On 1 August 2013 PMP® exam moves over to using PMBOK® 5^th edition. As with any new thing, you might be feeling bit jittery about PMBOK 5th edition changes. I know I did. But you are in for a pleasant surprise!

The good news is that you are going to love the changes. I promise.

Let me show you why.

For one, PMBOK® 5 brings in clarity in lot of areas. The structure is more streamlined, clear and consistent. For instance, ALL of the knowledge areas now follow the pattern “Plan {KA} Management” for first planning process. This makes it easy to remember the process names.

Download this pdf describing changes to PMBOK 5th edition here.

You can now deduce many process names from the Knowledge Area name and Process Group name. Look at some examples –

• What is the Controlling process in Schedule knowledge area called? Control Schedule.
• Controlling process in Cost knowledge area? Control Costs.
• What is the Planning process in Cost knowledge area? Plan Cost Management.
• Planning process in Quality knowledge area? Plan Quality Management.

Doesn’t it make it simpler to remember?!

1st August 2013 onward PMP® exam will be based on PMBOK® 5th edition. Click here to see rollover dates for different credentials.

Changes in a nutshell

Overall, number of knowledge areas are increased from 9 to 10. Number of processes increased from 42 to 47. Few process names modified, ITTOs of several processes modified, and definition of few terms updated for clarity and consistency.

That is the 10,000 ft view of changes in PMBOK 5th edition.

The 1000ft view of changes

The list below shows in a bit more detail what has changed. There are changes in the inputs, tools and techniques and outputs (ITTOs) of few processes as well, but they are very logical and they make sense. We will not go into each and every minutest changes done (to ITTOs, for instance) in this post. Knowing these minutest changes alone does not help concreting your understanding. It is much easier to get the overall understanding by studying the updated lessons on this blog (work-in-progress right now) PMBOK®-5 in a holistic manner.

If you insist on seeing every ITTO changes though, here is a link to the XL sheet created by E. Saredine.

Now you should have all the reasons to feel good about your decision to take up PMBOK 5th edition exam!

New knowledge area

Stakeholder related processes that were scattered across multiple knowledge areas are now consolidated into a single NEW knowledge area called “Project Stakeholder Management“.

Consistency of terms

Inconsistency in naming ITTOs are resolved – for instance, “project document updates” and “organizational process asset updates” become “project documents updates” and “organizational process assets updates” respectively. Many terms are aligned to PMI Lexicon of Project Management Terms.

New and modified process names

To bring consistency across all knowledge areas four new Planning processes are introduced – Plan Scope Management, Plan Schedule Management, Plan Cost Management, Plan Stakeholder Management. They were implicit in PMBOK 4th edition. Moreover, this decision to specifically calling out planning process of every knowledge area ensures that project management team focuses on planning effort on each of these knowledge areas as applicable to their project.
Also, few processes names are changed, such as “Perform Quality Control” becomes “Control Quality”. More details below.

‘Work Performance’ terms clarified

Distinction between the terms Work Performance Data, Work Performance Information and Work Performance Reports was fuzzy in PMBOK-4. PMBOK-5 clarifies them well. In essence, the raw data of project’s performance is Work Performance Data; when this data is analyzed and integrated in a context, becomes Work Performance Information; and electronic or physical representation of this Information becomes Work Performance Reports.

Few concepts detailed

Few concepts such as Organizational Influence on Project Management, Stakeholders and their impact on project governance, Characteristics and structure of project team, Project life cycle and Phases are explained in more detail.

Communication Management KA split

PMBOK-5 has eliminated confusion between earlier processes Distribute Information and Report Performance as they overlapped on Control Scope, Control Schedule and Control Cost. Now both these processes are renamed. The split has resulted in 3 processes in Communication Management and 4 processes in Stakeholder Management knowledge areas. This split is pictorially explained here.

Glossary improved

Glossary is updated and expanded to include terms identified to be cryptic, and to remove those terms that are not used in PMBOK® anymore. Certain term definitions are updated to align with PMI® Lexicon and PMI Standards.

DFDs

Data Flow Diagrams of few processes are enhanced for clarity.

Standards Compliance

Changes made to align with ISO 21500 Standard.

You can see more about PMI Standards Program Update explaining changes to PMI Standards here.

12 Process Names are Modified

Again, this change is to make process names consistent and streamlined. Here is the list –

5 New Processes are Added

This is an effort to explicitly provide focus for planning activities on each of the knowledge areas, and to enhance Stakeholder management knowledge area.

The 100 ft view of changes

I am going to cover chapter-wise changes here.

Chapter 1 – Introduction

Program/Portfolio nomenclature

• Higher level Program / Portfolio is now termed as just Program / Portfolios
• Lower level Program / Portfolio is termed as Subprograms / Subportfolios

Project management office (PMO)

• Supportive PMO (of consulting nature)
• Controlling PMO (consulting and process compliance)
• Directive PMO (managing the project directly)

Project manager’s knowledge

• Project manager needs to know organizational governance and organizational strategy, and assess whether the organization is mature enough to provide these

Business value

• Concept of business value is introduced

Chapter 2 – Organizational influences and project life cycle

• Stakeholder definition is altered to include those people who perceive themselves as affected by project.
• Business partners, project team, PMOs are added and portfolio and program managers are removed
• Detailed project governance structure is explained
• Project success is defined
• Project team – now projected as responsible for achieving project objectives; type includes dedicated and part-time
• Predictive life cycles, Iterative and Incremental life cycles, adaptive life cycles are added

Chapter 3 – Project management processes

• Monitoring and controlling process group is defined as ‘background’ process group for the other 4 process groups
• Closing process group – projects can be terminated prematurely

Chapter 4 – Project integration management

• ‘Contracts’ are replaced with ‘Agreements’ to include verbal, email, SLA and LoI types of arrangements
• Facilitation techniques – new tools and techniques added, summarizing techniques such as brainstorming, conflict resolution and meeting management

Chapter 5 – Project scope management

• Plan Scope Management process introduced
• Collect Requirements process now has a categorization of requirements
  • Business requirements
  • Stakeholder requirements
  • Solution requirements (further, functional and non-functional)
  • Transition requirements
  • Project requirements
  • Quality requirements
• Define Scope process now suggests that scope is progressively elaborated
• Verify Scope process is renamed to Validate Scope

Chapter 6 – Project time  management

• Plan Schedule Management process introduced
• Sequence Activities process talks about identifying ‘internal’ dependencies in addition to others such as mandatory, discretionary and external dependencies
• Three-point Estimating technique now considers Triangular distribution as well, whose formula is tE=(tO+tM+tP)/3

Chapter 7 – Project cost management

• Plan Cost Management process introduced
• Estimate Costs process redefines estimate ranges
  • Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) estimate range is changed, +/- 50% becomes -25% to +75%
  • Definitive estimates range is changed, +/- 10% becomes -5% to +10%
• Earned Value Analysis – calculations summary table is introduced

Chapter 8 – Project quality management

• New table is introduced that shows fundamental relationships of Quality Assurance and Quality Control to the IPECC (Initiate, Plan, Execute, Control, Close), PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act), Cost of Quality models across the 5 project management process groups
• Plan Quality Management – Instead of individually calling out Cause-and-effect diagrams, flowcharts, checksheets, pareto diagrams, histograms, control charts and scatter diagrams, these are summarily termed as ‘7 basic quality tools’
• Perform Quality Assurance – here too, instead of calling out affinity diagrams, process decision program charts (PDPC), interrelationship digraphs, tree diagrams, prioritization matrices, activity network diagrams and matrix diagrams, they are summarily termed as ‘7 quality management and control tools’

Chapter 9 – Project human resources management

• Develop Human Resource Plan process is renamed as Plan Human Resource Management
• Acquire Project Team – new tool called ‘multi-criteria decision analysis’ is introduced, where criteria include
  • availability
  • cost
  • experience
  • ability
  • knowledge
  • skills
  • attitude
  • internal factors

Chapter 10 – Project communicate management

• Basic Communication Model is changed to include the step of ‘acknowledge message’ from receiver back to sender after receiving message
• Manage Communications process replaces Distribute Information
• Control Communications process replaces Report Performance
• Manage Stakeholder Expectations process is moved to its own knowledge area

Chapter 11 – Project risk management

•  Terms Risk Appetite, Risk Threshold, Risk Attitude are explained
• Monitor and Control Risks process is renamed to Control Risks

Chapter 12 – Project procurement management

•  Plan Procurements process is renamed to Plan Procurement Management
• Administer Procurements process is renamed to Administer Procurements

Chapter 13 – Project stakeholder management

•  New processes introduced
  • Plan Stakeholder Management
  • Control Stakeholder Engagement

Overall, these are changes introduced in PMBOK 5th edition.

These are all good changes for a student of PMP®/CAPM® study. These changes bring in so much clarity on many concepts, from both examination as well as practitioner’s perspective.

Download this pdf describing changes to PMBOK 5th edition here.

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