CIPAceTM Help

CIPAce Glossary

Actual Expense – Project expense that has already been incurred.

Actual Revenue – This is income that has already been realized.  It is not estimated revenue.

Allocation – The process of distributing funds to projects for a specific purpose.

Applicable Projects – It refers to the planning projects which share the same master project, cycle, scenario, and scoping scenario as the current project. The current project is also included.

Audit Trail – A collection of transactions or records that are available for auditing the system.

Budget – A sum of money allocated for a particular purpose.

Budget Amendment Request (BAR) – A request to make amendments to existing budget line items or create new budget line items in batch mode.

Budget Version – A recorded change made to a budget.  The staff of the budget planning department might need to frame different versions of the budget for planning a project or the budget might need to be changed during the implementation process of the project.

Change Order Request (COR) – A request by the contractor for implementing a change in the work that may change the contract sum, the contract period of performance, or both. It is usually proposed based on a RFP.

Change Order (CO) – In project management, a change order is a component of the change management process whereby changes in the Scope of Work agreed to by the owner, contractor and architect are implemented. It is usually submitted according to the corresponding COR. Change order can also be used to transfer money from one contract/contract line item to another with overall budget amount not changed.

Classification – A systematic arrangement in groups or categories according to determined criteria.  A classification is the top level name of that group.  For example, system administrators can create and deploy custom dropdown lists in CIPAce.  The name of the dropdown list would be the Classification.  The items listed in the dropdown list would be the Nodes (see Node).

Contract – A legally binding exchange of promises or agreement between two or more parties.

Criteria-based Ranking – Projects are benchmarked with the criteria defined in a Ranking Criteria Template. For each project, scores for all criteria are rolled up according to the calculating method of the template.

Cycle – The name of the planning horizon that will contain all associated scenarios, projects, and budgets, and other planning data elements.

Department – A specialized division inside a city or organization.  Departments are associated with projects.

Department Ranking Priority – The priority of the project within the associated department.

Division – A division is a unit of a business or government organization that operates under a unique name.

Encumbrance – Encumbrance is a reservation of an expense authority for an obligation.  The Encumbrance is not an actual expense but a commitment.

Filtering – The process to derive a final list of funded projects to be included in the Capital Improvement Program.  Typically there will be more capital projects than funding available.  As a result, certain projects will have a lower priority and will have to be excluded from matching with available funding.  Usually it takes more than one round (phase) to get to the final funded project list.  Each additional round or additional phase will exclude a certain number of projects until it reaches the final phase.  Unlimited rounds of filtering phases may be created under a scenario.

Filtering Phase – One round (phase) of project filtering.

Financial Scoping Template – A pre-existing collection of scoping categories that can be used when doing financial scoping.

Fund – A fund is one source of money available that can be allocated to projects.

Funding – Money available that can be allocated to projects.  

Fund Group – Funds or funding sources with similarities may be grouped into a fund group.  A group must have at lease one fund.

Hierarchy – A series of ordered groupings of projects within the system.

Implementation Phase: It is the phase in which projects are in action.  Projects in implementation phase will be managed by the Project Management module, which can follow the project implementation process.  In this phase, projects have only one scenario and are irrelevant to cycles.  A project can enter implementation phase directly or after planning phase.

Implementation Project: This is the project being managed in the Implementation Phase.  An implementation may or may not have a corresponding planning project.  Those projects which do not have corresponding planning projects are master projects or sub projects.

Implementation Status – The relative position or standing relating to project implementation. Note: Also called Project Schedule Status.

Issue – An important question that is in dispute and must be settled.  Issues are associated with projects and play a role in project management.

Issue Status – The relative position or standing of an issue.

Issue Type – A specific category related to an issue.

Laserfiche – A document storage and management system.

MS Project – Microsoft software for controlling project work, schedule, and finances.

MS Project Association – Defining a link between a project in CIPAce and a project in Microsoft Project.

Node – One of the selections in a group or category.  For example, system administrators can create and deploy custom dropdown lists in CIPAce.  The name of the dropdown list would be the Classification.  The items listed in the dropdown list would be the Nodes.  A Node must have a parent Classification (see Classification).

Object Code – A system default classification (see Classification) that can be deployed as a dropdown box on select pages through the application.

Planning Phase – It includes a series of CIP planning processes: Scoping, Ranking, and Fund Allocation. In this phase, projects can be planned according to different cycles and have multiple scenarios.

Planning Project: Planning Project is the project that is managed in Planning Phase.  One project can have multiple planning projects in different cycles and scenarios.  The Project ID will be used for building the relationship between projects in different cycles and scenarios.  A planning project always has a corresponding implementation project.  When a planning project is created, an implementation project will be automatically created for it.

Program – A program is the umbrella structure established to manage a series of related projects.

Project – A project is a unique venture with a beginning and an end, undertaken by people to meet established goals within defined constraints of time, resources, and quality.

Project Expense – An expense represents an event in which an asset is used up or a liability is incurred.

Project Intent – The purpose or anticipated outcome of a project.

Project-level Forced Matrix Ranking – Projects are compared with each other in terms of the importance of projects.  If a project "beats" another project, it scores one point; otherwise it gets no point.  Scores are then accumulated as the total score. No template is needed for this standard.

Project-level Score-based Ranking – Projects are benchmarked on the project level against the score structure defined in a Score Structure Template.

Project Scoping Status – The relative position or standing of project scoping.

Project Server – The Microsoft platform server used to run MS Project.

Project Status – The relative position or standing of a project.

Project Type – A specific category related to a project.

Public Proposal – Used for recording the capital project proposals which are submitted by citizens.

Purchase Order – A written authorization prepared by a buyer for the purchase of goods or services at a specified price.

Project Template – It refers to the modified system template for a project.

Ranking – The process of positioning projects on an ordinal scale in relation to others projects.

Ranking Assignment – The process of selecting the projects to be ranked and the users responsible for ranking them.

Ranking Criteria Template – A pre-existing collection of ranking criteria categories that can be used when doing project ranking.

Ranking Phase – One round of project ranking.

Resource – Resources are required to carry out project tasks. They can be either the people or equipment required for the completion of a project activity.

Request for Proposal (RFP) – A RFP is issued by the contract owner to proactively make certain changes, additions and deletions to the work to be performed under the subject contract. The Contractor is then required to submit a proposal and a detailed breakdown for this change within specific calendar days from the issue date of the RFP.

Risk – The chance of something happening that will have an impact upon objectives.

Risk Status – The relative position or standing of a risk.  Risks are associated with projects and play a role in project management.

Risk Type – A specific category related to a risk.

Role – A set of connected behaviors, rights, and obligations assigned to a person or a group of people.

Scenario – A scenario is a possible situation of the capital improvement program based on certain.

System Historical Template – Historical versions of a system template.

System Template – It refers to financial scoping template which is created for a specific cost type.

Spending Curve – A type of curve that shows the growth of cost in terms of different units of time. The typical spending curve modeling is used as the methodological procedure for forecasting cost distribution over time in construction projects.