by Athrym Ong
In the year 2013, the new release of PMBOK® version 5 marks a significant change in the history of project management. The key updates to the standards show that the art of project management is becoming more popular in most industries and thus, there is a requirement to align these standards into a more holistic management approach to meet the needs of different professions from various backgrounds and industries.
There are three major updates to the standards, which are:
- The project stakeholder management is segregated from the project communication management as an individual knowledge area;
- The project management processes are increased from 42 processes to 47 processes; and
- The core principles of business management are incorporated into each knowledge area and process of project management in a consistent approach. The disciplines of management – Planning, Organizing, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling are emphasized throughout a project management cycle. Some of the processes are renamed to reflect their management objective in a direct manner, e.g Plan Communications Management.
Changes in PMBOK® version 5
The table below summarizes the key transitions from PMBOK® version 4 to PMBOK® version 5 at one glance.
The changes are highlighted in RED ITALIC for ease of reference to readers.
Thoughts from Reading
Stakeholder could be defined as a group of individuals or organizations with an interest to a project, either the project may impose positive or negative impact to them. The degree of engagement and influence power from stakeholders are varied depending on the level of each interest in a project.
The segregation of stakeholder management from communication management shows that the stakeholders are one of the critical success factors to a project. This leads to a relationship management with key stakeholders which could be a challenge to project managers in establishing an effective engagement strategy to gain sufficient supports from key stakeholders in securing a success of project. In this context, stakeholder analysis tools and effective communication skills become a focus to project managers.
Athrym Ong has been working in the gaming industry for over 10 years, including in Malaysia, Macau and Singapore. During the recent years, she has had a key role in a project team tasked to manage a series of projects related to the set up and organization of the business unit, gaming machines, business processes, compliance audits, training and development for multi-national companies.
Athrym graduated with a Master of Business Administration, with a major in Project Management, at the University of Queensland. She is also a qualified trainer and assessor with extensive training experiences. Currently Athrym lives and works in Singapore with the intention to further her career in Thailand.