PMBOK® Guide Sixth Edition: All You Need to Know

PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition was released in September 2017, and the PMP® certification exam format was revised on 26 March 2018, according to PMI. 

The exam is not about the PMBOKⓇ Guide, but the guide does influence the exam a lot. Here’s what to expect and what you could see as impacts to the exam due to the updated 6th edition.

Centralization of Effective Leadership

A chapter has been added that discusses Project Management Leadership and PMI’s expectations of a project management leader. The new edition also reviews competencies and skills that project management professionals must possess. This makes sense, considering that the Exam Content Outline has introduced this throughout the last few years, and it was a logical step to bring it into the guide.

Effective leadership is mentioned in the 5th edition but is now being consolidated into one section. Consider this a continuation of PMI’s message—a call to action that Project Management has three components that aspiring professionals must continually develop: technical project management, business acumen, and leadership.

PMP Certification Essential for Senior-Level Roles

PMP Certification TrainingExplore Course

Terminology Changes

The 5th edition of the PMBOK® Guide made significant progress in standardizing phrases, terms, and definitions. This was needed to achieve alignment with the ISO standard 21500. This was also a bigger change than one would consider—the PMI Lexicon of terms and Exam Content Outline were aligned to match the same terminology. This was a big step. Once this was achieved, students and project managers could see a term in one area, knowing it would mean the same in every other use.

This new edition continues towards terminology consistency with these primary updates:

• Human Resource Management will become Resource Management. This means you don’t merely manage teams but also bulldozers, shovels, cases of nuts and bolts, and bottled water.

• Time Management will become Schedule Management. This makes sense; we don’t manage time but manage and control our schedule.

It’s interesting how PMI discusses these changes; they state, “Areas have been renamed to more accurately reflect which elements can be managed… and which cannot…”

Our PMP® Certification Training is aligned with the latest PMP exam guidelines to help you get started the right way! Enroll now!

Knowledge Area Changes

The structure of the Knowledge Areas will be updated with the following details:

• Key Concepts will be organized. You can review the core message of a knowledge area by looking at a specific section.

• Trends and Emerging Practices have been added. Current learnings and business behavior are now seen as components that you can integrate and are expected to consider. The guide is not static but something that we can modify based on needs inside and outside the project. It has moved closer to a dynamic set of tools supported by thoughtful analysis and best practices.

• Tailoring Considerations are now a component of each Knowledge Area. Again, it is exciting to have each section discuss how to modify it based on constraints, considerations, organizational preferences, and business needs. Having guidance in changing the PMBOK® Guide will assist in understanding that this is a component of control, which is required if you manage actively.

• Considerations for Agile/Adaptive Environments are included. Agile is currently mentioned as a methodology in Project Life Cycle discussions. In the 6th edition, each Knowledge Area will provide considerations for integrating agile methods based on its skillset and processes.

Learn Insights and Tools Essential for Success

Free Online PMP TrainingENROLL NOW

All these updates support increased clarity and provide a focus on how this material can be best applied. This is the core of the PMP Certification; it tests not only one’s knowledge but also how well the applicant can apply what they know as best practices in ambiguous, often confusing situations.

This bodes well for the profession of project management and for us, too. The guide gives us not only what we need to do today to improve projects and businesses but also what we need to think about and prepare for the future. Project management and our careers within it are a continuing story, not a stairway that ends with a closed door.

PMP® and PMI® are registered trademarks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.