Changes in PMBOK 5th Edition
PMBOK 5th edition got released in January 2013. Let us see the the major changes in the 5th edition as compared to 4th edition.
The new edition has 616 pages and an additional knowledge area as compared to the old version with 506 pages.
The Project management institute (PMI) is the governing body for project Management in US, recognized by ANSI. In 2006, ISO also formed a committee which defines project management standards known as TC236.
The 4th edition of PMBOK refers to 5 process groups and 42 knowledge areas. The five process groups are:
- Initiating
- Planning
- Execution
- Monitor & Control
- Closing
Sometimes these 5 process groups are mistaken as the phases of a project. The process groups define the processes which can be used for effective project management. These processes are also divided into 9 knowledge areas as per the 4th edition. The 9 knowledge areas are:
- Integration
- Scope
- Time/ Schedule
- Cost
- Quality
- Human Resources
- Communication
- Risk
- Procurement
The 42 processes are described as per their classification among five process groups and nine knowledge areas are given below. The major processes are covered in the Planning and Monitor & Control process group.
Processes as per PMBOK 4th Edition
| PMBOK 4th Edition | Initiating | Planning | Execution | Monitor & Control | Closing |
| Integration | Develop Project Charter | Develop Project management Plan | Direct & Manage Project Work | Monitor & Control Project | Project / Phase Closing |
| Perform Integrated change control | |||||
| Scope | Collect Requirements | Verify Scope | |||
| Define Scope | Control Scope | ||||
| Create WBS | |||||
| Schedule | Define Activities | Control Schedule | |||
| Sequence Activities | |||||
| Estimate Activity Resources | |||||
| Estimate Activity Duration | |||||
| Develop Schedule | |||||
| Cost | Estimate Cost | Control Budget | |||
| Determine Budget | |||||
| Quality | Plan Quality | Perform Quality Assurance | Perform Quality Control | ||
| Human Resources | Plan Human Resource | Acquire Project Team | |||
| Develop Project Team | |||||
| Manage Project Team | |||||
| Communication | Identify Stakeholders | Plan Communication | Distribute Information | Report Performance | |
| Manage Stakeholder expectations | |||||
| Risk | Plan Risk management | Monitor & Control Risk | |||
| Identify Risk | |||||
| Quantitative Risk Analysis | |||||
| Qualitative Risk Analysis | |||||
| Develop Risk Response Plan | |||||
| Procurement | Plan Procurement | Conduct Procurement | Administer Procurement | Close Procurement |
Major Changes in PMBOK 5th Edition:
The 5th edition added 6 more processes. The added process mainly involved in planning and M&C process groups. It also merged two processes in Communication knowledge areas i.e. Distribute Information and Report Performance. Now these two processes are combined and known as Manage Communications. In short the new edition has 47 processes and 10 knowledge areas. The detailed description is given below:
Process as per PMBOK 5th Edition:
| PMBOK 5th Edition | Initiating | Planning | Execution | Monitor & Control | Closing |
| Integration | Develop Project Charter | Develop Project management Plan | Direct & Manage Project Work | Monitor & Control Project | Project / Phase Closing |
| Perform Integrated change control | |||||
| Scope | Plan Scope Management | Verify Scope | |||
| Collect Requirements | Control Scope | ||||
| Define Scope | |||||
| Create WBS | |||||
| Schedule | Plan Schedule Management | Control Schedule | |||
| Define Activities | |||||
| Sequence Activities | |||||
| Estimate Activity Resources | |||||
| Estimate Activity Duration | |||||
| Develop Schedule | |||||
| Cost | Plan Cost Management | ||||
| Estimate Cost | Control Budget | ||||
| Determine Budget | |||||
| Quality | Plan Quality | Perform Quality Assurance | Perform Quality Control | ||
| Human Resources | Plan Human Resource | Acquire Project Team | |||
| Develop Project Team | |||||
| Manage Project Team | |||||
| Communication | Plan Communication | Manage Communication | Control Communication | ||
| Risk | Plan Risk management | Monitor & Control Risk | |||
| Identify Risk | |||||
| Quantitative Risk Analysis | |||||
| Qualitative Risk Analysis | |||||
| Develop Risk Response Plan | |||||
| Procurement | Plan Procurement | Conduct Procurement | Administer Procurement | Close Procurement | |
| Stakeholder Management | Identify Stakeholders | Plan Stakeholder Management | Manage Stakeholder Engagement | Control Stakeholder Management |
The new processes and knowledge areas are highlighted in Blue. In the old edition Scope management plan, cost management plan and schedule Management plan are all subsidiaries of project management plan, but these plans are themselves ambiguous as there were no processes defined in the 4th edition which can provide these particular plans as an output. The description of the new process is given below:
- Plan Scope Management: In this process PMBOK defines how scope will be planned and managed, tools and techniques used in scope management planning and finally the templates used in scope management plan.
- Plan Schedule management: The major issues with schedule will be planned in this process. Also all the time related activities in various process groups would be detailed in this plan. Output of this process is Schedule management Plan.
- Cost Management Plan: This process takes care of all the cost related activities in the project and plan is developed to tackle the issues in cost management.
- Manage Communication: The two processes from 4th Edition i.e. Distribute information and Report performance are merged together to for a revisited process known as Manage Communications. Its inputs as similar to the two former process but the activities performed in these processes are extended. The process is enhanced with opportunities for stakeholders to request further information in case the information provided is unclear or ambiguous.
- Control Communication: This process is added to resolve all the communication issues, mis-communications, clearing unclear or unwanted information in communications and finally to ensure that all the communication needs are satisfied.
- Identify Stakeholder: This is not a new process. We start identifying the stakeholders in the beginning of the project. This process is moved from Communication Management Knowledge area to Stakeholder Management Knowledge area.
- Plan Stakeholder Management: This is an extremely important process which is added to Stakeholder management. It defines the levels of engagements with all the stakeholders and how to track those levels with the advancement of the project. It also plans to track and work on the benefits from the interrelationships of the stakeholders.
- Manage Stakeholder Engagement: This is yet another moved process and its Input, output and Tools and techniques resembles with its former counterpart in Communication Management knowledge area i.e. Manage Stakeholder expectation.
- Control Stakeholder management: This process is to control what we have planned in plan Stakeholder management. This process tracks new stakeholders, stakeholder no longer involved and changes in interrelationships in various stakeholders.
Stakeholder management has always been an important but not effectively recognized part of the project management. In the 5th edition it is clear that the management of stakeholders is the prime focus of the authors. Other major changes can be seen in Communication Management and Planning of various constraints of the project.
In addition to these major changes there are few more small changes in inputs and outputs of process which are not discussed in this article.
