Tuesday, March 01, 2016

PMBOK Guide, 6th Edition - When It Is Coming and When It Will Be Effective?



Since November last year, in PMP® and Practical PMP® classes, I get these two questions.

  1. When will PMBOK® Guide 6th Edition be available?
  2. From which date, PMBOK® Guide 6th Edition will be effective?

The concerns on it by the PMP aspirants are understandable, as they are preparing on the PMBOK 5th Edition. Also from 12th January, 2016, the exam has changed. To address this concern, here is a brief post. Below is the overall timeline for the PMBOK Guide and other foundational standards from PMI.



Above information is from the official post by PMI®. The information given in this post is as on 1st March, 2016. It may change. 

Using MS Visio, the detailed timeline is as below. Do note that I am putting a month for your understanding, the exact date is not announced - rather the quarters of the years have been announced.



The key points to note are:
  • PMBOK 5th Edition is still in force for the year 2016 and will continue further for some months in 2017. 
  • PMBOK 6th Edition is expected to come in the Quarter 1 (Q1) of 2017. Exact date is not announced. In the above timeline, I have put it as March, 2017 for better visualization and understanding.
  • PMBOK 6th edition is going to be effective on its release. But it will not immediately replace PMBOK 5th Edition. There will be a grace period.
  • When the transition happened from PMBOK 4th Edition to 5th Edition, six(6) months were given as grace period. Hence, I am expecting this time, similar grace period (around 6 months) will be there. This is shown in the above timeline diagram.
  • So, what should you do for preparing PMP? You need not worry about PMBOK 6th Edition till end of this year. Continue with your preparation on PMBOK 5th Edition and focus on the new changes on which around 25% questions are expected. For more details on PMP exam 2016 changes, refer the short slide video in YouTube. (03m:18s)


Updates:
Certain new updates are available on PMP Exam at PMI's website in its FAQ Section.


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2 comments:

  1. Hi Satya,

    I am curious about the source of your information. Recently PMI announced somewhat different dates.

    As per PMI, PMBOK Guide 6th edition will be published online in late 2017 & PMP Exam will be updated in 1st quarter 2018
    - http://www.pmi.org/PMBOK-Guide-and-Standards/foundational-standards-exposure-draft-process.aspx
    - http://www.pmi.org/PMBOK-Guide-and-Standards/~/media/PDF/Standards/pmbok-updates-faq.ashx

    It is very much possible that PMI has published 2 different things. :)

    Praveen.
    Praveen Malik

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Praveen,

      The information is available in my post, which I have highlighted - "above information is from the official post of PMI".

      http://www.pmi.org/PMBOK-Guide-and-Standards/Standards-Current-PMI-Standards-Projects.aspx

      All other standards are also mentioned there.

      I do not think PMI says multiple things. But yes, the dates can change depending on later announcements (my post is on 1st Mar, 2016). That happens.

      Thanks,
      Satya

      Delete

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