The new promotional video (trailer) for the PMBOK® Guide Sixth Edition is a must watch for Project Management Practitioners. The trailer commences with the first fun fact; The PMBOK® Guide represents good practice for most projects most of the time. This insight emphasizes that the The PMBOK® Guide itself is not an exhaustive resource to managing successful project. If you so incline, you may watch the rest of the trailer below and let me know what you think. For those who may not be aware, the PMBOK® Guide is the leading publication from the Project Management Institute (PMI) that informs the Project Management Profession. It’s contents forms the basis of PMI credentials like the PMP and PMI-PBA.
According to PM PrepCast, these are the major changes from 5th Edition to 6th Edition.
1) There will be 49 processes from 47.
2) Three new processes will be added and one process will be deleted.
New processes:
- “Manage Project Knowledge”
- “Control Resources”
- “Implement Risk Responses”
Deleted process:
- Close Procurements process has been removed. Its functionality has been consolidated into the “Close Project or Phase” Process
3) Two Knowledge Areas will be renamed:
From Project Human Resource Management to “Project Resource Management”
From Project Time Management to “Project Schedule Management”
4) Some Processes will be renamed:
- From Perform Quality Assurance to “Manage Quality”
- From Plan Human Resource Management to “Plan Resource Management”
- From Acquire Project Team to “Acquire Resources”
- From Control Communications to “Monitor Communications”
- From Control Risks to “Monitor Risks“
- From Plan Stakeholder Management to “Plan Stakeholder Engagement”
- From Control Stakeholder Engagement to “Monitor Stakeholder Engagement”
5) Chapters Re-alignment
There will be chapters re-alignment in Front End (Chapters 1 to 3). The information in Chapter 1 to 3 will be combined into 2 chapters and a new Chapter 3 will be devoted to “The Role of the Project Manager” where many aspects of the Project Manager’s role will be specifically mapped to the PMI Talent Triangle.
6) There will be Process Tailoring which means analyzing the project to determine how much emphasis to put on each process (based on the scope & size of the project).
7) There will be various notations throughout the new PMBOK® Guide differentiating between processes which are “Ongoing” (continuously executing) vs. “Non-ongoing processes.” This concept will be emphasized for the first time in new PMBOK® Guide Sixth Edition.
8) The Project Scope vs Product Scope concept will also be emphasized for the first time in new PMBOK® Guide 6th Edition.
9) The Earned Value tool kit supported by the PMBOK® Guide will now include “Earned Schedule Management”.
10) There will be distinction between “Communication” (as in communicating between two people) and “Communications” (artifacts, such as published emails).
11) The new strategy, “Escalate Responses” provides for a PM escalating a risk to the appropriate party so that the risk is no longer his/her responsibility. Once escalated, the PM will now have the option of either:
A) Removing the risk from the project’s risk register if desired, or
B) Keeping it in the risk register, but classifying it as “Escalated/Assigned To.”
12) The new Lessons Learned Register is now part of the set of ITTOs. Project Managers will now be encouraged to update on a frequent basis (not just at the end of the project). Updates can be done at any time throughout the project, especially at the end of project phases (similar to the “Retrospective” in Agile).
13) The PMBOK® Guide itself is taking on more of a voluntary instead of mandatory tone in some areas. For instance, for Requirements Collection, they might now say something to the effect that, “Here is a list of possible choices of tools. Choose any of these that best might fit your current project.”
14) ITTO Bundling
There will be simplification of Inputs and Outputs in ITTO table. Tools & Techniques will be grouped under common headings.
15) New Appendix Information
- Summary of Key Concepts
- Summary of Tailoring Considerations
- Summary of Tools & Techniques
- Adaptive & Iterative Approaches
