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New Edition of PMBOK® Guide – Fifth Edition

05 Nov 2012
New Edition of PMBOK® Guide – Fifth Edition

The updated standard will be published and available for public sale in both hard and e-book formats during the first week of January 2013.

Major Updates to the Fifth Edition

  • The content from Section 3 “The Standard for Project Management of a Project” has been moved to Annex A1. The new section 3 addresses project management processes and Process Groups as in previous editions.
  • A new Knowledge Area has been created called “Project Stakeholder Management” that increases the focus on identifying and engaging stakeholders. This increases the number of Knowledge Areas from nine to ten.
  • Four planning processes have been added to reinforce the concept that each major Knowledge Area has a planning process focusing on how that area will be planned and executed.

What will be the impact on the PMP Examination?

It is estimated that only a small percentage of examination items/questions require updates that directly address actual changes in the standards.  As a regular part of the examination update process, PMI continually develops new questions that replace older questions on a periodic schedule rather than upon the immediate update change of a particular reference.

The PMP® Exam will be updated on the 31st of July 2013

The following table clarifies what editions of the standards to use, when studying for the PMP Exam:

ExamPlanned Date for ExaminationStudy Recommendation
PMP ®Prior to July 31stPMBOK® Guide - Fourth Edition
PMP ®After July 31stPMBOK® Guide - Fifth Edition