Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Next Stage:

In search of “purposeful views and contents”

COMMENTARY

By Muhamed Abdomerovic, D. Eng., Civil

North Carolina, USA

Introduction

The project management community and established organizations seek to understand global influences and a way to sustain stability in the face of eventual changes.

In the comprehensive study of global world changes on social environment and entities, and the opportunities for the project management community to respond to challenges, Pells walks a fine line, “worried but hopeful”:

What can (or should) the project management professional world be doing to help address some (or all) of the charging black elephants, the looming global problems such as climate change, disease, hunger, homelessness, etc. (Pells 2021, Part 1, 1).

Studying the global situation, crowded by seemingly uncontrolled happenings, yet actual and even amplifying today, Pells reminds that the tendencies of gigantic changes, which affect most project management organizations and individuals, are also great opportunities roofed in the corporate missions; the notion that motivates, “something you know is right, … the mission says why you do what you do …” (Pells 2021, Part 2, 2; after Peter Drucker). The author wrote:

A corporate mission statement, for example, might be two sentences. But the issues and discussions that resulted in it were undoubtedly more extensive and complicated (Pells 2021, Part 3, 10).

External pressures may help address internal challenges by motivating people to understand a corporate mission, its most important resources, and individual abilities to manage the decisive chain of impacts—for example, the Project Management Institute (PMI) mission, the PMBOK application, and personal actions. So, we should first find or derive the PMI mission. Alternatively, we may seek other sources to help us understand the PMI mission, or recognize it from several project management glossaries. For instance, we may consider Wideman’s summary of the PMI as the PMI’s lasting mission:

Project Management Institute (PMI) – A non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the state-of-the-art in the profession of project management. (Wideman 1991, E-3).

As the PMI’s mission drives everything that follows in the field, we should align our interests and abilities with its most important resource, the PMBOK. Wideman’s model of the PMBOK asserts that project management is primarily about project planning, which further shapes our understanding of the PMBOK.

Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) – All subject areas covered in sufficient depth to understand and apply sound project management principles and practices necessary for successful planning and accomplishment of projects. (Wideman 1991, E-2).

After we become more familiar with the PMI mission and the purpose of the PMBOK, we may focus on its applicability for project management planning. Initially, the PMBOK was pronounced as the generally accepted “good project management” (Wideman 1991, E2). Then, following the slogan that emphasizes the PMBOK’s features as “applicable to most projects most of the time” (Duncan 1996, 3), which remains the same across succeeding PMBOK editions from 1996 to 2017. The PMBOK 2021 raises the bar toward the slogan “applicable to all types of projects” by presenting mostly summaries of nearly everything in project management we have heard about…

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How to cite this article: Abdomerovic, M. (2025).  Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Next Stage: In search of “purposeful views and contents”, commentary, PM World Journal, Vol. XIV, Issue XII, December. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/pmwj159-Dec2025-Abdomerovic-pmbok-next-stage-commentary.pdf

About the Author

Muhamed Abdomerovic

North Carolina, USA

Muhamed Abdomerovic, D.Eng., Civil, has learned project management planning through information technology, construction, process industry, and energy sector projects exceeding a $12.5 billion budget. While employed in various positions, he has published over 50 journal articles, six Project Management World Congress proceedings, and five books. He has contributed to project management standards by introducing project management system logic and a holistic understanding of the PMI’s PMBOK Guide. He graduated from the University of Sarajevo with a Diploma in Civil Engineering and joined the International Project Management Association in 1972. He can be contacted at mabdomerovic@gmail.com