A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge

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The Project Management Institute (PMI) published the first A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) as a white paper in 1987 in an attempt to document and standardize generally accepted project management information and practices[1]. The first edition was published in 1996 followed by the second edition in 2000. In 2004 the third edition was published including major changes from the first edition. Currently, an international panel of experts is working on developing the fourth edition which is expected to be published in late 2008.[2]

Contents

[edit] Contents

The PMBOK Guide is an internationally recognized standard (IEEE Std 1490-2003) that provides the fundamentals of project management as they apply to a wide range of projects, including construction, software, engineering, automotive, etc.

The PMBOK Guide is process-based, meaning it describes work as being accomplished by processes. This approach is consistent with other management standards such as ISO 9000 and the Software Engineering Institute's CMMI. Processes overlap and interact throughout a project or its various phases. Processes are described in terms of:

  • Inputs (documents, plans, designs, etc.)
  • Tools and Techniques (mechanisms applied to inputs)
  • Outputs (documents, products, etc.)

The Guide recognizes 44 processes that fall into five basic process groups and nine knowledge areas that are typical of almost all projects.

The five process groups are:

  1. Initiating,
  2. Planning,
  3. Executing,
  4. Controlling and Monitoring, and
  5. Closing.

The nine knowledge areas are:

  1. Project Integration Management
  2. Project Scope Management
  3. Project Time Management
  4. Project Cost Management
  5. Project Quality Management
  6. Project Human Resource Management
  7. Project Communications Management
  8. Project Risk Management
  9. Project Procurement Management

Each of the nine knowledge areas contains the processes that need to be accomplished within its discipline in order to achieve an effective project management program. Each of these processes also falls into one of the five basic process groups, creating a matrix structure such that every process can be related to one knowledge area and one process group.

The PMBOK Guide is meant to offer a general guide to manage most projects most of the time. A specialized standard was developed as an extension to the PMBOK Guide to suit special industries for example the Construction Extension to the PMBOK Guide and the Government Extension to the PMBOK Guide.

[edit] External links

[edit] Literature

  • Whitty, S.J. and Schulz, M.F. (2006). THE_PM_BOK_CODE. 20th IPMA World Congress on Project Management, 1, 466-472. 

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Holtzman, Jay (December 1999). "Getting Up to Standard" ([dead link] – Scholar search). PM Network 13 (12). ISSN 1040-8754. Retrieved on 2007-07-06. “...the PMI Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) that was first published in PM Network in 1987....” 
  2. ^ url=http://www.pmi.org/Resources/Pages/Library-of-PMI-Global-Standards.aspx#1 |title=Library of PMI Global Standards |accessmonthday=August4 |accessyear=2008|publisher= Project Management Institute

[edit] References

  • A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), Third Edition, Project Management Institute. ISBN 1-930699-45-X. 
See also: ISO 10006 and PRINCE2
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