which past experiences shape current reactions to change?
Where could people test a change in a low-risk way first?

Definition

Change management is the deliberate design of the human and organisational side of change, including orientation, participation, communication and learning.

Why it matters

People do not need generic persuasion. They need understandable reasons, real participation and room to gather experience.

Process management

Reflective questions

Where does real workflow differ from official process design?
Which handover creates most delay or information loss?

Definition

Process management designs, documents, steers and improves recurring workflows that create outcomes for internal or external customers.

Why it matters

A documented process is not automatically the process that is lived. What matters is how work actually happens under real conditions.

IT service management

Reflective questions

Which IT services are truly business-critical?
Where are internal metrics optimised without improving user experience?

Definition

IT service management designs and steers IT services across their lifecycle so they reliably support users and organisational goals.

Why it matters

ITSM is more than tickets and process compliance. The key question is what user value a service creates and how reliably it is delivered.

Enterprise service management

Reflective questions

Which internal services could be designed more clearly?
Where would a shared service model help, and where would it hide necessary differences?

Definition

Enterprise service management applies service-oriented principles to additional functions such as HR, facilities, finance and internal services.

Why it matters

ESM should not merely copy IT processes into other domains. It needs to reflect different contexts and operating logics.

Lab

Testing ideas under real conditions

In the Lab, these topics are not introduced as finished solutions. They are tested, observed and adjusted in a bounded field cycle together with the people involved.

New forms of agile teamwork

Reflective questions

Which decision could the team own for four weeks?
Where does current practice prevent rapid feedback?

Definition

Agile teamwork organises collaboration in short learning and delivery cycles, with regular review and adaptation.

Why it matters

Agility does not start with role labels or rituals. It starts when teams can learn and adjust faster in practice.

Adapted Scrum or Kanban practices

Reflective questions

Which single practice could address a current problem?
Which existing ritual has become process without value?

Definition

Scrum and Kanban offer practices to visualise work, manage flow and improve continuously.

Why it matters

Methods should serve context. In the Lab, we test what genuinely helps a specific team.

Better retrospectives and learning cycles

Reflective questions

Which recurring issue is repeatedly discussed but never tested?
Which concrete adjustment should be tried next?

Definition

Retrospectives are structured reflections where teams review collaboration and agree concrete improvements for the next cycle.

Why it matters

Retrospectives only create learning when observations become testable next steps.

New decision and prioritisation models

Reflective questions

Which decisions are currently driven by hierarchy or habit rather than criteria?
Which alternative model could be tested for four weeks?

Definition

Decision and prioritisation models define transparent criteria for assessing options, sequencing work and allocating responsibility.

Why it matters

A model is a hypothesis about better decisions. Its quality appears only in use.

Alternative status-meeting formats

Reflective questions

Which updates could be asynchronous?
Which decisions should happen in the meeting but are regularly postponed?

Definition

Alternative status formats separate information sharing, problem solving and decisions into suitable synchronous or asynchronous formats.

Why it matters

Many meetings continue by routine rather than need.

New leadership and collaboration models

Reflective questions

Which responsibility could move closer to the team on a trial basis?
Which leadership contribution is currently missing?

Definition

Leadership and collaboration models define how direction, responsibility, support and coordination are organised.

Why it matters

New models should be tested in practice rather than introduced abstractly.

AI support in clearly defined work areas

Reflective questions

Which recurring task is time-consuming but pattern-based?
How would users know after four weeks that AI support is useful?

Definition

Artificial intelligence is used for a clearly bounded task with known context, expected benefit and quality requirements.

Why it matters

A limited use case makes impact, risk and acceptance observable before broader rollout.

Human-AI collaboration

Reflective questions

What role should AI play: tool, assistant, review instance or decision support?
How do we recognise when human intervention is required?

Definition

Human-AI collaboration is the deliberate distribution of tasks, decisions and responsibilities between people and AI systems.

Why it matters

The question is not whether humans or AI are superior, but which combination performs better for a specific task.

AI in project management

Reflective questions

Which project task consumes time without requiring human judgement?
Where could AI-supported analysis add useful perspective?

Definition

AI in project management supports planning, documentation, analysis, communication, forecasting and preparation of decisions.

Why it matters

Value lies in reducing administrative burden and surfacing relevant interdependencies earlier.

AI in knowledge management

Reflective questions

Which crucial knowledge exists but is unavailable at decision time?
Which sources may AI reliably access?

Definition

AI in knowledge management supports capture, structuring, retrieval, synthesis and contextual provision of knowledge.

Why it matters

Technology does not solve an undefined knowledge problem; first, define who needs what knowledge, when and why.

AI for documentation, analysis or preparation

Reflective questions

Which documentation or analysis task could be supported in a scoped experiment?
Which quality control must remain with humans?

Definition

AI can summarise, structure, compare and draft content while preparing information for human decisions.

Why it matters

Benefits often come from better preparation of human work, not full automation.

New forms of risk and project management

Reflective questions

Which current project practice creates effort without orientation?
Which risk information should be represented earlier or differently to trigger decisions?

Definition

New forms of risk and project management combine established steering principles with shorter cycles, better visualisation and collaborative decision-making.

Why it matters

Many organisations do not need entirely new methods, but targeted improvements to high-friction practices.

Institute

Understanding organisations and challenging models

These terms provide thinking tools for reflecting on organisational reality. They help classify observations without turning any one model into a universal truth.

Systems theory

Reflective questions

Which interaction effect is currently ignored?
Which behaviour may be a rational response to current system conditions?

Definition

Systems theory views organisations as social systems in which elements are linked through communication, relationships and mutual dependencies.

Why it matters

Single problems are rarely solvable in isolation because every intervention creates effects elsewhere in the system.

Organisation and organisational design

Reflective questions

Which structure supports intended collaboration and which hinders it?
Where do formal and lived responsibilities diverge?

Definition

Organisation is a durable social system with roles, rules and decisions. Organisational design shapes structures, responsibilities and coordination deliberately.

Why it matters

Design does not stop at the organisational chart; informal networks and lived decision paths often matter more.

Complexity and dynamics

Reflective questions

Which decision consequence cannot currently be predicted reliably?
Where would a reversible experiment be better than a final commitment?

Definition

Complexity arises when many interconnected factors produce effects that cannot be fully predicted. Dynamics describes how these effects evolve over time.

Why it matters

Complex situations require observation, feedback and adaptation rather than only upfront planning.

Project management

Reflective questions

Which assumption about projects is rarely challenged?
Which project practice no longer fits real work?

Definition

The core definition of project management is described in the Consulting section of this glossary.

Why it matters

From an Institute perspective, project management is also an observation field where methods show under which conditions they create orientation.

Programme and portfolio management

Reflective questions

Where is the link missing between strategic ambition and real capacity?
Which benefit assumptions are reviewed regularly?

Definition

Programme management coordinates connected change initiatives. Portfolio management decides which initiatives to run and how capacity is allocated.

Why it matters

Both disciplines connect strategy with actual delivery capacity and make trade-offs explicit.

Risk management

Reflective questions

Which concept of certainty shapes current risk models?
Which uncertainty cannot sensibly be reduced to one metric?

Definition

The core definition of risk management is described in the Consulting section of this glossary.

Why it matters

From an Institute perspective, risk management reveals how organisations frame uncertainty and translate it into decisions.

Governance and decision architectures

Reflective questions

Which decisions are currently stuck between multiple committees?
Which information is truly required for a decision and which is requested by habit?

Definition

Governance defines rules, roles and controls. Decision architecture specifies where and by whom decisions are made, and according to which principles.

Why it matters

Good governance does not eliminate all bad decisions, but creates clarity of responsibility and a basis for learning.

Leadership and collaboration

Reflective questions

Which orientation does a team currently lack?
Where do formal responsibilities prevent necessary ownership?

Definition

Leadership creates direction, enables decisions and supports people in achieving shared goals. Collaboration coordinates diverse contributions.

Why it matters

Leadership is not only tied to formal hierarchy. It appears wherever people assume responsibility for enabling shared action.

Agile organisations

Reflective questions

Where does the organisation need faster feedback loops?
Which decision could move closer to where relevant information emerges?

Definition

Agile organisations can detect change early, adjust decisions and learn in short cycles.

Why it matters

Agility is neither a fixed organisational model nor an end in itself. It is a capability to stay effective under uncertainty.

Artificial intelligence in organisations

Reflective questions

Which organisational change is triggered by planned AI use?
Which new dependency or responsibility is introduced?

Definition

Artificial intelligence in organisations includes technologies that generate content, detect patterns, support forecasts or automate parts of work.

Why it matters

AI affects not only processes, but also knowledge flows, roles, responsibilities and decision pathways.

Human-AI collaboration

Reflective questions

What exact role should AI take in this context?
How do we recognise when human intervention is needed?

Definition

Human-AI collaboration is the organised interplay between people and AI systems while working on shared tasks.

Why it matters

It requires clear boundaries, transparent quality assurance and explicit rules for non-delegable decisions.

Transformation and change

Reflective questions

Which observable behaviour should be different afterwards?
Which first step is small enough to test within four weeks?

Definition

Change refers to concrete adjustments. Transformation refers to deeper shifts in structures, capabilities, identity or value creation.

Why it matters

Transformation rarely happens in a single leap; it usually grows from many connected, practical shifts.

Learning in organisations

Reflective questions

Which known insight has not led to practical consequences yet?
How is effectiveness of a change decision reviewed?

Definition

Organisational learning occurs when experience changes assumptions, routines, decisions or structures, not only individual knowledge.

Why it matters

An organisation has not learned because a workshop happened. Learning shows when the next actions change.

Process and service organisation

Reflective questions

Where does departmental responsibility currently end before value delivery is complete?
Which concrete value should the service deliver for users?

Definition

Process organisation aligns work around end-to-end flows. Service organisation designs value from the perspective of users.

Why it matters

Both perspectives move beyond silo logic and show how different contributions create user value together.

Formats

How knowledge is shared

Essays and specialist articles

They structure observations, develop arguments and make insights available for deeper reflection.

Thinking models

They condense complexity into a consciously simplified perspective that enables better questions.

Frameworks

They structure a topic area and provide an adaptable frame for analysis, dialogue and practical action.

Case reflections

They examine concrete situations to reveal interactions, decisions and transferable learning points.

Talks

They open a focused entry into a topic and create a shared basis for discussion.

Workshops and discussion formats

They combine perspectives and translate knowledge into shared observations, questions and next steps.

Hypotheses for new field cycles

They formulate testable assumptions that can be observed, adapted or rejected under real conditions.

Publicly accessible insights

They make relevant learning available beyond individual initiatives where confidentiality and privacy allow.

From terms to practice

Which term describes your challenge - and which one only obscures it?

Shared understanding is not an end in itself. It creates the basis for better questions, clearer decisions and a first testable next step.

If an initiative has already been waiting for more than six months, we do not start with a finished solution, but with clarification of what should be understood and changed first.

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