FEATURED PAPER
By Alan Stretton, PhD (Hon)
Sydney, Australia
INTRODUCTION
Nearly a decade ago I published a series of seven articles in this journal on general management (GM) functions and activities, and their relevance for the management of projects (starting with Stretton 2015g). That series was primarily concerned with the part played by general management skills in effective project management (PM). The series presented a broad coverage of traditional/classical materials on general management and discussed the relevance of each of nineteen basic general management functions to the management of project
Although there had long been wide-spread acknowledgement of the importance of general management know-how in the management of projects, the extent of its treatment in the project management literature was very uneven. Overall, some aspects of general management were quite well covered, but others not so well, or not at all. The purpose of my series was to attempt to provide a balanced overall coverage of basic general management functions which were relevant to project management.
At the time I did not attempt to make any direct comparisons between lists of basic general management functions, with project management “knowledge areas” such as those discussed in PMI’s PMBOK Guide up to the 6th Edition (PMI 2017).
However, in the course of writing the above series, I noted that there were certain functions of general management which, whilst evidently equally relevant to project management, did not appear to be adequately covered in those PMBOK Guides. For example, under the broad management function of leading, these deficiencies included project decision making, and some aspects of motivating, selecting and developing project people. In the broad organising domain, delegation was largely neglected, along with some aspects of project organisation structure, and establishing relationships.
However, the format of the 7th Edition (PMI 2021), including its major PMBOK Guide section, was quite radically changed from the previous editions. Amongst these changes was a much broader range of general-management-related materials. This has prompted me to return to this topic and look in more detail at how well PMI 2021 now covers the general management topics discussed in my earlier series. This article summarises some of my findings.
A FRAMEWORK OF BASIC FUNCTIONS OF MANAGEMENT
The general management functions and activities discussed in the above series were based on a classification by Allen 1964. This article will follow that classification, as follows.
I believe most of these descriptors of management functions are self-explanatory – but a few will be discussed in more detail in the following explorations.
TWO RELEVANT MANAGEMENT-RELATED SECTORS IN PMBOK GUIDE 2021
Section 2. Project Performance Domains
A full half of the 255-page PMBOK Guide sector of PMI 2021 comprises the eight Project Performance Domains shown on the left. Each of these has from three to eleven sub-sections, and many of these have their own sub-sub-sections. In the following figures, I have listed all but the last two sub-sections of each domain (i.e. excluding Interactions with other performance domains, and Checking results). The other basic components of each domain are fully covered in the following figures.
I have tried to broadly align these domains and their component sub-sections with the above framework of basic management functions, to give a summarised picture of how the latter are now being covered in the PMBOK Guide.
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How to cite this work: Stretton, A. (2024). Commentary on the extent to which general management topics are being covered in recent PMBOK Guides, PM World Journal, Vol. XIII, Issue VIII, August. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/pmwj144-Aug2024-Stretton-general-management-coverage-in-recent-PMBOKs.pdf
About the Author
Alan Stretton, PhD
Life Fellow, AIPM (Australia)
Sydney, Australia
Alan Stretton is one of the pioneers of modern project management. In 2006 he retired from a position as Adjunct Professor of Project Management in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Australia, which he joined in 1988 to develop and deliver a Master of Project Management program. Prior to joining UTS, Mr. Stretton worked in the building and construction industries in Australia, New Zealand and the USA for some 38 years, which included the project management of construction, R&D, introduction of information and control systems, internal management education programs and organizational change projects. Alan has degrees in Civil Engineering (BE, Tasmania) and Mathematics (MA, Oxford), and an honorary PhD in strategy, programme and project management (ESC, Lille, France). Alan was Chairman of the Standards (PMBOK) Committee of the Project Management Institute (PMI®) from late 1989 to early 1992. He held a similar position with the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM), and was elected a Life Fellow of AIPM in 1996. He was a member of the Core Working Group in the development of the Australian National Competency Standards for Project Management. He has published 270+ professional articles and papers. Alan can be contacted at alanailene@bigpond.com.au.
To see more works by Alan Stretton, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at http://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/alan-stretton/.
