Most Project Management-based professional development programs use the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) Project Management Guide as a reference. The guide is internationally recognized (IEEE, ANSI), and many institutes and institutions offer professional courses based on it, as well as project management books and standards advocated by the Project Management Institute (PMI®).
PMI strives to instill standards that reflect the most up-to-date practices in the project, program, and portfolio management professions through the PMBOK guide. Keeping this goal in mind, PMI ensures that all standard products are updated on a regular basis.
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PMI is the world’s largest non-profit project management organization. PMI serves the community to a large extent by promoting best practices in project, program, and portfolio management and through various initiatives. PMBOK has been updated on a regular basis by PMI, beginning with the first white paper edition in 1983 and continuing through the most recent Sixth Edition, which was released in 2017.
PMBOK is a framework of important project guidelines, rules, and characteristics that apply to all industries. Your organization will achieve professional excellence if PMBOK standards are accepted and consistently applied. The principles outlined in the PMBOK guide can be used to manage projects in a variety of industries.
The Project Management Guide’s process interactions explain the integration as well as the interface points. The defined process interactions are a variant of Deming’s Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle.
The PMBOK promotes and establishes a common vocabulary for the project management profession by recommending tools and techniques for each process and assisting in the definition of inputs and outputs. It discusses project fundamentals, project management, the role of the project manager in various organizational structures, project management phases, and the project lifecycle. The guide offers a comprehensive approach to balancing project constraints, which includes, but is not limited to, the following:
Scope \sQuality \sSchedule
Budget, Resources, and Risk in the Fifth Edition of the PMBOK
Stakeholder Management was added to the 5th edition of PMBOK, which was organized around process groups such as initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. The five process groups are assigned to the ten knowledge areas.
According to the PMBOK 5th edition, the ten knowledge areas of project management are as follows:
Management of Project Integration
Management of Project Scope
Time Management in Projects
Management of Project Costs
Quality Control in Projects
Human Resource Management for a Project
Management of Project Communications
Risk Management in Projects
Management of Project Procurement
Management of Project Stakeholders
The 5th edition of PMBOK includes the principles of Project Stakeholder Management and five more processes than the previous version, for a total of 47 processes organized around Process Groups and Knowledge Areas. The guide provided guidelines for raising awareness of interpersonal skills that a Project Manager will need. An exhaustive list of required Interpersonal Skills suggests methods for achieving peak Team Performance.
PMBOK Sixth Edition will be available in the third quarter of 2017.
The PMI committee met in early 2016 to begin work on the latest edition of the PMBOK. The organization retooled the guide in a variety of ways, not the least of which is a greater emphasis on the fact that processes alone do not run a project; people do.
The following changes have been made to the sixth edition of the PMBOK:
Addition of Agile (Adaptive Project Management)
Agile practices are now an important part of all projects. This management philosophy was mentioned in the fifth edition of the PMBOK. The most recent version contains significant enhancements influenced by Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Lean, XP, and other adaptive, change-driven project management methodologies.
New Procedures
In the sixth edition, PMI removed one of the 47 processes from the fifth edition and added three new ones:
Management of Knowledge and Risk
Resources under control
a new naming convention
Here are a few examples: Plan Stakeholder Management has been renamed Plan Stakeholder Engagement; Plan Human Resource Management has been renamed Plan Resource Management; Control Risks has been renamed Monitor Risks; and Control Communications has been renamed Monitor Communications. There are numerous other terminology changes, so consult the PMBOK Sixth Edition to learn more.
Procurement has come to an end.
According to the PMI, most project managers do not have the authority to close contracts or procurements. Control Procurements and Close Project or Phase now include those functions.
The Role of the Project Manager
Given the ever-changing role of the project manager and the approach to leadership in project management, this section now addresses PMI’s Talent Triangle to encompass the strategic, leadership, and technical project management competencies and skills that a modern project manager should have.
Various Other Modifications
In addition to the changes listed above, the sixth edition of the PMBOK contains a number of updates and changes.
Read PMBOK® Guide 6th Edition is Coming! for a complete list of PMBOK Guide 6th Edition updates. What Project Managers Should Be Aware Of
To learn about all of your options in the field of project management, you can browse all of SPOTO Learning Project Management training courses here. Our PMP Certification course, which has traditionally been aligned with the PMBOK Guide 5th Edition, will also be updated to reflect the changes made in the most recent version. You have the option of taking self-paced online courses, participating in live virtual classrooms led by expert instructors, or a combination of the two!
