Operational definitions. An operational definition describes, in very specific terms, what something is and how it is measured by the quality control process. For example, it is not enough to say that meeting the planned schedule dates is a measure of management quality; the project management team must also indicate whether every activity must start on time, or only finish on time; whether individual activities will be measured, or only certain deliverables, and if so, which ones. Operational definitions are also called metrics in some application areas.