Applied project management #12 About PMBOK

The project management body of knowledge (PMBOK) by the Project management institute (PMI) is a bulky document capturing the project management good practices captured from the project management practitioners world wide. It is a wealth of project management information which can fast track the learning about professional project management. The word 'professional' carries lot of weight here. If one gets into the shoes of a professional project manager and try to understand it, it will make lot of sense and value add. The easiest way to make your mastering of PMBOK is to get excited about every new concept of project management and the value it adds to the product or service, which is the output of the project.

The anatomy of PMBOK

PMBOK is a collection of 47 project management good practices, organised into 10 knowledge areas and 5 process groups (As of PMBOK Version 5.0). This may change as the new versions arrive, but the core will remain the same.

The 10 knowledge areas

1. Integration management
2. Time management 
3. Scope management 
4. Cost management 
5. Quality management 
6. Communications management 
7. Risk management 
8. Procurement management 
9. Human resource management 
10. Stakeholder management 

The 5 process groups

1. Initiation
2. Planning
3. Execution
4. Monitoring and controlling 
5. Closing 

Every process in the PMBOK is linked to one knowledge area and one process group. For example, the process 'develop project charter' is part of the 'initiation' process group and 'integration management' knowledge area. 

Personally I found it very useful and easy to understand PMBOK by the process group wise (Initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, closing) than the knowledge area wise which is the depiction in PMBOK. When we follow the knowledge area wise grouping, it gives us the natural flow of a project, and is easy to logically reason out than mugging up. 

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