Glossary
Short definitions for the terms you'll meet across Ngenaire and this guide. Terms are alphabetized.
A
AI Assistant — The in-app chat agent that can read and edit your project's artifacts, draft documents and diagrams, and run analyses on your behalf. Open it with Cmd / Ctrl + K. See What the AI Assistant can do.
B
Baseline — A frozen, versioned snapshot of a set of artifacts (most often requirements or a SOW). Once baselined, the content is locked; further changes go through a revision or change request. See Requirement Baselines.
C
Consistency Auditor — An AI-driven scan that checks cross-artifact alignment — SOW trace links, UML flowdown, ConOps requirement references, and risk-to-requirement linkage — and files what it finds in the Project Inbox. See Project Inbox.
CONOPS — Concept of Operations. A narrative description of how the system will be used in its operational context. See CONOPS.
Coverage matrix — A grid view of requirements against their latest verification outcome, used to spot what is unverified, passing, or failing. See Coverage Matrix.
CPM — Critical Path Method. Schedule analysis that finds the longest chain of dependent tasks, which determines the project's earliest finish. See Critical Path.
Credits — The unit Ngenaire meters AI work in. The acting user's credit balance is debited for each AI feature they run. See Billing & Credits.
Criticality index — From the Monte Carlo schedule analysis, the fraction of simulated runs in which a given task landed on the critical path. A high value means the task drives the finish date. See Schedule Risk.
Critical path — The sequence of tasks with zero float; any slip on it pushes the project finish date. See Critical Path.
Critique — A focused, one-shot AI review of a single artifact (a requirement, risk, SOW or ConOps section, or trade decision), with optional save to the Project Inbox. See Project Inbox.
Custom attribute — A user-defined field added to requirements (with optional type, allowed values, and validation) to capture project-specific metadata. See Requirement Attributes.
D
Data flow diagram — A diagram of processes, data stores, external entities, and the data that flows between them, drawn in Ngenaire's diagram editor. See Data Flow Diagram.
Demonstration — A verification method (the "D" in TAID): showing that a capability exists by exercising it in a representative environment.
Document template — A reusable structure of sections and boilerplate used to scaffold documents such as a ConOps or SOW. See Document Templates.
E
EARS — Easy Approach to Requirements Syntax. A small set of patterns (ubiquitous, event-driven, state-driven, optional, unwanted-behavior) for writing unambiguous, testable requirements. See Requirements.
ECR (Engineering Change Request) — A tracked, staged proposal to change baselined content, moving through review/approval stages before the change is accepted. See Change Requests.
G
Gantt — The bar-chart view of the project schedule showing tasks over time with their dependencies. See Gantt Chart.
I
Inspection — A verification method (the "I" in TAID): confirming a requirement by visual or documentary review rather than measurement.
Issue — A logged defect, concern, action item, or observation tracked on the project. See Issue Tracker.
M
MCDA — Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis. The weighted-scoring approach behind a trade study, where alternatives are scored against weighted criteria. See Trade Studies.
Monte Carlo — A schedule-risk technique that samples each task's three-point (PERT) estimate many times to produce a distribution of likely finish dates. See Schedule Risk.
N
Network view — An interactive graph of how artifacts connect — requirements, risks, tests, SOW, ConOps, diagrams — centered on a focal item. See Network View.
O
Organization — The top-level tenant that owns projects, members, and billing context. See Organizations & Projects.
P
PERT — A three-point estimate (optimistic, most likely, pessimistic) for a task's duration, used as the input distribution for Monte Carlo schedule analysis. See Schedule Risk.
PlantUML — The text-based notation Ngenaire uses to render UML/SysML diagrams. See Diagrams.
Probability / impact — The two axes used to rate and rank a risk: how likely it is and how badly it would hurt. See Risk Register.
Project — A workspace inside an organization that holds one engineering effort's artifacts (requirements, risks, schedule, documents, and more). See Organizations & Projects.
Project Inbox — A per-project triage queue of findings raised by the Project Monitor, Consistency Auditor, and saved Critiques. See Project Inbox.
Project Memory — Durable, per-project notes the AI Assistant can read and add to, so context persists across chat sessions. See Project Memory.
Project Monitor — A rule-based scan that flags quality regressions, suspect links, RVTM gaps, risk-trigger keywords, schedule slip, and unverified critical/high requirements, posting findings to the Project Inbox. See Project Inbox.
R
Report template — A reusable look-and-feel (fonts, colors, headers, footers, sections) applied to generated reports. See Report Templates.
Requirement — An atomic, testable statement of what the system shall do or shall be. See Requirements.
Risk register — The catalog of project risks, each rated by probability and impact, with mitigations and links. See Risk Register.
Role — A member's permission level. Organizations and projects each have Owner, Member, and Viewer roles; Viewers are read-only. See Roles & Permissions.
RVTM — Requirements Verification Traceability Matrix. The map linking each requirement to its verification method and results. See RVTM.
S
Sensitivity analysis — Testing how a trade-study result changes when criteria weights or scores change, to gauge how robust the recommendation is. See Trade Studies.
Slack / float — In CPM, how long a task can slip without delaying the project finish. Critical-path tasks have zero float. See Critical Path.
SOW — Statement of Work. The formal scope-of-work document for the effort. See Statement of Work.
SOW object — A highlighted, individually addressable span of SOW text promoted to a tracked object (with its own code), so it can be referenced and linked like other artifacts. See Statement of Work.
Specialist sub-agent — A focused mode of the AI Assistant (Requirements Analyst, V&V Engineer, Risk Analyst, Project Controls, or Architect) that narrows the assistant to one engineering role and tool subset. See Specialist Sub-Agents.
Strict approver mode — A project setting that requires explicit, named approvers to sign off changes; editors lose the implicit approve grant when it is on. See Roles & Permissions.
Suspect link — A trace link flagged as possibly out of date because an artifact on one end changed after the link was made. See Traceability.
SysML — Systems Modeling Language, an extension of UML for systems engineering, rendered in Ngenaire via PlantUML. See Diagrams.
T
TAID — The four verification methods: Test, Analysis, Inspection, Demonstration.
Test — A verification method (the "T" in TAID): confirming a requirement by measuring behavior under controlled conditions.
Test case — A specific, executable check tied to what it verifies. See Test Case Detail.
Test execution — A recorded run of a test case with its outcome (pass / fail / blocked / skipped) against a build label, kept as history. See Test Executions.
Test plan — The overall strategy for verifying the project. See Test Plan.
Test procedure — Step-by-step instructions for carrying out a verification. See Test Procedure.
TAID coverage matrix — See Coverage matrix.
Trace link — A directed relationship between two artifacts (for example, requirement → test) that records how they relate. See Traceability.
Traceability — The web of trace links connecting needs, requirements, designs, and verifications end to end. See Traceability.
Trade study — A structured comparison of design alternatives against weighted criteria to support a decision. See Trade Studies.
U
UML — Unified Modeling Language, rendered in Ngenaire via PlantUML. See Diagrams.
V
Verification report — A roll-up of verification status and results across the project. See Verification Report.
Numbers & symbols
3D model — An uploaded 3D model file you can view in the browser and associate with the project. See 3D Models.