Activity-based metrics: Measures of performance or progress focused on specific aspects of an individual activity or project.
Adversary measures: Measures that assess the potential or actual actions of adversaries that can have a direct impact on the process or system.
Aspirational goal: A desired performance level or milestone beyond the minimum requirement. Such goals are useful for guiding the program or project toward the larger objective and can be the basis for performance incentives.
Attribute: A characteristic of a system or process.
Benefit cost measure: A metric reflecting benefits attained relative to the costs, which may be monetary or other costs.
BS&S: Biological safety and security
BTRP: Biological Threat Reduction Program
BW: Biological weapons
Capabilities based planning: Capability based planning focuses on the planning, engineering, and delivery of strategic capabilities by defining objectives, identifying what capabilities are needed to achieve the objectives, and then determining how to ensure that those capabilities are developed operating in an uncertain real-world environment.
CBEP: Cooperative Biological Engagement Program
CBP: Capabilities Based Planning. In context, CBP may also mean Customs and Border Protection.
COCOM: Combatant Command
Constructed metric: A metric that is developed by relying on integral judgments of experts.
Constructed scale: The range of a metric that integrates several performance attributes into one artificial scale (e.g., a 5-star safety rating).
Cost effectiveness: Cost effectiveness assesses attainment of an objective or task relative to the costs.
Criteria: Factors that differentiate alternatives.
CRL: Central Reference Laboratory
CTR: Cooperative Threat Reduction
CWEP: Chemical Weapons Elimination Program
Direct measure: Measurement of an attribute that itself embodies the status of a threat to be reduced. Change in a direct measure indicates impact.
Direct outcome measure: A measure based on attributes that are the direct results of an activity or program.
DoD: Department of Defense
DSCA: Defense Security Cooperation Agency
DTRA: Defense Threat Reduction Agency
EDP: Especially dangerous pathogen
Efficiency measure: A measure of how resources are used in a project or program.
Environmental measure: A factor that could have a direct or indirect impact on the system or process but is not under the control of the program or project managers.
FOC: Full Operating Capacity
FSU: Former Soviet Union
Higher level program performance metrics: These metrics are developed to measure the impact and effectiveness of a program or project on a more strategic level, rather than on an activity level
ICBM: Intercontinental ballistic missile
Impact and effectiveness: The extent to which the program or project is reaching strategic objectives and is achieving results.
Inputs: The resources invested into a project or program, or the activities undertaken that are meant to lead to outcomes.
Input measure: A measure to identify the resources or activities provided for a project or program.
IOC: Initial Operating Capacity
Lagging indicator: A measure that is available after the current activity allowing corrective action only for future processes and operations.
Leading indicators: Measures that provide early indicators of impact and effectiveness and allow managers to take corrective action on the process if required.
Maturity model: A tool to assess progress throughout the duration of the project or program, moving from stage to stage of the project or program.
Metric: A standard or indicator of measurement.
Minimum performance level: The minimum level at which a program or project can perform to be considered within acceptable performance range.
Natural scales: An already available means of measuring the impact and effectiveness of a project/program against the stated objectives.
NWSSP: Nuclear Weapons Safety and Security Program
Output: A direct, measurable result of a process, activity, or project that may or may not reflect impact.
Outcome: An overall result of an activity, project, or program.
Performance measure: Describes how well a subsystem, system, or process meets its required performance.
Program: An organized effort toward an overall goal and a set of objectives supporting that goal. Typically, a program comprises a set of projects or activities carried out under the program.
Program goals: Goals designated for the overall program as opposed to the specific goals of the projects that are implemented to carry out the program.
Program management measure: A measure that is useful for measuring the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of the project/program, but not necessarily the impact and effectiveness of the program toward the overall program objectives.
Program objective: An objective that is linked to threat reduction and is applicable to the program as a whole rather than to the parts of a program.
Project: A set of activities carried out to support one or more program objectives. Projects usually constitute the actual implementation of a program.
Project goals: Goals developed to guide a discrete project as opposed to an overall program.
Project metric: Metrics designed to measure the impact and effectiveness of the project against the project goals.
Proxy measure: An indirect measure of the impact and effectiveness of an aspect(s) of a program or project.
Resource measure: A measure that identifies the resources (e.g., dollars, people’s time, or materials) used by a system or process.
SOAE: Strategic Offensive Arms Elimination Program
Strategic metrics: A metric developed to determine the impact and effectiveness of a program or project against the strategic goals.
Sustainability: The ability and likelihood of a project or program being maintained into the future.
Sustainment: The continuation of the efforts, impacts, and outcomes of a program or project into the future, eventually solely by the partner country.
Swing-weight analysis: A swing weight matrix defines the importance and range of variation for a set of metrics. In the analysis, a metric that is very important to the decision is weighted higher than a metric that is less important. A metric that differentiates between alternatives is weighted more than a metric that does not differentiate between alternatives.
Threat measure: A measure that assesses capabilities and the intent of a potential opponent.
WMD-PPP: Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation Prevention Program