The following are proposed definitions of terms for the POE Program. These will evolve.

• Overall POE Program—The DGS system-wide program of initiatives, program elements, evaluations, design guides, applied research, web site, database development, etc.
• Initiatives—Ongoing thematic attempts to achieve a set of goals, often involving several POEs, such as conducting POEs of all buildings over $1m, creating evaluation-based design guides for repeated buildings, etc.
• Rapid prototype and developmental studies—studies used to develop and test methods
• Decision-focused evaluations and special studies—studies aimed at clarifying important decisions faced by DGS and its clients, such as the relationship of design and first costs to life-cycle costing.
• Routine projects—Projects integrated as "normal" DGS procedures, conducted by consultants or DGS staff, such as the POEs that are conducted of every project over $1m, quick response studies, etc.
• Central program elements—procedures and tools for centralized data collection, analysis, dissemination and feed-forward, such as policy documents, databases, web sites, design guides, common methods, training materials, etc.
• DGS Policy Group/Executive Sponsors—Persons responsible for establishing policy, overall strategy and resources (Dunne, Courtney, Castellanos, others?)
• DGS Point-of-contact (POC)—DGS liaison to consultants
• DGS Steering Committee-Branch managers
• DGS Working group(s)—group or groups at DGS charged with working with the consultants or internal staff to provide information and feedback; working groups may provide overall feedback for the program or for specific initiatives
• Client Executives—policy-level executives in client agencies
• Client Managers—management-level staff who are involved with building projects
• Client project participants—other staff member at the client agencies who are direct participants in design or renovation projects, such as the assigned client point-of-contact, members of the building committee, etc.
• Client workers—client staff who work in or are otherwise affected by DGS projects on a daily basis