What s New in the PMBOK, Third Edition

What's New in the PMBOK, Third Edition

PMI, as a member-driven organization, is continually evolving to meet the needs of its membership and the project management profession. To this end, the PMBOK has been revised to incorporate feedback from members and reflect current industry practice and developments since the last edition. For those readers familiar with the last edition the PMBOK, 2000 Edition, in effect the second edition of the PMBOK you will want to acquaint yourself with the changes in the third edition. This is particularly important if an earlier edition of the PMBOK was used in preparation for the PMP certification examination.

According to PMI, the new edition reflects the evolution from "generally accepted on most projects, most of the time" to "generally recognized as good practice on most projects" as the criteria for inclusion of information within the PMBOK. The use of the terminology "generally recognized" over "generally accepted" implies a higher degree of acceptance and recognition for the value and applicability of the knowledge and practices contained within this updated PMBOK.

New material has been added to reflect changes, adaptations, and additions to tools and techniques used in the current practice of project management. The number of processes increased from 39 to 44. Thirteen processes were renamed, two processes were deleted, and seven processes were added. The added processes are

• Develop Project Charter Section 4.1

• Develop Preliminary Project Scope Statement Section 4.2

• Monitor and Control Project Work Section 4.5

• Close Project Section 4.7

• Create Work Breakdown Structure Section 5.3

• Activity Resource Estimating Section 6.3

• Manage Project Team Section 9.4

PMI avoided changing all the process names in favor of incremental change to minimize confusion. A clarification was provided between project management process groups and the knowledge areas placing greater distinction on process groups. The process designations "facilitating processes" and "core processes" have been discontinued. All project management process groups have the same level of importance.

All the process inputs, tools, techniques, and outputs were revised and updated to support improved integration and process mapping. In addition, project management processes were mapped to show process integration. Also, process flow diagrams have been added to Chapters 4 12 of the PMBOK.

All these changes are the result of input from PMPs that was used to streamline and clarify the PMBOK. A complete listing of all changes to the PMBOK, Third Edition is available in Appendix A of the PMBOK, and we will also discuss these changes in more detail in Chapter 1 of this book. Each change is identified in its respective chapter in the PMBOK.

The new PMP Certification Examination goes into effect on September 30, 2005 based on the PMBOK, Third Edition.