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Knowledge areas are not covered in the PMBOK® Guide – Seventh Edition. Material on the Knowledge Areas can still be found in the PMI web guidance which members have access to, called Standards Plus.
This article reviews and explains the 10 project management Knowledge Areas from the
Knowledge Areas: Definition
What exactly are ‘Knowledge Areas’? And why are they so important they have capital letters?
PMI defines a Knowledge Area in the
An identified area of project management defined by its knowledge requirements and described in terms of its component processes, practices, inputs, outputs, tools, and techniques.
Basically,each Knowledge Area (which you might see abbreviated to KA) is a category ofconcepts and processes with a common goal. All the things you need to know anddo for successful risk management, for example, are bundled under the RiskManagement Knowledge Area.
How many knowledge areas are there in project management?
According to the
These are all covered extensively in
What are the project management Knowledge Areas?
The 10 Knowledge Areas of projectmanagement are:
- Integration Management
- Scope Management
- Schedule Management
- Cost Management
- Quality Management
- Resource Management
- Communications Management
- Risk Management
- Procurement Management
- Stakeholder Management.
They appear in that order as there is somelogic to how they map to the project lifecycle. For example, it helps to knowthe scope of a project before you plan the schedule. You need to know theresources before you communicate to them.
However, I don’t understand why Stakeholder Management is last — possibly because it got added in the
Regardless: if you are going for the
Knowledge Areas PPT & PDF
You can view a super-quick overview of eachof the project management Knowledge Areas in this Slideshare PowerPoint deck.
You can also download a PDF version of this presentation inside my project management resource library.
Let’s look at each of those in a bit more detail.
1. Integration Management
Project Integration Management is thehardest KA to get your head around because (in my opinion) it feels so vague.
The point of this whole Knowledge Area isto make it clear that everything about project management overlaps and needs tobe managed as a holistic whole.
In other words, you can’t ‘do’ schedule management and ignore what the impacts of that might be on people, risk, communications, cost and the rest. This is the domain where you have to manage interdependencies between pretty much everything on the project.
I have always thought having a whole KA tomake this point was excessive, but it is a really important concept.
This video gives you an overview of what it’s all about.
2. Scope Management
This Knowledge Area looks at everything todo with managing project scope. Ultimately, the end result is that once youhave worked through the relevant processes, you know what the project is goingto deliver.
That includes requirements (full or as fullas is appropriate at this point in time) and a work breakdown structure if youuse one.
Tip: Don’t get hung up on creating a WBS. If it isn’t a helpful tool for you, in real life you don’t have to use it! But you will need to know about them if you intend to go for the
3. Schedule Management
Project Schedule Management is all about making a detailed plan to tell everyone when the project will deliver what is in the requirements.
Schedule management overlaps heavily with comms, as the timeline for the project is of major interest to stakeholders. It’s a key document that you’ll use to manage stakeholders’ expectations. And you use it to track progress.
There are a number of different techniques for tracking schedule progress including earned value management and percent complete. There is a whole other PMI practice standard for scheduling, so this KA doesn’t have a ton of detail in about the ‘how’.
In this KA, you cover everything to do withdefining the work required to deliver the scope, putting those tasks in theright order, estimating how long they will take to do and building the projectschedule.
The domain also covers keeping the schedule up to date.
You’ll often see schedule management and cost management (see below) on project management job descriptions, because they are the technical skills employers want to know you can do.
4. Cost Management
Cost management is basically managingproject funding.
Under the umbrella of cost management, youwill:
- Plan how much you are going to approach budgeting
- Estimate your costs
- Create the project budget
- Track and control the budget (using a budget tracking spreadsheet like this one).
Many project managers on smaller projects don’t have the final say on how much money is allocated to their project, or final sign off on how it is spent. I think that’s unfortunate. If you are going to do the job, you should have authority to do it all.
However, I think many managers in the sponsorship role prefer to hold the purse strings themselves. It’s a shame, as they could delegate this to their project managers.
My personal feelings on whether you should have access to the budget or not aside, do what you need to do to understand how your organization expects you to handle finances on your project.
Whether it’s you raising purchase orders and approving invoices or your sponsor, get the process clear in your own head so that funding isn’t a cause of delay.
5. Quality Management
It would be nice to think that quality was something formal covered on every project, but in my experience, and the experience of the project managers I mentor, quality isn’t often considered formally.
Obviously it depends on your project. If you are opening a factory that makes bricks, you want every single brick to adhere to quality criteria that make it safe for building works.
Many knowledge work-related projects don’t take the same regimented approach to quality. However, it’s an important Knowledge Area to be aware of and use as appropriate to ensure a quality result on your project.
Project Quality Management involves preparing a quality management plan with metrics. Then you implement the plan, carrying out quality-related tasks and making course-corrections as necessary to keep your project delivering the outputs you expect.
6. Resource Management
Project Resource Management is so important! It’s the domain where you work out what you need to get the project done.
Resources are typically people but couldalso be other things like:
- Equipmentor vehicles
- IThardware and software
- Materialslike sand, gravel or other components
- Facilitiese.g. an office you have to rent for the duration of the project
- Officegadgets like projectors.
I would count money as a resource as well. If you don’t have the funding, you won’t be doing your project.
This Knowledge Area covers planning how you are going to do resource management, estimating what resources you need, acquiring the resources you need and ensuring the physical resources you’re using are available as necessary.
You’ll also track the utilization of resources and take corrective action if necessary — for example if you’re getting through your resources at a quicker-than-planned rate.
The Resource Management Knowledge Area alsocovers developing your project team and managing the team.
Developing the team means:
- Helpingthem improve their skills
- Ensuringthey can work together effectively
- Creatingan environment where the team can do their best work.
Managing the team means:
- Tracking individual performance against planned work
- Providing them with feedback on their contributions
- Resolving problems individuals may have
- Managing starters and leavers in the team so the team stays cohesive and changes don’t affect project performance.
That’s actually quite a lot for a project manager to do, especially if the people don’t work directly for you. Just do your best and be aware that you set the tone for the team’s culture.
Teamwork is so important, so focus on what you can do to make your project team a great place to work. Keep morale and enthusiasm high.
Read next: Team building ideas: Online scavenger hunt
7. Communications Management
In this Knowledge Area, you:
- Create a communications management plan
- ‘Do’ communications i.e. carry out your plan, send briefings out, give presentations or whatever
- Monitor the success (or otherwise) of those
- Make changes as appropriate to ensure your next communications are effectively received and acted on.
8. Risk Management
There’s a whole PMI credential on risk management, so that tells you risk management is a big deal for project managers.
The Risk Management Knowledge Area coversan adequate overview of what you need to do to manage risk on your project. Ifyou want more detailed guidance, there are plenty of books on the subject.
Within this KA, you’ll be:
- Planning how to manage risk on the project and creating a risk management plan
- Identifying risks
- Analyzing risks (both qualitatively and quantitatively)
- Planning the risk response based on your analysis
- Carrying out the risk response activities
- Monitoring risk to check the success (or otherwise) of your response activities, and taking action as necessary.
Basically, that’s the risk management process in a nutshell. You’ll be managing risk the whole way through the project. Anyone can raise a risk or take action to manage a risk.
Risk management is a team effort and this is a KA you’ll be using over and over again until it becomes second nature.
9. Procurement Management
If your project isn’t buying anything, you can skip this whole Knowledge Area in real life, although you’ll need to know it for the
In the Procurement Management KnowledgeArea, you:
- Plan theprocurements required and create a statement of work
- Plan howyou will make decisions about vendors
- Carry outthe procurement exercise to select a vendor
- Manage therelationship with the vendor while they do the work
- Close theprocurement contract at the end of the work.
Depending on what you are buying, and the type of organization you work in, you may have access to a specialist Purchasing team who can help with all of this. There is a lot of contracting involved and those negotiations can be quite challenging if you aren’t used to being in that environment.
Recommended CAPM and PMP Prep Books
- The PMP Exam: How to Pass on Your First Try by Andy Crowe
- PMP Exam Prep by Rita Mulcahy
- CAPM Exam Prep by Rita Mulcahy
- A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) Guide from PMI
- The 50 PMP Exam Questions Everyone Gets Wrong by Cornelius Fichtner
10. Stakeholder Management
Project Stakeholder Management is my favorite Knowledge Area because I believe that projects are done through people.
I also believe that managing people is a slightly arrogant way to think about the work we do in this domain, so it’s preferable to think about it as stakeholder engagement.
In this KA you:
- Identify the people involved and affected by the project — the stakeholders
- Plan how you are going to engage them in your work: create a stakeholder engagement plan
- Manage the activities you are going to use to engage them, and gather feedback on whether the activities were successful or not.
- Act on the feedback to improve your stakeholder engagement work for next time.
This is also the area of the project where you are likely to have the most challenges, because people don’t act the way you sometimes expect them to. You’ll be dealing with conflict, negotiating, managing office politics.
For me, this is the most interesting part of project management and can also see you at the table with the most senior managers in the company.
This is also the domain where you are likely to be planning change management activities, if you don’t have a dedicated business change manager on the team.
So it’s worth spending some time learning the tools and techniques to support how you get work done through others, because they are so critical to your success and the project’s success!
Knowledge Areas Mnemonic
Struggling to remember all of this, in the right order? This video from covers five quick ways to memorise the 10 Knowledge Areas in the PMBOK Guide — Sixth Edition.
Takeaways
- There are 10 project management Knowledge Areas, according to the
PMBOK® Guide — Sixth Edition - They cover the major domains you need to know and use as a project manager
- You might not use them all on each project
- You’ll need to know them all for the
PMP ® exam.
Next steps
Now you know about the Knowledge Areas, you’ll also want to spend some time thinking about the practical skills you need as a project manager, things every project manager should know but that aren’t always taught on courses or in books!
Take a look at the 10 things project managers should know that go beyond the ‘simple’ textbook understanding — those are the skills to work on next.
iZenBridge has been reviewed and approved as a provider of project management training by the Project Management Institute (PMI). As a PMI Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.), iZenBridge has agreed to abide by PMI-established quality assurance criteria. Find out more about their range of online and classroom courses on their website.
Join the free resource library to receive the Knowledge Area presentation as a PDF. Sign up here, I’ll message you back a link where you can download the templates.
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