A study on tailoring of the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK 7th edition)

Project management field will continue to maintain its importance for various academic disciplines, industries, businesses, and societal life in the future, just as it has in the past. Initially, traditional project management, which emphasizes detailed planning and sequential model through process control, is adopted and widely accepted. The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), first published in 1996, has been based on this traditional approach and has been among the best practices in project management since then. The rapid advancements in information and communication technologies have also influenced software engineering and IT applications. However, traditional project management has posed various challenges in meeting the needs of rapidly changing, dynamic, and complex software projects. In this context, agile project management models have been widely adopted in software projects since the early 2000s, and the agile approach has become relatively standardized today. Meanwhile, the traditional process-oriented approach has been continued until PMBOK Version-6. However, the staggering developments in hardware, software, and most importantly artificial intelligence necessitated a shift towards a value-driven, principle-based, dynamic, and flexible framework in PMBOK Version-7, requiring a change in its structure and philosophy. PMBOK may be said to be the foremost project management framework widely used in both public and private sectors globally and in our country. Given this situation and the significant changes mentioned, new and important problem areas have emerged for industry practices and scientific research in project management. The issue of how traditional, agile, and hybrid project management models can be adapted to projects and organizations is at the forefront of these problems. Although PMBOK Version-7 provides a section and recommendations for adaptation or tailoring, its current content, structure, and methods necessitate the investigation of its existing recommendations within a scientific framework. When reviewing the literature, it is observed that research on this issue is extremely limited. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to explore the approaches, methods, techniques, tools, and tailoring difficulties in project management within the scope of PMBOK Version-7's eight project performance domains. Conducted in line with the mixed research approach, the study was carried out in two stages using methodological triangulation with both quantitative and qualitative research techniques. The data collected through surveys constituted the quantitative component and the first stage of the research, while the data collected through semi-structured interviews constituted the qualitative component and the second stage of the research. Considering the adopted philosophy and the literature on information systems, it can be said that this study aims to explain and test a theory. Scientific findings obtained for the eight performance domains both support some recommendations in PMBOK Version-7 and differ from others. The findings of the study are interpreted, and various recommendations for future research and industry practices are made. As of the writing time of this report, it can be said that this research is the most significant contribution to scientific, industrial, and practical fields, as it is the first study to explore both PMBOK Version-7 and its tailoring.