What’s Changed in the PMBOK?

This is a guest post from Guy A. Chabot, PMP and Project Director at Robbins-Gioia. We also have an insider's look at the 4th Edition on PM Boulevard.

The Project Management Institute (PMI) has recently released the Fourth Edition of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide). This post attempts to point out some of the differences between this new edition and the former edition.

The Preface[1] to the Fourth Edition summarizes nine major changes or differences, as follows:

1. All process names are in a verb-noun format, e.g. Verify Scope; or Manage Project Team.
2. A standard approach to discussing enterprise environmental factors and organizational process assets was employed.
3. A standard approach for discussing requested changes, preventive actions, corrective actions, and defect repairs was employed.
4. The processes decreased from 44 to 42. Two processes were deleted, two processes were added, and 6 processes were reconfigured into 4 processes in the Project Procurement Management Knowledge Area. The procurement processes are now: Plan procurements; Conduct procurements; Administer procurements; and Close procurements.
5. To provide clarity, a distinction was made between the project management plan and project documents used to manage the project.
6. The distinction between the information in the Project Charter and the Project Scope Statement was clarified.
7. The process flow diagrams at the beginning of Chapters 4 through 12 have been deleted.
8. A data flow diagram for each process has been created to show the related processes for the inputs and outputs.
9. A new appendix (Appendix G) was added that addresses key interpersonal skills that a project manager utilizes when managing a project. For example, the skills of leadership, team building, motivation, communication, influencing, decision making, political and cultural awareness, and negotiation are specifically listed.

Additionally, there is a much expanded explanation of the relationships between project management, program management, and portfolio management in Chapter 1.

Project managers used to talk of the ‘triple constraints’ of project scope, time and cost; those have been broadened to include Scope, Quality, Schedule, Budget, Resources, and Risk. The AO’s new focus on quality planning, quality assurance, and quality control falls directly in line with the PMBOK’s Chapter 8, as reflected in the AO’s new Information Technology Project Management (ITPM) process.

Otherwise, the organization and formatting remain the same as the previous edition: the text is divided into three sections (The Project Management Framework, The Standard for Project Management, and The Project Management Knowledge Areas) and the nine major knowledge areas remain the same, with a chapter devoted to each.

So don’t be afraid of the PMBOK’s Fourth Edition—get in there and poke around! And if you already have, what do you think of the new Edition?

[1] A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)—Fourth Edition
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