PMBoK (Project Management Boby of Knowledge) is commonly seen as a knowledge repository for tools which can be applied by project managers to projects whilst PRINCE 2 (Projects in Controlled Environments)is a methodology that aids in deploying projects in a consistent manner from a process perspective.
What I would like to know is how can PMO's take advantage of the "best of both worlds"?
Can they co-exist or are they just not able to align themselves?
Is there anyone out there doing this? Saving Changes...
Sort By:
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Dear Anonymous, you are quite right. The PMBOK and PRINCE2 (or any other life cycle methodology) really serve different purposes and, hence, are not directly comparable. The PMBOK is the recognized standard and foundation for teaching the subject content of each knowledge area. But most would agree that it is not so effective when it comes to providing guidance for running a particular project. And the corollary is also true for the PLCs. In a life-cycle-based model like PRINCE2, it is difficult to do justice to each project management knowledge area. Most project organizations are doing just what you advocate. Organizations are establishing enterprise project management (PMBOK) as a best practice and core competence and establishing functional PLCs that are aligned to the PMBOK and optimized for the performing functional unit. For example, a COTS PLC for vendor enterprise applications, an Agile PLC for in-house development, Scrum or XP for web development, etc. For an excellent read and analysis on PMBOK and PRINCE2, have a look at Max Wideman's (noted PM guru) website. Below is a link to his comparison of PMBOK and PRINCE2. http://www.maxwideman.com/papers/comparing/intro.htm Cheers..! -- Mark Perry, VP of Customer Care, BOT International Saving Changes...
Hi Mark, thanks for the insite. One of the burning questions then is the lack of PMI acceptance of the the dominant role Prince is starting to play within the field of IT (it would seem PMI are ignoring the potential strategic alignment). This coupled to the governance requirements as outlined by Sarbanes-Oxley is forcing companies to relook at their strategy for combating / aligning (dependant of the size, strategy of the company) this type of legislation, hence the move to look at Prince 2, ITIL and Cobit as a framework for delivering IT governance.
What are your thoughts on this? Saving Changes...
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Hi Robert, you and I drink from the same cup of tea..! While it is hard for me to have anything but praise for the accomplishments of the PMI, it seems that they are a bit inwardly focused on their PMBOK and their business model (and the cottage industry that it supports) to the point of having a blind spot for what is going on externally. Many people feel the new version of the PMBOK and the direction that it seems to be going is becoming less and less relevant to those managing projects and to those managing the organizations that do project management. As you and many others point out, PMI seems to be ignoring the strategic alignment (and the need for strategic alignment) to leading Project Life Cycle (PLC) models such as Prince2 or as noted PM guru and PMI Fellow, Max Widemand, suggests Project Life Span (PLS) models. And then there is the relationship to and alignment with regulatory compliance requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley for commercial firms and EVM ASNI/EIA 748 for DoD contractors. It is beyond me how PMI vis a vis the new version of the PMBOK does not provide for any kind of leadership in these areas. Just the other day, I was in a meeting in which a PMP was explaining the new changes to the PMBOK to her CIO. You can imagine how that went. Suffice it to say, "nothing" relevant to the CIO was discussed and that was not because the CIO didn't care about project management, to the contrary. As for me, I am optimistic that PMI will continue to provide tremendous leadership and will become more and more in tune with and aligned to these things. When you get a moment, read the first 2 pages of PMI's 2004 Annual Report. It is impressive and awesome and I know that I for one sometimes don't fully appreciate PMI for all that they have done for project management and achieved as an organization. I hope we hear from others on this subject. Cheers..! -- Mark Perry, VP of Customer Care, BOT International Saving Changes...
