PMBOK® - Project Management Body of Knowledge

PMBOK® is short for Project Management Body of Knowledge, which describes project management practices that are common to 'most projects, most of the time.' The PMBOK® is published by the Project Management Institute (PMI), which was formed in the USA in 1969. The PMI also offers various levels of certification and the PMBOK® is widely used and respected.

The Project Management Institute (PMI) is the world's largest not-for-profit membership association for the project management profession. It has more than 700,000 members, credential holders, and volunteers in nearly every country in the world.

The PMI is the publisher of the 'PMBOK® Guide,' now in its fifth edition. This internationally recognized standard gives project managers the essential tools to practice project management and deliver organizational results. Translations are available in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

One of the initiatives of the PMI is the development of global standards. These aim to ensure that the basic project management framework is applied consistently in order to reinforce a common language and approach between project stakeholders.

The PMBOK® describes a professional approach to project management that is applicable to most projects. This approach is based on its proven value and benefits in practice through the contribution of thousands of project managers worldwide.

It is NOT a methodology but more of a framework, a structure that allows different business processes to be grouped together. It also defines common deliverables that act as inputs to and outputs from each process. The framework can help you master a complex topic in a relatively short time by acting as a map, which helps you to navigate around an entire body of knowledge.

The PMBOK® Project Management Framework

You do not have to create every single document that is specified in the PMBOK® or perform every project process in exactly the way that is detailed. This flexibility means that you can use your own judgment based on your experience, taking into account the size and complexity of the project, to decide which elements are and are not appropriate.

It is the most widely used standard reference of industry best practices for project management and identifies generally accepted guidelines that are applicable to a wide range of projects including: construction, software, engineering and services.

The eBooks in this series follow the structure of the PMBOK® Guide because it represents a tried and tested framework. We have tried to ensure full alignment of our eBooks with the Guide by using the numbering convention as well as the naming convention.

If you need more detailed explanation of a particular subject then you can simply refer to the related chapter and paragraph number in the PMBOK® Guide. Remember, many of the generic project management methodologies available refer to the PMBOK® Guide as a basic framework.

A knowledge of the PMBOK® processes will go a long way towards giving you an understanding of almost any project management methodology that your organization may use.

The question you must now consider is: 'Does the PMBOK® approach to project management suit your project's needs and your organizational structure?' After all, 47 detailed processes sounds like a lot to learn and you may be asking yourself if it's really necessary to take the time and effort to study the subject in that level of detail.

Before you make that decision, here are a few things that are worth considering.

  1. You don't need to actually learn the processes in that much detail if you are not studying for the PMI exam.
  2. You only need to know that the PMBOK® has a process for each project activity, and where to find it described when you need to do it. In this respect, the PMBOK® is more like a toolkit than a recipe.
  3. You don't need to follow all of the instructions in sequence in order to have a finished project at the end. You can use the process groups as a basic framework and then pick and choose from the processes they describe based on the needs of your individual project.
  4. Within the processes themselves you will rarely use every input, tool, and technique, or output.
  5. For the majority of projects it will be rare to use everything offered. These things are specified so that you are aware of what could be input to the process, which tools and techniques could be used to perform it, and what could be output from it.
  6. Some of these things will obviously be required in your particular project, but many will be entirely optional. This means that you can use the process descriptions as a checklist to make sure that you have covered everything even if you decide that there are elements that you don't need.
  7. Even if the PMBOK® seems like overkill on your current project, that won't always be the case. Sooner or later you will be given responsibility for something where your understanding of a proven project management framework will be the difference between success and failure.
  8. Knowledge and experience of the PMBOK®, with or without the PMP certification, will improve your career prospects and your earning potential.

So much work is now run as projects and so few people have the necessary skills to manage them properly that there is a huge demand for good project managers and that demand is increasing all the time.

Project Management