PMBOK Edisi 4 Th 2008

PMBOK versi 4 Th 2008 akan di "launch" 31 Desember 2008. Menurut beberapa artikel terutama dari PMI menyatakan bahwa perubahan dari versi yang lama tidak begitu drastis alias tidak semua konten mengalami perubahan dalam PMBOK yang terbaru. Beberapa perubahan tersebut adalah :

Process changes

• Ada 2 (dua) proses baru dalam requirements collection dan stakeholder identification
• Yang dihapus adalah develop Preliminary Scope Statement and Plan Scope
• Procurements juga telah dikurangi dari enam proses sampai empat proses, yaitu:
* Plan Procurements
Plan Purchases and Acquisitions
Plan Contracting
* Conduct Procurements
Request Seller Responses
Select Sellers
* Administer Procurements
* Close Procurements

Content Clarification

Salah satu tujuan dari revisi ini adalah untuk membuat format dan terminologi beserta penjelasannya lebih tersruktur, konsisten dan terstandar dengan baik, terutama untuk:
• penjelasan
o Project Scope Statement vs. Project Charter
o Project Management Plan content vs. processes to manage the project
o Change Requests
• Konsistensi
o konsisten dalam istilah untuk masukan/input dan keluaran/output

The Chapters

• Chapter 1: Introduction
o Diskusi pemahaman traditional triple constraint (time / cost / quality) menjadi proses menyeimbangkan pemenuhan project constraints seperti scope, schedule, quality, budget, resources and risk
o Juga diskusi mengenai istilah projects vs programs, portfolios, strategic planning and operations
• Chapter 2: Project Lifecycles and Organization
o Penyesuaian dengan standar lain yg berlaku
o Diskusi mengenai stakeholder roles dalam proyek
o Update dan tambahan Gambar/grafik
• Chapter 3: Project Management Processes for a Project
o Gambaran terbaru mengenai project management process interactions, with emphasis dalam integrating processes
o Modifikasi deskripsi Process group terutama untuk Initiating / Executing / Closing
• Chapter 4: Project Integration Management
o Konsep developing a Preliminary Scope Statement dihilangkan
o Ada penambahan pemahaman untuk konsep Develop Project Management Plan dan Close Project or Phase
• Chapter 5: Project Scope Management
o Plan Scope process diganti dengan Collect Requirements
o Outputs dari proses ini terdiri dari:
 Requirements management plan
 Requirements documentation
 Requirements traceability matrix
• Chapter 6: Project Time Management
o Revisi fous utama dalam reorganizing and streamlining the chapter agar dapat lebih dipahami
o Diskusi AOA dihilangkan
• Chapter 7: Project Cost Management
o To-Complete Performance Index (TCPI) ditambahkan sebagai tool dalam control cost
o Greater alignment between 5.5 (Control Scope), 6.6 (Control Schedule) and 7.3 (Control Costs)
• Chapter 8: Project Quality Management
o Deskripsi proses-proses lebih akurat
o Diskusi mengenai cost of quality ditambah penjelasannya
o Quality Baseline hdihilangkan
• Chapter 9: Project Human Resource Management
o Manage Project Team dipindahkan dariMonitoring & Controlling ke Executing
o Dalam appendix, topics and references ditambah
• Chapter 10: Project Communication Management
o Proses Identify Stakeholders ditambahkan dalam Initiating Group
 Outputs terdiri dari: Stakeholder Register; and Stakeholder Management Strategy
o Manage Stakeholder dirubah menjadi Manage Stakeholder Expectation
• Chapter 11: Project Risk Management
o Chapter ini ada penambahan beberapa pemahaman penting sesuai dengan best practices, antara lain:
“For every complex problem, there is an answer which is clear, simple and wrong”
“Don’t expect BIG change; expect clarifying minor change; and expect some folks to find the clarifications less than clarifying”
• Chapter 12: Project Procurement Management
o Berubah dari 6 proses menjadi 4 proses
o Konsep teaming agreements ditambahkan
o Cost Plus Percentage of Costs sebagai contract type dihilangkan; it’s illegal in most locations
• Appendix:
o appendix dari interpersonal skills ada penambahan, yaitu:
 Leadership
 Team Building
 Motivation
 Communication
 Influencing

Demikian sekilas gambaran dari PMBOK 4th 2008. Semoga bahasan ini semakin memperkaya pemahaman anda dalam konsep Project Management dengan lebih baik lagi.

What is the Project ???

Before you can be a good 'project manager' and apply good 'project management' techniques, you must first be sure that the work you are undertaking is, in fact, a project. Some people say that all work is a project, but that is not totally accurate. There are really multiple kinds of work – support, operations, management, projects etc.

Support, work includes maintaining current solutions that are already in place. For IT development people, support work consists of answering questions, going to regularly scheduled meetings, fixing problems in the production systems, etc. For sales people, this could be making daily sales calls, moving contracts through an approval process, updating call logs, etc. Operations work consists of the routine work required to run the business processes. For an accounts receivable clerk this could be checking reports, balancing accounts, posting journal entries, closing out the system, etc. Management work is required to manage and lead people and business processes.

The key aspect is this type of work is that it is an ongoing and routine part of your job. This is the work you do today, tomorrow and a month from now.

According to PMBOK 2004 from PMI,

A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result

Project management is “the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet project requirements”

On the other hand, projects are not routine. The biggest difference in these categories of work is that projects, by their definition, have a defined start and end-date. There is a point in time when the work did not exist (before the project), when it does exist (the project), and when it does not exist again (after the project). This is the key determinant of whether a piece of work is a project. However, other characteristics of a project include a defined scope, finite budget, specific end results (or deliverables) and assigned resources. Another characteristic of a project is that the work is unique. Even if a project is similar to another one, it is not exactly the same because circumstances change and because things are always different when you are dealing with people.

That being said, now you must get practical. In theory, projects can be one hour, 100 hours or 100,000 hours. So, you must recognize that, although the creation of a small deliverable is a project, it does not need the structure and discipline of a much larger project. For a one-hour project, you 'just do it'. Any planning, analysis and design is all done in your head. For a twenty hour project, you mostly 'just do it'. However, now you may need to plan a little bit, maybe communicate a little bit, maybe deal with problems a little bit. A one hundred hour project probably has too much work to plan and manage all in your head. For instance, you need to start defining the work and building a simple workplan. A 5,000 hour project needs full project management discipline. On the other extreme, a 100,000 hour project probably has too much work to get your head around it all. This requires you to break the larger project up into smaller, but related, projects to get the entire piece of work done.