PMBOK® Guide 7 is out. How will the PMP® exam change?

10 Jul PMBOK® Guide 7 is out. How will the PMP® exam change?

If you are planning to take the PMP® exam anytime soon, this must be  one question bothering you. 

Let us take a look at the PMP® exam. The questions in the PMP® examination try to test a project manager’s experience and understanding in managing projects effectively. 

 “A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)” is not a textbook for the examination. Contrary to popular beliefs, it never was. The PMBOK® guide elaborates standards and guides for project management. The questions as stated above test a project manager’s effectiveness. A project manager’s effectiveness in managing the projects depends on his experience, attitude and understanding of the best practices and standards. Therefore, we can say that the PMBOK® Guide which describes current standards and the best practices for project management can be thought of as an important reference for the examination. That is the reason I always say that the PMP® exam aspirant should understand the PMBOK® Guide and not memorize it. 

The PMP® exam  has changed recently in January 2021. Till now many people felt that the PMP® exam mainly covers predictive life-cycle and that is why it may not be very applicable to today’s scenario where projects are also managed in Agile Lifecycle nowadays. The PMP® exam till December 2020 was divided into 5 process groups and now the questions are distributed into 3 domains namely

• People
• Processes
• Business Environment

This is done to reflect current project management scenarios. The new exam is more in sync with today’s world of project management. 

 The PMBOK® Guide 7’th Edition does not include processes. It reiterates that the processes are required on many projects still. They have not become obsolete. They can be referenced from the PMBOK® Guide 6’th Edition. What does this mean for the new PMP® Exam? Half of the new PMP® exam questions (90 out of total 180 questions) are based on processes. Therefore, simply speaking, the PMBOK® Guide 6’th Edition will be a major reference for the PMP® exam for some time to come.  It also means that the PMBOK® Guide 7’th Edition has no impact on the PMP® exam as of today. 

I feel that there is still some time for the exam to change and even at that time, both the PMBOK® Guides will be used as reference for the PMP® exam. As of now, the PMP® exam aspirants should remember that the PMP® exam does not align to the PMBOK® Guides necessarily, but it aligns 100% to the Exam content Outline for the pmp® exam published by the PMI®