The 7th Edition Of The PMBOK© Is Being Called Revolutionary: Is It?

by | Aug 12, 2021

While reading content that others are sharing through my LinkedIn wall, I came across this post about the new edition of the PMBOK© (7th). One of the things that caught my eye initially was calling it revolutionary. With a comment like that, how could one not be intrigued and want to read more?

Mr. Al Ali provided a written synopsis of the changes as well as the graph you see below. As we look through this, is it that revolutionary? Let’s take a deeper dive.

I have a copy of the 4th edition; the changes between 4 and 6 seemed like standard changes. Now in the 6th edition, they did start to talk about agile delivery. What the 7th edition has done is take a more agile approach to Project Management. Looking at the differences, they moved from a relatively structured flow to modular. They are allowing for adaption to changes and the project itself.

So to the question at hand: Is it revolutionary? for PMI, I would say no; it is an evolution of a framework that is starting to catch up to the other agile frameworks that are out there.

So it is evolutionary. Adapting to the environment.

Image from https://www.linkedin.com/posts/eyad-al-ali-bsc-eng-mciob-aciarb-pmp-leed-ga-a3b9427_projectmanagement-pmi-pmbok-activity-6829371932408848384-1lZ4