The body of knowledge of the Project Management Institute-PMBOK® Guide, and the specificities of project management: a critical review

Abstract

The PMBOK® Guide of the PMI, which is the most widely disseminated and consolidated body of knowledge on project management, has been recognized as of limited use in the context of the realities of projects. This article makes use of 'discourse analysis' as a method for studying its paradigmatic basis and underlying suppositions in the light of the demands of management under current practice; particularly, in relation to the socalled 'soft' aspects and their associated levels of complexity. The article reveals the positivist vision underlying the process groups of the PMBOK®, and its focus on planning and control of predefined work, leaving out the management of many destructured or soft aspects. It proposes a perspective for updating the PMBOK® based on going beyond the dichotomy of hard projects versus soft projects, which favors a conception of management under conditions of uncertainty and ambiguity, in accordance with the demands of the real world.

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