ABSTRACT
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) can be called the flag-ship publication of the Project Management Institute (PMI); it is a project management reference with an extensive global distribution. The first official, consolidated copy of the PMBOK Guide was published in 1996. Marketing drives a common misconception about the PMBOK Guide, since many educational providers promote it as project management best practices. It is not tailored or customized to a particular sector, industry, domain, or project type. In addition to the industry/sector extensions, there are numerous standard documents for special topics such as work breakdown structure, estimating, scheduling, and risk management. A search through the PMBOK Guide for the phrase best practices brings back a few hits, but most are in relation to industry best practices—practices from outside the guide.
