Changes in PMBOK® 5th Edition, by Seamus Collins, Managing Director of Velopi

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Publisher’s Note – We know many of you have barely had the chance to crack the covers of the PMBOK^® Guide, 5^th Edition, which is why we are pleased to include this article, provided by seasoned PM professional Seamus Collins, who has outlined the changes he observed between the Fourth and Fifth Editions. We also love including articles from people around the globe, and Seamus is based in Cork, Ireland. Let’s hear from more of you from other parts of the world, with your contributions to our web portal!

The release of the PMBOK Guide 5th Edition has some very interesting changes.

A new Knowledge Area called Project Stakeholder Management has been added. This really emphasises the importance of this concept. The main knowledge area impacted by this new knowledge area is Communications. Identify Stakeholders moves from Communication to the new PM knowledge area - Project Stakeholder Management. This new knowledge area will have will have 4 processes:
 

• Identify Stakeholders
• Plan Stakeholder Management - new
• Manage Stakeholder Engagement - new
• Control Stakeholder Engagement – new

And communication management is also changed with the removal of:
 

• Manage Stakeholder Expectations - removed
• Report Performance - removed

Four new planning processes have also been added:

• Plan Scope Management - new
• Plan Schedule Management - new
• Plan Cost Management - new
• Plan Stakeholder Management - new

The addition of these 4 processes closes off an inconsistency we had in PMBOK Guide 4th Edition whereby these management plans, which were part of the PM plan, were not explicitly shown as outputs of any process. These knowledge areas have a planning process focusing on how that area will be planned and executed.

Some process names have also changed - the ones I like most are the change of Verify Scope to its new name Validate Scope and Administer Procurement to Control Procurement. The new names better describe the process and should be easier for people taking the PMP^® exam to understand.

Here is a summary of the changes I observed:

• Addition of a new knowledge area called ‘Stakeholder Management’ (going from 9 to 10 Knowledge areas)
• 5 new processes have been added (going from 42 to 47 Processes)
• ‘Direct and Manage Project Execution’ changed to ‘Direct and Manage Project Work’
• Addition of ‘Plan Scope Management process’
• ‘Verify Scope’ changed to ‘Validate Scope’
• Addition of ‘Plan Schedule Management’
• Addition of ‘Plan Cost Management’
• ‘Plan Quality’ changed to ‘Plan Quality Management’
• ‘Perform Quality Control’ changed to ‘Control Quality’
• ‘Develop Human Resource Plan’ changed to ‘Plan Human Resource Management’
• ‘Monitor and Control Risks’ changed to ‘Control Risks’
• ‘Plan Procurements’ changed to ‘Plan Procurement Management’
• ‘Administer Procurements’ changed to ‘Control Procurements’
• Addition of ‘Plan Stakeholder Management’
• ‘Manage Stakeholder Expectations’ changed to ‘Manage Stakeholder Engagement’
• Addition of ‘Control Stakeholders Engagement’

In summary, while the Fifth edition has introduced a new project management knowledge area and the overall number of processes has grown from 42 to 47, I believe the new version will be easier to understand for the following reasons.

Firstly, the new knowledge area is not actually new. What the Project Management Institute (PMI®) has done is taken the Stakeholder Management part of Communications Management out and given it its own area. This is a logical move and one that highlights the importance of stakeholders in project management.

Secondly, there are been significant streamlining of the terminology used. Although the number of processes has increased, the number of verbs being used to describe them has dropped from 21 to 18. For instance, in each knowledge area besides Integration, you now have a “Plan” process in the Planning process group. Similarly, instead of using the verbs Control, Perform, Report, Monitor and Administer in the Monitor & Control group, these have been harmonized into one verb, Control.

Thirdly, if you have, like me, spent some time learning that validation is about building the right product and verification is about building the product right, then you will be glad to see that PMI has corrected its Scope Management area and now uses Validate Scope instead of Verify Scope.

In short, the PMBOK 5th edition gives you more material to cover, but it should be easier to learn and understand.

Seamus Collins is the owner and  Managing Director of Velopi. Velopi is a Project Management Institute (PMI) Registered Education Provider.  He has 18 years industry experience. Velopi was formed in 2007 and is a company with expertise in Project Management Training & Consultancy. Based in Cork, Ireland, Velopi works with both national and international customers. Many of our customers have global business and we provide on-site and remote support wherever they are located in a range of businesses e.g. Medical device, Pharmaceutical, Telecommunications, Software and IT