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Understanding PMBOK Sixth Edition Knowledge Areas

PMBOK Sixth Edition Knowledge Areas
Reading Time: 5 minutes

Introduction

The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Sixth Edition, released in 2017, is the previous formal edition by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and is still in use by many organisations. It outlines the fundamental principles and best practices for effective project management. It is organized into ten knowledge areas, each representing a crucial aspect of project management that must be mastered for successful project execution. These knowledge areas encompass a total of 49 processes.

Project Integration Management

Project Integration Management involves coordinating all project elements to ensure that project goals and processes are aligned. This knowledge area includes:

  • Develop Project Charter: Authorizes the project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply resources to project activities.
  • Develop Project Management Plan: A comprehensive document that outlines how the project will be executed, monitored, and controlled.
  • Direct and Manage Project Work: Ensures that project work is performed according to the project management plan.
  • Manage Project Knowledge: Leveraging existing knowledge and creating new knowledge to achieve project objectives and contribute to organizational learning.
  • Monitor and Control Project Work: Tracks, reviews, and regulates the progress and performance of the project.
  • Perform Integrated Change Control: Reviews all change requests, approves changes, and manages changes to deliverables.
  • Close Project or Phase: Finalizes all activities to formally close the project or phase.

Project Scope Management

Project Scope Management focuses on defining and controlling what is included and excluded in the project. This knowledge area includes:

  • Plan Scope Management: Creating a scope management plan that documents how the project scope will be defined, validated, and controlled.
  • Collect Requirements: Determining, documenting, and managing stakeholder needs and requirements.
  • Define Scope: Developing a detailed project scope statement that includes the project and product scope.
  • Create WBS: Subdividing project deliverables and project work into smaller, more manageable components.
  • Validate Scope: Formalizing acceptance of the completed project deliverables.
  • Control Scope: Monitoring the status of the project and product scope and managing changes to the scope baseline.

Project Schedule Management

Project Schedule Management involves planning, developing, and controlling the project schedule. This knowledge area includes:

  • Plan Schedule Management: Establishing the policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, developing, managing, executing, and controlling the project schedule.
  • Define Activities: Identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce project deliverables.
  • Sequence Activities: Identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities.
  • Estimate Activity Durations: Estimating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with estimated resources.
  • Develop Schedule: Analyzing activity sequences, durations, resource requirements, and schedule constraints to create the project schedule model.
  • Control Schedule: Monitoring the status of the project to update project progress and manage changes to the schedule baseline.

Project Cost Management

Project Cost Management involves planning and controlling the project budget. This knowledge area includes:

  • Plan Cost Management: Establishing the policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, managing, expending, and controlling project costs.
  • Estimate Costs: Developing an approximation of the monetary resources needed to complete project activities.
  • Determine Budget: Aggregating the estimated costs of individual activities or work packages to establish an authorized cost baseline.
  • Control Costs: Monitoring the status of the project to update the project costs and managing changes to the cost baseline.

Project Quality Management

Project Quality Management ensures that the project meets the required quality standards. This knowledge area includes:

  • Plan Quality Management: Identifying quality requirements and standards for the project and its deliverables.
  • Manage Quality: Translating the quality management plan into executable quality activities that incorporate the organization’s quality policies into the project.
  • Control Quality: Monitoring and recording results of executing the quality activities to assess performance and recommend necessary changes.

Project Resource Management

Project Resource Management involves planning, acquiring, and managing project resources. This knowledge area includes:

  • Plan Resource Management: Defining how to estimate, acquire, manage, and utilize physical and team resources.
  • Estimate Activity Resources: Estimating team resources, material resources, equipment, and supplies necessary to perform project work.
  • Acquire Resources: Obtaining team members, facilities, equipment, materials, supplies, and other resources necessary to complete project work.
  • Develop Team: Improving competencies, team member interaction, and overall team environment to enhance project performance.
  • Manage Team: Tracking team member performance, providing feedback, resolving issues, and managing team changes to optimize project performance.
  • Control Resources: Ensuring that the physical resources assigned and allocated to the project are available as planned, as well as monitoring the planned versus actual utilization of resources and performing corrective actions as necessary.

Project Communications Management

Project Communications Management focuses on ensuring timely and appropriate generation, collection, distribution, and storage of project information. This knowledge area includes:

  • Plan Communications Management: Developing an appropriate approach and plan for project communications based on stakeholder’s information needs and requirements, and available organizational assets.
  • Manage Communications: Ensuring timely and appropriate collection, creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, management, monitoring, and the ultimate disposition of project information.
  • Monitor Communications: Ensuring the information needs of the project and its stakeholders are met.

Project Risk Management

Project Risk Management involves identifying, analyzing, and responding to project risks. This knowledge area includes:

  • Plan Risk Management: Defining how to conduct risk management activities for a project.
  • Identify Risks: Determining which risks might affect the project and documenting their characteristics.
  • Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis: Prioritizing risks for further analysis or action by assessing and combining their probability of occurrence and impact.
  • Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis: Numerically analyzing the effect of identified risks on overall project objectives.
  • Plan Risk Responses: Developing options and actions to enhance opportunities and to reduce threats to project objectives.
  • Implement Risk Responses: Implementing agreed-upon risk response plans.
  • Monitor Risks: Tracking identified risks, monitoring residual risks, identifying new risks, and evaluating risk process effectiveness throughout the project.

Project Procurement Management

Project Procurement Management deals with acquiring goods and services from external sources. This knowledge area includes:

  • Plan Procurement Management: Documenting project procurement decisions, specifying the approach, and identifying potential sellers.
  • Conduct Procurements: Obtaining seller responses, selecting a seller, and awarding a contract.
  • Control Procurements: Managing procurement relationships, monitoring contract performance, and making changes and corrections as appropriate.

Project Stakeholder Management

Project Stakeholder Management focuses on identifying and engaging project stakeholders. This knowledge area includes:

  • Identify Stakeholders: Identifying all people or organizations impacted by the project and documenting relevant information regarding their interests, involvement, and impact on project success.
  • Plan Stakeholder Engagement: Developing strategies to effectively engage stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle.
  • Manage Stakeholder Engagement: Communicating and working with stakeholders to meet their needs and expectations, address issues, and foster appropriate stakeholder involvement.
  • Monitor Stakeholder Engagement: Monitoring overall project stakeholder relationships and adjusting strategies and plans for engaging stakeholders.

Understanding and mastering the PMBOK Sixth Edition Knowledge Areas is essential for successful project management. These ten knowledge areas, encompassing a total of 49 processes, provide a comprehensive framework for managing projects effectively, ensuring that project managers can handle all aspects of their projects with confidence and skill.

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