Question:
When will PMBOK Guide 6th Edition be released?
Answer:
According to the update history of PMBOK® Guide, PMI would release a new version of the PMBOK® Guide every 4 to 5 years in order to catch up with the changes in project management practices and trend (e.g. Agile project management is becoming much more important).
Currently the most current PMBOK® Guide update was on December 2012 which is several years ago. Thought there are “updates” to the PMBOK® Guide these few years, the majority of them are just correcting typos and logical errors. The PMBOK® Guide is in need of an update.
And PMI has made a lot of groundworks from 2012 in collecting feedback on the PMBOK® Guide 5th edition as well as noting the latest trends of project management.
PMI has announced that the PMBOK® Guide 6 will be released at around the following schedule:
- 1st quarter of 2017 for draft release
- 3rd quarter of 2017 for the final release — that’s around June 2017 (hopefully)
(Click here for a detailed discussion of what have been changed in PMBOK® Guide 6th edition — the changes are not many, unlike the major structural changes from PMBOK® Guide 4 to PMBOK® Guide 5.)
For Aspirants, the most pressing question should be when will the PMP® Exam be changed to be based on PMBOK® Guide 6th edition.
Fortunately, PMI will allow current Aspirants to continue taking the PMP® Exam based on the current version of the PMBOK® Guide for up to half a year.
That means the new PMP® Exam update to be based on PMBOK® Guide 6th edition is in the first quarter of 2018.
Therefore it is safe and recommended to begin your PMP® Exam preparation based on PMBOK® Guide 5th Edition as of now. Read here for the reasons.
Aspirants will only have to study for the exam based on PMBOK® Guide 6 if they begin their studies after Nov 2017 (an average PMP® Aspirant will need around 2 months’ time to be well prepared for the exam).
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