PMBOK: Principle & Process-based - Gold Standards Evolution

What is a gold standard in PMBOK?

A standard is a document, established by consensus and approved by a recognized body, which provides for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in each context. Developed under a process based on the concepts of consensus, openness, due process, and balance, PMI standards provide guidelines for achieving specific project, program and portfolio management results. PMI global standards are the foundation of the profession, helping to ensure your organization’s knowledge and frameworks are up-to-date.

Standards development: How are standards developed?

The standards are developed and approved through a consensus-based process that ensures that all interested stakeholders can participate. PMI is an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited standards developer, and our process conforms with ANSI requirements.

Policy for the Development and Coordination of American National Standards

The following is an overview of PMI’s standards development process:

A notice is placed on PMI’s volunteer platform for opportunities to participate in standard development. A Development Team of subject matter experts (SMEs) is assembled from the pool of applicants to develop content for the new standard. An additional group of SMEs is selected to serve as a Review Team to provide ongoing feedback as content is developed. PMI’s product owner of the standard serves to assist the teams and provide guidance during the development and review process.
The teams meet over a period of several months to draft and refine the standard.
The draft document is made available for public comment in a Draft Comment Period (DCP). The Development Team considers these comments and revises the draft as appropriate.
The fully edited draft is sent for approval to the Standards Consensus Committee (SCC), a group of independent volunteers, who approve the content and determines consensus of each PMI standard. At the same time, the fully edited draft is posted for another comment period, known as a BSR-8 public comment, fulfilling the ANSI requirement. These comments are addressed per ANSI essential requirements.

Current PMI standards projects

PMBOK® Guide – Eighth Edition

The PMBOK® Guide – Eighth Edition is currently undergoing a revision. This will be the most data-driven update yet, with proposed changes included but not limited to: 

Current industry practices and emerging trends,
Updated terminology and definitions.
Reintroducing an evolved set of processes that provide guidance on the technical ways of working and job tasks/activities.
Expanded coverage of Project Management Process Groups.
Enhanced set of Project Principles and Performance Domains.
Streamlined description of common Inputs and Outputs, as well as Tools and Techniques.
And more!

THE PMBOK GUIDE SEVENTH EDITION

The Project Management Institute, Inc. (PMI) standards and guideline publications, of which the document contained herein is one, are developed through voluntary consensus standards development process. This process brings together volunteers and/or seeks out the views of people who have an interest in the topic covered by this publication. While PMI administers the process and establishes rules to promote fairness in the development of consensus, it does not write the document and it does not independently test, evaluate, or verify the accuracy or completeness of any information or the soundness of any judgments contained in its standards and guideline publications.

The go-to source for Project Managers, the PMBOK® Guide (7th Edition) is structured around eight Project Management domains and identifies twelve key principles of Project Management. This latest edition reflects the ever-evolving nature of Project Management approaches due to emerging technologies and rapid market changes.

A global community of practitioners from different industries and organizations, in different roles, and working on different types of projects have developed and/or provided feedback on drafts of the standard as it has evolved for this edition. In addition, the PMBOK® Guide – Seventh Edition coleaders and staff reviewed other bodies of knowledge and works focused on project management to identify principles concepts embedded in those texts. These combined efforts showed strong alignment and supported the validation that the guiding principles in this edition of the standard apply across the spectrum of project management.

To date, the global project management community has embraced the shift of this standard toward a set of principle statements. The principles’ statements capture and summarize generally accepted objectives for the practice of project management and its core functions. The principles’ statements provide broad parameters within which project teams can operate and offer many ways to remain aligned with the intent of the principles

New in the PMBOK Guide Sixth Edition

PMI provides global leadership in the development of standards for the practice of the project management profession throughout the world. One of their significant accomplishments is the

Institute's evolving standards document - A Guide to the "Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)".

PMBOK® Guide is a globally recognized standard for managing projects in today's marketplace. In September 1991, the PMBOK® Guide was honored as a formal American National Standard by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). PMI is committed to the continuous improvement and expansion of the PMBOK® Guide , as well as the development of additional standards.

This standard gets an update roughly every four or five years. The first draft content was developed by Project Management Training Institute (PMTI) Instructor and Expert, Max Wideman under the name "PMBOK". Later this was updated to a "guide" and thus, in 1996, PMI published the first PMBOK® Guide. The PMBOK® Guide is the most widely recognized standard by project managers across the world and provides guidelines that are industry neutral and can be applied across a wide variety of disciplines, industries, experience levels, budgets, and timelines

For the first time, the Guide to the Project Management of Knowledge includes information and guidance on how to implement its approaches in agile environments. A new section called Approaches for Agile, Iterative and Adaptive environments for each knowledge area will describe how the practices integrate into project settings.
A new Agile Practice Guide has been created to complement the PMBOK Guide. It provides tools, guidelines, and various agile approaches to help project managers more accustomed to traditional environments adapt to an agile approach. PMI states that a complimentary copy will be provided to those who will order the latest PMBOK Guide.
A new section has been added about the role of the project manager. More emphasis is placed also on aligning projects to strategic objectives of the organization. Additional content also on knowledge areas, tailoring considerations, and more accurate terminology, such as renaming project time management into project schedule management.

AGILE AND PMBOK ( HYBRIDIZED)

Created in partnership with Agile Alliance®, the Agile Practice Guide provides tools, situational guidelines and an understanding of the various agile approaches available to enable better results. It is especially useful for those project managers accustomed to a more traditional environment to adapt to a more agile approach. The Agile Practice Guide contains the following sections:

An Introduction to Agile describes the Agile Manifesto mindset, values and principles. It also covers the concepts of definable and high-uncertainty work, and the correlation between lean, the Kanban Method and agile approaches.

Life Cycle Selection introduces the various life cycles discussed in the practice guide and covers suitability filters, tailoring guidelines and common combinations of approaches.

Implementing Agile: Creating an Agile Environment talks about critical factors to consider when creating an agile environment such as servant leadership and team composition.

Implementing Agile: Delivering in an Agile Environment discusses how to organize a team and common practices the team can use for delivering value on a regular basis. It provides examples of empirical measurements for the team and for reporting status.

Organizational Considerations for Project Agility explores organizational factors that impact the use of agile practices, such as culture, readiness, business practices and the role of a project management office (PMO).