Episode 144 – PMBOK® Guide 7th Edition: A Principles-Based Approach

The podcast by project managers for project managers. Jesse Fewell was part of the core team writing the PMBOK® Guide 7th Edition. Hear about the new PMBOK® Guide’s principles-based approach. What has changed, what has not changed, and how this influences project management today.



Table of Contents



02:41 … Meet Jesse04:13 … Why Do We Update the PMBOK® Guide?07:08 … Are There Changes to the Agile Practice Guide?09:07 … The 7th Edition Changes11:26 … A Revolution in the Profession13:46 … A Grassroots Movement to the Principles-Based Approach16:32 … Who is Excited about The 7th Edition PMBOK® Guide?19:07 … Standards Plus23:56 … The 7th Edition and Agile Project Management26:16 … The PM’s Role in Predictive vs. Adaptive Projects30:24 … 7th Edition PMBOK® Guide for a New Project Manager33:38 … Get in Touch with Jesse35:08 … Closing



JESSE FEWELL:  ...the intent here is to guide the practitioner through the value we offer as project managers, domains; the principles that guide how we do our job; and then we look at the details.  Too many times in our profession we get it the other way around.  And we go straight to a risk register, and go straight to a work breakdown structure, and forget to ask would anybody benefit from that. 



WENDY GROUNDS:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  I’m Wendy Grounds, and in the studio with me is Bill Yates.  We are so excited to talk to you today.  Our guest is Jesse Fewell, and we’ve had Jesse on before.  He’s got a lot of energy and a lot of good advice.  He founded several startups, and he’s contributed to three industry certifications:  PMI-ACP, CST, and CEC.  Jesse Fewell has mentored thousands of technology professionals across 14 countries to improve their teams and companies using agile methods.  Jesse was also part of the core team writing the 7th Edition PMBOK® Guide .



BILL YATES:  Yeah, Jesse was putting in I can’t even imagine how many hours in coming out with a new edition, especially one like this that is a big shift.  And we’ll get into that shift.  One of the things that we’ll talk about with Jesse is the principles-based approach in this 7th Edition.  Just to help people get a sense for what we’re talking about, I’m just going to quickly list off those 12 principles. 



So these are the 12 principles that are in the PMBOK® Guide 7th Edition that really drive decisions that project managers make, things like stewardship, the team, stakeholders, focusing on value, systems thinking, leadership tailoring, quality, complexity, risk, adaptability, and resiliency and change.  So that gives you a sense for the principles that help drive project managers in the roles that they fill.  We’ll talk more with Jesse about that.  That’s a key shift in the 7th Edition.



WENDY GROUNDS:  And Bill, we also, if project managers are looking to pass their exam, we do offer some help, too, don’t we.



BILL YATES:  Absolutely.  The PMP Exam is our specialty.  That’s really what inspired Andy to start Velociteach back in 2002.  He wanted to write a book that would help people pass an exam and achieve this goal of earning their PMP.  That is a true focus of our business, helping people pass and earn the PMP, and then helping people get better at their job.



WENDY GROUNDS:  And you’re going to get some free PDUs from listening to this podcast.  Listen up at the end, and we’ll tell you how to do that.



Meet Jesse



Hi, Jesse.  Welcome to Manage This.  We’re really glad that you’re talking with us today.



JESSE FEWELL:  Oh, I always love hanging out with the Velociteach people.



BILL YATES:  Love having you.



WENDY GROUNDS:  Yeah.  It’s been a while since we’ve last talked with you.  What have you been up to in the meantime?



JESSE FEWELL:  Oh, my goodness.  So we last chatted in the 2017 promotion of the PMBOK® 6th Edition.  And what I’ve been up to since then is I’ve been moving further and further into the world of agile leadership...