PMBOK® Guide 5th Edition: What is different? What does it mean for you?

In order to be successful, project managers must continually be working to meet project and stakeholder requirements and manage their projects in an often complex and uncertain environment. The recent changes to the PMBOK® Guide for the role of project managers, along with there impact to how project mangers plan and manage their projects are addressed in a FREE whitepaper than can be downloaded by clicking here!

The more recent changes to the PMBOK® Guide reinforce that project managers need to give special attention to:

• Stakeholder management
• Requirements definition, collection, and management
• Planning for how project components are managed
• Developing and using the Project Management Plan as the basis for developing and managing all subsidiary plan
• Returning business value from the project

The Project Management Institute (PMI®) released the PMBOK ® Guide 5th edition in December 2012. The changes were incorporated to place more emphasis on ensuring that the PMBOK® Guide is aligned, consistent, and in harmony with:

• ISO 21500
• Other relevant PMI Standards
  • PMI Lexicon
  • PMI Role Delineation Study
• Knowledge Management DIKW (data, information, knowledge, wisdom) model
  • Work Performance Data
  • Information
  • Reports

The new changes will definitely have an impact on anyone preparing for the PMP® Exam or some other PMI credential, but they will have a significant impact on some project managers and how they manage their projects.

Of specific importance to the project manger is the fact that there is an increasing trend toward ensuring and managing stakeholder engagement. As a result, stakeholder, product, project management, quality, and communication requirements need to be understood and managed. In addition, the growing complexity of projects and the project environment, project managers need to be able to use a variety of analytical tools and techniques in the planning and managing of their projects. In the PMBOK® Guide 5th edition, the Project Management Plan is clearly the focal point for project planning and management as well as an emphasis on developing a management plan for each knowledge area subsidiary plan.

Some of the other key changes include:

• The “standard” (Chapter 3 from previous versions) has been moved to Appendix A1
• 1 new knowledge area has been developed and included Chapter 13 Stakeholder Management
• 5 new processes have been increasing the number from 42 to 47
• 4 New planning processes added
  • 5.1 Plan Scope Management
  • 6.1 Plan Schedule Management
  • 7.1 Plan Cost Management
  • 13.2 Plan Stakeholder Management
• 1 new controlling process 13.4 Control Stakeholder Engagement
• 2 Communications management processes have been re-sequenced and moved to the new Chapter 13 Stakeholder Management
  • 13.1 Identify Stakeholders
  • 13.3 Manage Stakeholder Engagement
• Several Process names have changed

These, and other changes, along with there impact to how project mangers plan and manage their projects are addressed in a FREE whitepaper than can be downloaded by clicking here!