Adapting PMBoK Guidance to Public Sector Projects

Abstract

It is the author’s experience that many employees of the United States Government manage projects without adequate standards or training. Many of these projects fail, which is unfortunate, because the Project Management Institute has developed standards and a body of knowledge to help anyone manage projects successfully. Adapting the Project Management Institute’s standards to a government organization and conducting training for government project managers based on the Project Management Body of Knowledge leads to increased potential for projects to be managed properly. The author was involved in a government organization where this was done. In this technical paper, the author explains how standards were adapted; training was identified, and projects classified leading to successful project management in that organization. The results were so successful that the author implemented them again in a new organization he was hired to lead.