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The PMBOK v5 Guide Exposure Draft was made available to the public on February 17, 2012 and is available for public review and comments/recommendations by PMI members. What this means is that you have an opportunity to provide your feedback on the draft before it goes to final publication.
Here are some of the major changes I’ve seen:
- They took out Chapter 3 (The Standard for Project Management) and placed it in the appendix since it is now an ANSI standard
- The communications content that used to be part of Chapter 11 is now a new Chapter 13 titled “Stakeholder Engagement” which adds a new, 10th knowledge area called “Project Stakeholder Management”
- The word “Plan” has been added to the knowledge areas in the Planning Process Group for items such as Scope, Schedule, Cost, and Stakeholder management much like it was in previous editions
- There are now 47 processes in the 5th edition PMBOK Guide exposure draft as well as 614 input, tools and techniques and outputs which is about 15-20% more than the previous edition
The interesting sections for me were the continued addition of Agile terms and practices. Take this section on the “Adaptive Life Cycles”, section 2.4.2.4:
Adaptive life cycles (also known as change-driven or agile methods) are intended to facilitate change and require a high degree of ongoing stakeholder involvement. Adaptive methods are also iterative and incremental, but differ in that iterations are very rapid (usually 2 to 4 weeks in length) and are fixed in time and resources. Adaptive projects generally perform all processes in each iteration, although early iterations may concentrate on planning activities.
Sound very Scrumish and from this we can see why stakeholder management was spawned off as a separate knowledge area that is included in all the process groups except closing since “to facilitate change and require a high degree of ongoing stakeholder involvement”. Much as is advocated in Agile/Scrum is the need for constant customer engagement and feedback and this is now reflected in the draft version of the 5th edition PMBOK.
Rolling Wave Planning is more aligned with Agile in section 6.2.2.2:
Rolling wave planning is an iterative planning technique in which the work to be accomplished in the near term is planned in detail, while the work in the future is planned at a more general level. It is a form of progressive elaboration. Therefore, work can exist at various levels of detail depending on where it is in the project life cycle.
For example, agile project management, originating in software development, uses iterative planning as a progression of rolling wave planning. The agile project team utilizes CPM scheduling for each development cycle (iteration). Agile project management focuses on shorter development cycles and tangible results for each iteration; the focus is on creating value instead of completing activities.
And in Section 6.7 regarding Control Schedule:
If an agile approach is utilized, control schedule is concerned with:
Determining the current status of the project schedule by comparing the total amount of work delivered and accepted against predictions of work completed for the time elapsed,
Conducting retrospective reviews (scheduled lessons learned reviews) for correcting processes and improving, if required,
Reprioritizing the remaining work plan (backlog),
Determining the rate of delivery (velocity) and acceptance of work per iteration (agreed work cycle duration, typically two weeks or one month),
Determining that the project schedule has changed, and
Managing the actual changes as they occur.
- Determining the current status of the project schedule by comparing the total amount of work delivered and accepted against predictions of work completed for the time elapsed,
- Conducting retrospective reviews (scheduled lessons learned reviews) for correcting processes and improving, if required,
- Reprioritizing the remaining work plan (backlog),
- Determining the rate of delivery (velocity) and acceptance of work per iteration (agreed work cycle duration, typically two weeks or one month),
- Determining that the project schedule has changed, and
- Managing the actual changes as they occur.
Mike Griffiths of the PM blog “Leading Answers” who worked on the Agile sections of the PMBOK states it pretty well when he says “never have I worked so hard, to write so little, about agile”, since as can be seen from the sections above, the draft PMBOK is articulating Agile practices, but is trying very hard not to be perceived as advocating Agile as Agile is generally practiced and known.
In my view, I can actually understand this rationale. Though I have seen studies that indicate that the majority if project managers who are studying the PMBOK for the PMP are in the IT industry, there are still many who are not and as a body of knowledge for general project management best practices, they need to be as agnostic as possible.
In any event, for those interested and with current PMI membership status I recommend you check it out.
In any event, for those interested and with current PMI membership status I recommend you check it out.The PMBOK v5 Guide Exposure Draft was made available for review on February 17, 2012 and is available for public review and comments/recommendations by members. What this means is that you have an opportunity to provide your feedback on the draft before it goes to final publication.
Here are some of the major changes I’ve seen:
They took out Chapter 3 (The Standard for Project Management) and placed it in the appendix since it is now an ANSI standard
The communications content that used to be part of Chapter 11 is now a new Chapter 13 titled “Stakeholder Engagement” which adds a new, 10th knowledge area called “Project Stakeholder Management”
The word “Plan” has been added to the knowledge areas in the Planning Process Group for items such as Scope, Schedule, Cost, and Stakeholder management much like it was in previous editions
There are now 47 processes in the 5th edition PMBOK Guide exposure draft as well as 614 input, tools and techniques and outputs which is about 15-20% more than the previous edition
The interesting sections for me were the continued addition of Agile terms and practices. Take this section on the “Adaptive Life Cycles”, section 2.4.2.4:
Adaptive life cycles (also known as change-driven or agile methods) are intended to facilitate change and require a high degree of ongoing stakeholder involvement. Adaptive methods are also iterative and incremental, but differ in that iterations are very rapid (usually 2 to 4 weeks in length) and are fixed in time and resources. Adaptive projects generally perform all processes in each iteration, although early iterations may concentrate on planning activities.
Sound very Scrumish and from this we can see why stakeholder management was spawned off as a separate knowledge area that is included in all the process groups except closing since “to facilitate change and require a high degree of ongoing stakeholder involvement”. Much as is advocated in Agile/Scrum is the need for constant customer engagement and feedback and this is now reflected in the draft version of the 5th edition PMBOK.
Rolling Wave Planning is more aligned with Agile in section 6.2.2.2:
Rolling wave planning is an iterative planning technique in which the work to be accomplished in the near term is planned in detail, while the work in the future is planned at a more general level. It is a form of progressive elaboration. Therefore, work can exist at various levels of detail depending on where it is in the project life cycle.
For example, agile project management, originating in software development, uses iterative planning as a progression of rolling wave planning. The agile project team utilizes CPM scheduling for each development cycle (iteration). Agile project management focuses on shorter development cycles and tangible results for each iteration; the focus is on creating value instead of completing activities.
And in Section 6.7 regarding Control Schedule:
If an agile approach is utilized, control schedule is concerned with:
Determining the current status of the project schedule by comparing the total amount of work delivered and accepted against predictions of work completed for the time elapsed,
Conducting retrospective reviews (scheduled lessons learned reviews) for correcting processes and improving, if required,
Reprioritizing the remaining work plan (backlog),
Determining the rate of delivery (velocity) and acceptance of work per iteration (agreed work cycle duration, typically two weeks or one month),
Determining that the project schedule has changed, and
Managing the actual changes as they occur.
Mike Griffiths of the PM blog “Leading Answers” who worked on the Agile sections of the PMBOK states is pretty well when he says “never have I worked so hard, to write so little, about agile”, since as can be seen from the sections above, the draft PMBOK is articulating Agile practices, but is trying very hard not to be perceived as advocating Agile as Agile is generally practiced and known.
In my view, I can actually understand this rationale. Though I have seen studies that indicate that the majority if project managers who are studying the PMBOK for the PMP are in the IT industry, there are still many who are not and as a body of knowledge for general project management best practices, they need to be as agnostic as possible.
In any event, for those interested and with current PMI membership status I recommend you check it out.
Posted on: February 22, 2012 10:59 PM |
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