From telling us how it should be to helping us address how it really is...

Kiron Bondale
A very timely and insightful reflection and one that resonates with many of us who have witnessed the profession evolve through multiple waves of “guides,” “frameworks,” and “good practices.”

After decades of applying and teaching PMI standards, I tend to agree that the real challenge today is not in codifying how things should be, but in enabling practitioners to navigate how they really are.
The gap is less about knowledge and more about translation, between principle and lived context.

In simple or complicated domains, structure helps; yet in complex or chaotic environments, those same structures often obscure what is actually happening.
As the Cynefin Framework reminds us, maturity lies in the ability to read the system and adapt in real time, not in the elegance of the method, but in the discernment behind its use.

Perhaps PMI is slowly acknowledging this shift.
The PMBOK® Guide (7th Edition) now serves as a foundation of principles and performance domains, defining a shared mindset and vocabulary for our profession.
Meanwhile, the PMI Standards+™ platform complements it by translating those principles into real-world practice, offering contextual guidance, case insights, and adaptive wisdom that connect knowledge with lived experience.

Together they outline a continuum: from principles that guide thinking to practices that inform doing.
That bridge (between intent and application) may be the most meaningful evolution in how PMI supports practitioners today.

Maybe this is where the real value now lies - in the ongoing dialogue between structure and sensemaking, principles and practice, knowledge and experience.

Would you see it that way too?

Kiron. Completely agree, much of the PMBOK’s evolution has focused on describing how things should work rather than helping practitioners navigate how things actually unfold in complex environments.

A practical guide filled with real case studies, adaptive tactics, and situational insights would bridge that gap beautifully. Many of us have learned the most not from frameworks, but from seeing how others handled ambiguity, politics, or shifting priorities in the field.

I’d love to see PMI complement its standards with something that captures that lived experience, a kind of “PMBOK in practice.” It would make the guide not just instructional, but applicable.

Sometimes I wonder how many of us have actually explored the full ecosystem of PMI publications beyond the PMBOK Guide itself.
Between the Process Groups Practice Guide (2022), the Standards+™ platform, and the Project Success Report (2024), PMI has already addressed many of the gaps we’re discussing here.

These publications together form a continuum (from principles to processes to value) now expanded through the M.O.R.E™ Framework (Manage Perceptions, Own Project Success, Relentlessly Reassess, Expand Perspectives), which connects mindset, responsibility, and capability into the next evolution of our profession.

It seems the real challenge is not the lack of guidance, but how we, as a community, integrate and apply these evolving sources within our collective practice.

Kiron Bondale
That’s a very important and fair point, and one that deserves more visibility in PMI’s strategic evolution.

Indeed, most formal standards and practice guides still assume a certain level of organizational maturity - governance, sponsorship, and authority structures that many practitioners simply don’t have.
In reality, much of project management today happens in the margins: in environments where power is informal, accountability is shared, and influence outweighs authority.

This is where I believe the next leap for PMI could occur, not just in updating guides, but in reframing how maturity itself is understood.
Maturity is no longer a linear path from chaos to control; it’s contextual fluency - the ability to operate effectively whether structure is strong or fragile.

Disciplined Agile began to open that door by recognizing “context counts,” yet the challenge remains cultural: helping accidental PMs and low-maturity organizations build adaptive capability before compliance.
Perhaps PMI’s future value lies in translating governance into guidance, and frameworks into capacity-building tools that meet practitioners where they are.

In that sense, the evolution of our profession is less about the power we hold, and more about the clarity we bring, especially in places where that power doesn’t formally exist.

Would you agree that this is the real frontier for project management maturity?

From Governance to Guidance: The Next Leap in Project Management Maturity

A summary of a thoughtful exchange with Kiron Bondale, reflecting on how PMI’s evolution from prescriptive standards to adaptive guidance marks a pivotal shift in our profession.

True maturity is no longer a path from chaos to control, it’s contextual fluency: the ability to operate effectively whether structure is strong or fragile.

As project leaders, our challenge is not to hold more power, but to bring more clarity, especially in places where authority doesn’t formally exist.