foreword

Foreword

By R. Max Wideman, FCSCE, FEIC, FICE, FPMI

The project management body of knowledge, affectionately known by its adherents as "pimbok", is a conceptual collection of information, science, wisdom and practices that are deemed to be specific to the field of project management. Project Management Institute ("PMI") has formally adopted a part of this collection for purposes of its training and certification programs. This collection is described in its publication A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) ("the Guide") – currently in its Fourth Edition. In this edition, the collection consists of nine "knowledge areas" involving forty-two "processes" with each process described in terms of inputs, tools and techniques and outputs.

However, all of these processes are interconnected, to a greater or lesser degree, to form a "system of nested processes" and the first challenge for the Guide's readers is to get their minds around how they all fit together. In its Chapter 3, the Guide does provide graphical illustrations at the process group level and the process level respectively with each displaying connecting arrows indicating the existence of certain relationships. However, these relationships do not indicate what information is being exchanged.

The second, and perhaps bigger challenge is to see how this system of nested processes can be applied in a practical project environment. Of course, if all you want to do is to pass the PMI certification tests, then perhaps a deeper understanding is not necessary. However, if you are an academic or project management trainer, or any practitioner wishing to apply the body of knowledge to real-life projects, then you certainly do need a deeper understanding. And this is the book to help you gain that understanding.

Author Muhamed Abdomerovic is a civil engineer with over thirty years of experience in a variety of large projects covering construction, the process industry, and the energy sector and information technology. During this time he has specialized in project management and developed a fascination for analyzing the discipline from a systems perspective. Consequently, he has been following the evolution of PMI's PMBOK® Guide since its first edition, and has conducted technical analyses of the contents using tools of his own design. These tools include a set of rules to establish consistency throughout his analysis.

Abdomerovic has written two previous versions of this book. But this version is different. It explains not only what the PMBOK® Guide says, but what it means and how it can be used to manage projects. Therefore, his book delves into the relationships between the Guide's various processes to expose specific relationships between a particular input or output and that of other processes in the PMBOK® Guide. As a consequence, the book significantly augments the information in the Guide by revealing realistic underlying project management logic. Interestingly, this logic includes the inherent impact of the project management iterative process control loop involved in the related but controversial management processes of Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, and Closing process groups.

While all forty-two processes of the Guide have been analyzed and presented in Abdomerovic's book, it does not slavishly describe all the relationships of every single one of them. That would lead to a substantially larger book and make for tiring reading. Rather, he focuses on the Guide's major processes and provides sufficient explanation for the reader to acquire the necessary understanding to follow the entire PMBOK® Guide. This explanation includes examples of common tools and techniques, graphical depictions populated with data and short case study examples.

By making a thorough analysis of the whole of the PMBOK® Guide and tracking the explicit output/input relationships, together with some evident implicit process and process group relationships, Abdomerovic reveals the Guide's overall logical project management sequence. This sequence is hidden from the eyes of the average PMBOK® Guide reader. But by documenting this inherent logic, the author uncovers a 36-step "Critical Output" workflow sequence that puts the Guide's forty-two main processes into their proper perspective and into the context of the well-recognized life span methodology of a real project.

As a result of this in-depth analysis, it is not surprising that Abdomerovic has also uncovered a number of issues and/or apparent anomalies. These are described in frequent sets of "Additional Notes" that include the author's interpretation, resolution or recommendations. Of course, it is to be hoped that future editions of the PMBOK® Guide will clarify the issues raised. To follow along with the contents of this book, you must obviously have a copy of the PMBOK® Guide at hand.

The purpose of identifying the project management body of knowledge is to enlighten project practitioners as to what is involved in managing a project and therefore to improve their chances of conducting a successful project. The purpose of PMBOK® Guide is to describe this content in terms of a system, and the purpose of this book is to shed light on how that PMBOK system functions. Therefore, this book is an instructive read and an important reference for all those academics, trainers and practitioners who must necessarily have a solid understanding of the Project Management Institute's A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Fourth Edition.

R. Max Wideman, Fellow PMI

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