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a few months ago / PMBOK Guide & PMP Project Trends and Changes Subscribe by RSS
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I try to keep the most up-to-date news for my newsletter subscribers. But sometimes, I’ll want
to share it more widely. Today, I want to share my information and speculation about the next
edition of the PMI’s Project Management Body of Knowledge. What is Design Thinking?
Human-centered Problem-
Yes, PMBOK 7 is on its way. solving | Video
It doesn’t seem so very long ago that I was writing about the changes in the ‘new’ 6th Edition How to Manage Vendors:
of the PMBOK Guide, and its companion Agile Practice Guide. Yet momentum is already Getting the Best Results | Video
building for the next edition: the PMBOK Guide 7th Edition.
PMI published the exposure draft for the new Standard for Project Management on 15
January, 2020. The current one forms Part 2 of the 6th Edition of the PMBOK Guide. Increase Your Email Responses
| Video
The new exposure draft is out for comment from 15 January to 14 February 2020. I have seen
it but, as a condition of downloading a copy, I had to indicate that I would not share it in any
way.
I read the draft after writing the rest of this article. All I feel it is safe to say (PMI’s lawyers can Popular Posts
be assertive) is that nothing in it contradicts what I have collated below, from sources in the
public domain.
50 Great Project Management
Blogs for 2017
3. What We Know about Publication of PMBOK 7 What are the Best Project
Management Books?
4. Related PMI Initiatives
Categories
Select Category
What is the PMBoK (Project Management Body of Knowledge)?
1. A collation of what PMI considers to be the core body of knowledge it expects all
professional project managers to know. It is the basis for its principal examinations and
qualifications, Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Associate in
Project Management (CAPM).
PMBOK 7 will continue to be a resource for preparing for your PMP exam. But PMI aspires for
it to be more relevant and useful than previous editions, for practitioners throughout their
careers
For more information on PMP and CAPM qualifications, take a look at:
The PMBOK Guide has been updated every 4 years since the first edition in 1996, with the
exception of a 5-year gap between the 4th and 5th editions. 4 years on from autumn 2017 is…
autumn 2021.
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So, we’re currently predicting that the PMBOK edition will be available either in the last
quarter of 2021 or the first quarter of 2022. This means the PMP and CAPM exams are likely
to change, to reflect the new PMBOK Guide, by the start of Q3 2022.
» Mike Griffiths
Mike was involved in the creation of the Agile
method, DSDM, and has over 20 years of
experience in Agile methods. He’s an Agilist through
and through, and it was his article
Please that first
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me to PMBOK 7 and his ambitions for it.
“
‘this will not be just an update, instead a radical departure from all previous editions
aligned with PMI’s new digital transformation strategy.’
Mike Griffiths’ Blog, ‘Leading Answers‘
Retrieved on 27 June, 2019
Review Team
PMI put out a call for development and review team members in June 2019. The review team
will be a much more extensive group of experienced, but not necessarily eminent, PMI
members.
The brief they received for how to apply for the role tells us something of the early thinking
about PMBOK 7. Here are two quotes from PMI’s call for volunteers to serve on the
Development and Review teams:
1. Required experience:
‘Knowledge of the full value delivery spectrum (waterfall, hybrid, iterative, adaptive, etc.)’
It is the ECO that forms the syllabus for the PMP exam, and not the PMBOK Guide. However,
since the ECO has changed substantially and moved away from the structure of the PMBOK
6th Edition, I think we are likely to see PMBOK 7 cater more closely in structure to the ECO
and its three domains of:
» People
» Process
» Business Environment
This is strongly supported by the June 2019 PMP ECO. This tells us the new examination will
split approximately equally between traditional, predictive project management and Agile or
hybrid approaches. And predictive, agile, and hybrid approaches will feature in questions
across all domains and tasks.
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Certainly, detailing the 49 processes, across 10 Knowledge Areas has produced a weighty
tome. And, in truth, it fails to cover a lot of knowledge that is vital to a modern project
manager. It needs to grow in scope (as the new July 2020 Examination Content Outline will
acknowledge). Yet if it does, it will become still more unwieldy.
Nader is arguing for a radically different approach. Like Mike Griffiths, Nader is an active
proponent of Agile principles. So I’ll expect a tighter integration of Agile, Hybrid, and Predictive
approaches in the PMBOK 7th Edition.
But that’s not Nader’s focus in his articles. He’s arguing for a structure built around basic
principles, rather than process or knowledge areas. And his articles imply that this is the thrust
of the Core Team’s work.
1. Narrative-based standards use storytelling and description. This is the least rigorous.
2. Process-based standards document a set of processes that together deliver the
desired outcomes.
PMBOK 6 and all previous editions have clearly taken a process-based approach. But the
Seventh Edition will create a Principle-based standard. So, what is a ‘principle’ in this context?
Principles
Principles are statements of:
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Whilst they will mostly be subjective matters of judgment, useful principles will be those that
gain wide – near-universal – acceptance among a relevant community of practitioners.
“
A statement that captures and summarizes a generally accepted objective for the
practice of the disciplines and functions of portfolio, program, and project
management.
Mike Frenette, PMI Standards Member Advisory Group
from an article: ‘Baking Principles‘ at ProjectManagement.com
Retrieved 16 december, 2019
I shan’t comment on how the 7 PRINCE2 Principles align with what we know of the emerging
principles that may feature in PMBOK 7 (below). But I shall list them out here, for reference. It
is notable that at least one member of the Core Team, Nader Rad, is a PRINCE2 trainer.
There are seven Principles in PRINCE2 2017. Together, they give you a powerful framework
for good practice. Indeed, they are all mandatory parts of a PRINCE2 project:
1. Continued Business Justification – not just a business case at the start, but
maintaining it under constant review.
3. Defined Roles and Responsibilities – and a clear organizational structure for your
team.
4. Manage by Stages – these form a framework within which the seven processes operate.
5. Manage by Exception – setting defined project tolerances and authorities to act when
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7. Tailor to suit the Project Environment – factors include size, complexity, importance,
capability, and risk.
If you want more information about PRINCE2, do take a look at our article, ‘PRINCE2
Certification: Everything You Need to Know’.
What is PRINCE2? Project Management in Under 5
Stakeholder Engagement
Anyone with any connection to the changes we create is a stakeholder. We must identify who
our stakeholders are, understand them, and engage with them.
Maricarmen Suarez considers stakeholder engagement a pivotal principle. Practitioners need
to engage and serve stakeholders proactively.
Navigating Complexity
Project Management practitioners is a strategic discipline. And, in a rapidly shifting, VUCA
world, project leaders must navigate the complexity and ambiguity, while actively managing
risk.
Federico Vargas Uzaga suggests that navigating complexity is, to some degree, a
fundamental requirement of all projects.
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therefore,
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core principle
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management.
Value
Delivering value must be at the heart of every choice we make and process we follow.
2. Utilize capabilities and learning throughout the life cycle to change, recover, and advance
See: Adaptation and Value Creation for All Projects: An Exploration of Principles
Agility: Adaptation and Response
You need to keep your project fully aligned with your customer’s vision, needs, and
expectations. Your job is to deliver the outcomes your client commissions and create value for
your customers and employer.
‘To do this’, says Nick Clemens, ‘you need to recognize, evaluate, and respond to the
dynamic circumstances within and surrounding the project delivery systems as the systems
interact and react with each other.’
Communication
‘Projects are led by people, done by people, and made for people’ says Maria Isabel Specht.
So, project leaders need to view their projects as nets. This allows them to coordinate efforts
and understand impacts across the project. This way, they become more effective project
leaders.
See: The Communication Net: Navigating Project Teams with an Active Listening Approach
PMI is increasingly focusing on how it uses digital technology and this transformation will
encompass the PMBOK 7th edition.
PMI is aware that its knowledge products (of which PMBOK 7 will be the flagship) need to be
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available in an accessible format for quick reference in the real world. This means digital
production. I’d speculate on a ‘digital-first’ design.
They also want PMBOK 7 to be of use to practitioners as much as a learning resource for
PMP aspirants. So, it will include additional content that they will add to help practitioners
apply the standards in day-to-day.
“
An interactive, digital experience that allows you to take the standard and additional
content on-the-go for ease of use.
PMBOK® Guide and Standards, on the PMI website
Retrieved 16 december, 2019
Related PMI Initiatives
It really does seem to me that PMI is trying to build an integrated offereing. It is increasingly
taking Agile and Digital approaches to its way of doing buisiness. And, in the choice of
PMBOK 7 development team members, is taking Agile seriously.
Disciplined Agile
And this seems to connect to PMI’s recent (summer 2019) acquisition of Disciplined Agile
(DA). The DA website now displays PMI’s branding.
The DA toolkit is a comprehensive agile body of knowledge in its own right. It’s far more
complete and coherent than PMI’s Agile Practice Guide.
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The DA toolkit guides individuals, teams, and enterprises in selecting and customizing an
appropriate ‘way of working’. it can draw upon any method or framework, such as predictive,
Scrum, or SAFe.
» Customer centricity
» Hindi
» Chinese (Simplified)
» French
» German
» Italian
» Japanese
» Korean
» Portuguese (Brazilian)
» Russian
» Spanish
PMBOK 7 Development Team Members
The development team members we know about are:
» Maricarmen Suarez
» Nick Clemens
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» Klaus Nielsen
» Nader K. Rad,
» Jean-Luc Favrot
» Giampaolo Marucci
» Laurent Thomas
These domains will interact together, while each domain will individually add to the delivery of
outcomes
A Smaller PMBOK Guide for PMBOK 7
I expect a smaller Body of Knowledge, supplemented by a larger and more comprehensive list
of recommended reading. This is purely speculative, but let’s look at some facts.
1. PMBOK has been growing steadily, edition by edition. he first edition had just 176 pages;
the sixth: 756. If this trend sustainable.
2. Integrating Agile suggests even greater growth. The 2017 Agile Practice Guide is
another 167 pages. That’s 923 total!
3. The July 2019 PMP Examination Content Outline (ECO) expands the focus on ‘non-
Technical’ skills and knowledge that have never been covered in depth (nor well, in my
opinion) in the PMBOK Guide. And that hasn’t been its purpose. Adding these in could
add another 100, 200,Please
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4. PMI has promised further recommended reading to supplement the new ECO. At the
time of writing (December 2019), this has not appeared yet.
5. Here’s a leap: take a look at my review of the new 7th Edition of the Association for
Project Management Body of Knowledge, the APMBoK. That document takes a very
different approach and has only 234 pages. It’s a framework document, with loads of
references to other sources. I’d be surprised if the co-leads haven’t bought and reviewed
this book
I can’t escape the conclusion that the alternative to radically increasing the size of the PMBOK
Guide is to shrink it by taking a new approach. And the approach of the APMBoK, of adding
references, seems the only solution.
PMTQ in PMBOK 7
We must avoid the temptation of looking for everything and the kitchen sink in the new
PMBOK 7th Edition. And I hope that the development Team will avoid the temptation to load it
up in this way. But, PMI’s primary new thinking in 2019 was its Pulse of the Profession paper.
This diverged massively n style from previous survey reports.
That must mean something. At the very least, we can assume that PMI takes its concept of
Project Management Technology Quotient (PMTQ) very seriously. Take a look at PMI’s paper
on the future of Project Management: PMTQ. I gave it a thorough review.
Does this mean it will appear in PMBOK 7? I don’t know. We must keep an eye out for signs.
1. New Domains that echo the ECO’s domains, rather than the current 10 Knowledge
Areas
I welcome all of these changes. If we also get a shorter, smarter, more grown-up PMBOK
Guide as a result, that will be a fabulous outcome. I’d love to see it jump ahead of the APM’s
Body of Knowledge (APMBoK) and become a still better and more valuable tool.
Two Cautions
Some of the 12 Core Development Team members have written about their perspectives on
aspects of what is likely to be a ‘radical departure’ from earlier PMBOK Guides.
Caution 1
Predictably, there will be differing views on what principles will come to the fore and how to
express them. There is a lot of work to do.
But I am broadly optimistic. I like the idea of a principles-based approach… in principle. But of
course, it comes down to:
As you’d expect, no-one has yet gone into any detail publicly. And it is early days. We aren’t
expecting the publication of PMBOK 7 until late 2021 at the soonest.
But some insight into the kind of principles Nader Rad will promote, as his starting point, are
available. He has a lightweight web site called ‘NUPP’: Nearly Universal Principles of Projects.
That sets out Nader’s 6 Principles (in 16 languages to date). Do take a look.
Caution 2
It’s early days. Did I say that already?
Everything can change – and may well do so. Here in the UK, Geoff Reiss has long been one
of the most highly regarded Project Management professionals and thought leaders.
Take a look at this answer he gave to a question on Quora about participating in the creation
of a new edition of the PMBOK Guide.
In short, the team created a radically new draft, of which they were proud. And PMI nixed it
and reverted to a more familiar format for the new edition. This is my summation.
I’d hope that PMI has learned a lesson and discussed the scope for change with the two co-
chairs. And likewise, I’d hope the two co-chairs are aware of this risk and have discussed it
with PMI.
1. We’ll update this article from time-to-time, as we learn substantive new information. So
bookmark it and return.
2. I’ll put any small snippets I glean into my free weekly newsletters, as soon as I get that
information
3. I gained a lot of the most valuable information for this article from a blog on the PMI’s
community site, ProjectManagement.com. So, take a look at The Critical Path. It is where
PMI puts its own community news and updates.
Stop Press: Latest Updates
Since preparing this article…
» Giampaolo Marucci has published Planning is Thinking … But Don’t Think About it
Too Much. Planning is a Performance Domain in PMBOK 7.
» Laurent Thomas has published Measuring is Important for Project Work, but
Beware of the Traps, arguing for Measurement as a PM Performance Domain.
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