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What Errors Have You Found In PMI’s PMBOK Guide?
October 28, 2011 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: PMBOK
What Errors Have You Found In PMI’s PMBOK Guide?
By William R. Duncan
Several discussion threads have suggested that one problem with project management today is that people are following the guidance in PMI’s PMBoK Guide, and that the guidance contained therein is “wrong.” Basically, they are suggesting that following that guidance leads to disaster.
My personal opinion is that they’re all wet. I do think there are some errors: heck, I’m responsible for some of them due to some things I messed up in the 1996 version that still haven’t been corrected. And I’ve identified some other things that I think are wrong in previous posts (e.g., the inclusion of requirements as a project management process and the use of process groups as project life-cycle phases).
Now as the primary author of the first PMBoK Guide, I’m obviously biased because much of what I wrote for that version remains in the 4th edition. So if the document is wrong, that may imply that my understanding of project management is also wrong. And if so, I’d really like to correct that understanding and make it right.
So here is your chance to prove me wrong. If you think there are errors in the 4th edition, please post a comment below and describe what you think is wrong. As well, try to identify the magnitude of the wrongness: wrong for all types and sizes of projects? Or just wrong for some?
Exclusions: critiques of the document as a whole; anything related to the PMP credential or the PMP exam; comments related to whether or not project management is a profession; and anything else that I judge to be not germane.
And to keep the lawyers happy … PMI and PMBoK are trademarks of the Project Management Institute, Inc. I have no connection whatsoever to PMI. None of the information presented here will be shared with PMI by me. Your posts become part of the public domain unless you place a copyright notice on them.
William R. Duncan is the principal of Project Management Partners of Lexington, MA USA. He currently chairs the Board of PMCert, the certification body of the American Society for Advancement of Project Management (asapm). He was the primary author of the original (1996) version of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge and was one of the founding members of the Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards (GAPPS) which has recently published a framework for performance-based competency standards for project managers.
© 2011 William R. Duncan - http://www.pmpartners.com/
Originally published at http://pmtip.wordpress.com/.
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Here’s one of my favorites. It’s more of a concept than a quote or an exact notation, so I don’t know how pervasive the errata is.
“A project doesn’t begin until you have a charter.” While, obviously, another pervasive theme is “tailor the model to your organization”, this particular point is driven home hard. You NEED a charter or you don’t have a project. Bunk.
I’ve had projects whose charters were nothing more than a PO or a check. You can bet your sweet bippy I’m going to do what I can to earn that money, even if I can’t get the stakeholders to sign off on a project charter. In some organizations, getting people to suddenly start signing these types of documents is a Herculean task.